Masques

Thing2 loves to collect leaves and chestnuts. This leaf was gorgeous and green and absolutely huge (see her glove for size comparison). With some eye holes cut out, it was a wonderful mask and I could see clearly what the model for those lovely fabric masques I saw in Venezia (why don't we have such huge leaves in New York?). We traced the leaf on construction paper (it took two!) as well and now the original goes to recycling.

Still discarding...

Even though I haven't been posting, I've still been tossing things. The more ordinary– dingy t-shirts and worn out clothes– haven't made it to the camera, but here is a candy dispenser I needed to hide to ensure it would not be missed (the first try, Thing1 saw it in the trash and re-accessioned it) and some paperwork.

Normally I haven't been counting miscellaneous papers, but these were made it to paper recycling as I was consolidating two boxes into one— the U-Haul box that hit recycling was unphotograped, but had made it from Upstate NY to Downstate to a container to NRW to an apartment in Berlin and then here: it deserves its final peace in pieces.

In the darkest night

this flashlight can't help at all since T2 poked the controls out while playing with it.

Off to small appliance recycling.

I hear that we should expect a new garbage bin soon, orange, to make it easier to recycle small appliances and wood. (It will join the bio bin, the grune punkt, the regular trash, the paper, the white glass, and the colored glass.)

While I was doing yet another load of laundry, I took a look at the German's shirt and thought, "Do I want my husband to walk around in a 10 year old, washed out, dingy shirt with a hole in it?". Into the trash it went.

One of the benefits of living in a city

We decided that there was no place in the apartment for this rather attractive clothes hamper, but I hate to discard something that still serves its purpose,a lthough no longer my own. So we put a note on it saying that we would discard it on Monday if no one wanted it and put it outside our building under the roof overhang (it's Berlin, it's raining).

It was gone within the hour. Win/win: someone has something to use and I don't need to add to the waste stream (although recycling of metal in Berlin is pretty easy)

Well Used

A decluttering post that is German-focused.

Gaily wrapped and passed along

I love re-gifting. We had another birthday party this weekend (finally one that was not ours) and I had the chance to regift something given to T1 three years ago (and carried along to Germany from the US in our container, never opened and never given to her).
Although I forgot to take a picture, inside the larger gift is a Barbie set of dress, shoes and bag: I'm not a Barbie fan (although I think the animated movies are in some cases very well done, I dislike the doll) and my girls always had more than enough costumes. The smaller package is new and is a Princess-themed school set, with calculator, ruler pencil sharpener, pencil and eraser.

Hand me downs

Going through another bag of hand me downs (for which I am always grateful), washing them all and examining them: T1 doesn't like these and they move along to the Kleiderspende.

Passing things along

When I was at Discworldcon it looked as if someone (perhaps Sir Terry) was unloading piles of DW novels in just about every language they had ever been pubbed in. The English were long gone, as were the French, so I grabbed Deutsche for the German (started with 2, but as the con progressed and they languished I took one of each— he's now on the second) and Polish for a friend here in Berlin. I've just passed the bag over but I thought I would share the covers: they are pretty great (though the Estonian and Latvian ones were also pretty nifty!).

On the walls

As we consider staying in Germany even longer, I am bringing some of the personal possessions that we left behind back in suitcases each time we visit the US. I always liked these two.

The Children's Room

One of the biggest issues in trying to decrease the clutter and chaos in my environment is that the kids are like entropy: they increase chaos wherever they are. This is actually the first weekend that we have spent home in the last 9 weeks so, to celebrate, we went through the children's bins and boxes and took out everything broken or used up or useless. A total of four bags.

In celebration, I reorganized their bookcase.

It's not just getting rid of things

The thing about de-cluttering is that it's not just about getting rid of things. It's also about finally getting things done and organized, about finding ways to display things one wants to display and store things that one wants to keep.

It's only been about 7 months since we moved in and we have finally gotten the last two lights up. There's a bit of a story to go with that: it's not that we have been stumbling around in the dark for the last half year: we have standing lights.

We had a lovely 3-light halogen for over our dining table, but it just didn't work in the new apartment: rectangular and the new room was already wired to a central point. In addition, the bedroom had a (bare— I know!) bulb hanging from the ceiling so we did have some overhead light when desired. The ceilings ranged from 12 to 14 feet and our ladder was a bit low, the German doesn't do electric and we didn't want to spend real money on a dining room/living room light when we couldn't find a buyer for the old one.

