While waiting...

to start posting what will be heading out the door in NY, here's another scheduled post.These shoes have been handed down from T1 to T2, but T2 has two other, much better looking pairs. So (after the photo) I scrubbed the sandals up with a toothbrush to clean them as much as possible and into the Kita accumulation bag they went.I may start a blog just for wine— after all, one of the prize benefits of being in Europe is how many great ones one can buy for about the cost of a soda. This one was so bad, however, that I happily downsized the half empty bottle (I stopped after 1 sip, the German didn't finish his glass): into glass recycling it went.(That's a 2008 Rosemount Shiraz Cabernet.)

A few things

While I'm travelling (and without acces sto the interwebs, I think), here are a few items I downsized before leaving. The usual Disney feeble hanger: garbage. Purple egg that held a tchotchke and for some reason was being held as a treasure by T2 (although she hasn't noticed it's gone...) and a decorative sticker from T1's dresser that has lost its stick: plastics recycling.
And here you see a box. Saved because I generally save boxes, but after three years, I think I probably won't be needing to send it for repair in its original box and it's not a fragile item that needs that box for moving: paper recycling.

Beginning to accumulate

Here are a few of the things that I am accumulating, one item at a time, to give to T2's old kita when we get back from vacation.

• a small Snow White costume, skirt and top,
• a pair of pants- I don't love the color,
• a Cinderella costume in 2 pieces,
• a Cinderella nightgown,
• and finally, a pair of pink camouflage shorts.

I pulled these out this spring as T1 is finally large enough to wear them, but I have issues with these shorts on multiple levels.

First, I think that it is ridiculous to pinkify everything. It's sexist and alienating and I am offended by the pink Lego set that I saw that has fewer interesting pieces than the standard, or blue one.

Next, unless one has a reason to wear camo (hunting, say, or running around hiding in the woods- as I have done while wearing it), I think it dimishes and normalizes war concepts.

Good enough reason for the donation box. Although I think I need to toss these into the Kleiderspende: now that I think of it, I don't think these would be wearable at the Kita for those reasons as well!

Sentiment recorded

I keep wondering how to deal with what the children make: crafts, art, projects. I have strung a line along the hallway and I clip up some of the more recent and interesting 2-D projects, but they do pile up.
This was a very cute little man made by T2 this year in Kita. The head is a balloon with googly eyes glued on, it has a neck ruff and its body is made from a solo cup filled with beans. It has interesting cut out geometrical shapes glued on it and a base made out of cardboard that also forms feet. It was cute. And now we have a memory of it.

A few more things

Here is a toy (now in pieces) that is a poor copy of a better German toy (children put the pieces together in a correct sequence and then a ball or a marble will travel through the structure). Bad, smaller version that came with magazine. In plastics recycling. Also a Disney lipstick: I hate when the girls wear lipstick: I am always fearful what they are made of, if they will share with friends, if it's toxic: garbage.

And here is a kite made by T2 last year in Kita. A bag, a stick, a piece of string. She loved it, but a year later, I think it can go.

This is sort of fun.

Or may be it's a little frightening that I keep finding things that have been here too long! There does seem to be a theme that I am finding it easier to cull the childrens' things. On the other hand, when my things are broken, I tend to either throw them out or fix them, so I don't have as much low hanging fruit.
In the first photo, you see a bunch of catalogs : I hang on to catalogs for a while to consciously decide whether I actually want to buy anything. About 99.99% of the time, the answer is: No. Then the catalogs can pile up: into recycling they go.

You also see a hairband that my kids don't like (into the accumulation bag for the re-opening of the Kita). That's also where that strange stuffed animal will go, while the strange plastic eggs just went into recycling. The little Pooh fake phone is one of the tchotckes that comes with T2's Winnie the Pooh magazine subscription. I hate those things. Badly made, makes T2 sad when they break (as they do quickly). You see the same in the second photo, where the unmelodious and non-usable guitar can be seen. The phone goes to the Kita, the guitar in the garbage (as does T1's much thumbed over and loved American Girl catalog: she has more current ones and we will be visiting the store next week. Also, good-bye old crown from birthday party.

For whom does the clock ring?

For nobody (or everyone) since the hand broke and there is no way to change the time or the alarm setting.This goes off to small appliance recycling, because I'm not certain into what garbage it should go and recycling is so close, why not ask? There's also a small toy cow that's been broken for a while, a broken hanger found on the closet floor, a party thank you and miscellaneous info saved by my pack rat older daughter and the battery to the clock which will be recycled as well. I'll be needing to get T1 another alrm clock, but we will probably look after vacation.
The tattoo went on T2's arm, in my drive to actually consume consumables:).

Luggage downsize

Last night we pulled out some suitcases to start considering what to bring with us as we head out on vacation. It's a it of a split vacation: we start with a week in our old house, sleeping on foam rubber (that we need to buy) and borrowing dishes as we pack up our house in Westchester in readiness to turn it over (now unfurnished) to our new tenants. We want to get it completely ready to sell it next spring, because we are tired of dealing with it and we have made the final determination that if we ever return to the US and live, it won't be to the school district where our current house is located.

Then we will head upstate for almost two weeks, unpack into our storage unit, and spend time with family. But the day we get back, we need to leave immediately for a family reunion in Southern Germany, where we will then spend an additional week. So I need to think about what we will need, where we will need it, and what the weather will be like. It's complicated.

