Going, but not gone!

I had some enthusiastic ladies turn up bright and early on Saturday and they happily relieved me of $1200 worth of stuff - so a $120 donation went off to breast cancer research this morning.
Still a lot left though, so I have put an ad in the local paper for a general garage sale (all the house stuff) plus my craft stuff for next Saturday. Hopefully that will clear out the rest.

It is quite cathartic getting rid of stuff. Several people held up treasures on Saturday and said, how can you bear to let this go? Well, it - whatever it is - has been hanging around a long time and I don't seem to have used it, so doubtless, won't miss it! And it is good to know that surplus 'stuff' is going to a good home where it will be properly appreciated, rather than just stuffed in a cupboard.

My next door neighbour's daughter came by with her pocket money and agonised for ages over which buttons to buy - I had no idea she collected buttons - and she had no idea I had such a treasure trove!

The house is slowly emptying - including the eviction of mother (and father) and child on Saturday to their own home. One more big push on Saturday and the house will be clear for the painter to come through and paint from top to bottom.

We tossed up for sometime about whether to replace the carpets and in the end decided not. We will just get them cleaned. I felt vindicated in that decision when my neighbour told me that the house on the other side of theirs went to market recently having been recarpted by the owners beforehand - the first thing the new owners did was rip it all up and put their own choice of carpet down. What a waste! Same thing with curtains. We got some new ones made for a couple of the rooms that really needed them. The curtain people said they often go back to houses where they have recently put up new curtains before it was sold, and the new owners get rid of them and choose something else. Where do all those new carpets/curtains end up? Landfill?? It is quite depressing really.
On a not depressing note, house prices seem to be really recovering well - a house in our suburb just went for a lot more than I thought it would, and it isn't nearly as nice as ours!