I was featured!

I was so excited to see earlier this week that my post on the girls nursery/bedroom was featured over at Sugar Bee - Craft Edition! This is the first time that I've been featured on another blog. Very exciting!

My Dad and Step-Mum are visiting until Wednesday so I will probably continue to be absent until then. We've been doing lots of sight seeing and been keeping very busy. Desana is having lots of fun!

A Room of Her Own

Every woman needs and deserves a room of her own, or if not a room, a corner, a nook.

It’s important for my happiness that I have somewhere to retreat to at the end of the day, or for those times when life becomes a little too overwhelming and I just need a moment alone to compose myself.

Life with two little ones can be messy and busy. Often the day will end with the house being much messier than I’d like. That is why our master bedroom is my number one priority.

I know that no matter what was left undone throughout the rest of house, when I open that door I have somewhere to retreat to that is tidy and beautiful.

A little taste of my inner world, with treasures yet to be discovered.

Books well read and loved.

A place to reflect, to remember.

A splash of color, beauty found in the ordinary.

With my pretty things on display and a reminder to take life one step at a time.

Every woman deserves a room of her own.

Linking up to the HomeGoods 'Mom Cave' Contest at Centsational Girl

Art work ideas for the girls nursery

In my last post I showed you the finished girls nursery. As I was taking pictures of the room I started seeing the need for some accessories, apart from the uppercase living expressions the walls seemed so blank! So I decided to look for some unique art on etsy and boy have I found some gorgeous pieces!

My song for Desana is You Are My Sunshine, and for Freya it's My Girl. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any art work with the My Girl lyrics but there were lots of choices for You Are My Sunshine. Here are two of my favorites.

You Are My Sunshine by mintbuttercup - $12 &  You Are My Sunshine Sign by barnowlprimitives - $75

The picture on the left has more of a nursery feel although I LOVE the style of the sign on the right.

I showed Desana some of the pictures I was thinking of using and she really liked these.

Mini art prints by jolinne (4 pack) - $15 & Mini art prints by jolinne (8 pack) - $24

I love the idea of pegging them to some twine, and these mini-prints are so well priced that I could hang all of them on some twine across the wall next to Desana's bed. That's one way to save money on frames!

Crush by kmberggren - $29

Katie M. Berggren has so many beautiful motherhood prints, I can see this one being perfect above the recliner in the nursery.

Last but not least, as a tribute to my little girl's variety of interests...

The Robot - $38   A Boy & His Dinosaur - $20   Goodnight Bunnies - $20   by StephanieFizer

Robots, dinosaur and bunnies, oh my! The above three are all by the same artist who also has gorgeous alphabet art, and princesses and fairies... very diverse and gorgeous pieces to chose from.

So what do you think? How much art is too much? Can robots and fairies play well together?

The Girls Bedroom Reveal

Back in July I shared with you some pictures of what the girls room looked like, and some of my thoughts on how it could be improved. A lot has changed in the last three months! I'm happy to say that the girls room is pretty much done. Of course, a house is an evolving entity so there's always something else to change or improve on. But I actually feel happy with their room now. Anyway, take a look!

My original plan was to paint the room purple (of course), but it turned out my best friend Shawna had a can of left over paint from some work she'd been doing in her house and she was happy to give it to me. Which reminds me, I still owe her $10!

When uppercase living was having a big sale I purchased a few things with the room in mind. On the side of the closet (the first wall you see coming in to the room) I put up the 'butterfly kisses & ladybug hugs' expression. The plan is to build some wall book shelves beneath that somewhere down the line. Maybe with some of their Christmas/birthday money in a couple of months.

Just to the right of the door is Desana's bed. There's a big expanse of wall (that I will strive to keep pencil, crayon and marker free...) that is the perfect place for some unique artwork. Today I've spent and will continue to spend many happy hours scouring etsy until I come across just the right thing. Some magic combination of fairies, dinosaurs, robots and princesses! I've found some amazing pieces that I may share with you soon.

The wall between the girls beds was the perfect place for a large expression, so I chose 'Life is Beautiful', because my girls certainly are, and it's a lovely reminder. Also if we ever end up staging the room with a double-queen size bed, this would be centered above it.

Next up is Freya's crib and the rocker recliner for me to use to get her to sleep in there (yeah right). I decided to divide the gorgeous Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic curtain panels that Mum sent me so I could keep one on the closet and have a matching one on the window. I think it has lightened up the feel of the room so much (consider there was a navy blue curtain there before). Our house is so close to the neighbours that the quality and amount of light that comes in to the room is so little, so for now the pale curtain isn't an issue.

