It's That Time of Year

Hard to believe, but Thanksgiving is only 10 days away.  Then you will blink and it will be Christmas and then the New Year.  Before you know it we will be firmly into 2017.

Time flies by really fast these days and I am trying to slow down.  A LOT!

Part of slowing down is simplifying your life.  Unless you are going to quit your job, sell all your belongings and move to the middle of nowhere, this is really hard.  But slowly you can cut things out, get rid of things and try to focus on what is most important to you.

One of the easiest ways to simplify is to get rid of unnecessary things.  Think about how much time you spend each day putting things away.  I do it constantly.  If you didn't have so much stuff, you wouldn't need to pick up all the time.  Do you see where I am going with this?

The broken toys, the books you have read, the clothing that (honestly) is never going to fit again.  These are all items that can be donated to others.  It can be really hard to let things go, I understand that.  I just try to remember that there are people out there that can use these things and that helps me let go.

This is the best time of year for donations because as it gets colder, people in need, need so much more.  Take some time this week and look thru your closets.  Ask you children and friends to be part of this too.

Let's all work towards letting go of things that we don't need and giving them to people that can use them again.

Comment below on your favorite donation locations so we can all help out!

Back to School

I don't know how this summer went by so fast, but here we are, two weeks from September.  This time of year is all about Back to School, with some areas of the country already back in school.  Here in the Northeast we have about another week left of summer vacation.

Everywhere you go, people are talking about Back to School.  What you need to buy.  What is on sale.  But for a lot of people, this time of year is very stressful because they don't have the money to cover these necessities.  

With that thought in mind, please consider giving back when you buy your children's school supplies this year.  An extra package of markers or a couple of extra notebooks don't cost very much but they could mean a lot to the person recieving them.

Here is a link for donation locations across Connecticut.  Here is a link to Operation Backpack, which supplies thousands of homeless children in New York City with new, filled backpacks.  If neither of these locations are in your area, you can always contact your child's school district.

Back to school time is so exciting for children.  And it is important that all children feel good about themselves when they head back this year.

Time to Clean Up

I love Spring because it means that it is finally warm enough to throw open your windows and clean away all of winter's dust.  A good Spring cleaning covers every inch of your house.  Here is a great checklist of all the places that you probably have never cleaned before:

Once you are done cleaning, this is also a great time of year to donate things you no longer use.  This is a current list of what Goodwill will accept:

It is hard to let things go, but it makes it a little easier knowing somone else will get to use it.

What are your favorite Spring cleaning tips?

Time to Give Back

It is the season of giving! We thought it would be nice if we gave all of our amazing readers a few ideas of how to give back.  After all Christmas is not all about the gifts, at least that is what the Grinch tells us!

The first thing way to give back is to volunteer.  Giving back doesn’t have to mean money. Volunteering at a soup kitchen or shelter can be just as rewarding as donating gifts or clothes, possibly even more.  This is a great website that lists 25 ways you can donate your time.  

Probably the most popular holiday donation is toys!  Nothing makes you feel better than knowing you are helping a child.  There are a couple of ways to do this.  

• You can go to a local school and donate toys
• Visit Toys ‘R’ Us website here and chose from a huge donation list
• Drop off toys at any Toys for Tots location.  The huge list of locations is here.

Another great donation is clothing, especially coats, gloves, scarves, and hats.  Many communities and stores offer coat drives at this time of the year.  Burlington Coat Factory has a huge coat drive right now and you can find a local donation spot here. 

Hopefully this blog was helpful in providing you all with basic information about giving back during the Christmas season. Feel free to let us know how your donating activity went.