I’ve gone through surges of giving stuff away on my local Buy-Nothing group. As of late, I’ve given away a decent-sized bundle of work clothes (pants and tops), skirts and dresses that I know I will never wear again, in addition to a bunch of clothes Kaia has outgrown and random household items we no longer need (shoe rack and random knick knacks).The biggest thing that I have given away, though, is a brand-new, still vacuum-sealed, life-sized (55-inch tall!) teddy bear that was gifted to Kaia right before she was born. I thought we’d keep it and wait until she got older to appreciate it… but now that we’re at that stage, I just don’t think it works here with all the other stuff we have in every room. We just don’t have the space for a furry friend that is that large. I felt kind of bad giving it away and not letting Kaia see it outside of its wrap, but I would have no idea where to put it in our place.

It feels really good to declutter and gain space back. But amongst the recent things I have gained from the Buy-Nothing group include toddler-training knives for chopping (so excited for these, as I had them on my Amazon wish list for Kaia, and now I don’t have to buy them!), new, never opened seaweed, a brand new packet of mushroom matcha (I mean, why not, since I’m getting back into making matcha at home now…?), plus an almost full-loaf of Balthazar sourdough rye bread. Someone in the group took a slice of it, decided she didn’t like it, and wanted to give it away and not waste it. I went to pick it up this morning and told Chris I got this.

“What if there is poison in it?” Chris asked, facetiously yet skeptically.

I suggested that I could give the name of the person from the BN group to our handyman before we each had a slice in case we all died from this. I definitely have my limits in regards to what I will take in the BN group, but a nearly full-loaf of high quality bread is not on the X List.