Solar Queen

Give away

The solar-powered queen is waving good-bye, and so am I.

This is my final entry in this blog.

It was a fun project for a year - but now I'm done and I'll finish up with a quote:

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
     ~William Morris

Puzz 3D

Throw away

This PUZZ 3D was on display and gathered dust for many years. Now the layer of dust is just too thick and we can't salvage it.

The greatest step towards a life of simplicity is to learn to let go.  ~Steve Maraboli

Stool

Give away

This is a great stool.

We just don't need it anymore.

Cute little cross-country skis

Give away

Children's cross-country skis:

10 little ski boots
8 little skis
4 little ski poles

Booster seat # 2

Give away

I'm trying without success to give away this booster seat. It's hard to do!

No one wants it. Hmm, now that I look at this picture, I see it looks pretty stained and unappealing.

But I'm going to keep trying.

Boots

Give away

Fun boots. Too bad they're not my size.

More clothing

Give away

More gently used clothing... and not just pink and purple this time (but certainly pink and purple are well represented).

Stack 'o' Binders

Throw away

Up until today, we had three tote boxes filled with empty binders.

I went through those boxes today, and now we only have two boxes filled with binders.


Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.  ~Leonardo DaVinci

Dance shoes

Give away

little ballet shoes 
little jazz shoes

my daughter's dance gear
outgrown in one year

Ugly shoes

Throw away

black shoes

brown shoes

worn out

throw 'em out

insoles missing

yes I'm dissing

Man, those are ugly shoes!

Outdated First Aid Information

Throw away

Throw away

I just noticed these two pages of outdated first aid information from the 1950s pasted on the inside of our medicine cabinet.

Although they are quaint and historic, they could do more harm than good (The Sylvester Method?!) - so I ripped them down.

A bunch of movies

Give away

I'm taking my inspiration from Socrates this week...

How many things are there which I do not want. ~Socrates

I went through all our old movies and I found a number of them that I really do not want, such as:

     Dude, Where's my Car?
     DodgeBall
     The Love Guru

School projects

Throw away

More school projects - all approved for elimination by my daughter.

Old lotions

Throw away

don't smell good
don't feel good
these old lotions
are history

Radio

Give away

radio work just fine
don't need to be mine

Pink and Purple clothes

Give away

Here is a whole basket of mostly pink and purple clothes that my daughter has outgrown.

FYI: Just to clarify, as some readers have been confused by this... The 'giveaway' items that appear on this blog are not still up for grabs - usually I am giving them to charity (or sometimes to a friend or family member). 
~GG :)

Boys clothes

Give away

A stack of clothes for my nephews - to accompany the pile of books.

More books for my nephews

Give away

It turns out that one of my nephews went through the last pile of books in about one week (see July 15th blog entry for more details) - so here's another bunch of books for my nephews.

Hopefully they'll last longer than a week this time!

Booster seat

Give away

Our daughter is growing up!

5 of my ugly shirts

Give away

Here is my husband holding my top 5 ugly shirts (according to him).

He is happy to see them go.

I'm going to miss them.

(See last week's related post as well.)

5 of my husband's ugly shirts

Give away

This is me displaying 5 of my husband's shirts I don't like.

Here is the deal:
This week I get to choose 5 of his shirts to give away.
Next week, he gets to choose 5 of my shirts to give away.

Neither of us have any say in the other's selections for giveaway.

It's 5 for 5.

Radio alarm clock

Throw away

I just figured out that this radio alarm clock hasn't worked in years. It looks like it works - but the alarm never goes off at the time that it's set.

Several different people woke up late over the years thanks to this alarm clock.

It is very satisfying to finally throw it out!

Bob the old Laptop

Give away

This was a state of the art Apple laptop in its day - and we fondly called him 'Bob'.

Now Bob is outdated. He just can't keep up with his younger, faster relatives.

We didn't know what to do with Bob - so I was happy when a colleague at work (who is an artist) said she was looking for an old laptop to display photos as a reference while painting.

Croquet set haiku

Throw away

the old croquet set
chipped mallets and bent wickets
into the garbage

Teen books

Give away

Most of these books are part of a series about Alex Rider, a 'reluctant 14 year old spy' (maybe not really that reluctant - after 7 books).

There are also a couple of books by the same author about 5 teens who must save the world from evil.

I remember being a kid and loving to read books about courageous kids who were my age - or a few years older.

This weekend, I gave these books to my two nephews who are in the right age bracket.

I hope they like them.

