Trash calendar no 7: A blue angel

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.

A little blue angel - spreading her protecting wings

Because we have so little space we made a Christmas tree of a piece of MDF a couple of years ago.
It was cut to the shape of a tree - or maybe a rocket or a tulip upside down?
Even though we have decided on a real Christmas tree this year,
my daughter wanted to decorate our flat tree.

She was so enjoying herself; decorating and singing away- making up the texts and tunes as she went along.
At the top is the newest decor, then the old favourites, then the rest.
If there were pairs then they sholud hang together -so as not to be alone.
The little blue angel is not a favourte and was allowed a spot almost to the bottom.

I made sure I didn't interfere or give "advice" on the decorating, this year my daughter rules the deocrating style at our house:)

This post's joining nib's challenge to show the Christmas decor in our house.

For my trash calendar no 7  I sorted through some papers and made this pile to be the seventh bag of trash.

Trash calendar - no 6: Ready to light the fire

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.

Winter's here, snow has come and it's cold - about time to light the fire.

So I've rearranged the corner by the fireplace to make storage space for the fire logs.

This corner used to look like this, two baskets of games and DVD's, they veren't much used as they were.

Before

 So I decided to dedicate a cabinet in the living room sideboard to games, electric and electronic stuff (computer- and photo stuff, batteries and bulbs) that we need easy access to.

The before

The after

Here's the cabinet ready organized; not much to show, but I'm happy cause now at least there's order.

Then I can find a little bag to hold the sixth pile of trash.

Trash calendar - no 5: Making a reading nook

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.

I barely made it in time today, but no 5 is for my daughter's room.

It's so crowded with toys and desperately need a trashing.

Usually I'd like my daughter to participate in sorting her room and toys but it's not easy. 

All the things she hasn't played with for a while, and which I think we can pass on, she throws herself at

as if it's a long lost favourite.

She never wants to part with any of her toys.

Her room is so overdue for a sort out and this time I have to admit I didn't ask her permission - I just did it on my own.

Before

Donated

After

I rearranged one of two book cases and it now holds the collections of  both tiaras and microphones, which my daughter seems never to get enough of:)

I've made a little reading nook of the extra duvet and pillow.  I hope it will be nice for her to cuddle up there with a book or Barbie.


And so my daughter has an organized Billy for some of her toys and collections.
And I've lost the fifth load of trash!

And by the way - I've got a new header.
It was time to change the summery pink flower for something more winterish.

Trash calendar - no 4: How many vases does a girl need?

Apparently a lot!

I have an extensive collection of vases (oh wow sounded grand - but it's not) but they don't dominate the interiors of the house. They sit on a shelf on the uppermost part of a wall and I use them for decorating in the living room and sometimes to keep flowers in.
Other than that they're not a big deal.

But they're very symbolic to the the rest of the stuff in the house:
there's way too much of it and there's really no point in keeping it all.

Now I've sorted through the vases in order to minimize the collection and  I thought I would rid myself of quite a few (the new efficient, rational me and so on),
but the result was dissapponting.

This is what I had.

This is what I could bring myself to trash.

It'll hardly fill up the fourth bag.

Trash calendar no 3: A stroll in the garden

Early this morning there was a thin layer of snow. It disappeared in the course of a few hours, but it gave the garden an idyllic look and covered up the mess I had left there for oh so long.

Which shouldn't have been left there in the first place.

I'm ashamed to admit that lying about, although as discretely as possible, there were an old rug (rolled up by the house wall), a broken garden chair (sitting right next to the not-broken ones) and some worn out flower pots (covered by the weeds:)

I shoved it all into the car and drove off to the landfill.

The garden is yearning for more cover-up snow, but at least I got rid of a carload of trash:)

Trash calendar - no 2

Today I've sorted and trashed in the  candles-, candle holders- and napkins department.

I keep these things in the left cupboard of the living room sideboard.

But since the cupboard got full I've been placing candlestuff and napkins randomly all over the house.



Before




Trashed

I collected the items from various places around the house and sorted through them.
I'm only supposed to keep what we need, love and use.
And it has to fit into the cupboard.

After

And so I have an organized candle-, candle holder- and napkin cupboard.

And I've lost the second bag of trash!

And I'm apparently a bit too keen on trashing these days, cause unintentionally I've managed to delete the better part of the photos from the first couple of months of my blogging.

Silly me!

My Advent calendar - a trash challenge

This year my daughter chose a ready-made, store-bought Advent calendar, with her, for the moment, favourite tiny toys. Goody-goody, I thought, I happily provided it as it let me off the hook very easily.

This got me thinking, however, that I could make a calendar for myself,

 but, then again, no,

more stuff coming in would only increase the problems of this house

(which is too much stuff).

It ought to be the opposite;

I should have a calendar that got rid of things.

So that's why I've decided on my very own special Advent calendar

- a trash challenge.

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.

I believe without a doubt that our house could loose 24 bags of stuff without seeming too empty!

This first day of December I went looking in the downstairs hallway for stuff to loose.

This is my least favourite room in the house. I's tiny, but has three doors and a staircase, is always cluttered, and since it is the entrance to the house there's no way of avoiding it.

  

 

  

I started by emptying it for clothes, shoes and clutter.

My daughter helped by trying on clothes and shoes to see if they still fit. Out with what didn't and back in with what did.

Before

 

Trashed

After

After

Stuff that had been left in the hallway but didn't belong there was removed.

The only things that were let back in were things we use and that belong there.

Except for a couple of items I put in for decorating purpose.

And so the downstairs hallway is so much more welcoming.

And I've lost a bag of trash!