Bob and I just put out eight large boxes of stuff for the BigBrother BigSister people to pick up in the morning. There were two old humidifiers, clothes, old pots, and various other things. I was getting a little frustrated with him because he was sitting watching TV while I did all the packing work, but finally he came to help and he lugged it all out to the curb.

So that is good, the house is much cleaner now, the closets have more room in them.

Next, I have a pile of old Star Wars toys of James that I'm donating to a friend of mine in a few days. So that will help too!

Good for you Lisa! That is great. You get a neater home and other people get inexpensive goodies.

I found out from Goodwill that unsellable clothes get sold by the pound to countries overseas, so nothing is wasted. I love how if we really work it out, that things can be used over and over until there is no more use possible.

Clothes - hand me down clothes - used clothes at thrift stores - returned to thrifts stores - rags, and quilt work and patch work - stuffing fibers...it's a life cycle!

What Star Wars toys? Do tell!

Right exactly, that's what I've been telling everyone on my recycling pages - put in ALL fabric even ripped and torn and stained fabric. The "dregs" get used for rags which are still useful.

I think I posted about all the Star Wars stuff on Facebook two or three months ago, and one of my friends claimed it. I had photos up and everything! I just haven't managed to see her when I had the items on me yet. All sorts of stuff, a Hoth snow scene with tons of pieces, a Millennium Falcon and X-Wing fighter, Darth Vader, lots of stuff.

Damn, i wish i'd seen that. It's probably for the best though. Like i need more stuff. :-)

You do have to be careful which places you give your ripped and torn stuff to. When I did my behind the scenes tours of my local thrift stores, they would either burn or throw away the unsellable clothes.

Those things need to go to a charity that DOES handle such fabric on a world-wide level. Goodwill has the infrastructure, for example. I would image Savers/Value Village (which is the Big Brother Sister charity) has it. Salvation Army has it. I hope they use that infrastructure. I know they do get money for it - something like a dollar a bale, or something.

My local thrift does put some things in bags to sell as rags, which I appreciate, and they also place old blankets in a bin for dog charities to come and take.

That is really sad that stores that should know better would destroy valuable items. I imagine it is a learning process for everyone.

It is like the libraries that throw old books INTO THE TRASH instead of even just recycling them as paper. Those things always bug me!

Yeah, that is super frustrating. My library here puts out a FREE bin for those kinds of books, which is nice.

Even lousy books no one would want can be used as house insulation, as we mentioned.

Eventually we will be forced to learn, as a world society, that we simply cannot toss potential resources into landfills. There will be a tipping point sooner or later on the state of our resources.

I think people really are making the transition, which is a good thing. Maybe in 30 years we'll look back on this time period and think what a pivotal moment in history it was. And we're here! Making the change!

I do think things are improving. But I also think things will get worse before they really get better. The pinch of scare resources will have to hurt home first. People mostly do not even recycle, even if there is a recycle bin right next to their trash. :-(

Back OT, though, I just added a pair of decent shoes to my "donate' bin. I just don't wear them. No need to hold onto them when someone else could enjoy a nice inexpensive pair of shoes. :-)