busy - decluttering in Germany

To change your life, change your perspective. To change your perspective, change your environment. I'm bringing my 'garden philosophy' inside and applying it to inside things. (Heather's garden balcony mantra: If you aren't producing anything of value, space is limited, and you are dismissed). Unproductive plants, unproductive books, it's all the same in the end.

Some things I've been up to recently:

1. books - a review of the entire bookshelf. Do I want to read this again? Would I pay 50 cents to ship it elsewhere, plus having to box it up with other and schlep it to the post office? I've received some hand-me-down books from expats leaving Germany as they know I like to read, but some of them are absolutely not in my interest area. I'd been saving them for a rainy, bookless day, but ever since I've discovered bookswapper, I'd had more than enough to read and then some. However, I'm sure someone will enjoy some of them much more than me.

Therefore--gone, ye books which are gathing dust--www.bookswapper.de, and I'm a happier soul that some other English reader in Germany is getting some enjoyment from you.

2. gifts/clothes/things - often I've received something, but it's not in my interests. Or I've brought things from the US years ago, and it's not something I need now. In the US I'd drop it with nearby family (my aunts/cousins wear the same shoe/clothing size), and if no one was interested it would go to goodwill. Here, I've been following a different route:

A. recycle - by giving to work colleagues - some things can be used by my office mates.

B. ebay - I'm working on my German skills by selling things on ebay.de.

For example, I had purchased a pair of Dr Martins shoes from a goodwill back in the US, in the last five minutes before they closed. It was a rush affair, and I never had such a pair of shoes previously, but they were only 1.50 USD and new, and I knew of people here who swore by them. After wearing only a handful of times, I came to the conclusion that I don't like such heavy shoes. Onto ebay they went, and 17.50 euros later, I'm a happier person, as is some Goth gal near Berlin who got a great pair of shoes, practically new.

C. freecycle - just like the US equivalent, freecycle is here also in the major cities like Cologne. As I work pretty close to a Deutsche Bahn station, I just make arrangements to meet the person there after work.

D. Humana - Germany makes it very convenient to donate clothes/shoes, with large drop boxes belonging to various charities/groups in convenient places where you drop bagged items into the box, and a truck comes through periodically to empty the boxes. My closest donation box (seven minutes away on foot) belongs to Humana.

E. big trash pickup day - if all else fails, I can always just put something at the curb the night before big trash pickup day, once I figure out when our next one is scheduled. As we know, everything still in working order will find a new owner easily and quickly here in DE. :-)