General Chat

Not meant to be a morbid subject.
I have decided that when you get older it really is time to de-clutter your house and not leave to others to do. My step-mum has already decided that she must after seeing the mammoth task that I have. Admittedly mother dear was and still is a hoarder, a compulsive buyer of *tat* from her many cruises and other holidays, but the memories to her mean nothing to me, Her first world cruise was back in 1995/6 the last voyage of the Canberra and she has every single menu from that cruise ..sadly now in the skip.
So there is me having to go through every single thing incase there is any important papers mixed in or even better cash. Yes I thought I had de-cashed this place the last twice I have come over but NO there is more turning up !

So should we all de-clutter as we go along?

I found little packets I had to open.My mother would fill little envelopes with things.

One envelope might contain an elastic band,the stub from a postal order,an apple pip, a toy from a cracker and a diamond ring.

No,I don't know either.

No ....lol you should have put the menus on Ebay, 'ephemera' is one of the few things that seems to make a few bob :-D

But in general the older I get the more I am throwing out, of love letters, old cards and 'bits' that are really of no value.

A bit late now Uzzi but I wonder if the menus would have been worth anything to a collector. Don't envy you your job, been there done that. But still have loads here, despite due cluttering in the past year. Trouble is most clutter is still worth something to me. It is a problem knowing just when to get rid of things.

Yeah, you're dead right Uzzi - I'm going to start tomorrow.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>> off to find those cruise menus I've been hoarding :-(

Yes we should de-clutter.
Over the last 6 years I have got rid of loads of stuff mainly to charity shops or on Freegle/Freecycle.

Just got to get rid of some books now on Family History and a big picture frame.And must pass my friend family history to her and then maybe that will be the end of my de clutter.

I hadn´t thought about the menus being worth anything but even if I had they would have been binned because I don´t have the time to sell things like that and the cost of hoarding things like that to go to Spain wouldn´t be worth it to me. I am taking all her Saga cruise glass ornaments and she did the *Ruby´s* last cruise so I have a lot of that. Sadly for Mum the *Rose* which is the other ship she used to sail on cruises for the last time in Jan and she won´t be on it (well not unless she shuffles orf and her ashes go !) But the things she collected for the orphanages will be going on it.

I know that I shall finish the de-clutter when I get home all my photo´s can go on discs, I will get rid of the postcards and trivia that I brought back from the States in 1994. Luckily I de-cluttered when I sold the pub and moved into a 31ft RV ..sadly hubby has been left at home this 2 wks and HE has tidied the shed :-S

Sharron I found today amongst a bag of *tat* jewelry the shell stuff and 1 size fits all rings her original Gold wedding ring ..it is now on my finger!

YES i am going to declutter soon as my decortaiong finished
yep out with all the butlers junk opss i mean treasure

to make room for all mine ;-) ;-)

I think we'll wait until we down-size....if we ever do. :-(

We've already discussed with the offspring what things we *don't* want to have thrown out when we eventually pop our clogs. We might follow the example of a relative who made a 'memory box' of treasures, She wrote notes to go with each item of why they were important to her. :-)

If my gran had de-cluttered, we may never have had the love letters between her and grandad, cards from her grandmother, and I wouldn't have the rather gross fox fur and polecat furs, nor the rather obscure astrakan collar, that I keep to show my grandchildren.

...mind you, it would be nice to get into a spare bedroom....

Det the memory box is a fantastic idea ..I may do that, mind I don´t have children to hand down to so who would care. The daft thing is if Mum had kept her love letters I would have kept them but NO she has kept strange letters which do mean a lot to her (from the cruises) but mean nothing to the family.

Mind I have an OH who thinks clutter is anything that he hasn´t used, worn or looked at in the last 12mths. He even got rid of all his precious albums because he downloaded them to the external drive. ...hence the reason that I am a bit panicky about him having cleared the shed out and made LOTS more room :-0
He said.... (on the phone) there was kitchen stuff in the cupboards
I said .....yes I know it was supposed to be there because it´s BBQ things long handled stuff darling mega expensive ( not really)
He said... Oh !
I did not say a word because Mmmm argggg etc does not class as words.

