Clearing the clutter - the project steps up a gear

 

I’ve pretty much got Project 333 sorted on the clothes front. I had a final weed out last week and the non-tech clothes can now be counted on the fingers of one hand, or have been kept for special occasions. I managed to find a couple more items for the re-cycling bank, one of them was even a technical fleece that I’d bought in a charity shop for a few pounds and was getting towards the end of its days. I hadn’t worn it much because the sleeves were too long. I updated the spreadsheet – the overall total (excluding shoes and bags) is now 72, well-below my target of eighty items, so there’s still scope for the Rohan sale in July. Hmm…it was time to turn my attention elsewhere.

I’d noticed that the clutter was starting to build up in the guest room/my office den, in the barn and the boiler room. Some time ago I had bought a new computer, then we found the old printer would not work with it, so we bought a new printer…you know how the saga goes. Although we’d taken a car load of redundant but still working electromenagères down to the dechetterie’s re-cycling container, the printer and a few other things had escaped the cull. I had tried to sell the printer on one of the local Facebook groups for English speakers but didn’t get any takers. I was reluctant to give it away. We’d previously had bad experiences of greedy vulture types on Freecycle and we’re still waiting for the bloke who offered to swop a fully working fridge for a lawnmower to come back. That was about three years ago and the grass has grown a bit since then.

 

Then I noticed that a few people had been clearing their clutter and raising money for the local animal charities at the same time. What a great idea. The only problem was choosing which of the charities to support, they all do such fantastic work here. Back to Facebook, one of the groups I follow is Twilight – a retirement home for old dogs that happens to be only fifteen kilometres away. It’s actually an incredible couple who share their home with about thirty abandoned dogs, supported by a band of volunteers who raise money to pay for food and the inevitable vet’s bills. I was particularly touched by the story of Basil who had been run over and left for dead with paralysed back legs. Basil has now got a set of doggy wheels and a new lease of life, his happy face often features on the Facebook updates.

Once I started to have a look round I was amazed at the amount of junk that had started to accumulate again. In addition to the printer I found an old tablet computer, an eight place set of tableware, odd storage jars and bowls, some cushions, a croquet set, the list went on. What a great response – I asked for donations of ten euros for each item and collected sixty-five euros. Twilight hold vide greniers regularly throughout the year and offered to take the remaining items off my hands. I also discovered that they collect ‘brown stuff’ – their name for the small one, two and five cent coins that accumulate in your purse. We’d been collecting these in various boxes ever since we came to France and there’s now an ice-cream tub full. So, I’m looking forward to a visit to Twilight next week to off-load this haul and the chance to meet Basil in person.