These socks aren't made for walking

because they have been looking for their mates for an indeterminate period of time. Twelve unpaired socks left the house today and my sock bag is the lighter for it.

Accumulating Declutter

It's been a while since I've posted here, but that's because I have been accumulating my declutter.

Today I dropped off 54 books that accumulated in my to-be-donate/given away box, while on Monday I dropped off two overflowing bags of clothing at the local charity shop.

And yesterday, these hit the trash. Strangely enough, I had put them in the trash on Wednesday, but my youngest saw them and took them out (even though they are too small and have been replaced), so when I put them back, I made certain that they were thoroughly covered and no longer visible.

Clean teeth make the man?

What do I do with these? 4 electric toothbrushes, 2 for children, 2 for adults.

I have already discarded the heads, of course, but the brushes are perfectly fine: we have just upgraded to the "sonic" variety, after advice from my dentist. They work well, but I'm a sad case of extremely efficient calcium deposition and I need all the help that I can get.

I was also glad to be able to reduce the clutter in the bathroom by getting versions that allow different heads to be used with the same bases.

So, you can't donate used electronic at the places that I have looked– anyone know what can be done with them? There's always the recycling Hof, but it seems so wasteful.

Clothes make the man

And these are some very nice dress shirts that no longer make the cut (slight nicks on the collars and cuffs that are visible when seated with clients). The German generally checks every year when Brooks Bros has its big sale: ah, the trauma of requiring athletic cut:-).

Into the bag to be accumulated for clothing donation they go.

Starting the New Year

The last month has been a whirl of activity and running, like the Red Queen, just to stay in place. So what starts the New Year better than getting rid of clutter? What I want to know is how, after getting rid of so many documents, there seem to be more still in the filing cabinet that can go? We get a good workout with the cross-cut shredder that we brought with us from the States for paperwork that needs shredding and the rest goes into paper recycling. We did this gather and shred while sipping champagne and listening to the firecarchers and fireworks going off outside, but we did stop before midnight to watch the Hoff at the Berlin Wall :-) and to see some episodes of the new (to us) series Being Human.

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.