Hoarding - Springing Ahead

catshark88

Ok clutter experts, a question for you.

I have an unworn, 4 year old, really fluffy, very clearly fake, black fur coat from M&S. Never worn as winters have been wet rather than really cold and I spend most of the time in a raincoat, usually with muddy dogs, or muddy children in tow.

I really like it, it may well still fit, but in all these years, I haven't had/ made an opportunity to wear it.

Because i have a very tiny wardrobe, it takes up some space, but is after all, only a coat.

Keep in the hope that I will one day wear it, or time myself out and charity shop it???

idristhedragon

Id keep it just because it sounds like the sort of item that in a few years time you will be going out and think "oh that coat would have been perfect". I have a few things like that that I give wardrobe space although I rarely wear my Funeral Dress, Posh frock, Posh Shoes, Nice Coats etc

silvasava

Oh GQ - you do make me laugh! I can just imagine you giving the louts a quick flash - but underneath was like something out of Alien & them all terrified & running for cover :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Did clear out the little bedroom today but sadly only put stuff in the loft. It won't be needed until the spring but I'm deperately trying NOT to use our loft to store 'stuff'. Did a small repair job for DS1, mended a sock & did a small alteration to an overshirt so there are a few more small items 'unlurked' - at least I know I've got a timeline............:(

mcculloch29

catshark88 wrote: »

Ok clutter experts, a question for you.

I have an unworn, 4 year old, really fluffy, very clearly fake, black fur coat from M&S. Never worn as winters have been wet rather than really cold and I spend most of the time in a raincoat, usually with muddy dogs, or muddy children in tow.

I really like it, it may well still fit, but in all these years, I haven't had/ made an opportunity to wear it.

Because i have a very tiny wardrobe, it takes up some space, but is after all, only a coat.

Keep in the hope that I will one day wear it, or time myself out and charity shop it???

If there was an opportunity to wear it and you didn't have it, what would you wear instead? Are there opportunities to wear it now, where you are wearing something else because it's just too OTT?
I tend towards the school of 'if not now, when?' If something has to change for you to have the opportunities to wear it, that change may never happen unless you make it happen.
See my sig.

GreyQueen

silvasava wrote: »

Oh GQ - you do make me laugh! I can just imagine you giving the louts a quick flash - but underneath was like something out of Alien & them all terrified & running for cover :rotfl::rotfl:.

Lol, the coat is nearly ankle-length but I was wearing a cocktail frock under it. It was just their mucky minds speculating.

Mind you, the Alien-encounter would have been majorly funny, wouldn't it?

Have been wearing my 'new' trenchcoat today and have taken the one it replaced to the chazzer with a couple of other items. Am chiselling away at the bag of textiles on the floor. I was musing the other day that the big blue IKEA bag is pretty much a standard unit for clutter; we all know what size they are and can envisage how many clothes/ soft toys/ DVDs etc they would take to fill.

Have also taken the recycling out and am now chillaxing as my meal cooks. Will possibly do some sewing this evening, will possibly lounge around reading books and flittting on and off the web; not feeling 100% - just the usual lady-business, nothing serious.

Anyroad, with my frequency of donations, I had to get some more gift-aid stickers and am really going through the cache of plastic bags kept for such purposes.

See, when you start decluttering, it just spreads, doesn't it?

Oh, and you'll laff; I checked the pockets of the coat I was donating and found a chocolate bar which has been there since early Spring when the coat was last worn. I ate it, of course............. ;p

idristhedragon

I have absolutely BLITZED the playroom- it is spotless Really pleased with myself and I just took an entire boot load to the chazzer. I have got rid of all the baby and toddler toys, so hopefully we have a gap for Christmas spoils etc. I sold quite a bit on the local fb pages and am still £35 up despite buying a TV on said selling pages for the teen for her birthday for £20- bargain as its a 19" flat screen very modern jobby.
I am now staring at two massive boxes of kids books that are the last bit of playroom to sort. Im rubbish at getting rid of books so need to get a bookshelf for playroom or redistribute them in kids rooms.
I just fell in love with a gorgeous handbag in the chaser but WALKED AWAY! so proud
Have got to drive to the airport in a couple of hours and pick up husband. He's away more than he's here at the moment. Quite irritating but also can be peaceful ;p
Right Ive got a beef madras to assemble

thriftwizard

Keep, Catshark88. You may not need it often, but you will need a warm/presentable coat from time to time & it'd be a complete waste to have to go & buy another. Take it from me - I decluttered my wardrobe too enthusiastically a couple of years ago, religiously chucking out everything I hadn't worn for a year or more. Then was invited to a December do in a posh hotel - and literally had to run out & buy a dress to wear! I literally had half an hour to shop, & there was nothing to be had in the charity shops. Luckily there was a sale on in Phase8. Not very OS...

GreyQueen

I'd keep the coat, catshark, we may have some pretty parky weather this winter. And it sounds like fun. I'd deffo make sure that it got an outing as soon as the temperature was low enough to make it bearable.

ivyleaf

I bet you looked terrific though thriftwizard

Well done on the new coat GQ!

I think you should keep the coat, catshark. I once splashed out on a beautiful cashmere coat in a sort of light olive green; it was in a sale and had been reduced three times. It still wasn't cheap, but I could just about afford it at the time.

I loved it, but didn't wear it much, because I worked in a similar sort of place to GQ and I didn't feel comfortable with customers maybe spotting me arrive or leave in such an obviously expensive coat when they themselves were struggling.

A few years later I became ill and lost loads of weight, so the lovely coat was far too big (it was a loose-fitting coat in the first place.). In the end I very reluctantly put it in a charity bag.

I'm now the same size I was when I bought it, and really wish I'd kept it! still, hopefully somebody got a bargain

GreyQueen

Smiling about catshark's obviously fake fun fur coat.

It brought to mind a fake fur coat I owned as a student. By its styling it was from the early sixties (20p from a jumbly) and looked incredibly unreal, not even sure which animal it was impersonating, but it came down past my knees and was warm.

So there stood I, aged 17, in the icy wind on the bus stop, minding my own business, when a grown woman marched up and started tearing me off a strip over the cruelty of wearing real fur! FGS, it looked more like an acrylic blanket than a fur coat.

I unbuttoned its single button and showed her the 5 inch wide sewn-in label on the front of the lining which boasted 100% Pure Nylon. She then slunk off in embarrassment. :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Happy days, over 30 years ago. Can't remember exactly what happened to that coat except it's long since gone. It was fawny-coloured and another of my pals had co-incidentally got one the same but silvery-coloured. We lived in digs so cold that the 'fur' coats did double-duty as extra blankets at night.

Have decided to do the sewing and get the rest of the pal's clothes off the premises as I need the space. The blouse I'm thinking of keeping is lovely but dry clean only (silk). Phooey to that; I shall handwash it and use it.