The otherwise-interesting contents of long-expired jars of gourmet sauces and dips have been emptied into a bucket to pour into the compost before I head to bed. Canned foods also, that are years past the date they were processed. In the process I've uncovered a lot of good stuff that I forgot about to put to use (and send some home with friends this weekend - with the promise they'll eventually return the canning jars). This allows me to stabilize the remaining contents on the wire pantry shelves and I'll move that out of the way of workmen on Monday.

I spent an hour at my ex's house helping him move the most incredibly heavy (but still excellent condition) latex queen-size mattress. We concluded that none of the thrift stores would accept anything so heavy, and sadly dropped it off in a bin at the recycle and dump station. We dragged it from the guest room, crammed the folded mattress into the back of my SUV for transport, and as we struggled, understood that it would be incredibly difficult for anyone else to take this home from a thrift store, hence the dump. This lets him work on the guest room at his house, while I work on the guest room here.

We also looked at stuff in his garage that is going to Goodwill and I brought home a half dozen tan cotton mats (a heavy-duty chenille type) that I'm going to put down in stacks of two or three for the dogs in a couple of places around the house where they tend to sleep. Outside my bedroom door, for one (no room for a dog bed, but the mats will be ok). For some reason he also had some nice unused shower heads (the kinds on hoses) so I'll look through those and maybe swap out the elderly shower head/hoses here. I've been meaning to add more Teflon tape to my shower hoses because they dribble a lot. These things were all nice to bring home, but considering how heavy (it was a huge struggle even for the two of us) that mattress, I think he probably figures he came out the winner in this transaction. (I found one place that would pick up mattresses for a fee - their charge to remove it from his house was $87.)