I was fond of these, but they are now too small for T2, while still in good condition, so on to the donation box they go.

Frugality

One of the traits we are trying to cultivate while decluttering is actually using the things we have and reducing as much as possible the number of new things we bring into the house.
Since we have a birthday party this weekend, I think we will have a bit of a setback, although I have told those who asked various add-ons that T2 might enjoy (eg, clothes for her standard sized doll) rather than new toys. Here on the left one sees the attitude of use up rather than bring in new applied to toothpaste (and no one who knows my clutter would believe how carefully I squeeze that toothpaste tube) and T1 with her pencils.
I actually think that's going too far and is effecting her handwriting, so I have taken them away and replaced them with new pencils. Nice thought, though!
On the right we see another of the tchotchke toys that come with magazines in this country: they break quickly and bring tears. I took this br0ken toy to recycling within a day of its arrival.

Another collection of magazines and paperwork for recycling, a tchotcke I hid from the girls— when they didn't miss it it went in the garbage, and sadly, a favorite chair from Ikea. Although the whole chair didn't need to go: just the canopy that was irretrievably damaged. The base itself stays and is used.

15 minute fling

I still read my Flylady e-mails to help me keep up the fight against sinking into clutter and here is the accumulation of a week of trying to read through and get rid of paper that masquerades as something I need or want to keep. The reason it takes some time is that I am actually reading the magazines and I tend to run behind depending on what my external life is doing: they are bundled and sent over once a week, so they come in a bolus.

Well loved clothing

Unlike the clothes that I donated yesterday, these were well loved and the spots would just not come out, even with laundry treatments. So into the trash they went. But they were hand me downs from my brother's girls, so they have been used by at least three and perhaps 4 children: Carter's has amazing quality and GapKids once did as well .

Sammeln

The girls' school is collecting clothing and shoes: I wish they had given us some notice, because then I wouldn't have handed bags worth over to Humana. These are what I was able to winnow out in a day and are all in good enough condition that I feel they are worth donating as opposed to discarding. A few of my shirts that I find too scratchy to enjoy wearing and some clothes that my girls have outgrown or don't like.

The Fridge

After having weekend guests, my husband felt today was the perfect day to clean out and scrub our refrigerator. I'm not certain why, but I'm happy with the result. Not only is the fridge sparkling clean, but we took the opportunity to examine all the food and condiments inside and to get rid of the out-dated or bad items. Those are in recycling now, but the discards included about 16 glass jars of condiments that were tremendously outdated or clearly moldy (ugh!) as well as foodstuffs that had been pushed behind newer ones. No photos, because by the time we had washed out the glass, squeezed out the metal tubes, and cleaned out the plastic, everything had been scattered between the multiple recycling containers.

Hopefully the clean and ordered refrigerator will make it easier to rotate food properly and reduce waste.