Hoarding - Springing Ahead

ginnyknit

Thrifty, I know exactly how you feel. I put so much work into my handmade things and yet its all sat here. I had a fb selling page for Christmas and sold a bit but not the amount I wanted to clear the decks. I applied for a lovely Christmas market in the best part of Manchester and didnt even get a reply :mad: Everyone to a man loves my things but not many buy. There is a market out there, I know I see hugely successful blogs. I know a woman who mkes beautiful rabbits in clothes with vintage trim and they are on Etsy for minutes before they are gone and at £50 its pretty good.

Oh well am going to donate some to a charity then at least my karma will be positive Off to clear more clutter x

parsniphead

That's so sad Thriftwizard.

I'm afraid a lot of people these days don't appreciate the work which goes into crafting items, be whatever medium it is. If it's not cheap tat it's not wanted.

I have fallen completely off the de-hoarding bandwagon and very much need to get back on it. I haven't been logging onto MSE much and not reading this thread has resulted in a mess again.

I had a good read this morning and it inspired me. I have cleared out two draws which are now only half full rather than bursting. One just has undies and not all sorts of clutter and the other t shirts and jumpers.

I now have a bag for the charity shop and the holey stuff has been recycled into cleaning clothes/dusters. A bag has been dumped in the bin and the bedroom has been dusted and vacuumed. Even DH is inspired and said he is going to sort through his stuff and charity shop some. A man worth more t shirts I don't think exists.

I need to go and make mums curtains this afternoon but when I get back more is going to be done. I'm really looking forward to breaking up on Thursday just to really hit the house while I have a week with no child or DH.

GreyQueen

Sorry to hear about your damp squib market, thriftwizard.

There are a lot of philistines out there, such as a teen boy I once encountered who told his mother, a superb hand-knitter, he didn't want any handmade sweaters, he wanted a 'proper one off the market' (!) And those were very nasty, badly-made cheap acrylic, btw.

I have tried and failed in times past to make my way as a crafter. After a lot of knockbacks, and realising via convos with other stallholders that only some people were making money on the craft-fair circuit (the organisers, basically), I decided to throw in the towel.

I can do lots of different crafts, plus draw and paint and sculpt, but I'm not going to spend my time making lovely things and have people cavil about paying a tiny sum for them, often not even covering the raw material costs, in most cases. I once had someone beyatch and whine about paying £2.50 to have a pair of summer trousers made up from their own fabric, FGS - and it was my own thread, too. A 400 m reel of Gutermann is £5.05.

Years ago, someone I worked with came to my home and was very struck with a handpainted table and asked why the hell I work in an office when I can do things like that?! Ruefully, but sadly, I told her that it's because I like to eat every day and to have somewhere to live.

I do crafts for my own amusement, as gifts for those family and friends who appreciate such things (no point in gifting to those who don't care for handmade items) and for charity, when I can get my hands on materials for free and just want something to keep my hands busy.

In general, I think the machine age has spoiled a lot of people's ability to detect quality. If you regard a garment as a disposable item and only want to spend £5-£10, you won't understand the deep joy of a unique handmade item from superior materials and with a fine finish, which will see you happy for twenty-odd years and then you'll have to fight your daughter to keep hold of it, once she's grown.

I wish I knew the answer, but a lot of people can only see the price on the ticket and the surface flashiness of the new item, they cannot rub a fabric betwixt thumb and fore-finger and feel the quality, they don't sew so they don't reconise a French seam or a proper facing, and have no understanding of how a well-cut garment can make even a homely figure look good.

Sadly, this lack of appreciation leads to a lot of cra.ppy clothing being created and discarded, environmental degradations such as the poor Aral Sea, lost to the greed of cotton farmers upstream, and the grotty working conditions of the third world. Heck, I have garments which are in regular use and which are older than some of my neighbours.

