Hoarding - Springing Ahead

seven-day-weekend

Thank you dragonette, that is most helpful.

Just to say I would never suggest getting rid of things unless the lead came from the person themselves. When I suggested to my friend that she might let her brother get rid of the old payslips, she herself had expressed concern that she still had them after all this time.

I understand now why the person may have kept the dinner services and cuddly toys. Memories.

Thanks, you have been very helpful.

thriftwizard

SDW, re dinner services & cuddly toys, a little anecdote; my mother, now 90, is deriving enormous pleasure from going through, explaining, and giving away, the remaining "treasures" that she's been able to hang onto in the course of a long, full life that's lurched from comfort to extreme poverty & back to comfort, been globetrotting and also interrupted by burglary more than once. I now have a huge and fairly valuable dinner service lurking in the nether recesses of the garage! Which I shall give away to any family member that wants it, or sell on, to be honest, once she's gone, because it doesn't have the same meaning to me that it did to her. For her, it was their wedding service, chosen with great care, every piece given with love & some with sacrifice. To me, it's the dreaded "best" china, lurking at the back of the dining room sideboard (when we had a dining room - which we fairly often didn't!) never to be touched on pain of punishment! Our everyday mish-mash of odd, unmatched china held many more happy memories for me.

I am holding onto it for now, in respect for her feelings, and I pull it out whenever she comes up here for a meal, and my 20-something Offspring delight in the stories of life in the Empire that she tells whenever she sees it again. She's also going through her photo albums and annotating them, so we know who long-gone relatives were; it's very interesting to see the likenesses! Also to see where people were and when. Various treasures are being split amongst the younger generations, hopefully appropriately; she's just given my elder daughter my great-aunt's autograph/scrapbook, in which the latest entry is dated 1917. As DD1 is an aspiring writer, and interested in family history, this is truly gift beyond price to her.

One of my best-selling "lines" as a trader is old photos & postcards that have lost their "provenance" and been ripped out of old albums by house-clearance/auction house people. There's something very poignant about them, which is why artists often buy them... if people are going to hang onto these things, and I do understand that lots of people don't want to, please make sure that those who inherit them know (or can find out) the who, what, when, where & why!

seven-day-weekend

Thanks, yes, I inherited a dinner service from my mum, it mrant a lot to her. However, when it had been boxed up in our cellar for two years and never seen the light of day, we got it out and sold it on ebay.

I didn't tell my sister until years later.

Thanks for the anecdotes, very helpful

thriftwizard

So the sewing room is back in action, and fabric is moving on, made up into bags and other small & affordable goodies. A baby quilt's been designed, cut out, pieced, quilted, bound, washed, dried & given, two dance costumes have been designed, constructed, sequinned, beaded & performed in, and various items have been mended, so the fabric stash is slowly beginning to dwindle & the room is now properly functional as a bedroom too, although there's quite some way to go before it looks like a "normal" bedroom-come-sewing-studio.

When will I learn to keep my big mouth shut? Went in there this afternoon to retrieve 2 boxes of fabric to price up for sale, and there are boxes of football programmes all over the room, on top of and in front of my fabric & tools! :eek: This is in addition to the ones all over our bedroom!

Do lawyers work weekends...? :mad:

greenbee

You're doing so well Thriftwizard.

I suggest you open the door, get hold of the recycling bin and tell the owner of the football programmes they have 30 seconds to start removing the boxes or you'll be doing it for them...

mothernerd

Hugs thriftwizard.

DS3 moved his bed upstairs first thing and has since taken some quilts but 2 mattresses and the rest of his bedding (bed full plus extra for on the couch) is still downstairs in the space where I want the couches stacking ie as far away from the work as possible, given that they will have to stay in the same room.

He knows what has to happen and I'm too tired to shout. Otherwise everything is going swimmingly and fitting with how I saw it in my head. DS2 has taken the Christmas decorations, my mother's bookcase and DS3's ice cream stash back to his flat.

Taking a short break and then going to box up the paperwork and wip sewing. Really looking forward to my bath.

greenbee

Well done mothernerd. I hope DS3 is a bit more helpful shortly.

I'm looking forward to my bath too - I've been moving stuff round in preparation for the next (and final) phase of this round of building work. The spare rooms look lovely (although one still need the curtain pole and some hooks putting up), my room is a tip as I've just moved all my clothes out of the spare room I was sleeping in, and I can't actually work out what furniture is going to end up in my bedroom. Kids room is a tip as all the pictures, shelves and rugs are in there.