I'm also thinking about possibly putting up some artwork on either side of the window. Just some finishing touches... accessories!

Next up is the closet. The advantage of not having doors on it is that it frees up a little floor space, and we can use the closet light as a night light for Desana when she's feeling scared. She's reached the monster in the closet stage...

Last month Matt installed the hidden shelving inside the closet for me, which has been a huge life saver in terms of having somewhere to actually put all the toys! Not to mention, keeping them out of sight at the end of the day. The closet is over our part basement stairs, thus the strange shape. There is a very deep shelf at the back that I'm using to store rubbermaids with the clothes the girls are outgrowing, and the next size up. At the front there's a stack of heavy blankets, and the rubber drawers have various socks and bibs, etc.

That's my girls room! What do you think? It's a vast improvement on the original gloomy space, that's for sure.

Now I'm just going to throw in some bonus pictures of my gorgeous little girls. :)

My Dad and Step-Mum are flying in on Wednesday night (from Australia!) so this may be another fairly quiet week of blogging. We'll be playing the role of tourists for the week they are here, so at the very least you can look forward to seeing lots of pictures of us out and about Winnipeg! We haven't seen them since Matt and I flew here in March of 2004, and they've not met the girls, so it's going to be fun.

Dad said he's looking forward to meeting the grown-up Amy. It gave me a laugh but it's kind of true too, I was only 19 when I moved here - technically a teenager!

DIY Desk and Study/Dining Room Swap

You may have noticed that I haven't been posting as often as I was. It's been a combination of things, Desana has started waking up at 4am and not wanting to go back to sleep so unfortunately I've been a bit too run down to pull together anything coherent. In addition to that, I was finally able to talk Matt in to making big changes to our living space, but our house has been in a bit of a state of upheaval.

About three weeks ago I shared our dining room space with you as my design dilemna. It was crowded and orange and I was really unhappy with it.

I'd been reading and hearing a common message from a lot of different sources. Why do we only turn our houses in to something we love when we are trying to sell them? Why do we put up with our houses not functioning?

I've shared with you that I think we will probably be in this house for a few more years, so we might as well make it work for us now. We've been here for six years, with things the way they were. In order to make it work for us, here are the changes we've made.

We painted the orange wall PURPLE and built a large wall-to-wall desk for two (roughly $80 with LOADS of leftover material).

It's still a bit of a work in progress, but such is life. If I waited until it was perfect to show you, that day would never come. I am so much happier with the desk over there. Now when you walk in the front door you don't see all the computer paraphenalia right away as it's tucked out of sight. The cords are out of reach of Freya so we don't have to have babygates blocking off the area. While I've been too busy to get to actually tidying the desktop, I will get there!

We're discussing whether to add a cubby style hutch above the desk, or shelving. I'm leaning towards shelving and a new mirror to open up the area but we shall see. Matt also wants to add a keyboard tray for his side of the desk, and I think we will have to buy a little area rug for the winter as the floor gets pretty cold there. I'd also like to add some more shelving under the desk for storage of smaller items, although that would make it easier for Freya to get in to things!

You may be wondering what happened to the dining room and fishtank... well, they went where the study used to be.

The top right picture is how it used to be set-up. Now the room feels SO big! Of course now I really want to buy a tablecloth and some kind of chair covers (or alternatively a cheap new table and chairs), and we still need to get the tv wall mounted. But all the big stuff is done. It's crazy how much space there is in here for the kids to play now. I even had a party here on Saturday afternoon and it wasn't extremely crowded.

The down side to all of this is that my basement is in a really bad state again. Such is life. :) I just really wanted to share the transformation with you now, even if it's not 'perfect', because nobody, especially a mother with young children, has a perfect home.

So how about you? Is there anything you've been putting off doing in your house because you're waiting until you're ready to sell? Don't you deserve a well functioning and beautiful home today?

P.S. I really do owe a huge thank you to Matt for making this big room rearrangement happen. It was a much more difficult task than I had imagined. Moving the fishtanks alone took an entire day. Ultimately building the desk was the easy part!