Knit_Witch

GQ someone asked me once to cross stitch something for them and "I'll pay the going rate for the hours", it was going to come in at £500 +(!!:eek::eek:!!), they asked me to show them how to cross stitch (oh and this was 20 years ago BTW - so even more these days! a lot of people are lucky to get the cost of the materials back )

System

I am a right wee lurker on this thread, you all really inspire me to try and tackle my too small house with no hall or storage space but twice the amount of people as there are bedrooms!
I logged on tonight to take my mind off the very disappointing craft fairs I have attended recently, so it helped to read your experiences, GreyQueen and Thriftwizard.
I only did them to try and clear some of my craft 'stuff' but ended up getting my confidence shredded by my lack of sales :-(
Thanks for sharing, it does help to know that it is not only me.
Linda x

catshark88

I'm sorry to hear of craft fair disappointments, it must be really hard when you've put your heart (never mind effort!) into making things.

I hate the cheap tat/ throw away society that we seem to have these days.

My Mum has plates (collection rather than in use) that are 200 years old. Hand crafted, but she'd get about £12 if she sold one. Don't even start me on beautiful, dark, Victorian furniture prices...

We did our Christmas decorating today. I really like Christmas, but I struggled putting a lizardfish extra stuff out! My inner minimalist had a melt down.... Balance is the key I expect!

Florenceem

I knitted some scarves and sold them but bought more yarn!

parsniphead

Your story about the teenage jumper boy made me laugh GreyQueen. A few years ago when my now DH moved in with his teenage stepson I used to do a Sunday roast every week. Then the stepson said he didn't want them. Apparently he had been complaining to his mum that he couldn't eat it as I didn't make proper gravy. Now I use the meat fat, flour, seasoning, etc but according to him if I was doing it properly I would use Bisto.

Me and my newfangled ideas eh.

I started well yesterday with the big clear out. I have until 11.30 this morning to get as much done as possible before I have to get DS from nursery. I should be doing paperwork for work but am going on strike not using my own time anymore as I don't get paid for it and they won't give me admin time while at work.

Now WHERE to start.

silvasava

Well my first declutter this morning is to return the tablet I bought last week to be replaced as the screen has gone 'stripy' Grrr & I was getting to love it too! Hope the replacement will be OK.
Parsniphead - my DS2 was disgusted when his stepmum made fried bread by using oil instead of all the fat from the bacon & sausages - I can still see his little face all screwed up!
GQ et al - how I agree with you regarding handmade items. Its such a shame in this disposable age that so many do not appreciate the time, love & care that goes into handcrafts - they really are priceless.
When DH2 & I got together times were VERY tight. I used to trawl the jumbles for clothes that could be remade (or repurposed as its called today!) Back in the 60's M&S used to do jersey dresses that dropped about 6inches when you washed them so there were always plenty of those & they made lovely all in one's for my boys with the back neck zip used to zip up the front - still got the photos! I got a grey worsted skirt about 4 sizes too big, unpicked, pressed, remade & relined - it lasted so long I got fed up & sent it back to a CS for someone else! DGD has cottoned on the the fact that Nan can sew which means mend, alter, remodel!
Years ago there used to be a comedy programme on TV & the catchphrase was 'Never mind the quality, feel the width' still makes me chuckle.
Have a good day everyone

thriftwizard

Yippee! Result! I had a big item on Ebay, which has gone for a bit less than I'd hoped, but I've still made a bit of a profit on it. But when I talked to the buyer earlier, who is one of the UK's premier restorers of such items, she's very interested in the other 4 I have kicking around taking up space too! I will let those go for what I paid for them, and she'll be getting a huge bargain, but I really, really need the space far more than the money; they came to me when DS2 was living elsewhere & I had room to do them up, but alas! no longer. She'll come down for them after Christmas, and it'll make a HUGE difference.

To clarify: I do make & sell small handcrafted items, but I learnt a long time ago that it has to be something (preferably something useful) that I can "churn" out in a few minutes, that people will be happy to buy as a little gift, and that the materials used need to be free or as near as dammit. I look on them as stall-fillers. What I sell, mostly, is vintage & secondhand craft supplies & equipment. This Saturday, I did make what would have seemed like a decent amount when I first started out, and I did sell a couple of handmade items too, but this time 3 years ago we were taking more than 5 times that.

But I've realised I could no more give it up altogether, than fly! Too much fun, when it goes well, which mostly it does. But I do need to draw in my horns & stop trying to rescue everything...