decluttering…and giving back

Many Etsy shops, like Austin-based Paloma's Nest, donate proceeds of their sales to great causes. These Heart in Hand Ornaments go to the Red Cross of Central Texas.

I’ve decided 2012 is going to be a great year. And Monsieur Moulin and I are already taking steps to better ourselves for this new and improved year. One of these major initiatives is decluttering our home. There is no reason I should have half the stuff I own – do I really need that ticket stub from the second Harry Potter movie or floppy disks from college? Or baby T’s I know I’ll never fit back into or the shoes I bought two years ago that still have the sticker on them? Don’t judge…I know many of you are borderline hoarders as well. We all tend to hold on to more than we need for some baffling reason.  
As I’m cleansing my home, thus cleansing my life, I’m setting many of my belongings aside for a local battered women’s shelter. This year at Christmas, my family’s overarching theme was “giving back” – revisiting the real meaning of Christmas many of us tend to forget. We are so fortunate and sometimes forget how others are not so lucky. So for our grown-up gift exchange, part of our gift to each other was to donate time or money to a cause your person felt passionately about. We gave to the SPCA, Armstrong Foundation, Susan G. Komen, Genesis Shelter, Houston Firefighters Foundation, North Texas Rabbit Sanctuary, our local children’s hospital and the Salvation Army, among others. My entire family invested a lot of emotion and love into this meaningful yet simple gesture, and it was such a wonderful memory. We also had a family canned food drive and donation pile, which continues to build as we go through our belongings.

So may I recommend rummaging through your closets, starting fresh this New Year, and giving back to a local cause that could truly use your old coats, clothes, toys and shoes. But leave behind your ticket stubs and floppy disks – that stuff really is trash. Just let go :)


If you're looking for creative and unique gifts that give back, consider this Needle Felted Cow by Send Sunshine, which donates proceeds to Farm Sanctuary in an effort to protect farm animals from abuse.



This Embroidery Pattern by Penguin and Fish sends proceeds to the SOS Children's Villages Haiti Relief Fund.