Monday 1 December 2014

Advent Challenge - Day 1


Every year when I was little we would get out our Advent Calenders on the 1st December.  We had one each my brother and me, old faithfuls that we used year after year.  The first year we got them Dad told us to carefully open the little doors and not to pull them off.

At the end of the Christmas holiday when the decorations came down Dad would sit and carefully close up all the little doors again and lay the calenders flat in the bottom of the decorations box and up they would go into the loft ready for next year.  The following year after 12 months of having the weight of everything else on top of them the little doors were once again firmly closed.

We didn't mind not having new ones, I think deep down we knew that the saving on buying us a new one each year meant an extra little novelty in our Christmas stocking on Christmas morning.


The sort of advent calender with little chocolates behind each door came out a little bit too late for us, so our fun was all about trying to remember which little Christmas image was behind each door, and then oohing in wonderment when we finally got to the big double doors twenty four days later, at the lovely scene of Joseph, Mary, baby Jesus and the donkeys in the stable. 


There are so many lovely Advent Calenders available to buy, all these pictures are taken from Google Images to give you an idea of what I am talking about.  There are some lovely ones that come pre-filled with sweets or gifts for you or your children to open each day in the run up to Christmas.



There are others with little drawers, sacks or compartments for you to fill yourself with mini gifts and chocolates or sweets.  Racking your brain for weeks prior to the first day of December for what to hide behind each number.


I know my boys would have loved this one ... I think I would have too.

But for me, now, all I want to do this year is give and not 'get', so I am joining in with lots of other people and having an Advent Challenge.  Instead of getting a present or opening a little door I will be giving something away each day for the whole of  Advent.  These will be good items and will be going to various charity shops, dropped off in small clusters each time I pass by one.

Along side other items sorted out in the coming weeks I hope this will take me to my 365 items needed to finish off my Decluttering 365 Challenge for this year.

To find out more about this Challenge you can visit Kate Groves' blog post at Streetbank News.  I will try and photograph the item that is leaving the house each day this month and put it on that days blog post just to keep myself on track.


This is today's.

A little colander that is terribly pretty and does work well for all it's lack of holes in the side, but that is surplus to requirements if I'm honest.  I am being ruthless through my cupboards and jettisoning anything that is duplicated in any way.

Sue xx

22 comments:

  1. I love this! Thanks for the great link. I need a push to continue my decluttering - thank you. I'll mention this on my too to spread the word xo

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  2. I think giving something away for twenty-four days is a wonderful idea.
    I am putting a picture on my blog every day for twenty-four days
    Julie xxxxxxxxx

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  3. Good luck with that Sue, great idea. I do my giving at regular intervals throughout the year, I've a couple of bags ready to take to town now, they will go to the Age UK shop. I won't be photographing each item, what I give is my business.

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    1. You do more than your fair share Ilona.

      I'm only photographing the specific 24 items just to give folks an idea of what sort of things I'm donating, and maybe inspire others to have a root through cupboards and join in. There will be many more things added to the bags as I aim to reach my 365 items leaving the house before the end of the year, and I have around 130 to go yet.

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    2. I will be getting rid of more stuff. For a one person household the amount of stuff I have is ridiculous.

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  4. The Advent Challenge is a great idea, thanks for the link.

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  5. You're a good lass, aren't you. Well done.

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  6. Isn't it a great idea, Sue. I am taking part too although some of my items will be very simple as I have already had a sort out recently x

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    1. I doubt many of mine will be of any great value, and will probably be as simple as yours, but hopefully they will be useful to other people and at the very least generate some extra income for the charity shops I take them to.

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  7. I too had the same Advent calendar for years! No chocolates or other gifts inside either. Love the idea of giving something every day of Advent and will be taking it up.

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  8. I think the much used Advent calendars are a great part of the Christmas preparation for their nostalgia value.

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  9. In junior school the teacher would bring in an advent calendar each December. In 1963 there were no chocolates inside yet we all waited in anticipation that we would be the lucky one who would get picked to open the new window, revealing a new picture to the class. Would children be content with that today? Love the advent challenge.

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  10. I'm obviously thinking the same as Frugal in Essex - are there many children around today who would accept the same Advent Calendar each year?

    It seems there are a lot of us decluttering at present, although I was just getting on with mine when time and mood permit. I didn't realise there were all these blog challenges going on :-{

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    1. Sue, meant to ask earlier, have you got all the dogs home yet or is it still too cold and too disruptive?

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  11. Lovely idea, I inadvertently joined in this morning by given away my pasta making machine on FB. It's useless with gluten free pasta so sat unused. Now going to a good home :)

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  12. We reused our advent calendar year after year as well...in fact I still do! We have never bought the chocolate ones, not even when our boys were little. They would have loved the lego ones!

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  13. I dropped off 12 items and a large liz taylor poster today at my local Kit Wilson chazza shop. That's my second lot of de-cluttering in the last two weeks. But I purchased two silver deers for table decoration, only £2.00 though.

    Jean x

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  14. I'm joining in with this challenge too Sue. Looking to send lots more things on their merry way to somewhere where they might be used more often. I'll be reading your posts with interest.

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  15. Because we're doing the kitchen, I too am sorting through lots of stuff and trying to get rid of anything I haven't used for ages. Not easy tho is it, and it takes ages to see a difference

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  16. Surely this is a site well worth seeing.

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  17. Nice idea, to give to the charity shops more stuff you can live without. We had Advent calenders when the children were small, but not now.

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