Hoarding - A New Start

Gingernutty

GreyQueen wrote: »

Yestrday, after I went offline inspired by you lot, I got out the low stool and ventured into the top of the kitchen wall cabinets. I'm just shy of six feet but the top shelf in there is above my reach and anything at the back is outta sight from ground level.

I found that I own 4 peppermills. Everyone I know who uses black pepper has several peppermills. Most of them stop working after a while but it seems impossible to get rid of them. I had the peppermill in use (one of those supermarket ones you buy loaded with peppercorns) and an identical one out of use, but full of peppercorns which I would have like to have emptied but and discarded but I couldn't get the top off.

And I couldn't throw one away because that would have been Wasteful and I'm hardwired to find it virtually impossible to waste things. But, there is a happy ending; despite many unsuccessful previous attempts, I got the top off the full-mill-with-defunct-grinder. The peppercorns are now in a working peppermill, the glass bit of the defunct one is in the recycling and the milling bit in the bin.

I now have just 3 peppermills; the one in use which will be discarded once emptied, the working one freshly reloaded, and a working but empty one which matches the salt grinder (which is accompanied by a sepatate container of crystal salt). These mills are a pair and were a present and thus have Sacred Object status.

Except I rarely use salt, and then only bog-standard kind, so it'll take me a long time to use this up naturally and I can't really give away a half opened salt container and what if the friend who gave me the mills comes over for a meal and they're not on the premises? Kitchen's too small to plausibly pretend to have lost them..............:rotfl:

My username is GQ and I have prawblems.....:rotfl:

Try this.

Refill the half empty salt grinder with the packet you've got. Keep the packet in the kitchen or use it for icy pavements, it doesn't matter.

Fill the matching pepper grinder with peppercorns. Then give them away. As part of a little foodie gift to someone or to a CS, again it doesn't matter.

Use the current pepper grinder until it runs out.

Throw it away, recycle it or refill it and give it as a gift, it doesn't matter.

Or give away the one that you've refilled and are currently not using.

Again, it doesn't matter.

The friend who gave them to you may probably think the grinders have broken like everyone else's!

Byatt

I think it was GQ who coined a phrase about gifts that were given, taking on the Holy Grail persona, sorry GQ, I can't remember the wording now...:o

anyway, my DD got me a gift a year or so ago, quite expensive for what it is, when she went to stay with her dad. I don't use it, but felt I had to keep it as it was from her, but it reminded me of him everytime (as he went shopping and had some input into the choice, ugh), I look at it, so earlier I decided it was going to go, I can hold on to the thoughtfulness of my DD without actually keeping the gift, so I will CS it or FB it...

I'm dithering over the trolley now , it's vintage oak and sells for about £45...

edit, hope the job turns out better than descibed! I remember one interviewer at a hospital saying she couldn't stand Welsh people. I'm Welsh.

GreyQueen

Gingernutty wrote: »

Try this.

Refill the half empty salt grinder with the packet you've got. Keep the packet in the kitchen or use it for icy pavements, it doesn't matter.

Fill the matching pepper grinder with peppercorns. Then give them away. As part of a little foodie gift to someone or to a CS, again it doesn't matter.

Use the current pepper grinder until it runs out.

Throw it away, recycle it or refill it and give it as a gift, it doesn't matter.

Or give away the one that you've refilled and are currently not using.

Again, it doesn't matter.

The friend who gave them to you may probably think the grinders have broken like everyone else's!

Yes! I wondered about giving them loaded to a c.s. but wasn't sure if it would be the right thing to do, them being food but if people think it would be OK.........? Byatt, the term was Sacred Object but Holy Grail serves just as well.

I love the concept of holding onto your DD's thoughtfulness without holding onto the item.

I've been out gardening for about 5 hours (some of it involved leaning on a fork chatting to various lottie pals not seen since last autumn, it must be admitted ).

Feeling pleasantly weary and better for being out in the sun and air and contemplating the carp dug up from the plot. Most of the carp was no use to man nor beast, such as glass shards, rusty bent nails, shreds of plastic and other tat. But there was 2/3rds of a brick which I turned up with my fork.

Gosh, I thought, that's nearly a whole brick, I should keep that, I could...............? Really, with a part brick badly battered on all sides? I came to my senses and put it in the "rubble" section of the tip when I put my couch grass into the "green waste" section. And I had to avert mine eyes from what was going into the "wood" and the "general" section. Ye gods and little fishes, have these wasteful souls never considered the c.s. or freecycle?!