Not to mention, he even cooked our Thanksgiving Turkey while the house was in this state! Thank you hun. :)

Enough is enough

Image Source: Chicago Art Department

Christmas, and the girls birthdays, are rapidly approaching. You all know by now that I have a real issue with clutter. Clutter and I are not friends. I've been doing a lot of reading about minimalism and while I don't think I could embrace it with extremism, so much of the minimalist life appeals to me. When it comes down to it I want my life to be spent with the people I love, not the stuff we're buried under.

For the past couple of weeks I've been trying to think of what I can put on a wish list for the girls for Christmas. I have been feeling a little frustrated that I couldn't really think of anything, and then my perspective changed. I can't think of anything that my girls need, because they don't need anything. My girls don't need anything. Isn't that wonderful? They have everything they need. We have been blessed with abundance, in fact, sometimes an excess of abundance! For that I am grateful.

Faith @ Minimalist Moms has this to say about kids and their clothing in her post How To Minimize Your Child's Wardrobe:

"Are they at the back of the drawer because they aren’t among the favorite choices or simply because they’re overlooked from having too many choices?"

This really struck a cord with me. By holding on to clothes that my kids are never wearing, am I depriving another mother of clothing she could be using for her child? It's gotten to the point where sometimes I have to stuff the clean clothes in to the drawer because it's too full, so it's more than likely that there are some things in there I could pass on to someone else.

There is a line from a hymn that comes to mind in situations like this.

"Because I have been given much, I too must give."

Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist has a number of great articles on minimalism with children such as Why Fewer Toys Will Benefit Your Kids. It's almost impossible to limit myself to one applicable quote, but here goes.

True joy and contentment will never be found in the aisles of a toy store. Kids who have been raised to think the answer to their desires can be bought with money have believed the same lie as their parents. Instead, children need encouragement to live counter-cultural lives finding joy in things that truly last.

You might remember the hidden shelving we installed in the girls cupboard. That has been great as it is makes very evident what toys they have, and how little space we have. I believe that if the toys no longer fit in that space, some need to go. We are at that point but it's so difficult to know what to let go of. I'd hate to decide to part with something only to leave Desana wondering where it went, but she's too young to be able to help with the sorting process. Although I did manage to sneak a few toys out of the house during the free weekend giveaway...

I still don't know what I'm going to do about Christmas and Birthdays. I need to think hard about wants vs needs. I don't want family and friends spending their money on things we are not going to keep, but at the same time I don't know if they would accept it if I told them we didn't want any more toys. What's a minimalist Mum to do?

Family Heirloom Jewellery

We have been working on some major changes to the design dilemma I showed you a few weeks ago. It has caused major upheaval in the house but that is temporary. I think the biggest positive is that my husband might be gaining a new appreciation for how tidy I usually like everything to be. It was funny to see him being the one freaking out about the mess for a change! I'm looking forward to sharing the changes with you all almost as much as I'm looking forward to having my tidy house back.

Today I have some pretty (old) things to share with you. My Mum mailed these over to me from Australia. 

We think most of the pieces belonged to my Great Grandmother who was the mother of my maternal Grandfather.

The earrings are for non-pierced ears. Growing up we weren't allowed to have our ears pierced until we were 12 years old, so I remember wearing these earrings as a little girl.

I am not a fan of gold (prefering white gold) but I think the shape of the pendant is beautiful, I see it as an infinity symbol.

The watch is a delicate little piece, even prettier in person.

The detailing on the above brooch is very interesting to look at. While none of the pieces are really things I would wear, they are the kind of thing you hold on to because they've been in the family for awhile. I can see maybe putting them in a shadow box as a decorative piece.

What do you do with hand-me-down pieces of family jewellery that aren't your style?

Arachnophobia

Image source: gamene

If you are a parent, at some point you have probably had a conversation about how our children absorb more information than it seems. I think the same is true of us as adults. For example, yesterday I was watching a few youtube videos with Desana and came across one that started out innocently enough with a man showing us a spider that was in a web outside of his apartment. Fast forward a minute and there was a giant spider murdering the man inside his apartment with blood and guts everywhere (simulated). Seriously, I wish these videos would come with 'NOT FOR CHILDREN' warnings.

I closed it quickly and Desana doesn't seem to have been affected by it, but me on the other hand? Tossing and turning and screaming in my sleep. Unfortunately not kidding. I even had a spider dream during my brief nap this afternoon and woke myself up when I started to scream.

Apparently I am not a fan of spiders. It's kind of funny because back when I was still living at home, I was the designated spider killer. The spiders in Australia are massive compared to what is in Canada, and in the old house I grew up in they were prolific. But once I found a fella I gradually turned the shoe smashing bug spraying duties over to him, and now I'm a wimp!

