THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

moneyistooshorttomention

Living_proof wrote: »

We have a neighbourhood facebook page, and quite honestly without that nobody would have put two and two together but one eagle-eyed chap brought it to our attention and one by one we checked only to find the brushes missing. Then someone else made the connection to the telescopic criminals and sure enough there is quite a lot online about it. So we can only assume that an advance party was sent to remove the brushes (quite a task apparently) leaving the way clear for the pole operators to strike at their leisure. We do have a lot of different nationalities living in the area and you are quite right, some of them have been caught going through people's bins. You will have to enlighten me as to where you first encountered this happening so I can be on my guard!

The rubbish tip rummaging is unlikely to import into our country imo - as it's something I recall my mother saying from our time in Singapore when I was a child. Though I gather it's something that happens in various poorer countries - at a guess I've got a vague idea I recall reading about it happening in Africa and/or India??

The hook through window idea was Singapore definitely and it never happened to us - as my mother had been told about it first before they had the chance and so took precautions.

I've certainly come round to the recent idea of buying stuff carefully set to one side near the tip if one wants to - but physically rummaging through literal rubbish is rather a different idea and yukky imo.

moneyistooshorttomention

Living_proof wrote: »

The point is Thrift that the new arrivals are creeping around the houses and going through our rubbish bins long before they have got to the tip! I am all for reusing and recycling but having one's bins sifted through is a bit much.

Actually - the bins being sifted through idea is something that would worry me rather more at the thought of I know this happens in this country and the purpose of it isnt theft directly/at the time. It's looking for paperwork that can be used to steal from one - eg via a bank account.

thriftwizard

I completely agree that going through people's bins does not count as creative recycling and can totally see that only those with nefarious purposes in mind would do that & it should absolutely be discouraged. But I would also say that we are an astonishingly wasteful and careless society, in general, and we leave ourselves open to opportunistic theft rather easily.

GreyQueen

People going through the communal bins at Shoebox Towers isn't at all uncommon. I've been known to womble the odd item myself, if I happen to see it when lifting the lid to deposit my football-sized bag of non-recyclabes once a fortnight.


Sometimes I keep such things for myself, sometimes I might save them for someone else, sometimes I save them for a bootsale.


I have a lovely bevel edged mirror in my bedroom which was in the bin. It was only 18 hrs from going into the back of the lorry and being crushed. It was then, and is now, absolutely perfect in every respect.


When sampled by local authorities, about 70% of househod bins contain things sufficient to commit ID fraud. Even something as innocent as the blister packs which many meds come in could disclose things about your health status you might not want known (when I have these, I cut them up into little pieces).


I currently have a deconstructed hard drive from the old pooter, which has been hammered a bit, sitting under a powerful sea fishing magnet, before it too will enter the waste stream = the rest of the pooter was dismantled by yours truly and went into the metal and cable recycling via the chazzer nearby.


Folks, the winds are rising here and in La La Land we're bracing fro a lively shift tomorrow with structural and tree damage.


Trees on main roads will have absolute priority but trees down across minor roads/ residential closes, may have to wait a day or two. If you have a fence damaged, buy your replacement panels/ book your fencing operative tomorrow, because there's sure to be a run on both.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

I now have a fancy certificate to prove that I'm capable of not getting burned alive together with a handful of recalcitrant children during working hours.

Interestingly, it seems from the training that zone checks are supposed to take no longer than 3 minutes before clearing the area and reaching the assembly point. It will take approximately 2 and a half of those to get up the stairs in the first place (as I'm obviously not able to use the lift in those circumstances).

Assuming that we're relatively intelligent beings who wouldn't go running around in search of valuables, bags, coats, BOBs kept under the bed or in the back of the wardrobe, etc - how long would it really take to leave a building?

And in making homes secure, have we actually made them more dangerous?

I'm going to use examples from various boyfriends' parents here.

Firstly, there's the Hoarders. Stuff everywhere, bookshelves full of old, dry and very flammable books lining the landing, along with more Stuff to be squeezed past. No point worrying about it, there aren't any escape routes and it would be an exercise in futility either trying to actually get to a window due to unnecessary furniture in front of them or to get them to consider at least not having five foot stacks of papers and things on every stair and lining the landing. And electrical appliances buzzing away merrily in every room underneath the Stuff. Plus about 30 old coats, scarves and other items of outside clothing hanging in front of the door, on the door of the cupboard under the stairs and on each bannister and 30 years of shoes, canvas and plastic, wellingtons and suchlike in racks partially blocking the other side of the door. Oh, I forgot the 16 inch gap to squeeze into the kitchen round the 2nd and 3rd fridges and the unused for 42 years tumble drier before climbing the pile of stuff in front of the back door and then negotiating the mountain of old furniture, more appliances, gardening equipment and bags of Stuff on the porch. Seems that the Security there is based upon making it impossible to get out as well as get in.

Then there's the short mother and very tall father - every internal door carefully locked at night by the father, as the locks were situated right at the top of the doors and his wife couldn't reach them - and then the one key was carefully hidden in a Secret Place somewhere in the house. Some doors were glazed, some had been replaced with concertina 'space saver' ones, plus the open serving hatch between the kitchen and dining room on one side, the back door actually leading out into a makeshift lean-to that housed rabbits and guineapigs, hay, woodshavings and straw for said animals, sacks of things like chicken feed, old newspapers, oil for the car, old tires, cans of WD40, spray paints, the tumble drier, which was only ever switched on overnight to save on electricity, lots of shelving made of soft wood, spare wood, etc - and was then subdivided by two more locked and bolted doors.

