Hoarding...not just on TV

thriftwizard

I will second dktreesea's post; as a "vintage" trader, you'd be astonished at some of the things that sell. My daughters & my mother often squeal with horror at things I've "rescued" to sell on but 90% of the time they will sell the next time I do my stall, and if they didn't it's probably because I overpriced them. 70s curtains that make some people cringe actually make me quite a lot of money - fashion students will snap them up to make into unlikely garments! Old kitchen implements like Spong mincers and proper old-fashioned Moulis will fly off the stall in the first hour of trading - they are so much better made than anything you can buy new, unless you want to spend a small fortune - but my mother was trying to send hers to the dump. So not all old junk is without value - but you can have too much of a good thing.

ETA - just sold a BIG item on Ebay on a buy-it-now, and got rid of a mountain of fleece (sheep & alpaca) and a bin bag of dressing-up clothes via Freecycle today, so although I haven't actually done very much today, I have cleared quite a bit of space! Also, the scrap metal is going on Saturday & two bin bags of fabric are being collected for a charity workshop tomorrow. Ghastly Piles 1 & 2 are still trying not to vanish entirely, though, & Pile 3, the biggie because it IS all stuff that's wanted & needed, still remains intact. But, onwards & upwards...

GreyQueen

I think a lot of the reason for over-consumption (and it's not always buying, sometimes it's passively-recieving or even actively-wombling) is that it's a form of magical thinking.

Some scenarios might be thus:

I struggle to clean my home. Logically I know I can clean almost anything with hot water and washing-up liquid but.....there must be better, faster, easier ways. So I'll buy a bottle of Vroom-Vroom Turbo GrotBuster, or whatever is the flavour of the month, and wait to be transformed. Oh darn, I still have to do the actual work and it's no easier than soap-n-water. Next product, please, and I'll stuff this in the cupboard because I paid good money, y'know, and mustn't waste it. Rinse and repeat, ad nauseum, until the end of time.

I'm feeling a bit ignorant and under-educated and there's a lot of classic novels going for pence at this jumble sale. I'm sure reading Dickens will make me a better and more interesting person. I'd better take them home. Only they don't leak their contents into my head whilst I sleep, and whenever I try to read one, I start to zzzzzzzzzzz. But hey, better to have great works of literature to hand than admit to liking sci fi/fantasy a lot better. Other people will see the classics in my home and think well of me for having them. Gosh, better hope they don't want to talk about them or I'll be revealed as a poseur as well as uncultured.......

I feel a bit out of it socially and ill-at-ease with other people. I don't think I have the right clothes and accessories and my hair is all wrong. If I changed all these things about myself, I'd feel a lot more confident and then I'd be more social and would have more friends and maybe a new partner and life would be much better in every way. Only you never win when you compare yourself to others. There's always someone prettier/ cleverer/ better dressed/ whatever. Even world-famous beauties say they can't get dates and their marriages seldom last, so trying to cosmeticise your way to happiness isn't likely to bring long-lasting satisfaction or joy. Ever met someone really charismatic? Did you notice what they were wearing? Bet you didn't. You remembered their smile, the sparkle in their eye, their humour. Try and emulate the contents not the packaging.

My home is just wrong, you know? It's too small or in the wrong part of town and it doesn't look anything like homes in magazines and on TV. Why is there a football sock on the mantlepiece? Everything gets dusty and shabby and those curtains are older than I am. I think I need to do a total makeover and to buy lots of new furniture and decor stuff. It'll be fun. When it's all done, I'll feel better and will be able to invite people over. We can have good times discussing my new furnishings and I'm sure they'll be as thrilled as I am with all this new stuff, never mind the size of the credit card bill which is keeping me awake at night or the hernia I got from humping stuff around. Very few people are as fascinated with our own doings as we are ourselves. You'll bore them. Maybe they have fancier stuff than you, and will feel superior. Maybe they have shabbier stuff than you, and will feel ashamed and irritated by your showing-off. Maybe their stuff is identical to your stuff and they'll be p*ssed off at you for copying them. Who knows? If your home is comfortable for you, that's good enough. They either like you or they don't like you and having a £2,000 sofa isn't going to swing the decision either way.

Ahh, the endless predation on human frailty by the dark forces of advertising...........it's not really a wonder that we spend so much time stuggling out from under. The truly wonderful thing is when we come out the other side, a bit battle-scarred and a lot wiser and blow a giant raspberry and give them the finger.

When I am an old woman I shall drink Jack Daniels, listen to G & R at earsplitting volumes and misbehave from dawn to dusk and, when challenged, quaver in my aged tones "But I'm seventy-seven!" I'll probably lie about my age, too. :beer:

lostinrates

THANK YOU JOJO.

I think my miele is too old now.

Cat501

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

oh my lord GreyQueen, the first two in particular are so "me" it's frightening:rotfl:

eta and the really stupid thing is - my books are stored in my bedroom - where NOBODY else goes - so who am I trying to kid??? Myself!!

lostinrates

Grey queen, i always think the trick with age is to skip a few years. I would rather look better for my age than not. My mother flirts more in her seventies, and frankly looks better, than she did in lots of middle age.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

lostinrates wrote: »

THANK YOU JOJO.

