Hoarding - Springing Ahead

GreyQueen

The scene - GQ's parental living room, GQ hauling a small box, about 12 x 10 out from under the sideboard. It's full of paper, an old style tractor feed of printer paper.

Kid Bruv That was for the Juki (a printer, long gone, may have been spelled differently).
Me What happened to that?
KB I sold it with all that other stuff for £50, years ago.

********collective brain-wrack. This was at least 15 years ago, could have been 17-18 years ago.********

Me Will they fit your printer or Dad's?

Check - the pages, minus the tractor feet strip, are smaller in two dimensions. KB had a home business, office printer, can't afford to burger it up, Dad rarely prints anything, doesn't want to risk his light domestic printer. Upshot is, paper is mine to turn into scratch pads.

On top of the box were the following (I won't bother itemising the dust or the fluff from Wild Thing, the fluffy cat who had been sleeping on the box from time to time);

A cheap plastic torch, a paperweight saying Happy 60th birthday and a clutch of old biros.

Mum was struggling with what to do about the torch. She has a lot of them. I pointed out there are three options; do nothing, get rid or get it working. Investigation revealed that the batteries had corroded and were welded inside. It was dumped.

We move onto the paperweight. No one has been 60 for a long time, parents are in their seventies, KB is late forties and I've just turned 50. No one knows where this item came from.

Mum It's a paperweight.
Me I know, but we don't use paperweights. And even if we did, you have the glass t*rd one.
Mum (defensively) It's very pretty with the light on it.

Me, gets giggles and falls about. The glass t*rd is an arty irridescent glass paperweight which Mum bought and which looks just like a curled-up t*rd. But it is very pretty when the light shines on it and we don't use it as a paperweight either, although Mum might possibly brain me with it one day for being a mickey-taker.

Mum (exasperated) Oh get rid of it, I don't care.

So, if you think your offspring are insufferable, it could be worse, you could be related to me.:rotfl:

savingqueen

Nothing to report since Xmas however I regifted a few unwanted/needed gifts for other people's Xmas presents. Even gave a couple of people I don't usually because I could without spending any pennies and I know the gifts were perfect for them. I sorted out the kids' endless stuff and found a few unused odds and ends, some of which were wrapped and given out to friends' kids we buy for. The rest are either being saved for 2015 birthday gifts or given to the CS.


Feeling too coldy to physically do any sorting at the moment but have done some in my head and can't wait to fill bags of donations for the CS.

lobbyludd

I regifted one present - a smellies set from my very sensitive skinned mum to her very sensitive skinned daughter (me) which none of us here can use - I do wonder what she could have been thinking? even if she was regifting herself she knows I have the same skin as her - always have....., I also re-used 4 of the gift bags that she sent stuff in.

baking cupboard has been achieved, most of the tupperware is gone. House still looks like santa set off a toy-bomb in the house though. sigh.

chippie comes to replace front door and hang bathroom door tomorrow though (hurrah) which means that a) I'll be FREEZING!! because I think I'm going to have to work at home to supervise and our predicted temp is below freezing until mid-day rising to a balmy 2 degrees in the afternoon but b) there'll be less random doors in corridors waiting for new homes.

thriftwizard

Haven't had a chance to do much here today, but should get some stuff out of here tomorrow, which I'm looking forward to. During the holidays I have sorted out a couple of boxes of interesting books which can go onto one of my stalls for £1 each; hopefully they'll fly out of the door at that price. Now Ds1's gone back there is a little space to play with, but only temporarily as OH's twin brother & family are due down for a visit at some as-yet-unspecified point. I don't want to clutter the room back up anyway, but at least there's somewhere out-of-the-way for the washing to dry now!

GreyQueen

As an addendum to the above saga-ette, I should explain that this box of unusable printer paper has been in plain view, and having toes stubbed on it, on a daily basis. In a household of three able-bodied, highly-intelligent and non-sensory impaired adults. For somewhere between 15 and 20 years.

Dad marvelled And it's been under there for nearly 20 years...! And no one, but no one, would have done anything about it for another 20 years unless I got stuck in.

In defense of Mum's artistic taste, I should explain that the item which I dubbed, on first being shown it, The Glass T*rd, is actually supposed to be some kind of snail shell. The gap between the design and the execution has unfortunately lapsed into the scatalogical and I get the giggles whenever I see the blasted thing.

It's mostly clear glass until the light hits it, whereupon blue and green irridescence is revealed. I regard it as a waste of good raw materials for jam jars or something like that.

ETA oh, and the biros were all dried up and dead and the paperweight which is being charity-shopped is the 60th Birthday one, not the glass t*rd. Because it's very pretty with the light on it.....................;P

greenbee

Sounds like you've achieved great things over Christmas GQ. How much longer are your parents prepared to put up with you for?

GreyQueen

greenbee wrote: »

Sounds like you've achieved great things over Christmas GQ. How much longer are your parents prepared to put up with you for?

I do have my virtues, and they have said I can stay until 4th January. I hope they don't change their minds because that's when my bus ticket is for.

I have been fairly well-behaved and refrained from invading their loft, other than a quick raid to get the Crimble decs and bottle-brush tree.

A fairly typical convo.

GQ Didja miss me?
Dad Well, it was quiet, you do make us laugh.

They normally see me about every 6-8 weeks throughout the year, for a weekend. I think I better get offline and go work my crowd downstairs. There was a rumour of sherry, earlier..............:p

greenbee

GreyQueen wrote: »

I do have my virtues, and they have said I can stay until 4th January. I hope they don't change their minds because that's when my bus ticket is for.

I have been fairly well-behaved and refrained from invading their loft, other than a quick raid to get the Crimble decs and bottle-brush tree.

A fairly typical convo.

GQ Didja miss me?
Dad Well, it was quiet, you do make us laugh.

They normally see me about every 6-8 weeks throughout the year, for a weekend. I think I better get offline and go work my crowd downstairs. There was a rumour of sherry, earlier..............:p

It'll be interesting to see how much stuff you can get out of the house by then... I'm betting that they'll give in just for an easy life :cool:

(I have achieved a LOT in my professional life through a similar level of persistence... I often wondered whether I got my own way simply because it meant I'd go away and leave them alone...)

Making people laugh is a wonderful talent to have. And you can let your dad know that there are loads of random strangers out on the internet who are laughing with him

ginnyknit

I have had a large cardboard box ontop of the tumble drier for 2 years full of 'useful stuff' today there is a space where the box used to be:T
Nothing I repeat nothing in it that was useful ie a baking tin needed to be there it had its own place in the cupboard next to the drier. The rest is in the bin or heading for the cs :j Of course I salvaged the 6 month old dried up cabbage leaf to make a meal with:D

Had a lovely bonfire earlier - very satisfying - all the empty boxes from Dgs's pressies and the wrapping paper are now garden ash and actually have use now. Apart from 2 x 3foot reindeer standing in the middle of the living room all the decs are ready to go in the loft. The reindeer need carrying to the garage round the corner to bed down till next year.

Had a wee trip out to the garden centre for a wander about and all I spent was £2 on two lovely china bowls with an ivy and a flowering plant I cant remember the name of in them. I will use the ivies for my fairy garden and the flowers for a tub later in the year. The pots will be used for bulbs tomorrow - Mums birthday gift and Mums day gift for Ds off little man. At present they are adorning my now bare mantel. The original price on them is £4.99 each.

skeeter93

GQ, all arguments about decluttering and packing end like that at my house - "Just throw it all in the bin, then!!". And then no-one can because you feel guilty...