Mainly clothes

My very favorite (although fake) bag- so worn and leather-bare that I am actually too embarrassed to carry it any more. Shirts and t-shirts and a pair of shoes that are too worn: all to Orange bin recycling.

A piggy bank and a sweater that I will put out this weekend to see if anyone takes (and if not, will go on Friday to the "Give and Take" kiosk, a skirt and a shirt that are too worn and are off to the orange bin.

Still Decluttering

While life has been crazy and we have been continent hopping, I haven't forgotten the "clutter reduction" goal.

These items are all damaged, stained or worn-out: to the Orange bin for recycling. (12+ items)

These are just out-grown and I placed them in a bag and dropped them in the local Kleiderspende (donation bin). Note that I wire the shoes together so they won't be separated. (8+ items)

Out, out darned Spot!

But since even dry cleaning didn't work, t the Orange bin it (and some redundant socks) went.

Clothing

These to the donation bin

And this to recycling (orange bin).

Desert Boots

Thirty years ago, I really loved these boots. This year, the salt stains wouldn't come out. A good long "run".

Lots more things

Lots of "stuff

Here are a lot of odds and ends- a hairbrush that pulls hair- to the garbage, ice cube tray whose cubes I don't like, to greenpoint. Odd shoes, stretched out bathing suit, shopping bag with a hole: all to Orange bin.

Clothes to Kleidespende

More paper to recycling!

 These clothes all went to the Kleidespend (donation box).




Lots of catalogs and pieces of paper found while going through bins (still looking for tax papers).



A very nice pair of patent leather shoes from T2. The toes were scuffed and if they were mine, I would have spent the 10€ to repair them. Since they are too small for T2, I decided not to repair tham and they went into the Orange bin.

Recycling clothes

All to recycling in the Orange bin

I blacked the shoes up a bit and then they
all went to the Kleidespende (clothing donation bin).

Beautifying the balcony

All these clothes to recycling. My shoes,
 German's socks, T1's shoes, 8 shirts and t-shirts:
all to the Orange bin for recycling

These were planted and beautified the balcony. The plastic went to Grünepunkt.

What the flowers looked like after being planted. 

(Showing one of two hangers.)

-

Odds and Ends

• Some worn out clothing (to the Orange bin).

• Some tchotckes from the kids to the garbage.

• And a broken timer to the Orange bin as well (love that Orange bin).

My comfy jacket

My favorite comfy jacket has to go:-(.

The threadbare sleeves are at the point where hey are too embarrassing to even wear at home.

To the orange bin.

Donation and recycling

And herewith I stop counting. Because, does a pair of shoes count as a single object? The bag that I pack them in? Socks? What about a pair of tape rolls? I'm going to try to go back to getting rid of approximately an object a day and I will feel better about it.

• Here you see two rolls of a specific type of tape that we don't like. Bought when we painted the apartment, we didn't like them then and wound up actually using a different type of tape. The spouse put them outside our building door with a "Zu Verschenken" sign while dropping the garbage in the basement and they were gone before he left the cellar.
  

These all went to the Orange Bin.








These were donated in the clothing donation boxes.

Here's another bag of foam letters. Also "Zu Verschenken", although it took a few hours.

And here's a broken suitcase that went to the recycling hof.

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

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.
  

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:-).

Emptying some drawers

Some things to the orange bin, some to the clothing donation.

Gathering it together

Gathered together things to give to a friend for her daughter when we visit over the holidays.

Some out of our current closet (she will have to wait a year to use them) and some from the boxes I have neatly packed in the Kellar (which I need to think about passing on in some way) which I hope she will be able to use this year. I hope she enjoys them as we did.

A few things

I still wonder how it can be possible to pass stockings down: my girls can barely make it through a season with them. To the orange bin.

A crafts project dissolved and a bow to the trash.

More Clothes

These clothes are all in good enough condition to donate (but not appropriately sized to give to friends).

And I just can't get the stains out of the below, so off to the orange bin it goes.

If it can't be worn in public, out it goes.

November 26 through 30th.

Out-grown and worn-out clothing, to the Orange recycling bin. Tat to the garbage.