Saturday, March 29, 2008

Giving And Thrifting

I had enough. We have had bags of stuff to give away hanging around for ages. Today we finally gathered most of them up to drop off. We gave 4 bags of clothes and shoes to the Red Cross and 4 garbage bags plus 2 shopping sized bags of household things, books, toys and videos to the Salvation Army. It feels good to give!

Since the new year has started, we have given away more than a ton of stuff. In February alone we got rid of more than 800lbs of stuff. In the fall we gave 3 carloads of stuff to the community swap. In addition to this, I was putting bag upon bag of stuff in the boxes in front of the Salvation Army. Where did all this come from? Why did we have so much stuff??? Why do we still have so much stuff???

I have been trying very hard to simplify. This is easy for some things but others are impossible, like DH's clothes, books and the toys. The basement is pretty out of control too. In time I know things will come together. I just needed a longer period of time to get rid of stuff.

Now the thrifting part :). This is a favorite past time of many. I enjoy it but I don't get as much thrill out of it. I mostly went into the Salvation Army to use the washroom, but it was nice to look around. I saw a ton of things I had donated, lol! I picked up 4 metals bowls of varying sizes as I have gotten rid of all my plastic ones. I like metal as it's very versatile. I can even toss them in the oven or use them as double boilers. I also got a "new" crock for my utensils. I am using one now that I'm not happy with, so I will donate it. We also got 2 trivial pursuit games (we're going to play during the Earth Power Hour tonight :D ). Oh and I got an almost full bottle of Kiss My Face hair mousse! How much did all this come to? $2!! Wow! I got DD a dress there last week for that price. I guess it depends on who is working. Today was someone who used to go to my gym (which closed a few months ago) and I think she knows we're in a tight spot financially. Bless her heart!

I also returned a plastic blind I got for the kids playroom and exchanged it for a bamboo one at Zellers. I was going to get one for DS's bedroom but it would of been $35, so it will be much cheaper to just put his curtains up, lol! Bamboo is a great material to use as it grows fast and is very renewable. Plus there was a lot less packaging. It was a small change but if everyone made that change, it would make a huge difference.

Small changes result in big benefits to the earth :)

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