The purge of 2018 continues. Slowly, as everything is in the garage and those hot days slow down the pace, but it continues.
I did make it through the box marked “things valuable to me” by a younger me, years ago. It did have Strawberry Shortcake figures. It also had an incomplete wooden set for Goldilocks and the Three Bears with only two bears and various furniture. The box also included books once owned by my dad and my uncles from my grandparents’ house and an alphabet book my mom had when she was a tot. All the books smelled of mildew. I had to throw them out.
There are about three boxes of glassware to go through which might just be gone through right before garage sale. Possibly while setting up. It just seems easier as one box is a mix of what I created in ceramics class, my great-aunt’s painted ceramics and my grandparents’ glassware.

I went through about five boxes one day and three 35-gallon totes. I could have gone through more – I was highly motivated until I saw the mess in the other storage totes. See, once upon a time when I moved out of my childhood home and packed up all the toys in the basement, I threw them into bins. Younger me was not organized. Adult me wants to organize everything so when it’s time to have a garage sale everything is together.
I have about five huge totes ranging from 18-35 gallons full of Barbie stuff. Filled to the rim of stuff – dolls, clothing, furniture and playsets. Those will need to be gone through. There is a sixth storage tote holding a dismantled, orange and yellow 1980s Barbie Dream House.
Three other storage totes I went through quickly as they are filled with Barbie collectibles.
Right now I am purging, or trying to purge, at least 80 percent of Barbie land. I am keeping some to the side, but in less than three weeks we will know if we are having a boy or a girl. If it’s a boy, then I will probably sell and pass on a good 99 percent of the Barbie items.
Some items are hard to put into the garage sale box – after all it is my childhood. I put aside some items like my two Cabbage Patch Dolls along with a few other items in case it’s a girl. I just need a cooler, breezy day to go through boxes.