Trash calendar - no 14: What's the point?

My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.



Beads on strings that my daughter made for the Christmas tree. What lovely colours!

So, we've been crafting for Christmas, my daughter and I. We got these beads in these gorgous colours and made little pendants of them to go on the Christmas tree. It's so nice - sitting in-doors doing things like this together, not minding the rain and wind.

 I'm feeling a bit down at the moment - house-wise. I've been throwing out trash for two weeks, I'm more than halfway on my calendar - and it doesn't show! On the contrary - the house looks more cluttered now than ever. I've been so focused on looking for things to throw out it seems I have completely forgotten about the finishing touches - how to keep it neat and tidy.



I'm not inspired to go trash-hunting today. I know I have the heavy tasks ahead of me and I'm dreading it. The heavy tasks being sorting through my crafting stuff and all kinds of paper work - because there's way too much of it and there has to be a lot of decisionmaking - what to keep - what to let go.
So for today's post I'm doing a light version. I've picked out a few big pieces of furniture/equipment that have been in store around the house and are now ready to let  go. I've made an ad for some of the items, what do not sell will be donated.
So this makes my fourteenth load of trash.

Trash calendar - no 13: Pitch black

My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from our house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.

This weekend we had a trip to the charity shop to deliver some bags of our trash (only in the sense that we are not keeping it). And of course we couldn't leave until we've had a look around.
And I found two little treasures that came home with me. A small plate decorated by the Danish designer Bjørn Wiinblad, love the simple and playful line and that it's black and white. Also I found a very vintage game of Scrabble, some of the letters were missing but we could play nevertheless.

Now to the trash hunt for today's post I went to the garage.
Preferably the garage would shelter the car and nothing more. Not so in our garage! We can hardly squeeze the car in:) So for todays post I went searching in the dark for furniture and children's equipment that I had in store there and in the adjoining closet. For ages I've been meaning to prepare an ad - and now I finally have.

Trashed

 Hopefully someone will come to my rescue and relieve me of my thirteenth pile of stuff.

Trash calendar - no 12: Plastic fantastic

My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.

Stars we made of Fimo this weekend

Another quick post from me to say I've turned my attention to the kitchen today. I've got an entire cupboard for plastic containers, half of them I hardly ever or never use.

The before - the trashed - the after

 

I was sure I'd be able to trash more of the plastics, but that'll be another day:)

At least now it's easier to see what's in the cupboard.

 

A plastic fantastic pile for my twelfth bag of trash.

 

 

Trash calendar - no 11: Three candles



My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.

Third Sunday of Advent and we have lit three candles.



The before

Trashed

The after

For my trash calendar today I sorted a couple of drawers in the dining room bench. They hold drawings and some crafting equipment - and quite a lot of clutter.

A nice little pile of clutter for my eleventh bag of trash.



 

Trash challenge - no 10: Flippin' through the pages - and an unexpected visitor



My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.

This clematis I didn't get round to plant before the end of garden season, so I took it inside so it wouldn't freeze. And now it's thriving, growing buds and flowers. Lovely. But suddenly I noticed the flowers were rapidly disappearing and I couldn't understand why - until I saw this little fellow:)

For today's trashing I had planned a new go in the upstairs closet, but it will have to be postponed. We've been buzy doing other stuff all day, and then it became evening and I just couldn't bring myself to rummage around in the upstairs closet on a Saturday evening.

Way to many magazines - time to let some of them go

Instead I've placed myself in a soft chair, feet high and a fresh cup of coffee, quiet, and a pile of old interior design magazines, to see if I can't trash some of them, but first I'm going to flip through them and tear out pages I want to keep.

So I don't have nothing to show for myself today except a pile of work not yet done.

EDITED THE DAY AFTER:

I got through the pile of magazines. It's funny, while looking through the magazines, most of them 3-4 years old, I noticed that already back then there were some interior features that I thought was quite fresh, like black walls and blond tree. And then again there were stuff that was everywhere in the old magazines - now hardly to be seen at all.  And also to see how my own style and likings have changed; features I loved looking at a few years ago, now no longer interest me. Well, anyways that made it easier to throw these old magazines out.

The after

Trashed

The little pile is the tear-out-keeps, and the big pile is the had-to-go. I weighed it; it's 12 kilos. 12 KILOS!

A really heavy load made my tenth bag of trash.

Trash calendar - no 9: Heading for a new home

My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.

Yesterday's trashing felt so good! I got a good sized heap of no longer used clothes out of the house.
And I just did it. No debating back and forth - do I love it?  need it?  -geeez.
Just trashed it - no regrets!

Today I've organized the cabinet in my daughter's room that I purged for my own clothes yesterday. Now her hanging clothes are in this cabinet. Also she's had some toys stored in the upstairs closet which I moved to her room / this cabinet to sort through.


The before, the after and the mostly donated


Today my daughter helped sorting through the boxes looking for toys to donate. She did very well and we found this pile of  mostly toys  to take to the charity shop tomorrow.
And that'll be the ninth load out of the house.

So now after a job well done we're going to relax with a cup of coco and a cookie while listening to the rain drumming on the windows. 
And it's Friday - joy.

Have a nice weekend:)

Trash calendar - no 8: Moonlighting in the bedroom

My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.

Starting on the second week of my advent calendar I realize that the first week has just been the warm up for the difficult tasks to come. Sorting through napkins and vases and games - that's easy.
What comes next however...

Today I started trashing in my bedroom.
In here I've shoved four cabinets and a bookcase, which is OK.
But it's also here most of the mess and clutter is stored, and that's what I want to get rid of.

I'm not going to show how my bedroom looks now - I have pride!

But here's how it can look.

I've been dreading this sooo much because once I start with one cabinet then it will have significance on the contents of another and so on and so on. It's all connected.  And when I start the reorganizing and clear outs of my cabinets it will be more caotic then ever!

But here goes!

I've made a plan of contents for the cabinets and if what I have is too much to fit into the designated cabinet - well, then I'll have to trash it.
I keep repeating to myself I'll only keep what we love, use and need.

So late last night - actually it was today because it was after midnight -  I had a clear out in the cabinet for hanging clothes.
It also contains beddings and table cloths, and the boxes are for sewing accessories.
Most of the clothes hanging here I never use, but I've held on to the clothes because I've been thinking  I might!
No more so - trash it.
I've also emptied a cabinet in my daughters room that had my clothes in it and which were just as seldomly used - trashed!
No thinking about it - just do!

Before

After

Trashed

A lovely big pile of clothes to donate makes my eigth pile to trash.

Even my old broken mac will have to go.