More stuff on the way out

Since the original what's on the way out page is also getting quite long, I thought I'd just go ahead and start a new page from 2016 before it gets to the stage where I try and add something and can't.

A pair of black work trousers that I haven't worn for years. They don't currently fit but, using the KonMari method of choosing, I really don't like them enough to hold on to them until they do. I have other black trousers I'll be happier to get back into. So off they go. And a load of old bedclothes. I used to live in a very big house and my sister and her family came to stay for a month so I bought some cheap stuff and got some from another sister. I've always sort of assumed I'll need it again for the same purposes someday but realistically I'm probably never going to live anywhere big enough again to have that many people staying. And I haven't used most of this in the nearly eight years I've been here. So off it goes. Where there were matching sets, I put the sheets and covers into the pillow cases in the hopes that whoever gets them does get the set. I've put aside one or two things to bring to my brother next time I go to Ireland.

Three more pillow cases and a duvet cover. Now that the whole lot is finally washed and dry, I have it all in a bag and will bring it out to the donation bank in a few minutes. Also, a pair of black velvet (well, velour) trousers that I have loved and worn so often, it's a wonder they're still going. The ends are a bit destroyed but someone shorter than me and handy with a needle could still get a lot of use out of these.

I used to love all things Pierrot when I was younger and this mirror hung in my bedroom for years. Since I moved out of my parents' house (more than twenty years ago) however, I don't think I've ever hung it up anywhere. When I moved to Dusseldorf and finally had space to have a presents drawer, I separated myself from it enough to put it into that drawer. I thought perhaps my youngest niece might like it. I think I left it a couple of years too late, though, and she wasn't interested when I finally got around to asking. So, when I moved to Heidelberg I finally took a deep breath and added it to the donation pile and off it went.

Other stuff that went during the move. One of my favourite pairs of shoes (green suede), one of my favourite pairs of boots (wish I had brought them to be re-soled before they were too far gone, or bought another three pairs before they sold out!), velour trousers that I kept threatening to throw out and then ended up wearing again every winter and a couple of college books. Really wanted to read these again before getting rid of them but, again, more than twenty years have passed so although it was extremely hard (and I didn't even get a photo of the rest of them), I know it was the sensible thing to do.

Basket for pegs and part of lampshade that didn't survive the move. I didn't get a chance to take a photo of the whole thing (this is a bit less than half) as I opened that box while my houseguest from hell was here and she had it thrown out before I'd even gotten the rest of the lamp out of the box. If this part hadn't been still attached it would've been gone as well. One of those things that did need to be thrown out but doing it so quickly left me with no sense of whatever it is that I should call it. Closure maybe, but I don't feel like that's quite right. I just need to take my leave of things properly and I didn't get to have that leavetaking. I only managed to keep this part because I insisted I wanted to have it to bring to the shop to get a new lampshade and make sure the gaps where it clips onto the lamp are the right size and spacing. The lamp was not an expensive one, I bought it in Argos years ago but it has accompanied me to several places I've lived and always worked perfectly. I'm hoping that it's in the background of many photos and will find one to add to here with the full lampshade.

Another view of the peg basket. While living in Dusseldorf for the past eight years I didn't use this a lot. Since I didn't have any outside space to hang clothes, I only needed pegs when I was trying to fit more onto the clothes horse than really fit properly and needed to peg some in place. Now that I have a balcony and can put the clothes horse out there I needed to have pegs again as it can get a bit windy sometimes and I don't really want any of my clothes flying onto neighbours' balconies or down to the car park. So I was delighted to finally open the box that this was in a while ago. Unfortunately, the plastic has degraded quite a bit and the first time I hung it up to use it, the second I hit against it accidentally with my hand, the small white hook (you can still see the other half on the handle) broke. It's broken or cracked in several other places, too and it was just time to let it go. It was an impulse buy one day at a hardware shop (Woodies or Atlantic Homecare, I think) but I ended up loving it's cheery colour. I do already have a replacement as I bought two peg bags a few years ago to use for something else that I ended up changing my mind about (can't even remember now what it was) - they're from Tchibo and if I remember correctly they were on sale. Anyway, I can use one of them for now and this one has already gone into the bin.

Cookbooks are probably one of the most difficult things for me to get rid of. Which is to say that previous attempts have been thwarted by me realing that what I was about to get rid of after not having used it for year, contains loads of recipes that I would now eat. It's amazing to me sometimes how much the way I eat has changed over the past 15 years or so. I bought tofu recently, planning on trying to cook it myself for only the second time (the first, many years ago, was extremely unsuccessful). And then realised I'd actually bought a book once, thinking that if I actually had a proper cookbook, maybe I'd be able to make something less of a mess than my first attempt. I spent an evening going through this book, however, and absolutely nothing caught my eye. I was so uninspired that I actually had no problem deciding to get rid of it. The second book is called Aldidente (geddit?) and was a present from a friend years and years and years ago. I read through bits of it at the time, thought it was a pretty amusing cookbook, but as we didn't have Aldi in Ireland at the time, I never did get around to making anything from it. And, nowadays, well, it's just not a whole lot of the stuff that I eat. As Marie Kondo says, it's time to acknowledge my gratefulness for the gift at the time and let it go now (not sure that's exactly what she says but too lazy to go and look it up - I think that's the gist of it anyway). I've seen a couple of places around town recently that have take one or leave one bookshelves so I'll put these into my bag and they'll move to there, and hopefully to a good home soon.

Office chair and big bag of rubber mat sqaures with letters/numbers. I took this chair from my sister when she was moving to Australia, and was supposed to bring it to a charity shop. Never ended up getting around to it and just brought it with me when I moved to Germany. I did actually use it on and off, at those times when I was using my writing desk properly. However when I tried using it here, I couldn't get comfortable at all. It's quite low and can't be adjusted anymore and as well as not being very comfy to sit in anymore, my bad knees were making it very awkward to stand up from. So off it goes. And the bag of rubber matting is the leftovers of a big bag I bought second-hand a few years ago. I've kept a bit less than half to use when I'm blocking stuff that I've knit. That should be more than enough. I brought both of these to a warehouse that sells second-hand stuff so hopefully they'll find good homes.

A mulled wine mug from a Christmas market years ago. I think even the first time I lived in Germany after college, so around 1995. I managed to let it fall into the sink a while back and it has just been sitting there ever since, broken. Today, I put it in the bin, accepting that I am not going to fix it and knowing that I have two other similar mugs from other places.