We generally go over with suitcases within suitcases, bringing back far more than we take with us and I expect that we will do so again, as we load up on items that are not findable here (here I come, Crystal Lite and brown sugar) but this suitcase was in such terrible condition it's just not worth bringing back: I wouldn't trust it to survive baggage handling as a stand alone suitcase, so why bother (see the broken handle and ripped fabric?).

In addition, while the girls were putting away their doll clothes, I was able to discard: an empty box,

some cardboard picture corners (a real down size because they were there for "future possible use",
a Princess tattoo was used now, rather than save for later:

and while digging through bags, looking for doll shoes, we were able to pull out a handful of squashed candy and other detritus that went into bio and into trash:

Another good day.

Doll Storage and Ikea

Today I pulled out two laptop power supplies that have been annoying me each time I clean under them. Both have US plugs, both could be used for the German's current laptop, both won't be as he has a power cord with German plugs.

We took these to the recycling point, but were glad to hand them off to the folks at the gate who ask for any electronics: I am very glad to not add to solid waste and if someone can take the time and energy and sell these (and by doing so, get more use out of them), I am very happy for them.
Our visit to the center also allowed me to drop the accumulation of dead batteries and empty out a drawer.

We also dropped off some cardboard boxes (T2 moved to a three point car seat this past month): we try not to overwhelm the cardboard bin in the cellar— these count because they are not ordinary refuse to us.

Finally, we went to Ikea and returned two clothing storage bags, a multi-candle holder, a light cover and a light cord: if we haven't used them now, I'm guessing we aren't going to for a while (although in the case of the light, that might not be true:we may need to re-buy it). But the German was being proactive:).

To show how hazardous it is to go to Ikea, we also picked up a bookcase while we were there. I was planning on putting it next to T1's computer desk and using it as a storage center (with rods) for her doll clothes. But once we got home (after a stop at Kaufland to do the week's shopping), I decided that the Expedit that we have in the living room could have three boxes emptied and be used for doll storage and that meant that we could return the new bookcase we had just gotten.

Does that count as a downsize when we haven't even opened the box? I'm going to say it does. And on the de-clutter side, the German bought (instead) an insert of two drawers that fits into a single box, a metal rod to use as clothing rods (after being sawed into the correct sizes) and two sets of rod ends (from Bauhaus, the German equivalent of Home Depot).

As he was putting it together today (Sunday), we discovered that the book case was a bit too hardened for the screws of the rod ends, but no matter: I know where the double-sided, good to 45 kg, tape is: score for de-cluttering drawers!

T2 is ecstatic: she just ran around gathering up all her doll clothes to hang them  and her accessories to put in the drawer.

 A very good start to the week.

How to Start

De-cluttering has always been a huge issue for me: I'm a biblio-addict.

I used to read and re-read Dan Aslett's books, although generally I used them to help me organize and then clean around my clutter.

With the two kids starting to create messes on a daily basis and to accumulate clutter of their own— and ungainly clutter that can't be simply contained by weeding through my books shelves, or perhaps buying another bookcase— I have been feeling overwhelmed while trying to keep the chaos under control. I want to be able to have people over without apologizing for the mess and whereas before I didn't really mean the apology (if someone objects to piles of books and magazines, they aren't really my sub species anyway), now I do: toys and dolls and crayons and drawings and DVDs are exploding throughout the apartment.

Even though our latest move decreased our living space by 30% (and our storage space by more), that's not really the issue: we are a family that uses things and we need to pare down and to organize. We don't have the luxury of space to hide our excess and there's nothing more annoying than having to purchase something to replace something that I know we have— somewhere! That's particularly so when we are dealing with adaptors and transformers and foreign appliances and power cords and appliances.

I was wandering through the NY Times and ran across a fascinating article about legacies and clutter and losing one while trying to get rid of the other. The comments were even more interesting than the article itself and in the comments I ran across someone who started a Downsizing blog. I really enjoyed reading about it and I am going to take him as a model.

I don't expect to post every day, particularly as we will soon be leaving for a month's vacation. Nor do I expect to be able to necessarily be able to downsize/de-clutter on vacation. But I'm going to go at it seriously, I will post at least every week, and I hope to de-accession at least one item for every day, even if I need to do it proactively or after the fact. I also won't be counting ordinary recycling: here in Germany (as it should be everywhere), organics, metal, plastic, paper and packaging are recycled daily and as an ordinary part of life, not requiring any acknowledgement. I will count anything that requires me to go to a special recycling facility though.

Let's start with what I have been able to do:

• I have a large number of books listed for sale on Amazon. This has netted me some results, but not nearly enough because I'm not willing to sell for a net loss. Clearly those who can sell books for less than it costs me for postage are smarter bears than I. I have shipped off about 15, though.
• Through kijiji.de I was able to sell patio furniture (two loungers, two chairs) that we can no longer use as we no longer have a roof.
• Also able to sell a milk pump- glad to get it to someone who could use it rather than to just recycle it at small appliances.
• Attempted to off load some furniture for free, but when two sets of people did not show to pick it up, we carried the Ikea computer desk to the local recycling facility and, after breaking it apart, recycled it.
• On Thursday, I gave two pairs of T2's dress shoes (therefore in great shape as not frequently worn before she out grew them) and two outgrown shirts, also in good shape, to the younger sister of T1's friend, a year younger than T2.

Big items coming up:

• sell a Nikon D70s and 18-55 lens (this may wait until I get back from the US)
• find a non-profit that wants English language books to donate mine to
• get rid of the lights from the old apartment that no longer work in this apartment, including a children's overhead with three lights and a dining room three halogen hanging light: very nice, very formal, but we aren't re-wiring this living room for it and it is fragile and uses precious space in the cellar.