This summer was pretty darn hot for several weeks, though, and I was panting. There aren't a lot of good looking ceiling fans in store here in Germany, as I have noted over the last few years.I'm a person that likes air, so we also have standing fans but this spring's heat wave simply overpowered them. I found a ceiling fan/light combo that we liked on Amazon, set up an installation date with our handyperson, got it in, and then C blew us off twice. We set a new date for after the summer and then we left the country and came back 7 weeks later. When C couldn't make that date, we gave up on him, which is too bad: he was hreat for a while.

However, one electrician later, we have a great ceiling fan/light and a new (only 2.99€) light and cover in the bedroom. I'm really glad that we used a professional, because the living room ceiling is dropped (from 14 to 12 feet, don't ask me why people do this) and he was able to affix it properly, something I am always concerned about with ceiling fan.

Yeah! If you look carefully, you can see a gap: that's because the lights in the apartment were originally gas-fed and the fittings are a bit different. It really makes a difference that we hadn't really noticed as lacking before.

Sorting

A friend just handed me two bags of clothes and shoes as hand-me-downs.

First, I go through a preliminary sort to see if anything is damaged beyond repair. Nope, D has already done that. Then I wash everything (because T1 gets contact dermatitis from scent and other laundry detergents). Then I take a look and decide what she won't like (sometimes I check in with her on that) and that goes into the donation basket.

Starting back up...

When we got back from the US, we left 90+F (around 32C+) and arrived here in Berlin at about 16C (or 61F). Then we drove south 7 hours, which was a bit warmer, but nothing to write home about. So when I finally got back to Berlin, after getting back from the UK, it was time to start pulling out the boxes of cold weather clothing and doing the great seasonal switch. It seems that I did this only a few weeks ago, and really– I did it the week before we left for the US. The annoying part is that weather will be variable for a bit, so I need to leave some warm weather suitable clothing out for a bit. That means that I have 8 large plastic boxes using up bits of my floor right now. Oh joy. The strumpfhose on left go in the garbage as I have repaired and bleached them past use. The clothes in the middle on the right hit the donation box, as T1 just doesn't like them any longer. I thought it was particularly amusing that she said the shirt on the right felt as if spiders were crawling on her, because she keeps asking for toy spiders and I keep saying "no": if she likes them so much, she should enjoy feeling as if they are with her!

As I was packing

for a weekend away, what could be better than getting rid of a broken suitcase?

This is not only de-cluttering, but also a comment on something I really miss: specifically, American-style customer service.

An odd assortment

I've been hanging on to this dress since it was given to T1 as a hand-me-down. When it was given to me, it had already had the damage you see that shifted the blue to pink. I'm not certain if it was light exposure or chemicals, but the dress had actually never been worn. It was so cute that both girls have actually used it as dress up material. But now that they are growing to the point where it would have actually been wearable, it clearly isn't. So out it goes.
A hand-me-down bikini that T1 isn't comfortable wearing. It's a little plasticky. Into the donation bag it went.

Double duty.

A post pertinent to Germany that fits in so well here.

Back in the game...

Today a pair of the husband's jeans went. They haven't been in shape to wear "on public" for a while and he considered just leaving them in the US, but T1 wanted the pockets for a craft project and so he brought them back (notice the missing pockets:)). Out they go.

With them go this pair of Regenstiefel (rainboots). We loved them, but one of the seams has given way, a damaged Princess jewelry case, and the half of a matryoshka tin, for which we can't find the other half.

More than an item a day while I was away...

This is part of what we "downsized" while clearing out our house in Westchester. A good number of these items were damaged through our tenants neglect in mitigating the effects of water in the basement. There are: water damaged end tables, swings, changing table chair, a grill that they rusted out somehow, some strange decorations, mildew damaged linens, lots of extraneous lumber we had floating about.

Some of the larger and better items aren't even visible here: we deliberately put them out several days before garbage pick up because there's an active "look through neighborhoods" attitude here and folks swing by and grab things.

A better swing and a kiddie seat went before pick up, as did a huge hanging chandelier (too large for my house) that had been given to me by a relative and never used.

Our prior tenants, in a gesture that I found amazingly typical, sold the Sienna minivan that we had sold to them, but left the 4 spare tires (with aluminum rims!) behind in the garage, with the extra running board we had given them (we had damaged and replaced one; they are only sold as a pair). I guess that whoever bought the minivan wouldn't pay as much as they wanted for the tires/rb, so they just left them for us to discard rather than toss them in. One of our garbage guys took them: at $100+ per rim, I hope he gets some $$$ for them (in addition to the tips we gave for the two extremely heavy pick up days).

There's more to come.

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.