Streetbank's Give A Thing Away Each Day of Advent Challenge - Day's 1 to 5

For the next few weeks I'm joining several other bloggers in taking part in Streetbank.com's Advent challenge to give something away every day of this advent, in an attempt to rally against the out and out consumerism of this time of year and also to encourage people to think of others in their neighbourhood who are perhaps not so fortunate.

Day One of this challenge  and I decided to give some books that I had read or have decided that I don't want to read to our local Little Free Library.  I posted about this a few months ago.  It's a great idea for encouraging community participation and sharing.  Our local Little Free Library was set up by a family in our neighbourhood and is located on their garden wall.  If you are interested, you can find out more about this worldwide scheme on littlefreelibrary.org and find out where your nearest Little Free Library is. 

I noticed on my last visit to the library a few weeks ago that there were hardly any books in it, so I promised myself I would take some along as I pass it regularly on my Monday morning dog walk.  I didn't take a picture of the books I left in the library, but there were three of them.  Hopefully someone will enjoy reading them.  I was encouraged to see that there were quite a few books in there  by the time I returned, I was even tempted to borrow another one, but resisted the urge as I've already got a huge pile of books waiting to be read.  I'm sure I'll be donating more before very long.

Day Two -  I popped over to Little Bird's old Primary School up the road today and donated a new children's Moshi toy storage bag for their forthcoming Christmas Fair.  I bought it for Little Bird for very little (50p) in a sale, but if I'm honest with myself, she had probably outgrown it by the time I bought it, so it never got used.  I thought the school might be the best place to donate it as they could perhaps put it in the Tombola or on the toy stall at the fair.  Hopefully it will go to a home where it gets put to it's originally intended use.

Day Three - I put some grown out of and no longer wanted shoes and clothes in the local collection point for Traid.org.uk which is on our high street.  It said on the side that shoes needed to be tied securely together and any donations placed in a sealed plastic bag, which I made sure I did to aide sorting.  I rarely use these facilities, so thought I would donate some things using this method for a change.

Day Four - I contacted our local Dog Warden Team after hearing in our local newspaper that their premises had just been refurbished and now had 10 kennels in which to temporarily look after stray or abandoned dogs found in our borough.  They happen to be just down the road from where we live, so I offered them half a dozen white towels that I decided a few weeks ago that I didn't want any more, as I'm sticking to dark coloured towels from now on.  They seemed very keen to accept them for use in bathing or as bedding for the dogs they take in.  I must admit that I'm still trying to drop them off as it is a gated premises and I can't seem to get access.  If I have no luck next week, they may have to go to the charity shop instead. Hopefully, if I can finally deliver them, they'll be put to a very good use to help those poor dogs feel more comfortable during their stay.

Day Five - Yesterday it was time for my November/December Food Bank donation.  I'd collected together a box of food over the past few weeks and needed to deliver it to the Food Bank so that it could be distributed to people who need it.  I put a few seasonal treats in this time on account of Christmas being so close.  I've been making these donations for quite a while now, since reading about Food Banks on Jack Monroe's blog A Girl Called Jack.  I try to donate at least £10 per month and have recently started taking my donation in every two months, as opposed to every month, as it is a 12 mile round trip.

So that is the first five days of the challenge completed. I'm posting every five days about my advent give aways.  I am trying to vary the recipients and be as creative as I possibly can, to make it a bit more interesting and spread the love a little more.