I let Matt have a pet snake, but a spider? Never going to happen!

Blog Share: Faux fireplace, Roses in the bathroom and more!

Today I have a big thank you to all my wonderful readers - that's you! I have 20 official followers that show up on my blog, and I know that in addition to that many of you read via e-mail or just pop over when you see an update on facebook. Thank you all for finding me interesting enough to keep coming back for more!

In the spirit of sharing I thought I might give something new a try. Some of the blogs that I read do a weekend round-up where they share some of the interesting things they have come across throughout the past week. I have noticed that I tend to share the things that really wow me with some of my friends, so why not share with you too?

I know it's not the weekend, but here are a few of the neat things I've come across over the past week.

Janet at The Decorating Diaries made this gorgeous book page fireplace insert.

Image Source: The Decorating Diaries

You wouldn't know it to look at the 'style' of my house, but I am deeply in love with the shabby chic style, so the faux mantlepiece with all its decor is so appealing to me. Maybe someday I'll have a woman cave that I can put something like this in.

Connie of Hartwood Roses finished her basement bathroom renovation.

Imagine source: Hartwood Roses

I wish my one and only bathroom was that beautiful, let alone having something like that in the basement!

Kim of A girl and a glue gun shared how to make this AWESOME menu board, bonus being that if you aren't crafty she can custom make one for you!

Imagine source: A girl and a glue gun

Boy do I ever need to get back into meal planning...

Rachel of Small Notebook has a great article on Decluttering with your Spouse.

Be patient with each other’s stuff. When I see my little piles of stuff, I don’t see clutter — I see my works in progress, my mementos and souveniers, and my collections of inspiration. If Doug decluttered my stuff for me, I would be worried he would give or throw away something that mattered. He feels the same way. Even though our tendency is to want to clean out each other’s stuff, it’s better to spend more time focusing on our own.

Now there's a blog I'd like to read from top to bottom. The bits I've read are about decluttering and organisation (hmm.. sounds familiar), but she has the ability of getting straight to the point, which I, do not!

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll be back with some more later. We've had a crazy busy long weekend over here and my house is in such a major state of disarray (but the end result will make it so worth it!).

Something You: 5 Steps To Remembering Who You Are

I posed this question to a Mums group, what hobbies do you have outside of motherhood? The answer was almost overwhelmingly unanimous, motherhood doesn't allow time for hobbies. Now, this could be because we all, for the most part, have children three and under, and many of us have had subsequent children in the past year. But for the next couple of years, and longer if we continue to have children, the majority of our time will be taken up with caring for our children.

It can be exhausting on so many levels.

Desana will be three in December, and Freya will be one in January. Desana still can't be completely trusted to play carefully with Freya so I'm limited in what unsupervised time I can give them (and thus what kidfree time I can have). My legs look like I haven't shaved in my life. Seriously!

I think it is very important that we hold on to some trace of our identity outside of the roles we are filling. Putting aside your roles as an employee, wife and mother, and retaining who you are. It can be very easy to forget, who was I before this relationship started? Who was I before this small life relied on me for survival? Do you remember?

Here are some of my thoughts on getting on to the path of remembering who you are (not what you are).

Make time for a hobby

This could be anything from running in the morning to reading alone at night. What was it that you used to do in your spare time before your responsibilities grew so big? If it isn't obvious, my hobby is blogging. It took me a long time figure out that this could turn in to a passion and sometimes I still feel as if I have to justify it. But it helps me remember and discover who I am and I am regularly surprised to find that other people are taking something away from what I share.

Schedule a regular girls night out.

Ideally my friend Shawna and I would have a night out every two weeks, but we don't always find the time for it. We have to make it a higher priority! Leave the kids at home with their Dads, or if there is no Dad around ask another friend or family member to watch them for a few hours. We window shop, go see chick flicks, drink hot chocolate, and occasionally sit in empty parking lots in the car chatting until we realise it's going on 11pm. Whoops.

Take care of yourself.

Take time for you, everything else can wait. Especially in this world. You can record that tv show and watch it later, your e-mails and Facebook will still be there tomorrow. Even if it takes easing your bedtime back by 15 minutes at a time (the way I had to with my toddler), give yourself more time to wind down at night. Maybe take a nice long hot shower (and get those legs shaved!) and a make little extra time to sleep. If you need to, ask for help with the kids bedtime routine in order to allow this time for you.

