Posting Long Overdue

There are only so many hats and mits one girl needs. Also, recycling bags are a good thing but I don't need a bazillion.

My friend got a lot of use out of these befor winter ended....

So much junk in one kitchen drawer...

So much unnecessary miscellany...

These all came out of the Kitchen Cupboard of Doom ...

These things went bye-bye a while back, but I forgot about them. Might as well include them in the count.

Another 139 things gone. 3522 things gone.

Unbirthday Declutter

I had a wonderful time visiting two dear friends on our sleepover Unbirthday weekend--- a celebration about seeing one another instead of getting presents.

I also had an opportunity late that Saturday night (between fabulous dinner at the Cafe Brio and a Lara Croft action film) to put some seldom-used items up for grabs. If my friends wanted anything, they were welcome to it.

I brought hair clips, bath oils, herbal teas, a stainless steel soap dispender still in its packaging, kerchiefs, hairbands, necklaces, bracelets, earrings and silky little bags which are lovely but I never use them.

There was one bracelet which was a bit of an internal struggle to part with. It was made of beautiful luminous green beads and I bought it at a craft fair only a year ago as part of a set. I wear the earrings almost daily. But the bracelet? Gorgeous, but I think I wore it twice.

I was glad of my decision when I saw how pretty it looked on my friend Pol...

I also gave Pol my old glass coffee bodum as promised. I love the metal one I have and I'm quite sure it will be enough. :)

Hurray for friends to pass things on to!

(I must say that my dear friends often pass things the other way too---trading among ourselves has become a time-honoured tradition. I've received many clothes, shoes, and fabulous books over the years. It's like shopping for FREE!)

42 more things passed on. A tootal of 3383 things gone.

To the Restore! (and More)

So, luckily for us, Jeff's mom will lend us the truck now and then. About a month ago we made one trip to the Restore, that blessed Habitat for Humanity place that accepts old household building cast-offs instead of letting them go into the landfill. It doesn't matter if the items are dated, as long as they are in good condition.

To the Restore there went: two folding closet doors, two interior wooden doors within frames, an old bedroom light fixture from before renovations, and 14 green cupboard knobs. (19 items)

Alas, the old broom, a big broken tile, and a broom far past functioning were just garbage and have been languishing in a dark corner of the garage. No more.

Three sets of broken Christmas lights went too, and a clunky old television antenna from where-I-don't-know.

I also turfed two rotten garden hoses (I was storing them for a friend who has to live in an apartment but there are limits to the time I'm keeping them when they are useless to anyone--that's two years apparently.) (8 items)

To the Friends of the Library Donation bin travelled sixty (!) more magazines and a few children's books.

So sixty plus nineteen plus eight.....

Hmmm...this brings the new Decluttering total to: 3342 .

Happy New Year!

Well, fortunately we didn't really get cluttered up over Christmas, or at least only minimally so.

This is the first year we've decided not to buy Christmas presents for each other because we simply couldn't thing of anything we wanted or needed. And that's hardly a bad thing.

A trip to India and Nepal is possibly on the horizon for next fall, but only if we can manage it financially, and we have to consider the possibility of spending a significant amount of money to repair our leaking roof.

So, now is not the time to let money dribble through our fingers buying unnecessary stuff.

In fact, this January is the time I've decided to start decluttering in earnest again.

This is the picture of the next 25 things: excess Christmas ornaments, a secondary phone we will never use because we already have three of them, and a whole assortment of unused games and software for the computer.

3255 things gone total since I started this blog. Time to start the New Year with some more things gone.

Tackling the Office

The shoe rack above was one of two I gave to my mother, who asked right out if she could have them. She mistakenly thought I was planning on giving them away because I'd set them down unused near a pile of things I was getting rid of.

Before I knew it, my mouth had opened and I'd said "sure". Why not? They might technically be a useful item, but if I'm not using them they are not. And do I really want to fill them up with more shoes? Ahem, no.

So they are both gone.

I've slowed down for a while getting rid of my own clutter, but part of the reason for that is I've been busy ferrying clutter from my workplace to the Goodwill. Terri and I spent part of our weekend recently tackling the Swirling Vortex of Doom that is our office/toy-storage area at the daycare.

It was not a pretty sight. After three hours, I could not fit any more old toys/yucky books/old couch covers/who knows what else into my trunk. We didn't even try to attack the clutter on the desk that day, but we've been steadily throwing away and sorting out a little bit each day since then.

It's amazing how much better it looks right now and I notice that other staff members are trying to put things back where they belong now instead of just chucking stuff on a random shelf or piece of floorspace. Heh, now that there's an obvious space to put things back, it's a lot easier to do that.
Other than that, I've been sorting out more old magazines and I managed to cull a bag of clothes from the closet in time for a charity pick-up.

3230 things gone.

Free Box

"Can I really have this?", said my friend Kim, her eyes lighting up. "I've been looking for one of these!"

It was an old green ginger jar, an antique Kim said knowledgably. She'd seen one for fifteen dollars recently and had regretted not buying it.

I admitted I had no idea what it was, only that it had ended up in my flea market box somewhere along the way.

She asked me if I still wanted to give it away, knowing it had some value.

Oh yes. Happily.

I had brought a random Free Box up from the basement and placed it on the kitchen floor for my friend to go through. Out of it she chose:

A camera lens, a pomander, a gargoye for her garden, a baby shawl, a small blue and white cream and sugar set from Holland (I think it used to belong to my friend Pol), a set of Phonics flash cards, a brass bottle-opener shaped like a seahorse, and the ginger jar of course.

Some of the stuff from my flea market stuff feels just too nice to give away to the thrift store, without at least trying to inflict it (in a nice way)on my friends first. :)

3178 things begone!

Baskets and Magazines Galore

Ironically, a magazine called Real Simple , a household magazine whose ideals are simplicity and organization , were in a pile cluttering up my Library.

Yes, I'm starting to tackle that room. So far I've gotten rid of a pile of ten-year-old gardening magazines, some seed catalogues and most of the back issues of the Atlantic monthly . Some good articles in some of them, but very doubtful I'll plow my way through them again.

Also gone are a handful of paperbacks to the Friends of the Library book sale, and one book given to my mom, The Wicked Day (not pictured)which she would like to add to her book collection. If she discovers she has a copy already, she'll pass it on to the sale for me.

Now above are some baskets that were divvied up by a few crafting co-workers of mine, whereas the baskets below were utterly transformed in the preschool art class. Nicely took care of my Wednesday morning Art Project idea with the children.

Another 62 items banished. New total of 3218.