Got an old bike?

I used to cycle a lot. Well around 120 miles a week, but that is a long time ago. I actually came to cycling quite late, never having a bike when I was a kid. At university I learned the skills to ride by buying a bike and getting back on it every time I fell off until I stopped falling off!

Sadly my cycling days are long gone, mainly due to a knee that reacts rather painfully to the stop and start routine. Oddly I can ride a bike at the gym without problems, but on the road eventually my knee complains and I have to stop. So my bike sits in the shed along with Anne's and two of Ally's bikes.

We're moving soon and I have been thinking that painful as it would be, it's time to get rid of these bikes and clear some space. But I didn't really want to throw them in a skip. Today, while I was looking at something else I came across an organisation that takes old bikes and reuses them in Africa. The main collection point is on Colchester, just an hour away from me. I think I've found a new home for my precious Raleigh tourer!

Bicycle Aid for Africa sounds like a great idea, and they don't just want your old bike, they are interested in bike tools and general workshop tools. If I'm honest I could probably supply a complete small workshop if I took the time to sort out all the tools I've inherited and bought over the years. So maybe a few spanners and hammers might find their way out of my garage and into a more regular place of use.

If you have an old bike, don't throw it away, consider instead donating it. The website has a list of UK-based bike recycling charities if you're not close enough to one of their own collection points.

The Joy of Moving

So it's now August and that means 6 weeks to moving day. There's so much to sort out, but at least we are working through the house room by room looking at what's going and what's not. So far I've sold my Palm PDA on eBay and my golf clubs are up for sale. I gave up playing a few years ago and it just seemed like a good time finally to say good-bye to them.

Hopefully they'll be sold by Monday and then there are a few other items I might submit to the auction world. I've found a Marshall effects pedal and a few more golf things like my bag and a bag stand. Even my old trolley might be worth something.

We've had a few trips to the tidy tip to get rid of some stuff and I think there will be one or two more trips to the charity shop and tip in the next few weeks.

Decluttering is a great feeling and apparently a lucrative business if you've got something to offer to anyone who is living a cluttered life and needs a little help. I've always thought, but found it hard to practice, a regular routine of three-monthly sort outs would be a good thing. I think it's because as the pile of things to go gets bigger it gets harder to add to it. Eventually you start keeping stuff because you can't conceive of getting rid of it all. So by doing it every three months you might actually get rid of more rubbish a year than you do by having a annual purge.

It's a theory.

So, as I look around my study and contemplate a day sorting out this room, a positively frightening thought, I'm looking forward to having less and hoping to find a home for many items marked "no longer needed". Which reminds me, if anyone needs an old Nokia charger, I've got three on my shelf that I don't know what to do with!