Nuture your relationship.

If you have a partner around, remember to take the time to keep the relationship between each other alive, and new and interesting. I know, it is very much easier said than done. Dates don't have to be expensive, you could rent a movie, make dinner at home, go for a walk, or tell the out-of-home babysitter that you are going to a movie but sneak home and have some alone time instead. Not that I've ever done that. Not that I haven't! ;)

Last but certainly not least... Stop trying to have it all together!

I think you would be surprised to find that even the most put together woman has moments of feeling completely overwhelmed. The day my psychologist told me that I don't have to have it all together was one of the most shocking and relieving moments of my life. I was holding myself up to an impossibly high standard and it was destroying me. If you need to hear that too, guess what? I'm giving you permission to not have it all together. Sometimes something has to give, even if it is your hairy legs!

Truthfully I struggle with all of the above. I'm as much brainstorming solutions for the problems in my life as I am hoping to give you some ideas.

What is it that you already do to remember who you are?

Image source: masatoshi_

Five minutes goes a long way

This weekend is a long weekend for us here in Canada as Monday is Thanksgiving. Last year we had Thanksgiving at our place and Matt did all of the cooking. This year we are going to my mother-in-laws but Matt is handling the turkey. Yum, turkey! Of course I am holding on to some small shreds of hope that my big plans for changes in our living area will come to fruition this weekend. Wish me luck with that... lots of luck.

I know, I know, I promised to cut back on the decluttering posts, but hey! It's what I'm really interested in right now, or at least feeling motivated to do. I thought I'd just touch on a small topic today, something that will only take you a couple of minutes of time. By you, I also mean me!

Everyday when I sit here on my little corner of the couch with the laptop, I look up and all I can see is a pile of STUFF on top of our fridge across the room. You know what I keep thinking? I should take care of that.Yet it's all still there. So today I'm taking care of it.

You know how long that took? 5 minutes. Why do we procrastinate on things that will only take a couple of minutes? You tell me and we will both know!

I ended up putting my recipe box and one recipe book back on top of the fridge as well, so the final picture isn't completely accurate but close enough. The blue thing is Desana's time-out pad, but she loves it so it's not really a punishment. :)

If you were looking closely you may have seen two changes to our living area that are brand new. Just a taste of things to come.

Hope you all have a great weekend, and a fabulous long weekend for those of you who are in Canada!

Basement Decluttering: Take Stock

Image source: orangeacid

Yesterday I took the day off from decluttering. I spent a couple of hours having delightful girl talk with my best friend Shawna and we checked out the newly opened local thrift shop.

On and off throughout the day I thought about spending some time in the basement, but nothing was calling to me. I think part of the reason for that is that I am concerned that if I'm not careful I will just move the mess from downstairs up in to the upstairs. My biggest reason for concern about that is of course the ever annoying giant and overflowing toolbox that is living next to our bedroom door. There isn't much I can do about that, although the temptation to sort and put away everything is growing, the ensuing argument isn't really worth the hassle. Maybe I will end up boxing or bagging up all the overflowing stuff and stashing it back in the basement for awhile. At least then it will be in one place and not infiltrating my upstairs.

My point is, just make sure you aren't moving the mess from one place to another, because that's no solution at all. Secondly, take a step back to look at what you have accomplished. Frankly, I've only put in probably about an hours worth of work so far and I would say that about 1/4 of the basement is 75% done. That is pretty impressive!

I think it's just a matter of deciding you are going to do it, then doing it.

I have two upcoming plans for the basement. The first is getting all the donate-able pieces out and having Matt take them to a charity. The second is gathering up all the old electronics (monitors, scanner, paper shredder) and taking them to an electronic recycling depot. I think I will be amazed by the amount of space completing those two steps will clear up.

In other news Matt and I are battling over the time line for a massive change in our living space. I operate on a timeline of 'let's get it done - yesterday!' and Matt operates on 'we'll do it tomorrow' (as in, tomorrow never comes). It's incredibly frustrating. I know it's not only frustrating for me either, but I have no idea how to bridge the gap. Any suggestions?

