Bye Bye Baby...

One of the hardest aspects of the mammoth de-clutter process, for me, has to be getting rid of our Son's baby things. Everything from his moses basket, which I really struggled to part with, as I looked on it as being his first 'home'... the first place he slept after coming home from hospital, to his pram, baby bath, toys and for some reason hardest of all; his baby clothes.

Being a terrible hoarder, it was easier to stash everything away and ignore it - but sloooooowly... I am getting through it. His moses basket was Freecycled http://www.uk.freecycle.org/ his pram went to his baby cousin, baby bath and changing box (bath was well used but a changing box!? Barely opened, but something I read was a must buy) went to another baby cousin, toys and equipment were donated to the charity shop (who were extremely grateful as our local Oxfam does a roaring trade in toys) or given away to friends.

I know I must sound like a baby-shop-a-holic, but we simply didn't have friends or family with hand-me-downs, so we had to buy new. Being first time parents, we also didn't know what was actually needed and what was a mothercare sales ploy - so we shopped 'till I dropped' and our baby boy was brought home to a well stocked, well equiped home - and then didn't use half of it...

Now onto the baby clothes. The hardest to part with, but also the most difficult to decide what goes where. Firstly, I sorted through everything into three piles - Can't possibly bear to part with/Ebay/Recycle.

Did you know that over ONE MILLION TONNES of textile waste is sent to landfill sites in the UK alone. This is a startling fact and one I was not aware of until recently. I have always tried to donate unwanted clothes that were in good condition, while throwing the worn out items in the bin. Little did I know that even unwearable items or scraps of textiles can all be recycled in some way - so I will never throw out textiles again and would urge anyone to think before binning too.

This is a very interesting article, which although aimed at schoolchildren - it states the facts in an easy to understand form http://www.recycle2school.com/why_recycle.php

So, back to baby clothes... I sold a few 'bundles' on ebay, still have a few bags waiting to go - must organise soon! I also boxed up all the bobbly socks/vests/babygrows and these will go to a textile bank.

The can't possibly bear to part with items.... some will remain intact, treasured always and the rest are going to be turned into a 'memory quilt' which will hopefully become something of an heirloom.

It's also worth noting that at present, Clarks are collecting used shoes as part of their 'Soul of Africa' appeal. http://www.clarks.co.uk/careers/aboutushome/socialresponsibility

So, moral of this story - to be a bit more organised (and less sentimental) in future, and sort clothes as our Son grows, rather than hoard every single item for two years at a time!