Old style as an escape from the world?

One of the advantages of getting on a bit is that the eyesight deteriorates at pretty much the same rate as the wrinkles and sagginess advance: you can't see how old you look, and nor for that matter can your ageing OH! The other main advantage is that you don't give a flying **** what anyone thinks anyway, or is that just me?

14. No household should have more than one mug, glass, plate, bowl or set of eating irons per permanant resident in circulation at any one time. Keep spares or guest items under lock and key. If your spouses or sprogs cannot eat because they've left their crocks under their beds growing penicillin, that's their problem not yours. I know a woman who did this and it worked really well.

I am so doing this:D. And storing tins upside down :cool:.
Thank you GQ and Pigpen.

Everytime there is an advert or feature on a new, shiny, simply Must Have item, think 'Why?'.

Is it 'solving' a problem that didn't exist in the first place? (Storage Solutions come to mind here).

Does it rely upon electricity, reliable wifi connection, a PhD in Applied Systems Engineering and clearance from GCHQ to operate the damned thing?

Is it purely coincidentally providing a very handy list of your preferences, political opinions, shopping habits, thoughts, feelings and deepest fears to a company who can then flog it to the latest incarnation of the Nazi party either for the purposes of making them seem Not Quite So Bad Really to you or for adding you to The List of Threats when it was sold on the basis of allegedly saving you from the effort of checking the fridge for how many eggs you have left?

If there's a power cut, will you be rendered helpless/foodless/heatless/cast into darkness without it?

Can you really be bothered to set it up/clean it/replace parts in it/track down extra special tools to be able to use it?

If it goes wrong, will you be able to do anything - or will you have to endure the Customer Helpline hold queue, then take roughly four and a half years' holiday waiting in for an engineer to not turn up?

Will you wear it once and then avoid it because 45 mins with the tip of an iron trying to get the creases out is more ironing than you ever want to do in the rest of your life?

Will it probably give you blisters/hurt your feet?

If your house was on fire, would you run back in for it, pick it up if it was by the front door, leave it and replace it immediately or probably not bother once it was gone?


In short, is it worth the potential hassle? Are you gaining out of it - or is somebody else?


In short, can you be A***** with it?



Examples:

Charity Shop Balance Scales. Missing the 1oz and under weights. A 2p coin weighs a quarter of an ounce. Continually usable in all circumstances for the total cost of £6.08. Compare to a digital scale. £4.99. Plus a bus trip (£3) to buy LR11 batteries (up to £5 in a supermarket if you find them first time) every time you need to use it because they've died whilst it's been sitting in the cupboard. Technically cheaper to chuck the thing away each time a battery runs out. And old fashioned scales look good on the countertop.

Cafetiere. £8 (I think, might have been £6). Add coffee, add hot water, leave until the consistency of tarmacadam (if my colleague is anything to go by). Compare to fancy automatic machine which requires electricity, half the workspace, super expensive little pods that are environmentally reprehensible and all you normally do is the equivalent of 1 black coffee, 1 white or you make a cup of Nescafe with the kettle & a mug rather than clean the wretched contraption.

Fancy table. Needs polishing, you're terrified of scratching it, a minor spill is a potential disaster as you leap into action to save it. Compare - Cheap lump of wood table with an oilcloth on top. Nobody can see it's Swedish flatpack or Freecycled, nothing gets through the cloth to stain it and if you have a cat that prefers the legs to any scratching post, you either shrug your shoulders because it was cheap/free or you eventually get some sandpaper out and give him a new smooth surface to have another go at five minutes after you finish. Similar logic applies to white/beige carpets - really? You have the time, inclination and money to be dealing with the stress that involves? What's wrong with either fitted carpet in a darker shade or floorboards/lino and some rugs?


Do you need a brand new sofa to match the living room? Or will chucking a throw over the bits most scratched by the cat look cosier and be a better colour match than something in Dodgy Flaming Sofa's 19th sale of the week?


In terms of gardening, do you want to be constantly planting, watering, weeding & pruning things, or would toshing out some seeds and if they grow, they grow, give you at least some feel of doing some gardening? You can argue that you're going for a wildlife friendly garden - and that instantly saves you the cost of various evil pesticides, weedkillers, fertilisers, moss killers, slug pellets, herbicides and other nonsense. You get wildlife as a bonus, too.


Do you actually like cooking? Do you like baking? Or are you just tempted by a warm kitchen on a rainy Saturday with the radio on but detest trying to think of what to buy for dinner again?



Despite all my suspicions, I am a great covert to the principle of internet shopping rather than supermarkets. It means I don't have to set foot in one of the things unless I actively choose to - and a little photo on a screen is a lot less appealing than an entire shop devoted to separating me from as much of my hard earned dosh as possible. Once I've got the bog rolls, tins of beans and cat food sorted, I can choose to get the meat/fish/veg from the nice little shop where I'm guaranteed to not end up muttering 'There's NOTHING there! There is NO unexpected item!' or 'I'd rather wait and keep more people in jobs, thanks'.



Your time, money and energy are equally precious. Why should you waste them unnecessarily? Prioritise what you can be bothered with - and if that means chucking out 50% of everything in the house without checking it, you'll live. And you'll have more of each of them to devote to what is important to you after that initial saving - such as repairing something, making something, enjoying it properly.

The last two posts should be printed, illuminated, framed, on my kitchen wall and read daily.

Thanks Jojo and JackieO.

monnagran wrote: »

The last two posts should be printed, illuminated, framed, on my kitchen wall and read daily.

Thanks Jojo and JackieO.

Hear, hear. Brilliant posts. Perfect start to my day, reading them whilst I drank my coffee - made from my cheap as chips cafetière as per Jojos recommendation. Really made me chuckle.

I think home should be our refuge from the strains and stresses from the outside world. Should it be old style - if you like. But I think we need to remember that being “old style”is not a competition. We do not have to do everything ourselves or be the perfect “old styler”.

I cheat and take plenty of short cuts. As Shirley Conron said....Life is Too Short to Stuff a Mushroom.

For example I love food but I keep my cooking simple and easy. If I want fancy then I eat in a restaurant and let the chef do all the work. Last night I went out for wine and tapas.......delicious, no cooking and no washing up........:rotfl:

I like cake but only on high days and holidays for health reasons. YesI could try and make healthy cakes but frankly I just cannot be bothered. TBH I cannot bake for toffee and do not enjoy it so if I want a cake I buy one or eat it in a cafe. A delicious professionally baked cake once in a blue moon will not kill me and it will not break the bank.

Travel.....at the moment I do still enjoy travelling and I am working through my bucket list of must see destinations, I have just come back from the Amazon. Loved it. I hate flying so indulge in slow travel, trains or ships. No problem I am retired so I am in no hurry. A leisurely 6 week journey meant I got to escape some of the winter. One day I will probably not want to travel but for now it is something I enjoy but only on my terms, I avoid planes and airports like the plague.....:rotfl:

I venture out into the outside world when it suits me. I spend my time with people I like and care about, doing things I want to do. Oh the joy of the word No. Like Jackie O I only accept invitations for things that appeal to me. A night at the cinema or theatre, dinner with friends or family yes please......standing room only at some pub that is heaving with people, no thanks. I prefer to stay at home and watch a film or curl up with a book.

We have all heard the Danish word hygge - it is just another word for cosy. Well that is what I aim for, to me that is what home is all about. A place where I can chillax as my kids would say. A place where visitors can kick off their shoes, put their feet up, get comfortable, where we can feast on good food, knock back a few glasses of something and just have a nice chat and a few laughs.