I need to get the hall emptied, but am failing, as that seems to be where all the junk has ended up, so lots of little things that need moving. including all the wine. I should have drunk it.

thriftwizard

Feeling a bit down in the dumps just now. I did a weekend event, sold a fair bit & came home with just under £400 - not a fortune, but worthwhile, IMHO. Unloaded the van today, cleaned it out from camping and loaded straight back up again with random stuff & excess stock to take to the car boot sale at silly o'clock tomorrow morning, where I expect to make £50-£100, selling things for £1 a piece - and everyone is STILL on at me about the clutter... I can't get any more in the van! I've already said I will keep going until it's gone, weather permitting... Every time I open my mouth, it feels like someone's saying, you have to get rid of everything you've ever bought or owned! Excess stock, personal possessions, furniture they don't happen to like, even if it's actually in use, anything that hasn't been worn for 6 months - weather notwithstanding - jewellery I've inherited because it's worth money although not currently fashionable, family photos from the 1880s - everything that's mine HAS to go, but no-one else needs to offload anything.

Sorry - just venting! I do know I need to do this. I just don't need to be reminded of ALL the mistakes I've ever made, every hour, on the hour, for the rest of my life!

mothernerd

Hugs thriftwizard. When my boys were younger but growing rapidly , I had a recurring dream where as they took up more and more space, I ended up with a chair in the corner of the kitchen and one small windowsill (would have been the pantry at one time) for my books and other things.

Start of week three with the builders but they have not been here constantly. This has been good in a way as I have managed to start the painting which was only going to be done later in the year (I am also hoping that the laminate flooring in DS3's room could be done). Doing as much as I can before he comes back from the gf's is wonderful. However the painting stuff was one of the first things to be stored under the stairs and it was jammed in. Had to move two large tool boxes and several boxed tools to be able to move a cupboard a few centimetres to get it out. This left the kitchen in a mess.

DS3 did do the required work before departure however whilst I was in the bath there was an horrendous screeching noise. Earlier he had asked (I thought) what was to happen to 4 boxes on top of the sideboard. I said I wanted them as near to 'under the stairs' as possible. He moved the electric fireplace (has a surround so it's about 4' by 5') across the front room and kitchen and put it 'as near to under the stairs' as he could, blocking all access to the things I want to sort and the cutlery drawer as well. On good days I can move it a bit one way and squeeze in there but on other days I can't (and it had to go back in to leave lots of room for the plasterer to wheel his barrow across the room.

As well as the painting (finished the large bedroom, which is more than half the upstairs space at 7 pm last night) some progress has been made. Sat chopping the remains of a sack of onions plus a few other veg and now have 9 boxes of onions in the freezer for batch cooking over the month. It also gave me space on the kitchen table which was promptly filled by all the decorating equipment.

However I am finding sorting the boxes of stuff very slow going. On days when I have done painting I find I am straight into bed after my bath and then need 1 or 2 days to recover. Think having stuff surrounding me again is draining some of my energy. Yet I keep adding to it. My bedroom and the under stairs are the only 'safe' areas.

I washed all the spare quilts and pillows (DS3's and the stuff used when his friends stay) and put them out on the line after he had gone. When it threatened to rain I put them in bin bags and put them on top of the furniture in his room. When I was painting and had to move the furniture (put everything in the third I had already done) I added the bedding to the pile of stuff in my room and the large tools (sledgehammers/ longer spirit levels) that were hidden in the corner of his room moved through the door way into mine (easiest option at the time to only move them those few inches).

AS I reached the end of the painting the box of decorating tools / paint / tools on the end of sticks and a disassembled wardrobe (must do something with that as I think I have moved it 3 times this week) all ended up in my room/ the bathroom and the tiny landing space between.

Today as the bathroom was being started some things went back in the large bedroom but some came in my room - I had to hunt for socks and knickers and move two wardrobes to get my leggings (my wardrobe lives in DS3's room but it usually sits blocking off a doorway between the two rooms (this was originally part of the landing but he dividing wall was taken down many years ago to increase the size of the large bedroom).

I will get there in the end and the jobs do need doing (have probably needed doing for between 5 and 8 years which is when I ran out of money (and energy).

I am going to write an additional list of minor jobs. Today I asked the builders to add a mirror to my bathroom jobs (they have only taken the bath out as the new stuff is being delivered tomorrow - this means I have the sink and toilet to use overnight). I also had time to paint the edges of the doorframe and the skirting boards before the paneling goes in tomorrow - took about fifteen minutes. When I think of the hours I spent balancing on stools and boards last time I did the bathroom (not enough room to open the ladders properly) this really is an improvement. The panels will be easier to clean than tiles and they even wrap into the window surround.

I will put away the socks and knickers I have found - reclaim the space bit by bit. Also whittling away at the paint trays and older paint brushes - there were some at both houses before I finally sold the other one, so ditched the ones I used for nasty paint (and one cracked one) rather than trying to clean them up. Stack of rags going down and empty paint tins (left outside to get rid of any VOCs) piling up.

Have taken in 2 parcels for sons today - 2 of them don't even live here but get their parcels sent here as they are at work all day.

thriftwizard

Hugs right back at you, mothernerd! Laughing about the fireplace, that's the kind of thing that's always happening around here too. Sounds utterly exhausting chez nerds right now. I'm a bit more cheerful now; took £70 before it started to rain & I packed up, for stuff that I originally picked up for pennies & they'd been telling me to just take straight to the Tip. Onwards & upwards!