Sorting - Spare Room Shelves

The sorting continued yesterday afternoon with the last remaining area of general bits and pieces under the microscope, the deep shelves in the small gap between the end of the built in wardrobe and the outside wall in the spare room. We knew what was on most of them and mean to keep it all but there was a pile on the floor underneath them that yielded some things for the binmen and a few bits and pieces from the shelves themselves.

Because I was the first of the three of us (i.e. me and my two brothers) to move out of home and into my own flat, rather than one shared with mates at university, two years ago I was the recipient of various 'charitable donations' from my parents and grandparents of all sorts of stuff, mainly for the kitchen. (The same is happening now that we're buying our first home, instead this time it's furniture - thanks to them we don't have to think about getting a dining table or three-piece suite!) Most of it was old, practically worn out appliances; food processor, toasted sandwich maker etc, that we haven't used since we acquired them. Hence, once I was in my ruthless chucking out mood again, they all found their way into a plastic bin liner and into the bin.

They were joined by a collection of old offcuts of wrapping paper, some old photos that I'm never going to put into an album, two copies of Championship Manager, which I haven't played in two or three years, one of those funny little rugs that fit round the bottom of the toilet and an eight-foot square throw that I bought for £20 in my first year at university. I desperately needed something to cover the yellow-painted brick walls of my room in halls and this great big, dark throw with a huge sun in the middle of it and the various astrological signs arrayed around it fit the bill perfectly. It also covered the sloping roof in my second year room and made the round trip to Germany, too. But I haven't used it at all since I left university except to cover the unsightly double bed in the spare room of our first flat and I'm unlikely to use it again so it's got to go.

I also decided that I really don't need the 60+ copies of Web User that I've been getting for two and a half years so they've gone into the recycling bin.

I'm getting quite good at this ruthless stuff, getting rid of things I wouldn't have dreamed about losing the last time I moved. Maybe my priorities are changing now that we're actually going to own the place we live in.

That just leaves clothes and books to go through, I think. I somehow doubt that I'll get rid of much from those two categories, though.