Seven Things Week 1

Thanks for the encouraging comments, emails and 'phone calls.  Apparently some people find other people's junk fascinating - hang on, I find othe people's junk fascinating, that's the problem.  Ah well, entertainment coming and going.  For those of you joining in - GOOD LUCK!

The first week of the challenge is always easy.  There's a top layer of stuff that's begging for decluttering.  The only difficulty in the first week or so is getting it out of the house quickly enough and finding containers to put them in.

The stash of shop bags etc. went early in the last challenge and as we don't buy much retail and most groceries and op-shop items go into re-usable shopping bags, there's always a scramble to find suitable receptacles.  I'm starting with the so-called "green" bags that are inconveniently shaped for grocery shopping.  If we need more shopping bags, I can make them from fabric in the stash.

Also, even after the post about the pavers and the trailer during the week, I didn't reckon on the effect equipping and improving the caravan will have on this challenge.

We spent yesterday writing Very Long Lists (fear my lists!) of our immediate, short, medium and long-term plans for the van and what that would require.  I'm going to have to be particularly tough on the "outs" to accommodate the "ins" for the van.

IN

• 1 leather bookmark, 1 plastic stamp holder thing and 1 set note paper for my diary - I won a giveaway of a PocoProfile diary refill off TSS's blog.  The lovely Victoria included these things as bonuses.  - GIFT
• 15 besser blocks (for work at the caravan) - TIP SHOP
• 1 Bodum ice bucket (for the caravan - wine gets warm too quickly) - TIP  SHOP
• 1 jar (for this season's jams and preserves) - TIP SHOP
• 1 Tupperware container and extra seal - TIP SHOP
• 1 set vintage hand-embroidered tea towels, totally unnecessary, but wait until you see them! - TIP SHOP

OUT

• 1 vintage letter holder - OP SHOP
• 6 glass jars - these held some of the buttons boodle. The buttons they contained are now in Tupperware which nest better, take up less space and break with less disastrous results when dropped on timber floors. *sigh* - OP SHOP
• 1 bowl - OP SHOP
• 1 Tupperware mixing jug (we don't need 3) - OP SHOP
• 7 books - OP SHOP
• 13 specimen vases.  Collection of tiny cut glass and crystal vases - OP SHOP
• 2 "green" bags - OP SHOP
• 8 teaspoons - GIFT
• 5 knives - GIFT
• 6 forks - GIFT
• 4 dessert spoons (all cutlery donated to our workplace tea-room. There are never enough clean spoons or forks - the knives are a bonus) - GIFT
• 1 teabag holder (my brother's MIL collects Royal Albert Old Country Roses - she gets this melamine teabag holder I picked up at Vinnies' a while back) - GIFT
• 1 three-hole punch (new in box and has been for 16 years. It's going to work where it will be used) - GIFT
• 1 large bundle copy sheet protectors going to work, we use a lot of them and the budget is tight - GIFT
• 1 ream copy paper, also going to work - GIFT
• 1 microwave oven (not needed in the caravan) - DONATION
• 4 headbands uncovered in an avalanche from TOF's bookcase - we don't really know how they got their either - OP SHOP

SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT

• 6 padded coathangers - STASH

IN  23
OUT 63
NETT OUT 40

SIAA 6