Broken Umbrella62

How annoying- this umbrella was a favor at a party I was at last month, I pulled it out for the first time, and it was defective. wasn't certain if it was recyclable, so in the garbage it went.

20-61. Clothes and more.

20-22. A belt, a pair of pants so unfashionable s to not be donatable, and a pair of pants (sob) that T2 has outgrown just since January!

23-32. 3 bibs, 2 burp clothes, a baby hooded towel, 2 baby washcloths and a crib mattress cover. To belisted for donation.

33. A broken carry-on, dropped in the recycling hof.

34-60, and 61: 26 foam letters :-), and a memory game to be left outside with a Zu Verschenk sign

Unwanted Media 18-19

• A cookbook which is so not to my taste (and barely usable in Germany): the recipes are meals made with ingredients such as already prepared soups. As everyone here knows, they don't exist (edible versions) here. I like my cookbooks to be from scratch, in almost all cases and in any event, the suggested boxes, mixes and pre-made ingredients are not available here. This goes in the box of books for recycling/donation, but first to be riffled through by a visiting friend at the end of the month. (18)
  

• Too old for any current OS- orange recycling bin.(19)
  

Shoes, books and beeswax 12-17

• A pair of house shoes too well-loved to donate:12
  

• Some beeswax and comb (really!) from an apiary that the children visited. 13
  

• Two large infant books to hand along (14,15)

• A DVD of a TV show I recorded long ago (and now own the season of)16 and although that may just seem like paper clutter, there are magazines (and toy catalogs) down there that I have winkled from the girls' bookshelves (as well as the Swiss Miss box that I finally cleared out- stocking the remaining packs in my tea box) 17.
  

Bags and more (6-11)

• 6-9. Bags given to my daughter's kita. I won't count the many plastic bags seen here, in the canvas bag- I accumulate them and pass them along to the kita on a standard basis. I'm counting the 4 permanent bags, including the canvas one in which they are packed, which I passed on today (after asking if they would like them).

• 10. I wouldn't normally count this (plastic container), but since I have had it here in Germany, brought from the US, for 4 years and emptied it out into another, permanent gift wrap container, I will.

• 11. One might think this was normal trash, but since the girls held onto it for 6 months, removal counts as decluttering.
  

And so on.

• 5. More clothing, too dingy or damaged to donate.
  

Starting 2012

Starting the year off with a reinvigorated decluttering drive, I thought that I would take a page from another blogger who wants to de-access 2012 items in 2012.

I'm not going to make rules as stringent as hers, because this blog is meant to hearten me as I deal with what seems a never-ending accumulation of possessions: there are 4 of us and we have a small place. My goal is to strengthen my resolve by looking at what I have removed from my surroundings while sometimes feeling as if what I do will never end nor improve. But it clearly does.

So, I think I will count some of my discards, but I certainly won't count every item in a pile of paper. I won't count normal recycling and consumables, but I will count what I consider abnormal ones.

• 1. Recycled paper, but not just ordinary inserts, also menus and other long-term paper pulled while clearing drawers.
• 2. Recycled paper, including instruction manuals (in Spanish as well!) for cameras I no longer have, associated ownership materials, business survey research materials and magazines- which I will include because I accumulate them until I actually read them (and get them in chunks, rather than at news stands).
• 3. Recycled fabric- clothing and other cloth items stained, burned and used up.

• 4. Annoyingly chintzy, came in a children's magazine, toy that I persuaded my daughter to part with:-).