This afternoon I (we) took some huge bags of clothes & toys to the British Heart Foundation shop, then did a brief trawl of Ormskirk’s charity shops for a suitable compensatory item for each of the kids. After a brief awkward moment by the doll’s houses in Barnardo’s (at 40 quids still a bit much for no-special-occasion, although quite a bargain)  we settled on a pink cotton sweater to be repurposed for Lily, a “February” fairy doll and a Scooby Doo tin. All in, many tangible donations and £4.50 in actual cash forked over, and we can nearly see the floor in the spare room again.

The down side? Joel was upset about me giving away his baby toys, so they each got to choose a couple from the bag to keep (stacking rings, peter rabbit, jack-in-the-box and the phone which Lily first tried to throw in the bin 5 years ago), so they haven’t all gone. I remembered the big bag of really-baby toys in the garage, though, so they’ve gone as well. And Joel tripped over when we were offloading, resulting in actual blood and everything.