Exercise bike

Give away

I bought this recumbent exercise bike for myself at least 12 years ago.

Now, after all this time (and minutes of use), I'm ready to let it go.

You may note the similarities between this post and a post from exactly three months ago (April 8). Only this time, it's my piece of exercise equipment, and the grass is a bit greener.

Children's books

Give away

There once were some sagging bookshelves
full of monsters and monkeys and elves,
old books and new books
cat books and zoo books:
We got rid of them all by ourselves!


My daughter helped me go through her books last week. In the end, we chose 40 children's books to give away. 

Hockey Game Haiku

Give away

Plastic men on sticks-
looks like fun, but it isn't.
So long, hockey game!

Boxes of Doodads

Throw away

A couple of weeks ago, I included the word 'Doodads' in one of my limericks. This reminded me of our boxes of Doodads. 

Yes, I live in a house where we have three labeled boxes of Doodads*. This week, I pulled them out of the closet, where they had been stored (and unopened) for about five years.

I was determined that I would give away or throw away at least one box-worth of Doodads.

Well, I failed. I was only able to throw out one item* in all three boxes. I need to keep everything else. There is just too much sentimental value in those boxes. So, I'll return all three boxes to storage, and try again in another five years.

*Definition of Doodads (in this context, anyway) = small decorative items, gift items, knick-knacks, souvenirs, etc, that may have sentimental value, or that we are compelled to keep for whatever reason (but we don't have the room or inclination to display them on our shelves or walls).

*I can't even tell you what this item is, as it was a gift. (No, Mum, it wasn't the Solar Queen you just gave me for my birthday. She hasn't even made it into the Doodads boxes yet!)

Dollhouse Limerick

Give away

The following limerick was inspired by my unsuccessful attempts to give away this very nice (but admittedly quite large) dollhouse to a number of friends who have young daughters:

Your daughter will love it, I say
She'll play with it day after day...
It's big and it's plastic,
It's truly fantastic!
...So why won't you take it away?

June 24 Addendum: They were very happy to take this dollhouse at the Goodwill. I'm sure someone will love it!

Blackboard Limerick

Give away

I'm a blackboard and I'm pretty neat
But it's hard (so hard!) to compete
with iPods and iPads,
gizmos and doo-dads-
Don't say it - I'm NOT obsolete!

Tattered old briefcase

Throw away

funny how
this tattered old briefcase 
makes me sentimental
now that I'm finally
throwing it out
and glad to
but
first I turn it in my hands
and remember a time
when I was
half the age I am now
eager and scared
gawky and keen
wearing a brown skirt
and ugly striped blouse
and big glasses
this was my briefcase
and I was
just beginning

Clearing out kitchen drawer clutter

Throw  away

cute dinosaur straw 
triple loops so hard to clean -
good bye little friend

Oops! I gave away all my daughter's raincoats

Give away

I think these raincoats are small
said my daughter to me in the Fall*
I'm sorry to say
I gave them away
and didn't replace them at all.


*Note: This actually happened in Spring, but 'Fall' worked better in the limerick! 

Yoda helps me give away some high quality stuff

Give away

I went to the Yoda-Speak generator 
http://www.yodaspeak.co.uk/index.php
to help me with this week's post...


Hard to give away the Disneyland piggy bank, it is.


Cute but too small, the raccoon mitts are.  Hmmmmmm.


Had much fun with this drawing toy, we have.


Hard to part with high quality stuff, it is!  Yes, hmmm.

Ivy and Bean Haiku

Give away

Ivy and Bean series

most excellent books
my daughter happy to give
to the used book sale

Childhood medals and badges

Throw away

I earned these medals and badges throughout my childhood and teen years, and have kept them for decades.

Now I realize that I can remember the stories they tell better by taking photos of them (and tossing them out) than by storing them in a box.

Too Many Cookbooks

Give away

I'm not sure how I managed to accumulate 90 cookbooks.

I went through them all and found about 30 cookbooks I was happy to part with.

Bench Press

Give away

This is awesome!

I can't believe it...My husband has had this bench press for at least 15 years.

After all this time (and minutes of use),  he is finally letting it go.

May 8 Addendum: My husband would like to make it clear for the record that this item had HOURS of use, not MINUTES of use.

Bonus stickers for free dinnerware

Give away

This is brilliant!

I am going to give away something before it even has a chance to clutter up our house!

We have collected a whole sheet of 80 bonus stickers at our grocery store over the past couple of months (by spending $800).  Although it was fun to collect the stickers, I realize that I really don't want any of that free dinnerware after all...

