Cleaning out the Closet

I have had sick kids since Friday, and I am about ready to scream.  I have been trying to make the best of it and finally tackled cleaning out my closet on Saturday.  I ended up with 5 garbage bags to take to D.I.  I am semi-horrified that I managed to get rid of this much stuff and still my closet is not empty.  I have such a hard time getting rid of clothes.  It is crazy because it's not like I feel any emotional attachement to them.  I just always keep thinking I might wear it.  This time I really tried to get rid of anything I don't regularly wear.  I found a couple of things I had completely forgotten about, a sweater that I wore to church on Sunday that is especially cute and I had only worn 2 or 3 times.  The entire time I was going through stuff I had to keep telling myself that getting rid of the stuff I don't or can't wear makes it so I can actually buy new stuff.  It feels great to have gotten rid of that much stuff, now the trick will be if I can stay on top of it.

TLC's Hoarding: Buried Alive

I am not the best at throwing stuff away.  My youngest sister is really good at it.  I was talking to her the other day about how she needed to come out and help me go through some stuff because she will be brutally honest with me about what clothes need to go and stuff.  She told me that before I got ready to clean anything out I needed to watch the new show on TLC called "Hoarding:  Buried Alive".  I accidentally caught about 20 minutes of it last night.   My sister was not kidding!  This show will cure you of holding on to anything.  I only saw 20 minutes and I swear by the end I was sweating, I was so uncomfortable!     All day today it has stuck with me.  I keep finding myself going from room to room throwing stuff away!   My two biggest challenges for organization are paper and clothes.  I have really got to get on top of those things.  I also tend to be incredibly cheap when it comes to buying stuff for organizing.  I never want to spend the money all at once to buy enough rubbermaid containers to keep the outgrown clothes and stuff.  After seeing this show, spending the money on some organizational stuff seems a lot more worth it!  Does anyone have any great organizing tips?  What are your rules for saving outgrown children's clothes?  I am pretty good with my oldest, he's nearly 8, so a good majority of his stuff gets really worn out before he outgrows it so I can just throw it away.  It is my under 5 year old clothes that are such a pain!  Something else I could really use some good ideas for is kids art supplies.  I struggle because I want my older kids to be able to get to most of the supplies without help, paper, crayons, pencils, markers, but it is constantly a mess wherever I put it, plus making sure my baby can't get to it.  Let me know if you have any great ideas!