Hoarding - Springing Ahead

GreyQueen

:T roundtuit, about a week after you sling that orange clock, you won't even remember owning it, never mind that you hated to bin it. Promise ya.

Sounds like a lovely Sunday ahead for you, and may you enjoy it and take it easy. GQ xx

Patchwork_Quilt

Another duvet cover in the cs pile today and a towel airer. Just wondering if I have the strength to do the jam jar stash or to take up the curtains, which have been waiting for a while.

Lil-me, shed is a dirty word in our house. People in our family have been known to cram sheds to the rafters with neatly organised jam jars full of screws and so on, then jack them up, attach wheels and roll them onto a lorry to move house with them rather than empty them and confront the awful idea of sorting them out and throwing stuff away. Really.

Keep going folks. Have a good day.

VJsmum

<<emerges>>

It's alright - not too bad at all

We ended up with a new lawnmower and various garden implements, so that's ok

2 framed pictures that OH's dad did, which are nice and we do have space for
His portfolio - that at least is flat, but is large. It can live in the office. It has a couple of pictures suitable for framing
A random "ROyal Copenhagen" Christmas plate, because it has a train on it - OH is a steam train buff. it's a shame because MIL collected these plates for decades, and it turns out they are virtually worthless. They cost about £50 each but are worth under 10.
Late BiL's degree certificate. We will take it out of it's frame and file it. Don't know why we have it and not SiL, but there you go.
2 christening gowns, that we have said several times we don't want but seem to have ended up with anyway. They are possibly 100 years old - but what do you DO with them?

Oh and an almost lifesize stuffed toy Labrador :eek: though I am assured it is being rehomed to a 2 bed bungalow on a sheltered housing development soon.

ginnyknit

DGs slept really well so I dont feel a raggged as I usually do on a Sunday so am off into the office today to make a start ( home office) I know theres a box for Fleabay in there so will make a start on that.


Yesterday I found a recipe notebook dd bought me 2 years ago so have written recipes out from old tatty book and all those slips of paper - threw away the old folder and re-cycled paper so living room bookshelf is being whittled down now :j Sent some crafty bits home with Dgs as him and mummy do lots of crafty stuff now. Started a bag for Cs but the Nigella cookery book will have to go in the bin as its a bit grubby from hanging around the kitchen. there is nothing in it I will ever make and it was only 50p.

Just going to de-clutter a bacon butty then Im charged ready for the battle :rotfl:

GreyQueen

Wow, VJsMum, you'd find it hard to top that for a random collection of stuff, wouldn't you? For a horrible moment I mis-read that it was a stuffed (non toy) Labrador and imagined she'd had a former pet taxidermied! I'm more than a tad squeamish about stuffed birds and animals, esp since they can harbour clothes moths.

Not as bad as it could have been, then. I can picutre you meeting the OH on the drive with a sinking heart and dragging this lot in.

Re people buying collectables; this is such a money sink. Almost nothing marketed as a collectable will ever achieve the price you paid for it, never mind appreciate in value. It's such a rip-off. Collect things if you love them, but don't pay too much, and don't con yourself it's an investment. I often see sets of collectable plates in charity ships; themed collection, birds/ flower fairies/ whatever. They go for less than a fiver each.:(

Don Aslett, the anti-clutter writer, is very astute as well as very funny, and recommends that people start their pre-old age decluttering when they're about 50. You need to have strength and eye-sight to deal with mountains of stuff. And don't just save stuff "for the children" or "for the grand-children" without asking first if they'd like it. Don't want to be having family rows when our elders are downsizing, or fighting over the debris after a bereavement.

Re the christening gowns, I used to volunteer at a local museum who sometimes took such things in. Mostly to wrap in acid-free tissue and stash in acid-free cardboard boxes in their store-rooms, it must be said. Might a museum be something to approach? Some old gowns might be fine examples of a regional craft such as lace-making, or have some merit.

I guess if you told her that it had gone to X Museum, it would have acquired some kudos, hey?

PQ, love the image of the sheds being rolled to their new homes. When we went to my great-uncle's place after he had been found dead suddenly (old age heart attack, he'd had a good innings) it was a perfect muddle. GU had been left in sole custody of what had been the family home from the 1920s to the 1990s. It had a 3/4 acre garden, lots of outbuilding and a row of sheds, literally shoulder to shoulder 6x8 sheds along one side of the garden.

It seemed that when one got full, he just got another one. We had a fistful of keys from the kitchen but nothing fitted any of the shed padlocks, which were rusty and obviously hadn't been opened in years. We were left peering in through cobwebby shed windows.

One shed was full of random planks of wood, all kitty-cornered like a game of pick-up-sticks. And there was a sycthe, it's handle fragile with wood worm, in another. Words fail you after a while, don't they?!

pigpen

More bits I just remembered.. I have some kitchen scales I have my flingy eye on.. chazzer box it is..