Then there's the 'Lock everything at all times because somebody might come' one. Refused to get the kitchen door lock replaced because 'it's safer when nobody else knows exactly what you have to do to unlock it from the inside'. Only other escape involves searching the other side of the room in a plant pot for the keys, unlocking door 1, stepping down 2 foot into the porch, reaching up and then fiddling with another non standard doubleglazed door lock to try to get it open. Average value of anything in the house = £20. No jewellery, no valuables, nothing. The place is bereft of anything of value (or colour - it's a beige box of nothingness). An Air BnB has more valuable items; perhaps if a burglar has a particular interest in removing integrated appliances (the cheapest ones possible), they might make a couple of quid, but other than that, the most valuable things are the kettle and toaster, both of which are locked in a cupboard when she goes out. No problem reaching the doors - the windows are all locked and the key secreted somewhere that cannot be remembered - but limited chance of actually getting the things open.

DigForVictory

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Firstly, there's the Hoarders. Stuff everywhere, bookshelves full of old, dry and very flammable books lining the landing, along with more Stuff to be squeezed past.

This is something a decluttering cousin has mentioned & she says cheerfully that actually the Fire Service are very good at persuading people (who will deny to their family to the teeth) can just the same be coaxed out of some of their ways by a burly fire bod.

As for the detritus in the hall, ahem, I will take steps.

What are the rules on going back in to retrieve a child? As I might get out, do a headcount & realise One Of My Sons is Missing - at which point I would probably try to hike back in to fetch them. I expect there might be professionals waiting to gently grab me & stop me, but ye gods I'll try!

GreyQueen

DigForVictory wrote: »

What are the rules on going back in to retrieve a child? As I might get out, do a headcount & realise One Of My Sons is Missing - at which point I would probably try to hike back in to fetch them. I expect there might be professionals waiting to gently grab me & stop me, but ye gods I'll try!

I was of the impression that the Sons were full-grown or nearly so, and bigger than you? In which case, if they couldn't get themselves out because they were incapacitated in some way, could you realistically move them? But mother-instinct would drive one to try in any case.


Over 40 years ago there was a house in my hometown where the occupant used to just chuck anything that was finished with, like a food wrapper, onto the tabletop or the floor. Their windows were beside the pavement on a town centre street, so lots of us had a bird's eye view of their insanitary hoarding and it was the talk of the town.


Eventually, there was a fire. No one was hurt but the house was lost entirely, and all due to being too mentally-ill or utterly idle to put the rubbish in the bin and get it outta there on a weekly basis.:(

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

DigForVictory wrote: »

This is something a decluttering cousin has mentioned & she says cheerfully that actually the Fire Service are very good at persuading people (who will deny to their family to the teeth) can just the same be coaxed out of some of their ways by a burly fire bod.

As for the detritus in the hall, ahem, I will take steps.

What are the rules on going back in to retrieve a child? As I might get out, do a headcount & realise One Of My Sons is Missing - at which point I would probably try to hike back in to fetch them. I expect there might be professionals waiting to gently grab me & stop me, but ye gods I'll try!

Rules say that you notify the designated lead/emergency services of people who refuse to leave or who are unaccounted for and leave it to them to deal with rescue/retrieval because they're trained for that, whereas you're only trained enough to get people out in the first 3 minutes (and only to fight a fire that is blocking your escape).

Human nature, particularly where one's own children are concerned, disagrees - but that's how more family members are lost/professionals are put at greater risk because they then have two people to rescue.

I've gone into a burning house because I thought I saw something move in a child's bedroom and no emergency services were there yet.

It was a very unnerving experience to look up at the top of the stairs and see the entire loft space alight. Fortunately, I'm not the sort of person who freezes, so I ran into the bedroom, saw it was empty and promptly ran straight back out again. It was a very stupid thing to do, as the entire roof came down about ten minutes after I'd got back out, just as the Fire Brigade arrived.

Hopefully, my reactions will never be tested again.

DigForVictory

GreyQueen wrote: »

I was of the impression that the Sons were full-grown or nearly so, and bigger than you? In which case, if they couldn't get themselves out because they were incapacitated in some way, could you realistically move them? But mother-instinct would drive one to try in any case.

Yes, they are indeed all hulking great louts, says she fondly. That said, one is an unstable epileptic, one has discovered the "delights" of Strongbow Dark Fruit and the youngest might be engrossed in something & have his blinking headphones in. I can map exactly which rooms to check and rattle the digital whoojits to get their attention from the ground floor, but I'd really rather not speculate what might happen in a house fire as our house has all sorts of things that might not respond predictably (or just predictably badly) to fire.
A thought I would have to share with the fire services as noone should take utterly needless risks. Better to pull the bewildered and peeved lad through the window than eye a staircase with confined space, accumulating gasses and a (convenient but imprudent) chemical store.

A three minute window, though, should be enough for an irate mother to lay vehement hands on her offspring & if necessary shove them through windows. To someone to catch/ease the landing ideally but I know broken bones heal better than burns, especially in the young.

Actually I think I'll just remind them of the extant in case of fire family policy & assure them that I have a stash of clothes & shoes with a neighbour. (That latter currently a fib, but I'd rather they were out of the building first and grousing about the lack of sartorial choice later.)

DigForVictory

Further prepping - I will be lining up for my flu jab tomorrow morning.
I have also used Tesco clubcard points to slice my RAC membership costs down so when the banger finally clatters to a graceless & inconvenient halt, I Am Covered.