Bye Bye Binkies (and a truckload of clutter)

My son Julian is 22 months old and up until last week, he was still very attached to his binkies.  Brian (my husband) and I were at a loss as to how we were going to convince him to give them up.  Then last Sunday, I noticed that Julian was extremely congested and getting a cold.  He still tried sucking on his binky but it was difficult for him to breathe well since his nose was all stuffy.  As soon as he fell asleep that night, I took it away so he could breathe a little easier overnight.  Well, the next day he still had a cold and so I didn't give him a binky all day.  My parents happened to be visiting us at the time so Julian had some distractions and he didn't seem to miss his binky too much.  There were a few times I know he wanted one (he's not very verbal yet) because he kept pointing at certain places where I normally put the binkies and he was constantly digging through the diaper bag.  After one day without any, I decided we would just keep going without them (basically cold turkey).  So I hid them all really well for a few days and after a week (my parents were here that whole time), I threw them out.  Brian told me to keep one for Julian to throw away (and I did) but I won't give it to him yet because I know he still wants one and would just pop it in his mouth and not give it up without a big fight.  For now, it's sitting in the back of my dresser drawer waiting for Julian to get a little older.

The other thing going on in our home lately is decluttering.  I started reading the book "Throw Out FIFTY Things: Clear the Clutter, Find Your Life" by Gail Blanke.  She talks about why we hold onto stuff and why we don't need it and says to start clearing out your life by getting rid of 50 things.  Her "50 things" is actually way more than 50 though.  Each category of things only actually counts as one thing, so getting rid of 20 shirts and 5 magazines only counts as 2 things.  Her book is divided into 2 parts: physical clutter and mental clutter.  I've finished reading the first part but not the second.  My physical clutter was my primary concern anyway.  (Normally I read books very quickly but I also tend to read 6-8 books at once and finish the ones that I find the most interesting.  If I get a little bored with a particular chapter, then I switch to another book for awhile.) 

Brian wasn't really on board with the decluttering process.  He is attached to his stuff - I was too but my perspective is changing.  So he was not excited when I started telling him about the book and what I was reading.  Eventually, he decided he could part with a few things and I found that I could part with a lot, including Julian's stuff that he had already outgrown.  I started talking to a friend about my decluttering and how I wished I could have a garage sale (we live in an apartment so that's not really an option).  She said that her family has garage sales a few times a year and that I could put my stuff in the next one they had.  She also offered the use of her garage to store all of my stuff until the sale so it wouldn't be piled up around my apartment  (I had company coming so I was really excited about this part).   After Brian and I had gone through most of our closets, drawers, etc and found everything we thought we could part with, we called a friend with a truck to transport it for us.  We filled up the truck, not jam-packed or anything, but it looked full.  The only large thing we had was a desk.  Everything else was in boxes or trash bags.  It kind of shocked me to know we had that much extraneous stuff lying around the house.  Especially when you look around now and we still have too much stuff.