Sorting woes

We're packing, but more importantly we're sorting. We've received offers to help us pack, but that really isn't the major thing we're doing. And in fact, it is something that only we can do at this point.

That's because we're not just packing everything to transfer to another house, so it is complicated. We're taking some things to Japan, but not a lot (think a couple of suitcases each). The rest either gets stored, thrown, given away, or sold (not much in the later category). And this is everything in our house, right down to the extra vinegar bottle that I bought but didn't use, and the four lasagne sheets that aren't quite enough to make a whole lasagne from and will probably be given away too.

Yesterday after school we tackled the boys' rooms. It wasn't pretty. This is hard enough for an adult to do. Trying to get boys to make decisions about their own stuff was more painful than getting them to have a shower. Here's approximately the process we had to go through with them with everything in their rooms (we're not quite done, but that's okay):

This morning we had one boy upset because he'd cleared his desk off yesterday and as a result of us doing the above with his older brother's clothes, he'd ended up with another pile on his desk to sort. Yep, a process that none of us enjoy and seems to keep going and going. We'll be glad to have it finished.