I think my miele is too old now.

It does say call them if it's older. I like the idea of it being collected, sorted and then returned without having to heft it halfway across town.

I've got a Bosch. When it finally goes bang, I'll getting a Miele.

Molly41

blossomhill wrote: »

Kevin McCloud did a good radio programme about the process of craft and how it affects the brain (don't know if it on the www), helped me enjoy craft for what it is (ie a process that isn't shopping), and dispose of any surplus materials that I don't get a buzz from working with

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00vhxw5/Night_Waves_Free_Thinking_2010_Ben_Franklin_and_Shopping/

Think this is the programme.

lostinrates

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

It does say call them if it's older. I like the idea of it being collected, sorted and then returned without having to heft it halfway across town.

I've got a Bosch. When it finally goes bang, I'll getting a Miele.

I like the miele, but when we got a new vacuum the other week, its need for a service became more evident than ip thought possible. I cannot use the miele because of its weight, so i have been enjoying hoovering again with the new little one. First time i have felt able in a while to regularly vacuum. The plan is to have the miele down stairs (bigger and dirtier) and the new one upstairs if miele is repairable.

Byatt

thriftwizard wrote: »

I will second dktreesea's post; as a "vintage" trader, you'd be astonished at some of the things that sell. My daughters & my mother often squeal with horror at things I've "rescued" to sell on but 90% of the time they will sell the next time I do my stall, and if they didn't it's probably because I overpriced them. 70s curtains that make some people cringe actually make me quite a lot of money - fashion students will snap them up to make into unlikely garments! Old kitchen implements like Spong mincers and proper old-fashioned Moulis will fly off the stall in the first hour of trading - they are so much better made than anything you can buy new, unless you want to spend a small fortune - but my mother was trying to send hers to the dump. So not all old junk is without value - but you can have too much of a good thing.

ETA - just sold a BIG item on Ebay on a buy-it-now, and got rid of a mountain of fleece (sheep & alpaca) and a bin bag of dressing-up clothes via Freecycle today, so although I haven't actually done very much today, I have cleared quite a bit of space! Also, the scrap metal is going on Saturday & two bin bags of fabric are being collected for a charity workshop tomorrow. Ghastly Piles 1 & 2 are still trying not to vanish entirely, though, & Pile 3, the biggie because it IS all stuff that's wanted & needed, still remains intact. But, onwards & upwards...

Thrift, I would so love to be a vintage trader, one reason why I have so much stuff, that I intend to do something with, but it all becomes overwhelming and I have no storage at all. So nothing gets done.

I live on the border of Devon/Dorset, do you go to fairs? I don't want to seem all stlakerish or anything... :eek:

edit: OMG I've just remembered something, all this talk about vintage and selling, my mother started buying stuff after her mother died and she lost touch with most of her siblings after a huge row, but she justified it as being antique stuff. She had masses of stuff and opened up a small stall, but didn't do well at all...I'd completely forgotten about it. Some awful stuff, she convinced herself she was an expert. !!!!!!.

GreyQueen

Cat501 wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

oh my lord GreyQueen, the first two in particular are so "me" it's frightening:rotfl:

eta and the really stupid thing is - my books are stored in my bedroom - where NOBODY else goes - so who am I trying to kid??? Myself!!

I have drunk half a bottle of wine (I'm decluttering it, see?) so am not entirely responsible for whatever may get typed tonight. It might be profound, it might be tripe, it's a fine line sometimes.

A wonderful feller called Mark Twain once said "A classic is a book that everyone wants to have read but no one actually wants to read." * I hold this to heart whenever someone tries to interest me in literature. I read 160-180 books a year and anything might take my fancy but it's unlikely to be something you'd study for Eng Lit. I'm currently reading Fight Club, The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld, the Survival Book of the Royal Marine Commandos and various other bits and bobs, inc steampunk and a fitness guide. Anyone trying to judge me by my bookshelves would have their work cut out, hey?

* I may have misremembered this slightly.

lostinrates wrote: »

Grey queen, i always think the trick with age is to skip a few years. I would rather look better for my age than not. My mother flirts more in her seventies, and frankly looks better, than she did in lots of middle age.

Oh gosh, yes. Any forty-something woman was young in the 1980s. Which means she has some terrible hair-dos and fashions to live down. One thing about being older is that you have learned, through sordid experience, that some looks don't work for you.

My hard-won secrets are:

1. As a redhead, I will never look good with dyed black hair.

2. I'm pear-shaped. I might be a skinny pear or a chubby pear, but I'm always gonna be a pear.

3. I really can't be @rsed to faddle around with makeup. I'm clean and tidy and if you want more, there's the door.

4. I once wore shocking pink leopard print jeans and thought I looked good. I must remember this when tempted to laugh at fashionable yoof. I must also remember to locate and destroy those photographs...............:rotfl:

5. I really like wearing comfy clothes and detest anything uncomy, even if it does look "good".