What State Is Your Loft In?

Uff · October 2022

It's a filthy day out there so I decided to remind myself what was up there and to sort it out. I've only lived here for just under 8 years and all the stuff is my junk because when my husband died most of his was either given or thrown away.

I haven't put Christmas decorations up seriously since I moved in so they are going, either charity shop or perhaps a neighbour. Fifteen good jigsaw puzzles, charity shop. Kitchen chair pads to be used for garden kneeling pads, 2 stair gates to keep Wee Uff from going where he shouldn't when he was a pup. The list goes on but I'm determined to get rid.

Fess up, how often do you have a clear out?

MikeOxgreen · October 2022

After last weekend 'Well insulated' is one description to give it. The others are much less glamorous.

Plantminded · October 2022

I've never put anything in my loft @Uff because it's not boarded and likely to invite a calamity! Don't mention the garage or space under the house though! I've still got five boxes still not unpacked from my last move 9 years ago, thinking I'll wait until I move again to unpack them!

Uff · October 2022

Ah both replies are very reassuring. It's not just me then.

I've started on my mobile phone now! I'm having a new one shortly and I'm determined not to transfer rubbish when I set it up. Lord know how many photos there are from 2 phones ago.

didyw · October 2022

Nothing in our loft as it is very shallow, the bedrooms being practically in the eves.

But we have two outhouses... There are still a couple of boxes in one of them full of ornaments and other nicknacks that there wasn't room for in this house when we moved here 20 years ago. And a tea-chest full of obsolete teaching materials we still seem to be storing for my daughter. And a drum kit. And some lovely yarn and other crafting materials leftover from when I closed my shop (4 years ago) waiting to be photographed and put on ebay. And loads of lovely silk flowers, inherited from my ma-in-law. Don't know what to do with them. And old pots of paint, a large unframed mirror, all the gardening stuff of course, tools, a broken 5mx5m gazebo... All tidily arranged, easily accessible and cobweb free. Not!

JennyJ · October 2022

Our loft is full of stuff. OH is worse than I am at chucking things out!

Dovefromabove · October 2022

Our loft is empty. When we moved here my very sensible OH said he wasn’t going to put anything up there. We’d had stuff in the attics at our last two places and never used it .., so we built some proper storage shelves in the garage for things we're likely to use (even if once a year at C*mas) and we got rid of the rest. Marvellous! 😊

Fairygirl · October 2022

I don't have much in mine - it's small, and the old water tank from the old boiler takes up a fair bit of the available room. It's mainly the cardboard boxes from moving, which I did many times in the space of a few years.
Other than that, just an old suitcase and the box with the little mementoes from when the girls were wee.

I don't hang on to stuff though. Moving certainly gets you into that habit, but having had to clear out my parents' loft, and dispose of the original kitchen which was around forty years old, it focuses your priorities a bit!

Woodgreen · October 2022

Empty lofts here too, but 'stuff' elsewhere that hasn't been used since the last declutter so it really ought to go.

To make space in a barn for firewood after last year's storm I dealt with boxes that hadn't been opened since we moved here in 1993.
Be prepared @didyw and @Plantminded -- there'll be a lot of "Why on earth did we bring that?" or even "What on earth IS that?"

KT53 · October 2022

Our loft has 34 years of accumulated 'stuff', much of which probably shouldn't have gone up there in the first place and certainly shouldn't still be there now. The problem is that if I do try to clear it out 'her indoors' will keep grabbing stuff because she likes it. She doesn't like it enough to have actually used it in decades, but it's more than my life is worth to mention that. It's only a couple of years since I managed to get rid of a big frame tent which had never been used since we moved in here. That only went because I did it when she was at work. The original reason given for keeping it was that her sister and the kids might want to use it. As her sister doesn't have a car, and doesn't drive, I have to wonder how it might have been used. There must be at least 20 large boxes of Christmas decorations up there too, as she buys new every year but 'might want to use them again'. I feel better for getting that off my chest.

BenCotto · October 2022

Snap @KT53, except 32 years not 34.

Our loft is a time tunnel: delve backwards from the hatch and you pass through shopping eras. Nearest you’ll find eBay purchases, Amazon, Next Home. Dig a bit more and you reach IKEA before stumbling onto early Habitat and, long forgotten, Woolworths. There’s a stash of late 60s/early 70s LPs which might have some value but first I have to reach them.

It is a constantly postponed task to sort it all out and, once underway, I think it will be cathartic and enjoyable but first the effort and unbelievable mess of emptying it. I’m looking forward to unearthing all the theatre programmes up there as well as not-thrown-out-for-a-reason letters and other ephemera.

Last Spring we did one of the sheds, the incentive being a Support for Ukraine table top sale in the village church that we organised. Off loading stuff, some of quality and a little value, for a good cause was heartening. Perhaps we’ll do another soon and attack the loft.

What State Is Your Loft In?

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