Step 1 in the massive declutter & clean-up: remove, release

As mentioned over here in The Big Declutter, things were all a flutter here this month. It seems a little amazing, I pared down everything before I left DE, and here we are all over again...with too much after only 18 months.

When I need to clean, I see extra stuff as a barrier that needs to be dusted, moved, hidden, cleaned, etc, and end the end is useless, extra work. It sorta stacks up until I have an impetus to move it, although, I think it would behoove me to do this once per year if I can't improve at it. So what moved this time?

1. ebay - I sold off the excess of items that were absolutely useless to me. What went?

• My law books from last year's course. May as well sell them while they're still fresh, and I need a whole different set for this year's course.
• Camper brand shoes that I bought secondhand. I love the idea of Camper shoes, the style, the look, they're of great quality, but somehow they just don't wear right on me.
• Clothes that I no longer need or want. In the UK we have stand-along wardrobes like in Germany, so no fixed closets. I don't like when they operate like overstuffed sausages, so there was a culling of the masses. I did an intial run through and then left the box there for two weeks as I ran into random items, in they went. The end result was a box lot.
• books - I send my already read pile to D's mom, but I know some of them won't be in her style. Most of them come from Oxfam or the like, so I'd drop them back off, if closer. For the more recent, lighter ones (less postage), I listed them for sale.
• a mirror and hardware - purchased early on, this was a DIY nightmare that required a phD in home improvement to get the hidden mirror clasps onto the wall. Sold in 'pick up only' mode to a local couple.

So how much did I get for things that were just getting in my way?
--> 37 GBP (45 EUR/57 USD) was my final profit after ebay fees etc.

2. the recycleables - the UK is not as good as Germany as far as recycling goes, at least in my corner of Essex. Paper recycling is a 20 minute walk away, plastics need to be carted along to Ian's house who has plastics recycling, and glass and cans are at least five minutes away. So I end up with full bags of these things as none of them are on my way to town, all are special trips. So mountains of items went out the door.

3. Excess packaging - I find myself squirrelling away bubble wrap and the like because it was so expensive in DE and isn't much better here. Fortunately the pile was thinned so much by the outgoing ebay packages.

4. The unsold ebay items - off to the charity shop. There's some kind of animal charity down the street that is staffed by volunteers. This one is two minutes from my house and seems to have customers who are down on their luck and can afford the 1 pound t shirts and 20 cent tea cups. It's a very nice place so any auction that didn't win found a resting place there.

Getting the things out the door put me in the right mood to get started.
Need some inspiration? There's a lot of great blogs right now who are chronicling their decluttering activities:

From close to home in the expat community G is hard at work.

Downsizing is a great read in the archive, even though his year of work is now complete.

However, his cousin has picked up the downsizing challenge in Downsizing Too.

And of course Katie in Making This Home is doing lots of clutter challenge activities as well.