It is day 8 of the Minimalism Game (read more here) and I have not followed the rules at all, but I did say I wasn’t going to. I have got rid of some stuff and I have been brave about chucking things in the bin more so than usual.  I have even replaced some of the really very knackered stuff around my house with new stuff and repurposed or chucked the old stuff e.g. my dish drainer – I’m ashamed to admit that I actually did a home exchange with it there and it is also rusted through and looking horrendous – it went in the bin (should it have gone in metal recycling?  It was covered in white plastic…).  I don’t know how many years we had it, but I honestly can’t remember the last time I bought one, we must have had it for years and years. I have also given some stuff away to a friend – some nappies we no longer need, a bath mitt and a kids rocking chair that my kids have grown out of.

I have made a large pile of stuff to go one way or another and it is waiting to be dispersed. 

They fall into the following categories:

One of the things in my big pile of things to go is bag of jar lids.  My local council doesn’t recycle them and I was planning on putting them in the metal recycling at the tip, but I’m not really sure if they are the right place for them. I have another idea though, my parents live in a different county to me and this morning I quizzed my mum about what they can recycle where they live.  Turns out they can recycle jar lids.  Usefully they can also recycle other things I can’t recycle i.e. plastic containers, so I will now be saving those things for when I visit my parents and will recycle them there!

So far the following has left my home: one broken weighing scales, a dish drainer, a kids rocking chair, lots of nappies and swim nappies, a bath mitt, 3 broken glasses, a broken glass water bottle (they have been sitting on my kitchen window ledge for ages), some old plastic containers (before I found out I can recycle them at my parents – I chucked them in the bin), a broken toy and 5 egg trays, 10 random bits including a sticker and broken bits of toys, a clay tealight holder that my youngest made at nursery (it was a bit broken and crumbling to bits..) and about 10 items of makeup which were at least 10 years old.

In total so far I have got rid of around 70 things (if you count each nappy individually, which I didn’t but 70 sounds good), so I am ahead of schedule – woohoo!  I only have another 390 things to go!!