Prosperous soul embraces creativity & mortgage neutrality

DancingInTheRain

Pleased your managing to remain Covid free, good news on the membership cancellation too as it all adds up.
Bit off topic but did you ever get your WFH tax relief sorted? I feel like I've read you mentioning you needed to sort it, apologies if I'm wrong but if you haven't claimed it yet it's easy to do online and another small quick win for your finances x

savingholmes

I did the tax reclaim in November. May have been on my other diary. Dancing. But yeah definitely worth doing

jwil

I'm glad you tested negative, hope it stays that way and DD recovers quickly.  Well done on cancelling the membership too.

My opinion on the 'feeling obligated to keep' stuff is you should just keep things that mean something to you.  You don't need 'stuff' to honour or remember someone, and those memories and sentiments may come from something small and seemingly insignificant rather than an heirloom.  Don't feel guilt tripped into keeping stuff because others think you should and if something brings back bad memories, then it may be better to let it go.  I also think it's a real shame when things are just stuffed in a box and forgotten in the loft or the garage.  There's a real risk that it will be damaged/ruined, and it would be better to let someone enjoy them.

I have someone who keeps giving me stuff because 'it's memories' or 'it's special'.  It may be to them, but it's not to me, and it's stressful as I don't want/need more stuff. I will however sort through it and take my time to decide whether and when to get rid.  I accept some things to keep the peace, but with others I try to refuse.

savingholmes

HI Jwil - I can relate. We were poor growing up - too many of us apart from anything else. We were told to always say yes if someone offered us something even if we privately passed it on later - as otherwise the person probably wouldn't offer again. That has saved me a lot of £ over the years - but other times - it has left me drowning in clutter. That habit has been fairly entrenched. However, one of the key donators was Ex MIL so that problem should resolve itself over time.

Very relieved DD seems to be improving - but I know friends who had it - and for them it came in waves so trying not to become blase. Not told her that though. If anything I've increased the ventilation upstairs today. Tomorrow I'll get her to do some LFTs and see if they are negative yet. I may go for a walk and test out my new trainers.

I'm due to go to a ballet a week on Saturday and with the current prevalence am debating whether it's safe to go. At the same time, if I don't catch it from DD - then that hopefully means I'm safe??? Hard to know. I still need to book my car service, cam belt, motor pump etc. The ballet is already paid for - and I have an 80% tank of fuel - probably enough to get me there and back. I'm going to avoid the train.

MovingForwards

You're doing well and it takes time sorting through things, deciding what to keep or pass on. 

Go for a walk, DD can last for 30 minutes.

If you decide not to attend the ballet, sell your ticket.

girlatplay

Hopefully DD continues to improve as she is young compared to *cough*-us-*cough* (no covid symptom pun intended)

Lookafterthepennies2020

Glad to hear you are still negative and hopefully DD will be over the worst! My Ds1 Had it around 6 month's ago and despite sharing a room with his brother and us living ina shoe box none of us managed to catch it, weird how it works  I seem to know a lot of people who are testing positive atm though so it is only a matter of time I think!

Just had a good catch up, I am a tidy cupboards everything has a place person we even have an ugly cup cupbard so it doesn't intefere with all my matching sets...on the other hand my car is usually a bin and we can go days before putting washing away if its in the basket and I don't do it straight away 

Going back to the keeping things that are sentimental, my sister slates me all the time and jokes my kids wouldn't know they were mine if it wasn't for the stretch marks    as I get rid of everything.  I have one cardigan from Ds1 which Ds2 also wore home from the hospital because its the first thing they wore so felt special, and some old pictures and paintings.  I don't need to keep banners and cards etc and every picture drawn as we have the memories.  However, I do have a small box from when my grandma passed away which has a poem I wrote her when I was a small, she had made the effort of saving it so for that reason it meant something. I think it can come with guilt throwing out other peoples possessions but can't imagine anyone would like the idea of there loved ones hording onto things in there name.  xx

SandyShores

savingholmes said:

One utube I watched talked about ditching 'guilty clutter' the stuff we don't think we're allowed to get rid of, the things we don't like, the things from toxic people etc. That was an interesting one - and I've instinctively been doing that one. She also said we tend to see something as having more value the longer we kept it - even if we hate it. That also made a lot of sense. She said keeping things hidden in a garage or dark cupboard was also not particularly honouring to relatives who had passed away - and it was better to give them away or sell them so they can be appreciated by someone else... What's your take on that?

Totally agree with this.  I kept a lot of stuff for a long time, afraid to get rid because of other people.  Marie Kondo says something like if something doesn't bring you joy or isn't useful then you should get rid.  If its a present, then the person who gifted it to you wouldn't want you to keep it if you don't want it (and if they did want you to keep it then I'm afraid its two fingers to them as they obviously don't respect other's feelings ).  Feels a bit strange when you first do it, but its great when you take back your space from being invaded by stuff you don't want.

Baileys_Babe

Lookafterthepennies2020 said:

Going back to the keeping things that are sentimental, my sister slates me all the time and jokes my kids wouldn't know they were mine if it wasn't for the stretch marks    as I get rid of everything.  I have one cardigan from Ds1 which Ds2 also wore home from the hospital because its the first thing they wore so felt special, and some old pictures and paintings.  I don't need to keep banners and cards etc and every picture drawn as we have the memories.  

I have kept no clothing nor drawings from when mine were small, all clothing that hasn't been worn through has been passed on to family and friends. We have the hospital ID bands from when the eldest was born but the younger one was a home birth so no ID tags.

leftatthetrafficlights

I'm not sentimental at all! 😂 I have a 'if I haven't used it in 12 months it leaves the house' policy - the only thing I have kept longer are a box of photos of my kids but it's not a massive box and takes up very little room! 😉 

If things aren't useful or give you pleasure there's no point in keeping them around imo - that goes for people too!! 😉😂