A little pile of Chinese notes found among my travel papers. I'm taking them down to the shop on Castle Street.

Update: I got £3 for the lot! The man said they were still in circulation.

I also took to British Heart Foundation: a pile of plates, a lovely RHS address book (I'm not going to use a paper address book again (unless civilisation collapses), and I've had it for five years hoping that someone would ask for one, but no-one has) and a large book of Edwardian board games.

I put my wardrobe on Freecycle and got a great avalanche of a response. I think I know who I would like to have it... but I'm waiting until the digest goes out before I say yes. I've argued in the past about not minding who you give stuff to, but I do balk a bit at giving to a taker. I've been searching for the names to see what they've posted. It's interesting to see how I make my decisions: I like people who ask nicely; I like people who say why they want it, and offer to give it a good home. I like people who post Wanteds explaining that they're doing it to help someone else.

I think the wardrobe has in its favour: It's from Ikea, so people know what they're getting. It's flat-pack. It's a storage item -- I think some people on FC might have a clutter problem.

I also had a huge clear-out of something nasty that had been hiding under the bed -- a large box of files. I put some folders together -- there was some schoolwork, and some writing from the 1990s in two separate files. I put those in together.

And there was a frightening box file labelled: 'Travel' into which I have traditionally 'filed' all the papers I bring back from holiday. This includes till receipts, ticket stubs, interesting paper bags, packets of photos, travel diaries... you get the idea. I've slimmed down considerable -- who wants receipts and photos that went wrong? But lots of nice memories surfaced as I filed. I suspect there are other packets stashed away, however. I'm going to see if I can't claim a boxfile for myself on Freecycle.

The other horror in this box was a yellow folder of newsletter stuff for TWells writers. I've contacted one of the members and asked if I can drop it round.

I threw away a lot of papers relating to my coaching sessions -- the sessions were great, but the papers were a load of bollocks -- strange diagrams and sentimental poems. I kept a few things I filled in -- a list of 50 things that make me happy (tho I think I've probably got other versions of this).

The sofa went on Thursday, and behind it I found a couple of paper bags containing... papers. I emptied them out -- binned a lot more stuff, kept other things. There were some things I was glad to find, though -- a lot of scraps of pretty paper that I file away for projects.

I read up about fixing a pair of jeans with a busted crotch -- the best advice seemed to be to patch them up with some old jeans. I can ask at a charity shop if they have any rag denim I can have.

1. I sold my desk chair to my old boss.
2. Gave some knives and forks to a friend.

The Facebook notice was not entirely successful -- only one person responded.

I have just looked into the plates I want to get rid of, and it seems they might be worth a bit of money. There's a china shop in Tunbridge Wells (update -- they didn't want them); and I've registered them with Chinasearch. (update -- they didn't want them either).

Might try E-bay, but it's so hard to pack and post these things. Or, I might just decide that it's not worth all this effort for the money I could get, and take the lot to the charity shop.