Glut

Today when I woke up, I realized that I didn't have to go anywhere (other than walking the dog) all day long so I changed into fresh, warm jammies and dug in here at home.

Yossie doesn't go to work until noon now so I actually have some hope of getting house stuff done in the morning. Today I tackled the basement project that I mentioned.

I have 2 big bags of baby clothes, a baby swing, and a Baby Bjorn set aside for me to take to the neighborhood center on Saturday. I also Freecycled 30 gift bags, 15 VHS kids tapes (um...hello? We have no TV. I feel guilty that I have held on to these for so long!), 4 candle pedestals, a necklace that I have never worn, and a kitchen curtain.

I got a little high from every e-mail that I got requesting these items. Freecycle is not a perfect system by any means, but when it's working well, it is a beautiful concept. The Freecycle politics are interesting to me. Our group is very strict about 'no personal stories' when you post a request because it's a recycling group, not a charity. At first I found that kind of cold but now I think I understand. It's nice to pass things along to people in need but even if I give my 15 VHS tapes to somebody who could afford to buy them new, what I've done is taken away that person's need to make a new purchase and that's 15 less tapes that might find their way to a landfill. Even if that person takes my 15 tapes and sells them on eBay (does this happen? I'm guessing it does), that still has a positive impact on the environment in the end.

Question- what should I do with my magazines? I have several copies of Real Simple, Bust, Mother Jones, etc and about a kajillion New Yorkers. I know I can probably recycle them but I'm wondering if there might be a more creative way of passing them along to someone else. They didn't get snapped up on Freecycle the way everything else did.

All in all, jammie day was very successful. Liam enjoyed puttering around with me, mostly dissembling my stacks. I love the side by side work time that we do now. It's so much fun to be at this stage of life where he has his own little agenda.

Tomorrow is the last day of NaBloPoMo. It will be interesting to see how my post frequency changes in December. Thanks for sticking with me!

Edited to add: When I woke up this morning, there was an enthusiastic e-mail from a woman pleading to take all 50 magazines. Apparently 4 of the subscriptions (Real Simple, Bust, New Yorker, Mother Jones) are magazines that she can no longer afford to get but that she misses sorely. I'm so happy to be able to pass them along to another reader! She promised to recycle them when she's finished.