Mr N knows precisely where his model railway bits and bobs are but our pillows are missing and this doesn't appear to be giving him any great cause for concern.
We opted for an almost complete packing service from the removal men - we did our own personal stuff and paperwork etc - but no matter how efficient they might be, and ours were impressively so, you can't be with them in every room at the same time watching all the labelling being done.
Still, at least the house is totally clean now and the N gauge locos are safe and sound.
Don't ask me what I think of you, I might not give the answer that you want me to.
Post by Berry McPaper-cuts on Jan 15, 2015 7:22:38 GMT
Our loft is full with things I haven't been allowed to throw away. Now he is semi-retired he has started a clear out. Old computer monitors went yesterday and now I might even be able to get rid of old bedding and towels. Of course the first thing he wanted to get rid of was books of mine!
We've moved several times, and always been ruthless, but the problem is, the bigger the house, the more stuff you end up with. We were brutal this last time, and Mr Cog was on first name terms with all the charity shops because he was there everyday. We don't put stuff in the loft, it's the slippery slope, if we haven't got room to store it, we don't keep it. I'm afraid I'm not sentimental, any 'art' the Coglet brought home from school, was greeted with 'lovely' then it was put in a safe place, I.e. the bin. We made the conscious decision that we won't buy anything major, unless it's to replace an item that we're getting rid of.
When we moved here, we had the movers do the majority of the packing, and when they left, they said they'd come back in a couple of weeks for the boxes, I told them they could collect the the following week, they laughed, but they had their boxes back the following week. I hate mess and got the unpackking done as quickly as possible. Despite our ruthless cull, we still found things we really didn't need.
I admit I have quite a lot of shoes and clothes - but I do try to get rid of something when I buy more. I also have quite a lot of craft stuff which is dotted around the house as I don't have one place I can keep it. He has a bedroom as an office - four walls lined with shelves floor to ceiling and every bit of floor space stacked head high. The garage is also a workspace and full of business stuff.
Himself has been collecting Marvel and DC comics since he was young and has thousands. He reads a lot and buys loads of books - he has thousands. He collected lots of VHS tapes - complete series of things - and, despite also having a lot of them on DVD, can't bring himself to part with them. At the last count we had 2000+ pre-recorded ones and goodness knows how many we recorded and so on!
I have some books, maybe a couple of hundred or so, but now I have a Kindle I rarely buy a physical book - only a couple of series where I have all the rest in physical form, Sue Grafton for example. He buys the Kindle version to read but the book to keep. Harry Potter we bought 5 copies each time a new one came out - one each and one to keep in pristine condition! We have every picture the boys ever did at school, most of their toys. McDonalds toys still in their wrappers (worth more then!) etc etc etc! The boxes of these sorts of things are so buried that I couldn't sort them if I wanted to and I couldn't throw them away without checking the contents!
That is a large part of the problem - we pack things into boxes to keep for a while, they go into the loft or storage maybe at Christmas when we need extra space and need to clear the boys' rooms in a hurry. The boxes never come back because before we get a chance to sort them out more boxes have been put in and gradually they get buried and that is that.
It's not entirely his fault - I do have a very sentimental streak, especially for the boy's things - but in terms of 'stuff' my stash is tiny in comparison!
. When we moved, we got rid of all our videos because we'll never watch them again, and hundreds of books. I kept some hardbacks, and a few paperbacks, but I went through them, and if I'd read them twice, they went. I have a regular clear out of clothes and shoes, and recently went through all my posh dresses, and had a big cull. I'm trying to be really good with a one in - one out strategy. I dont want to be in a position in a few years time when we're all cluttered up. When we had the kitchen done last year, we still got rid of more stuff.
Post by Berry McPaper-cuts on Jan 15, 2015 13:31:21 GMT
I can't throw my favourite books out. There are some that I read when I am in a certain mood and they make me laugh or give me joy. I hired a skip just after I retired when Mr FP was in Australia for a longish business trip and filled it up with books I won't ever read again and bits and bobs from my work. He never even noticed they had gone when he got home. I don't think he has realised now. I have always owned a lot of books. Due to redecorating our 4th bedroom has been transformed into my craft room. It's fantastic being able to craft without having to clear everything away for tea.
I had a clear out before I moved out of the marital home but, since moving to my own place five years ago, I've had several more 'clear outs.' I got someone in to empty the loft of stuff the previous owners had left in it, prior to my having additional loft insulation put in, and it's still empty and it will stay like that because I don't 'do' standing on ladders while lugging stuff into a hole in the ceiling.
I was quite chuffed with the fact that I only keep things that I use, so I have a lot of cupboard space, but I bumped into my son and the ex in Sainsbury today and was told that they'd emptied their loft (that must have been a heck of a job!) and they asked if I could pop round to sort through it incase there was anything that was mine that I wanted. I hope there isn't because otherwise I'll have to have another 'clear out' here to accommodate anything I left there. I can't wait!
I use to be very bad at "that will come in handy one day", and strangely, more often than not it did years later.
Since being here I've had to fairly ruthless as there are no storage cupboards, apart from in the kitchen, and the garage became my ex's workshop. It not been possible to use the attic due to the tiny access, which is a good thing, as the bungalow was built just after the war and has a solid 9" concrete roof now under a normal pitched roof. So you can walk around normally over the whole area, imagine the fun you could have filling it up!
Ex did eventually come an empty the garage, so I can use that for "stuff", but I'm pretty good these days.