yard sale day and thoughts on purging

We had a yard sale today! It was really fun. We were not in it for the money, we really just wanted to be rid of some "stuff". The kids have been crazy excited about the yard sale prospect for weeks, especially after I told them they could keep the money from whatever toys they sell!!

We did pretty good! And since we were outside all day anyway, we decided it was a great time to teach Natalie to ride her bike with no training wheels. She was nervous. But, we really need her training wheels for Layla's bike cause the ones on hers are rusted and so they just bend upward all the time. Ulterior motive ;) But, she did great, she practiced allllll day long and was doing really well by the end of the day!

Kelby got a big boy bike this week too! We found him a Buzz Lightyear bike on Craigslist, my favorite store ;)

He enjoyed "fixing" it with his tools, too.

So, now that I've purged a nice amount of stuff, I'm in the mood to purge more. A LOT more! We are a military family and are planning on a move a year from now. Thinking about moving all this stuff we have completely overwhelms me! I'm a pretty organized person, I like for everything to have a place, and for now, it does, but there's still just way too much.

My question is, when you're a homeschooling family and have several hobbies, when do you draw the line for what to keep when you literally will probably "use it someday in the future"? For example (because the homeschooling community is super generous!), I was recently given several boxes of books and resources for schooling. Most are childrens' books, many animal books, some preschool workbooks, etc... But, I can and do get these types of books at the library. Does the convenience of having a book on Koalas at my fingertips when an Australia unit comes up outweigh the amount of space it's taking to have so many books around?? I dunno.

Also, I've decided to ixnay scrapbooking from my list of hobbies. Sad, I know, but how liberating too! Scrapbooking comes with a lot of guilt!! I don't get to do it very often and it's easy for this particular hobby to make one feel "behind" in yet another way. And while I do enjoy it (the two times a year when I get to do it), the truth is, if I have a couple hours to devote to a hobby, I sew. Or work on a house project. So, I'm no longer a scrapbooker. I'm going to have yearly photo books like these made instead, only very basic. Then, get this, I'm going to DELETE the year's photos from my computer *GASP*.

But, anyway, what to do with the scrapbook stuff?? I'm sure the girls would enjoy it, but I'm more of a mind to either sell the whole lot or donate it all at once to a good cause ... rather than move with it ... across the country ... twice next year, it appears ... until the girls are old enough for it. I dunno.

It's hard to let go. Both of the past and of the once-hoped-for future. But, I think I'll be glad if I can do it.

Thoughts?? Encouragement? Success story? Commiseration???