Tidying up with ...

[ina]

I did see a meme on FB, related to this, that made me laugh out loud. To paraphrase - "She said to throw out anything which didn't give me joy. So far I binned the electricity bill, my bras and the bathroom scales".

Excellent!

[Thomzo]

When my mother’s friend and neighbour died last year, she contacted his children, who didn’t live locally, and offered to help with sorting through his things and taking the good stuff to the charity shops. They declined her offer as they were sending a house clearance company. When the van turned up, she asked the driver if they sorted through it and sold/donated anything good. He told her that everything was going into landfill, nothing would be reused or recycled. She was devastated to see it all wasted. Some of the clothes were brand new, never been worn.

[ina]

That sounds criminal to me. Shouldn't be allowed...

[Thomzo]

My mum was so cross. She had a key to her friend’s house so she could have just gone in and sorted out what she could when she had time and it would have saved the family money. It cost them a fortune to have the house cleared.

[Skippy]

Agreed that sort of thing shouldn't be encouraged even if it can't be banned outright. I do have a couple of examples where clearances have worked the other way. After early retirement my father worked with a friend of his who had a contract to clear a couple of offices . The deal was to clear everything out but without any money changing hands , everything they removed they were free to sell or whatever. Rather encouraged resale. In another incident the office my wife worked at ( probably 15 years ago) was being shut down and moved a distant away . The staff were allowed to remove whatever they wanted with the exception of the computers . my wife came back with chairs , folders , pot pants , a jacket , and even the paper towel dispenser from the toilets. I Was very proud she had unscrewed that from the walls.

[Weedo]

I recently read yet another article on "minimising"; mainly to do with living (sic) in micro-houses. Amongst many things were advice to get rid of your books, vinyl, cd's, personal photos and paintings and replace them with Ebooks, digital recordings, scanned images and a widescreen TV showing "mood pictures". I short, on a cold winters night, snuggle up under your micro-fibre throw on your chipboard and foam fold out bed with your latest device while your 72 inch TV shows digital pics of a crackling fire.

I think this person is likely to spend a very long time in a very hot place for his sins against humanity

[ina]

I've just re-read (for the third time) the book "Blackout", by Marc Elsberg. It shows very graphically what happens when you don't have electricity for a week and more, and that over a wide area (Europe and US). Well, your ebooks would run out of juice, so would every other electronic gadget, and the mood from your wide screen tv would be rather sombre, too! You also have no food, water, medicine, fuel - instead you have riots, killings, zoo animals running wild, cows dying horribly with over full udders...

(Btw, I can thoroughly recommend the book. The author became rather famous - as consultant in crisis management. I think it will be useful in the after-Brexit chaos... although I really hope it won't be quite as bad.)

[Skippy]

Is that the same Blackout that was made into a tv film shown on channel. 4 ( I think) ?
Recently my daughter (13) was talking about minimalism and how she likes the idea although looking at her bedroom at times one could be forgiven for disbelieving her. We looked at images on the internet and I was left with the feeling of "what do you do in a minimalist home" . There's clutter in our house but it's what I would call useful clutter. There's a sewing machine in the corner and a couple of jobs for it , books on the shelf , pictures on the wall and a torch on the sideboard probably ready for those blackouts . There's plants and at times seedlings on the window cills along with demijohns too . It all just seems lived in but if I look at a minimalist room there's no books or anything to do with my hands and I get the feeling I'd just have to sit there doing nothing else. It's all a bit like a hotel room where all you do is sleep and shower ( well mainly) .

[ina]

Is that the same Blackout that was made into a tv film shown on channel. 4 ( I think) ?

No idea - I have the original book in German.

Yeah, I can't get excited about minimalism, either. OK for sleeping a night in, but not for living.

[Weedo]

I agree Ina - people in minimalist houses live at them, not in them. However I do agree with de-cluttering and providing good and sensible storage for all those things not in current use.

We are now also offering our children a free service in simplifying their lives (syn - ultimatum) If its yours and stored at our house, take it or we get rid of it at no cost to you

[Flo]

May the force be with you on that one Weedo. Been there, done that, surprising how much was declared clutter.

[Weedo]

Not sure! Keep or keep not, there is no "not sure". All my Uni papers, research work, maps and publications recycled I have. Older than 5 years and redundant they are.

[ina]

Not sure! Keep or keep not, there is no "not sure". All my Uni papers, research work, maps and publications recycled I have. Older than 5 years and redundant they are.

I've lost quite a lot of that - not that there was much in the way of publications - over time, and have occasionally regretted it...

[Skippy]

Touched on this subject down the pub last night with a few friends . Ina's idea of cutting worn sheets in half and sewing back together got a few laughs as they couldn't believe anyone would do such a thing and then another laugh when I said it seemed an good enough idea.
We then got on to tidying up on what might be called a grander scale. Our local pub is up for sale and we can see it being brought and demolished for housing , seems common enough these days. We all like the place but one friend tends to think no old building should be demolished , well almost no old building . Next door to the pub there used to be a building known as the institute which was a sort of village hall. That was demolished for flats but my friend didn't have the same feeling about it as he said it was ugly. Whether the pub is any more attractive is probably a moot point. I enjoy history , I re-enact and have worked most of my life in restoration but sometimes the idea that a building deserves to be kept because "it's part of our heritage " doesn't always sit well with me. Pubs or old school papers , same principal as I see it , can we or should we just keep everything just because it's old?

[Weedo]

Protecting heritage buildings is a sore point with me (bearing in mind Oz built heritage is only 200 years old). I am in a Heritage Protection Zone which means I cannot do anything with my house that is not in keeping with the style f the zone. However, this only applies to the exterior of the building; they give jacks about the interior. I can rip out walls, old ornate hand made plasterwork and timberwork etc etc. To me the "heritage" decorative interior is equally, if not more, important that the exterior