Just when I thought there was nothing left to recycle...

As I’ve noted more than once on my blog – there’s nothing I like more than a good sort out. OH once said that he couldn’t afford to sit down for long in case I sold him on Ebay. It’s been just over a year since I started Project 333 in earnest and in that time I have whittled away to reduce my wardrobe to less than a hundred items. I operate on a strict one in-one out policy, but since I haven’t bought anything in the last few months, I didn’t think that I had anything left to recycle in the clothing category, or any clothes that I didn’t wear, but how wrong this proved to be.

I’m not going to discuss the political aspects of the current refugee crisis, or the rights and wrongs of different people’s opinions. However, no one can fail to notice the scenes depicted every night on the TVs in our warm sitting rooms. A group of people that I ‘know’ – in a virtual manner – have set up a Facebook group here in France to collect and distribute aid. This started as clothing for Calais, but has since moved on to the larger European refugee crisis: tents, food, medicines, toiletries, in fact you name it and they can find a use for it, even if it’s just selling at jumble sales to raise funds.

 

There is a collection point at a volunteer’s barn fairly near to me, so at last a chance to do something constructive. I didn’t think that we really had any clothing to donate, but I decided to use this as an opportunity to go through the wardrobe with a fine toothcomb and see if anything had been overlooked. The first thing I found was a pair of virtually brand new Merrell walking shoes. Great shoes, identical to my favourite summer shoes, except that these have never been comfortable. The only reason I had kept them was that they were expensive – that has got to be a pretty stupid reason! Next up, I found a new Musto puffa-style coat. Why had I never worn this? Apart from the fact that my seasonal wardrobe capsules have now moved away from brown, it had never really been a good fit. Added to these I decided to donate a number of hats, gloves and scarves that were surplus, some fleeces and trousers, and by the time I had purged OH’s side of the wardrobe there were three bags waiting for recycling.

I’d also read that there was a need for smartphones. We had both changed our phones some time ago and I’d been planning on selling the old blackberries for charity, but just hadn’t got around to it. I‘m sure many of us have a drawer full of old phones, kept just in case of emergencies, when in reality, if your phone ‘dies’ you’re not going to get some ancient phone out of the drawer, you’ll use the opportunity to upgrade to the latest model – it’s human nature! It was very easy to put all three smartphones back to factory settings, so they just need a sim card and are ready to go.

Arrangements have been made to spend a couple of hours at the collection hub next week helping to sort the donations which will be despatched to Greece. In the meantime, I will have a hunt through our cupboards to see if we have anything else that may be useful, and I’ve been sent a list of other supermarket provisions that are urgently needed, so I’ll try to slip a few of these into the weekly shop.