We'll just go to the store and give these bonus stickers to someone who actually wants them.

Parrot Limericks

Give away

There once was a bird who did go
all across Canada to and fro.
First college dorm:
bad taste was the norm.
This friend we were bound to outgrow.

It's time for someone to inherit
this lovely adorable parrot.
He's got every hue:
Red, yellow and blue.
Maybe he'll end up in Merritt.

March 29 Addendum:
My Mum just called to let me know the error of my ways.
As a result I will add this third limerick now...

There once was a mother who read
the blog of her daughter and said
That bird is a toucan
I think that you can
change it from parrot instead!
                                                            

Helmet Haiku

Throw away

can't give them away
did their job for many years
now to the landfill

Nine pairs of prescription eyeglasses and a Lazy Susan

Give away

These nine pairs of prescription eyeglasses are a walk down memory lane - of questionable styles - and  of the history of my eyesight getting a little worse every year over the past two decades.

Some of these glasses haven't been worn in almost  20 years! I don't know why I've held onto them for so long... Does everybody do this? What was I thinking?

I'm going to donate these glasses to http://www.onesight.org.

And yes, I am also going to give away the wooden Lazy Susan. Although it is doing a nice job of displaying the glasses here, it is actually quite useless. My husband bought it about ten years ago, and we have yet to find a use for it.

Chinese Lantern

Throw away

Something unexpected has happened with this give away/throw away project... My daughter is right into it!

In the past, if I wanted to clear up some old school project clutter, I would need to wait for months or even years before guiltily, furtively throwing out the item - and then hope that no one would notice.

Now, it's all out in the open. My daughter was thrilled that this Chinese Lantern was selected for the honour of inclusion in the blog. Ironically, since this particular school project was fast-tracked for destruction, it will be remembered much better than countless other ones that were hidden away in a closet or drawer for years and forgotten.

For the record, the Chinese Lantern was made by covering a balloon in glue, wrapping it in string, leaving it for 2 days, then popping and removing the balloon. It was pretty cool.

Lonely Mitts

Throw away

While I was gathering baskets full of clothing for Mustard Seed and Goodwill over the last few weeks, there was an unexpected positive off-shoot:
I finally organized all our winter hats, neck warmers, mitts, gloves, etc.

I ended up giving away some of these things, and I also ended up finding about a dozen single mitts (a sampling shown here).

It was very satisfying to throw away those lonely mitts. I even threw them right into the stinky kitchen garbage so I wouldn't be tempted to pull them out and keep them for a few more years, just in case their partners might show up one day - they won't!

Goodwill Haiku

Give away

stack of folded clothes:
some special, some never worn
cute gloves and coat too

Mustard Seed Haiku

Give away

warm coats cast aside-
my son so particular;
good boots, new shampoo

Decade-old Financial Records

Throw away

After a decade, these financial records are really not needed.

These papers are all at least 10 years old, dating prior to 2001.

I even had hundreds of old cancelled cheques (shown at the top of the stack) - from the days when we used to pay for many more things by cheque than we do now.

For the record, I am re-using the file folders that held all these papers.

That's about all I have to say about old financial records.

Never buy gifts at a shopping mall kiosk

Throw away

This is a piece of advice I read recently in a magazine: Never buy gifts at a shopping mall kiosk.

I would add more specifically, and especially: Never buy Christmas gifts at those kiosks that spring up in November.

That advice was good, but it came two years too late for me. I bought this purple item* for my husband for Christmas a couple of years ago. A very stupid purchase. He is very happy that I'm throwing it out - as he would have done himself, except that it was a gift from me.




* My husband insists that I explain what the purple item is...
It is one of those gimmicky heating pads that magically and quickly heats up when you set off a chemical reaction within the purple goo by clicking a metal thing inside of it. When demonstrated at the kiosk in the mall, it is really amazing and works so well. What they don't show you at the kiosk is the laborious and complicated process of reversing this reaction, so you can repeat the process again... This involves a large pot of boiling water, tongs, burning your fingers, not letting it touch the sides of the pot, checking carefully that every part of the purple goo is liquid again... very cumbersome and not worth it. Basically, this item just stayed rock hard in the back of  a drawer for the past two years. 

We actually own 3 simpler things that work much better as heating pads:

• a hot water bottle (fill with hot water)
• a cloth bag filled with beans or something (just pop in microwave for 2 min)
• a gel pack that can be microwaved or frozen and doubles as a heating pad or cold compress