This almost irrestistable urge to rescue all and sundry from an uncertain fate in landfill. Generations to come will speak of these days in awed and hushed tones. Prefixed by, those bliddy wasteful eedjits.......... :rotfl:

Pitlanepiglet

Dilemma time....

I thought I'd dealt with all the difficult stuff but today I found another box - two tins contained letters, documents and medals relating to my Grandfather. He was in WWII and was in Burma - tough reading but I've seen most of it before and I was expecting to find these - so this was sad - he never talked about the things he saw and effectively drank himself to death aged 64 - but OK.

BUT Then I found a bag with some fabric in it, on closer inspection it is three dresses that belonged to my Mum - she died when I was 12 and these were the only things I've found that my Nan kept of Mum's. It's her wedding dress and a dress that I think that she wore to functions in the the 70's - from memory I think it was Mum's favourite dress plus one other dress.

For the moment I've left it in the loft to ponder what to do. I actually don't feel a strong need to have the dresses - but I don't want to consign them a rag bag which I suspect is where they will end up - they are actually in really good condition but they are tiny and I can't see anyone wearing them.

Any thoughts - I think I need to keep them until later in the year when my sister is here but then I'm not sure what to do...

This_Year

gingernutty, good luck with the job - it may work out better than you expect.

Byatt, how awful of someone to say that to your face! If you're dithering about the trolley, don't use it for a month? Is that possible, put it out of sight maybe then after the end of the month make a decision to keep it or no.

I've just watched some of that OCD/Hoarder program on 4OD but it annoyed me intensely so I gave up on it. Far too extreme, even if some of the hoarders houses did make me feel complacent lol. If they turned up here to try and sort my house I would tell them to jog on lol. I've probably said this before but if someone tries to make me do something I will dig my heels in and refuse point blank even if it's something I want to do. I'm such a stubbornosity, my Grandad used to tell me! (and no, that word isn't in a dictionary, I don't think :rotfl:)

Re: the bedding in the pillow case. I read it on here, somewhere! Avoids the folded stuff being rummaged through to find the matching pieces and you can just grab the pillowcase and know it's all in there. Keeps it nicely folded too

GreyQueen

Piglet, how would you feel about miniaturising the dress in the form of a sample of the fabric, the trimmings, fetchingly arranged in a frame, perhaps with a photo of your mother wearing the dress (should you have one)? That way you could also have a tangible reminder at a fraction of the volume of the whole dress, and much easier to appreciate. Just a thought.

Someone I know emigrated into the UK as an adult and an old friend from her hometown came to visit her. The guest's gift astonished and delighted her; her pal had gone to the jumble sale where the recipient's mother had donated her childhood dresses (these women had grown up together btw). Her pal secretly bought them and patchworked them into beautiful cushion covers and fetched them around the world. The lady who got fragments of her personal history back in this form almost welled up telling me about it, she was so touched.

This_Year

Pitlanpiglet - don't make a snap decision. Leave them in the loft until you get the chance to talk it over with your sister. In the meantime your mind will be working it out how you feel, what you want to do with them. Until then, just leave them where they are. Not going to be any harm there.

Pitlanepiglet

Thanks GQ and This Year x

GQ that's a really nice idea that I think I could develop, perhaps we could have cushion covers or similar that both my sister and I could keep - that way we both get a bit of the dresses?

Food for thought, I think you're right This Year, I don't need to make a decision now and I've got some time to thing about what I do.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Piglet - the stuff from your Granddad is, if you are not wishing to keep it - history. It may be welcomed by his regimental museum, for example.


As far as the dresses go - it's OK to store them (better than in a plastic bag, though) and look for an alternative home - there are still tiny people around, there are people who love vintage clothes - and there is no reason why you can't keep them if you genuinely wish to do so and not if you don't.

short_bird

The quilt or cushion cover is a great idea or the picture frame with sample of dress... I know someone on the Flylady thread had bears made for her 2 children.
Anyway, I have 3 spectacularly smelly vintage magazines to take to the recycling so must be off. The flat is in a bit of a state as I'm sorting for my stall at a vintage fair tomorrow. Let's get that energy moving :rotfl: