Unplugged Project: Donating for Dollars
Nov 17th, 2008 by Alicia
This week’s unplugged theme was junk, trash, donate and it was perfect timing.
We are a family of packrats, some of us more than others. We have too much stuff and I have been trying to purge for quite some time. I’ve been making progress, but it’s tricky when you have 4 little kids (and one big hubby) who are prone to saying things like But I love my broken hand claw thingee! and (I’m not making this up) You can’t toss my empty Molly Hatchet record cover from college. It’s a memory!
Sigh. Good thing they’re all so fabulous in other ways. 
But….
I seized upon this challenge and the upcoming holidays and told the kids that I would give them one dollar for each shopping bag they filled with stuff they donated.
It had to be their own stuff, and we had to clear it before the stuff left the house. I didn’t want any expensive family heirlooms ending up at the thrift store, just in case we had any expensive family heirlooms hiding under the bed or something.
I gave them another, bigger bag and told them it was for joint possessions. They could donate things that belonged to all of them as long as they all agreed, and they’d each get a dollar if they filled the bag.
Lastly, I told them I’d give them a dollar for each shopping bag filled with trash. I don’t want them donating things that nobody would really want like ripped up old art projects or broken toys.
Anna and Jack did an excellent job. Anna is very good at purging, so much so that she hurt Victoria’s feelings by wanting to toss an illustrated letter Victoria wrote her to cheer her up when she was 5. :) I rescued it for a keepsake.
Victoria organized. Bless her heart, she’s trying. It’ll take a while before she makes a fortune for any thrift store, but she did nearly fill a bag with trash and that’s progress.
I told the kids that this project goes all week, so they have 5 more days to fill the back of the van with donations. Here’s hoping they’re rich by Saturday!
I’m LOL at Victoria! Only because B. is exactly like that! Just tonight a neighbor stepped on a gourd (which he claims is his) that was in our garage, breaking the neck of it off. The gourd is now in the house, awaiting its new home. I think it’s harder for him to get rid of it because she did it on purpose, but it’s still hard for him to get rid of anything that he ever called his own.
He was crying last week as I cut up a pumpkin to bake, because he thought it was his!
I think my other two are like Anna and Jack, having an easier time getting rid of things.
I’m wondering if it has something to do with being an oldest or only child, as it seems to be a phenomenon these days, and those are the kids I hear have this “affliction”.
What a great, fun way to encourage cleaning and donating!
Hooo!! Good idea!! You know us though, not pack ratty in the slightest!! in fact I have a hard time getting Jessie to keep stuff and realised belatedly last week that we had donated ALL of Jessie’s clothes that fit her!!! Oops!! Still, most of the time we do great and as long as it’s only once in a while we toss out an heirloom or all our clothes then it’s worth it! ;D
Now.. if only I could find a way to motivate DADDY to purge……!! ‘D