I'll try be back again later for a non-decluttering post! I'm worried I'm boring you all with these. :)

New Advertisor: Shining Stones

I'm so excited to share my news with you! Last week I saw that one of my favorite bloggers, Ellie of One Crafty Mother, was looking for places to advertise her etsy jewellery store. My inner critic was sure it would be a waste of time to nominate myself, but I decided there was no harm in trying. To my great excitement Ellie responded with a lovely e-mail and let me know that she was indeed interested in advertising on my blog. Hooray! So now I've made back a little bit of the money that I've invested in my blog over the past two months, and I get to share with you the gorgeous jewellery of Shining Stones.

Here are a few of my favorite pieces.

Personalized bracelet (customisable) - $34

I love this bracelet for both the colors and the message. Gratitude is a significant word for me this year. What a nice little reminder to wear as you go about your day!

Mother's Bracelet (customisable) - $52

Somehow this bracelet is both chunky, yet elegant. Plus it's purple, you can't go wrong with purple!

Starfish Pendant Necklace - $12

I love the simplicity of this necklace and the message Ellie includes with the listing which is the Parable of the Starfish. "It will make a difference to that one." What a powerful message!

Luscious Green Quartz Earrings - $18

I have been trying lately to make an effort to wear something more than my regular old earrings. It's amazing how a little splash of color can bring some light in to your day! Ellie has some gorgeous purple earrings but I thought I better show you some different colors so you don't get the impression she's purple obsessed. Ahem.

Little Love Nest Ring - $18

My heart seriously goes pitter-patter for this ring. Isn't it the sweetest little thing you've ever seen? There are also some similar styled necklaces!

I am sure you won't be able to resist stopping by Shining Stones to check out these and many more beautiful pieces. As an added bonus to the pure gorgeousness of the jewellery, the shipping is also FREE to ANYWHERE!!! Who could resist that?

If you are looking for an inspiring read, check out One Crafty Mother where Ellie blogs about her life as a mother, artist, writer and recovering alcoholic. She's fabulous.

Basement Decluttering: Some work done, is better than none

We had big plans to make some major changes in our upstairs living areas today, then Matt ended up having to work so that went out the window. Instead of sitting around moping about it (too much) I decided to keep working on the basement. The kids were not co-operating at all so I was running up and down the stairs pretty often and decided to be very minimal about what I did. Still, some work done is better than none!

Today I tackled the first pile next to the foot of the stairs. Again, another dumping ground, this was a combination of various wood and drywall type things from the many different house projects we've had over the years. Not exactly what you could call scraps (for the most part), but large enough to keep around for future projects. Ultimately I think Matt would like to build some kind of work bench downstairs to properly store all this wood, but I figured out how to keep it in the meantime.

I broke a few 'rules' during this sort but rules are made to be broken! Check out the pictures below.

Most of the stuff from on top of the dresser was basically put on top of the giant pile in the middle of the basement. I needed to clear off the dresser because that's where I had decided to put all the pieces of wood, etc. Again, if you have to, make a path through the junk to get to the 'home' of the item you are sorting. I also ignored some of the other items on the floor where I moved all the wood from because that wasn't what I was working on today.

I was pretty excited to find some pieces of drywall and wood that I think might work for something we've been talking about doing in the living room. Anything that saves money is great, right?

These are my thoughts from my experience today:

• If you are overwhelmed, just stop. The clutter isn't going anywhere. You can come back and deal with it later. If you find yourself holding an item and looking around in desperation with no clue what to do with it, put it down and come back later! If you don't stop you may end up feeling even more overwhelmed and not sort as effectively.
• Know when the time is or isn't right. Even if you have big plans of getting a certain amount of sorting done, if circumstances aren't working out you need to know when to stop. For example, today both my girls were not cooperating, Desana kept trying to go outside and Freya was crying for me. So today was a fairly quick sort.
• As I said previously, if it's not yours, don't throw it out. All this wood stuff is Matt's, and maybe I could see a few pieces that I might toss. But, it's not mine. So it's all in the pile on top of the dresser and Matt can decide what to keep or toss later.
• Set a deadline for selling (for example, if an item hasn't sold in a month, donate it). If it takes up valuable space in your home, holding on to an item in hopes of making a few dollars may not be worth the wait. See if you can think of any family or friends who might be in need. Offer the item to them for free, or for a lesser amount than what you're trying to sell it for. Stress that they should not feel obligated to take it. If they pass, pack it up and drop it off at a charity or call a charity that will pick it up for you.

I think I am about 90% ready to donate some of our bigger pieces rather than trying to sell them. I'm just going to consult with Matt over it and then we'll figure out when to drop them off at the Salvation Army. One advantage of owning a truck, it sure makes it easier to transport large items!