I have now worked my way to the last three items on the de-cluttering agenda I set myself for Edmund's absence.

The cellar is tidy: all boxes plumbed, the space under the stairs cleared out, camping gear sorted and neatly stowed, good luggage we don't use re-homed, busted luggage we don't use disposed of, stashed stuff that we don't use but is still worth having delivered to the Salvation Army.

The only cellar tasks still to do are: disposal of bits of wood left over from construction projects -- another Freecycle task -- and delivery of a box of household linen I will never use (including tablecloths and matching napkins, sets of table mats, and fancy linen tea towels) to the church for the fall rummage sale and the Christmas bazaar.

I have also purged the library and re-homed the discarded books. A great raft of reference books, including the 120-year-old encyclopaedia, went to live with a teacher of English as a second language; the novels and miscellaneous history went to the Rockcliffe Book Fair. The book fair also got our accumulation of strong bags suitable for carrying quantities of books -- liquor store bags, cotton bags Edmund picks up at law conferences (though I saved the big one advertising Divorce Mate software), and the heavy paper ones clothing shops use more and more these days.

We have space on the shelves for the first time in years, and there's nothing on the study floor but the cat basket, furniture feet, and the rug. If one were so inclined, one could actually do one's exercises in there without knocking one's head on a cardboard box overflowing with novels or a broken plastic laundry basket full of wire hangers.

In the study, I have not even started sorting, scanning and stowing the great accumulation of photographs, both negatives and prints. At least they're safely packed in plastic bins, all together instead of "lost" among the contents of a dozen boxes of junk.