I made the mistake of showing my daughter some finds - mostly tat in the hope that she would select a few treasured items. No such luck! I'm not making that mistake again.
Investigated the sideboard today. Found huge pile of old greetings cards, 4 sets of salad servers, 9 flower vases, 3 blue pottery dishes (don't match) 8 tablecloths, 16 linen napkins, god knows how many reels of cotton and an old clock radio/CD player (that bit doesn't work). Wedding albums of course I'll keep along with a photo of OH's mother in her younger days, she was very pretty. Found another photo of 4 generations together, me aged 2, my mother, grandmother and great grandmother. I love that photo and had forgotten I had it. Once I sort out what I want/need to keep, the remainder to the charity shop - hopefully tomorrow as we're running out of space in the dining room!
That must be some sideboard! Emptied a cupboard that needed steps that weren't quite high enough. Every time I slid something into reach, it was another packet of photos. Loads of duplicates as it was a time when you ordered extra at little cost in case you wanted to give a copy to an interested party. Unfortunately, the duplicates were rarely together. As the space in the crate reduced, I became more ruthless. Nice photos of unidentified bits of Northern Scotland. Well there used to be nice but the greens are khaki. A few years since I've been up there but it don't remember it being khaki. Prodigious sneezing fit. Tubes haven't been that clear for ages. Nice to see that my daughter smiled a lot. I must have managed to do something right. Found baby photos of dog and cats too
I sat and watched my wife this afternoon, try to pack the contents of a small bookcase, into a cardboard box.
She has very little spatial awareness, so she repeatedly tried to fit things in, in a way that just wouldn't go.
How long should I leave it before I intervene to show her that she CAN fit the contents in, just not in the way she was doing it?
She is independently minded, and does not like being told she's making a hash of it. There again, I cannot laugh at her attempts. Cry perhaps, but not laugh.
However, she can type quickly, do shorthand, speak three languages other than English, and prepare meals to a tee - none of which I can do. Okay, so I can cook, but not as well.
Oh, but she is - and does. Problems occur when she starts to dump my stuff, without asking first. She's tried - but I rescued the item. But she IS more pragmatic than I am - much like her Mum was. I am the sort who would happily hold on to everything - a trait definitely NOT inherited from my parents!!
If you're downsizing, all the more reason to let her get on with it. If you're consulted, nothing will go. Make a small pile of your most treasured I'd save it if the house and my trousers were on fire stuff and let her loose on the rest. It has to be done and you know it.
It is so hard though @B3. I know my OH was as passionate about all his accumulated Art things as @rowlandscastle444 is about his castles and prints etc. But, in the end, I'm afraid his need to move outweighed the need to keep stuff so he very reluctantly let lots of things go. I had to let go of my piano too which was very hard but, I've survived without it and gain pleasure in other things now. .
Over the last week I have cleared out all the rubbish from a handy dumping ground behind a fence, tidied and chucked out loads of stuff from the garden shed and ruthlessly thinned my mound of plastic pots of all cracked and brittle ones.
I have also emptied the poly tunnel entirely, relocated the essentials to the newly curated garden shed and thrown the brittle and torn cover away. Unfortunately they’ve stopped making the bespoke replacement covers so it’s now a stark framework. I will have to get creative..
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
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Once I sort out what I want/need to keep, the remainder to the charity shop - hopefully tomorrow as we're running out of space in the dining room!
Emptied a cupboard that needed steps that weren't quite high enough. Every time I slid something into reach, it was another packet of photos. Loads of duplicates as it was a time when you ordered extra at little cost in case you wanted to give a copy to an interested party. Unfortunately, the duplicates were rarely together. As the space in the crate reduced, I became more ruthless. Nice photos of unidentified bits of Northern Scotland. Well there used to be nice but the greens are khaki. A few years since I've been up there but it don't remember it being khaki.
Prodigious sneezing fit. Tubes haven't been that clear for ages.
Nice to see that my daughter smiled a lot. I must have managed to do something right. Found baby photos of dog and cats too
She has very little spatial awareness, so she repeatedly tried to fit things in, in a way that just wouldn't go.
How long should I leave it before I intervene to show her that she CAN fit the contents in, just not in the way she was doing it?
She is independently minded, and does not like being told she's making a hash of it. There again, I cannot laugh at her attempts. Cry perhaps, but not laugh.
However, she can type quickly, do shorthand, speak three languages other than English, and prepare meals to a tee - none of which I can do. Okay, so I can cook, but not as well.
But watching her pack boxes is excruciating.
She's tried - but I rescued the item.
But she IS more pragmatic than I am - much like her Mum was. I am the sort who would happily hold on to everything - a trait definitely NOT inherited from my parents!!
.
Over the last week I have cleared out all the rubbish from a handy dumping ground behind a fence, tidied and chucked out loads of stuff from the garden shed and ruthlessly thinned my mound of plastic pots of all cracked and brittle ones.
I have also emptied the poly tunnel entirely, relocated the essentials to the newly curated garden shed and thrown the brittle and torn cover away. Unfortunately they’ve stopped making the bespoke replacement covers so it’s now a stark framework. I will have to get creative..