I've got stuff in my attic waiting for me to retire.......

Maggie I crossed posted with you ..yes I agree about the love letters and that sort of thing and as I said I wouldn´t throw Mums if she had kept them but it´s the rest of the stuff and who knows what will mean anything a 100 yrs down the line.

Uzzi, my mum's already told me she's destroyed her love letters with my dad - but she re-married.
I have very little of my dads, because mum & dad divorced, and he was of the impression that his children wouldn't want to know.

I started decluttering my mother's house.

Two brothers accused me of hiding things. So I left them to it. I got on a plane and flew home, with the contents of mother's house in my magic suitcase. Brothers told mother's friends that I emptied her house.

I still don't talk to those brothers, they are EVIL.

I keep looking around my home and thinking I really need to de-clutter so that if anything should happen, no-one else should have to sort out my hoard.

But I just cannot be bothered....... To much like housework.... (sorry to swear!)


My grans flat was immaculate, but when she died we found loads of bits of string, paper bags and all sorts of odds and ends which during the war would never have been thrown away as they could be re-sued!! And her sister would never throw away any envelope which you could use for drawing on the back of or use to write a shopping list on.... It was the war you know that made them this thrifty.

But now I use old envelopes to scribble on. Save ribbons etc., omg I am turning into my gran.... :-D

Must declutter the kitchen soon, as we are plannind a new one soon. Dreading it - how can I bear to part with twenty years of hoarded plastic containers , battered old baking tins and years out of date packets of things that seemed like a good idea at the time. Any takers?

I should have leant my lesson some years ago when clearing the house of an elderly batchelor uncle. It too three of us a whole week to clear the clutter. Some to charity shops, some into three skips. That didn't include the furniture.

I seriously need to de-clutter. We have two large spare rooms, and although sort of "tidy" they are full of junk, saved on the basis of "may come in useful one day"

Some time ago, on a visit, my daughter went on a wander round the houe. She eventually joined me in the kitchen for a coffee. Sitting there looking pensive, she suddenly said "I will be so sad when you and mum are gone"
Wondering what had brought on this out of character remark, and not knowing quite what to say, she then said - " I won't know what the hell to do with all the junk"...... :-D :-D :-D.

Suppose I'd better make a start

Tec

Lol Tec I tried saying that to mother dears years ago and it only got worse !

Geordie if you find any takers bagsie I get them first.
If anybody is on or near the Island I am selling everything... As poor Wend and Sharron know tee hee they came to see me and went back fully loaded.

Mind I´m doing my bit for every 1 back to Mum 3 go to Saga Charitable Trust for the orphanages in Kenya and Africa (My Mums lifetime work collecting for them and there was loads of knitted toys and baby clothes here)
I did try to offload the food to the homeless but nobody seems to want to collect it :-


The bric a brac is off to the heart foundation as they seem to be the only people who want bric a brac..I wanted to use leukemia research but they don´t want the tat erm I mean bric a brac plus the heart foundation are making a special trip to collect from me. :-) :-(

Mind I have this horrible feeling as I am packing up that some how my next home is going to be a mothers clutter home :-S

Uzzi, you have my utmost sympathy - been there :-( :-(

Well meaning friends suggested ebay and car boots but like yourself it was about geography and time - and of course the emotional side, yep, anger at being left with such a mammoth task.
We went through everything to rescue personal treasures eg photos, which were disorganised, lots of money :-0 none of us believe our parents would hoard money.
Several trips to the tip with worthless hoardings, then we invited a well known charity round to take their pick (we'd boxed it all) they took the lot and were delighted - so were we!
I appreciate it is difficult for hoarders but it is simply not fair on those who are left with the task of emptying the house