Only Fit for the Bin?

Some things are definitely rubbish aren’t they? Worn out clothes? Damaged shoes? Scruffy old handbags?

You are probably used to seeing fabric bins amongst the recycling but do you use them? I used to but now I deliver my worn out and damaged fabric to charity shops in bags which I mark “rags”. Check with your favourite charity shop that they are happy to receive such stuff but the two shops in my small town both tell me that they are paid for every bag of clean but damaged fabric which is collected from them. The stuff in the bin in the car park may go to a charity or it may not. By delivering directly you select who benefits.

Shoes? These need to be bagged separately from fabric but one shop tells me that they get £1.50 per dustbin bag of shoes however worn out. The same goes for handbags.

And you can be quite sure that if someone is paying for the stuff then it is being recycled rather than sent to landfill!

Now how does this apply to the title of this blog? Are there shoes in your cupboard which have had it? Will you ever use that slightly grubby handbag with the damaged strap? The jumper with just one hole which is front and centre? Why not put them in bags and send them to be recycled? Your home can only be a clearer, nicer place without the unusable junk.

Presents - Seasonal Thoughts

Now this is a ticklish but seasonally appropriate subject. I've been asked to dispose of more than one box of things which were no longer wanted and have been quite hurt to find items which I had given as presents. In a couple of cases the prices such items fetched on ebay have very nearly taken away the sting but that isn't going to happen often!

While tidying up for elderly relatives, there seemed to me to be an astonishing number of presents which they had never used. Some were unused for obvious reasons: they were never the right gift. However, many were, I suspect, put away as "too good to use".

I have learned a few things about presents

Rule 1 – When someone gives you a present they mean it for you now not for your niece-in-law who inherits it.
Rule 2 – Nothing you can afford is too good to use. Unless you can identify the special day when that bottle of champagne will be opened or the super new perfume used, then perhaps the best day for using it is today.
Rule 3 – Only wine improves with age. Use everything else now!


Finally, if an item is really not what you want or will use, get rid of it soon. Give it away, sell it but just don’t keep it past the stage where the donor can say “where is the **** I gave you?”