The Holey City

That is, while in Rome I discarded this holey pair of socks. :)

The daily discard is becoming addictive. Or, it's simply that when one does not buy many clothes, the ones worn actually do wear out.

Keeping on keepin on

I'm currently so in the habit of spending some time every day decluttering that I am even doing so at my in-law's house. (It's our stuff that I am working on, of course)

The German recently passed a certification exam and these are the study books left behind. They are too out of date, he thinks, to pass on. So these went to paper recycling, with their attached information. (As did some SAP security controls worksheets.)

Decluttering the Kellar

The thing I miss most about the US right now is having a garden. This was a bit sublimated when we had the roof terrace, but now that we have been here in our 3rd (4th) floor apartment for over a year, the cellar is a bit crowded with all the pots and garden things that used to be in active use and no longer are. One of the things that we did this year was till an area at the kita because they wanted to start a garden. We also gave them a few of our pots for the back area and I enjoy seeing them put to use.
There are actually "Kleingarten Kolonies" here in Berlin, but they aren't the community gardens that I am used to in the States, leased at a nominal fee and actually used for gardening. The ones here seem to be permanent temporary summer residences, usually with a building taking up much of the square footage and where Germans sleep and grill and live during summers (electricity, water and satellite dishes seen on the roofs). They range from 6,000€ to 34,000€ and really are not possible if all one wants is to raise some tomatoes. If we actually stay in Berlin long-term and don't get a small place back in the US for summers, we will probably start looking at one of these.

(crosspost to other blog)

Culling Files

Now that the computer has been recycled, no need to keep the original invoice, the replacement invoice, the warranty and a few other papers found while wandering through the files (as well as the usual bits discarded from the kids' stash of Überraschungseier toys.

Looking in the corners

A few more items. Broken bits and no longer used boxes and odds and ends.

Under the bed

I pulled the piles out from under T1's bed today and a whole bunch of things will hit the trash and the recycling. Although the picture on the left is from packaging and more old OS discs and those will go, respectively, in paper and electronic recycling.

Obsolete media

I had hoped to find some takers for the children's videotapes you see here, but I guess the combination of the outdated technology and the US-region made that unlikely. So into the Orange recycling bin they go.
The other items are simply things I pulled out to recycle: they count because they aren't the detritus of daily living, but were clutter for at least several months before being culled.

Pairless

It was a wrench to let go of this right shoe- I kept on thinking that maybe, just maybe, I would find the other and could donate them (at this point, they are too small for T2).
I finally bit the bullet and it went into the Orange bin for recycling.
I stole the other items from T1s underbed storage and recycled them away.

A closer look...

Last night, when I was chatting with my friend about the difficulties of decluttering, and how if one has an easy opportunity, one should take it (that is, I would grab the boxes of childrens' toys and donate them before actually sitting and going through paperwork), I felt a bit revved up.

So I did some "fine" work: here you see CD-ROMs that are no longer viable, belonging to recycled computers and OS's that are 7 years out of date, as well as empty toner cartridges. The DVD's and CD's can go into our new Orange recycling bin and the toner cartridges will go to the recycling hof on Monday. I also went through a large box of "stuff" and turned it into a smaller box of paperwork and stuff and the remainder is in paper recycling or garbage.

This type of decluttering doesn't help the overall look and feel of the apartment, though, and I needed to wind this session up with a 10 minute run through that cleaned off surfaces (that had gotten covered while I was digging through bins) and reducing it to a state of visual order: that's what makes the room and the soul calm.