I want to prod OH into the pan cupboard.. I have some bits in there to fling too.


That doesn't sound like too bad a haul.. apart from the stuffed dog..

noelphobic

GreyQueen wrote: »

Don Aslett, the anti-clutter writer, is very astute as well as very funny, and recommends that people start their pre-old age decluttering when they're about 50. You need to have strength and eye-sight to deal with mountains of stuff. And don't just save stuff "for the children" or "for the grand-children" without asking first if they'd like it. Don't want to be having family rows when our elders are downsizing, or fighting over the debris after a bereavement. ?!

Sounds like a very wise man. I'm 54 and that all makes sense. Part of the reason why I'm doing this. I'm living in a 3 bedroom house on my own and, if and when I move, it will be to somewhere smaller -much easier to do if you've got less stuff. I couldn't sell my house in its present condition and need to declutter in order to get work done on it. Then it would be win, win. I'd have a much nicer home and if the time came when I wanted or needed to move it would be easier to sell and easier on a practical level to move.

whitewing

I laughed at the labrador because yesterday I saw a little stall that had small fairly life-like puppies and cats in baskets. I sort of wanted to buy one for DD but I managed to resist.

I worked a very long day yesterday and slept until nearly noon, although much of the morning sleep was weird dreams so I still feel a bit groggy.

DS has gone out and said *milestone moment*, 'Is there anything you want me to take?' so 2 books have gone with him.

Sweet Home Alabama is on this afternoon, which I have never seen, and DH is at work, so I will probably grab another box of DS' stuff and attempt to throw out approx half its contents.

DS' birthday is quite late in the year and I am struggling with a bit of a perfectionist thought. I keep wanting to get all this stuff into a glorious album for his birthday to give me something concrete to aim for. However, it wouldn't be achievable without it turning into a marathon slog.

ginnyknit

Whitewing if they are the dogs in baskets I have seen they are 'real fur' but where the fur comes from I hate to think :eek:

I have done the office :j it wasnt actuall that bad just needed organising, bin emptying and the shredding bucket emptying into the re-cycling bin as none of it was confidental just cricket junk. So why waste power turning he shredder on??? Men and bl**dy toys. Going to move the desk out and vac every inch. thrown the old printer out too so now theres room for the new one. Another half an hour and the lappy can go in there and I wont have either of us sat in the living room on it while the other trys to knit or watch tv. My peace will be returning. I like to lock myself in the office and when Oh is in there he can talk cricket on the phone for hours without disturbing me

GreyQueen

noelphobic wrote: »

Sounds like a very wise man. I'm 54 and that all makes sense. Part of the reason why I'm doing this. I'm living in a 3 bedroom house on my own and, if and when I move, it will be to somewhere smaller -much easier to do if you've got less stuff. I couldn't sell my house in its present condition and need to declutter in order to get work done on it. Then it would be win, win. I'd have a much nicer home and if the time came when I wanted or needed to move it would be easier to sell and easier on a practical level to move.

:T Good on ya.

Moving in general is a nightmare. My parents have been in their present home since 1971 (small 3 bed terrace, plus extension plus 3 back yard sheds). All rammed with stuff inc the attic. One day this too will be mine. Mum's mum also passed 12 months before we moved, and her barely-procesed lifetime hoard hadn't been properly digested and came, too. We moved in the 1971 equivalent of an HGV (a favour) and poor Mum miscarried at the time - she still hates the idea of moving.

However, should I need to carboot the stuff, there is a brand-new custom-made market stall in pieces amongst the haul, so I'll be set for selling. Assuming I can find the bliddy stall..............:rotfl:

One thing I've noticed as I get older is that time hurtles by and seems to get busier and busier and your energy levels are dipping down, even in middle age. So, it's likely that old age will smack you upside the head before you know it, and you'll be less able to deal with clutter than at any stage in your life. And have more of it to deal with.

Most people I know who've had to clear out elderly relatives' homes have come back as if from a theatre of war, shaken and exhausted and vowing to start clearing out their own haul asap.

The contents of my tiny flat could fit into a long-wheel base transit and I'm aiming to keep it that way. I think it's particularly important not to keep too much of the sentimental stuff, or possibly-important paperwork which takes an age to pick through.

After all, a relative/ friend clearing a home can probably decide without too much emotional wear and tear whether they want to keep a saucepan or an ornament, but some other stuff may be really "sticky" and cause lots of angst. Also, practical stuff in reasonable condition can ususally find a grateful new home but somebody's teen diaries? Not so much.

Right, I confess to being tired (bliddy neighbours are racketing AGAIN), achey and not motivated but I'm going to rise above that, wash the lunchtime dishes and get up to my lottie. I tell myself I will do a little, inc a dump run on the way home. If I can get an hour (weather's a bit dodgy atm) it'll be good going bearing in mind how I feel.

Catch yer laters, GQ xx