It started with the books; over the course of Thursday, I sorted out somewhere in the region of 170 assorted paperbacks and took them into the office, so they could be used in a fete to raise money for charity. I used to be in the habit of using the receipts from buying the books as bookmarks and some of those paperbacks date back to the early 90s. For the last eight years they've sat in a waterproof box in storage, so I was pretty certain that I was never going to read them again - plus, my tastes have changed since then, so I was quite happy to give them away.
I did, however, find my cherished copy of Logan's Run - a book which I haven't read for years and which I absolutely love. It's so much better than the film...
Speaking of films, after the books came video cassettes - about fifty films. This is where it started to get a bit painful because as far as I can tell, no one wants video cassettes. Charities don't want them because no one buys them, they're an outmoded technology, so I've just come back from the tip, where I've dumped them. That felt a bit tough and I was reminded of the time, many many years ago - at the time of a another move, I think - when I dumped a whole stack of LPs.
I suppose I could have tried to sell them; perhaps someone on eBay would be interested but it's all a bit of a fag, so off to the tip they went. The good news is that they'll be recycled - either by the tip itself or by the guy who works at the tip, who dived into the bag that I dumped almost before my back was turned! Fill your boots, fella!
There's still a lot to go but, in a funny way, it feels good to be rid of a lot of this stuff. It's just dead weight that I've lugged around for years. Possessions, as they say, possess (man) and sometimes it's good to be free of them...
