A set of brand new teflon coated pans- I had been able to buy those at a steep discount once and bought two of each size because I wanted to have one in reserve if the coating on the other got worn. By now, I avoid using teflon-coated anything, so they were not likely to ever be used anyway. When I put them out with the trash, it took less than five minutes for someone to pick them up.
About a dozen stainless steel lidded jars that I had relegated to the cellar after realizing that they were not airtight enough to store loose tea leaves without them losing their aroma. Unusable for the purpose I bought them for. Kept purely because they might someday be usable for storing something in. As the occasion to do that has not arisen in several years, it's not likely to ever come. Not worth the work of cleaning them. Ditched.
A ceramic tea warmer for a single cup. Never used, because not stable. Ditched.
Another for a teapot. Was given to me as a present, which is why I hadn't tossed it yet. I own several other tea warmers that are more stable and prettier. Ditched.
Plastic containers for carrying apples and bananas to work. I'm not much of a fruit eater, so these wandered from the kitchen to the cellar instead of to the trash. As they were impossible to sanitize, ditched, along with the case of bad conscience for not using them and eating fruit.
The two sets of colored glassware I had been agonizing over two years ago. They had, of course, not been used since. Ditched. The sanitizer necessary for cleaning them would have been more expensive than replacing them if ever the need should arise.
A piece of juniper wood my parents brought as a holiday souvenir forty years ago. I had imagined crafting something from it. Ditched.
About half a dozen sets of paint rollers. I must have bought new ones every time I wanted to paint something, even though I had painstakingly cleaned the old ones after use and kept them. Buying new ones was obviously easier than locating the old ones every time. Ditched. And for the next time I paint anything, I'm resolved to just toss the rollers afterwards and save myself the mess.
Several buckets of paint. As the water had been standing more than five feet higher than where they stood, there was, even if they were closed, no way of telling if it had been contaminated. .No way I would risk spreading that stuff onto our walls. Ditched.
When we finished working yesterday, there was just one set of china in a sturdy plastic box left, still dirty but minus the wet paper it had been wrapped in, two empty boxes, one metal stand for hanging files that I'll try to clean, one very dirty bicycle (dito), a yellow watering can, two empty buckets, our tires, the flower pots and boxes, and two ladders.
That cellar has not been as empty since before I moved in.
I was, actually, rather taken aback at what having to empty out all of the boxes and removing the loose stuff, too, turned up. We'd had it all set up tidy-looking, or put away in boxes. But still, even in the boxes, it was clutter. As were most of the boxes themselves. I had kept dozens of plastic boxes from my last removal, and so had DH, just in case we would move again.
If ever we should move, it would be no problem at all to find other boxes. In the meantime, the important thing is that the cellar dries out fast so we don't get a mildew problem in the upper storeys, too. And that the layer of mud mixed with whatever gets removed.
At least now we can do that easily because the cellar is almost empty.
Julia
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