channe 
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I'm at the stage of "decluttering" too. (It's the new buzzword). I can't believe how many clothes that haven't been worn for years have been hiding in full view inside my wardrobe, and let's not mention the drawers. I cleaned (or thought I did) out the drawers only last winter,(six months ago) and they are still full of unwearable, unflattering, unappealing attire. I'm being ruthless this time. Gee it's hard though.:()
Reply #2281. Jan 30 11, 10:39 PM
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Professer
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I should do that too but think i will leave it to whoever clears my flat when i die, why spoil their fun :)
Reply #2282. Jan 31 11, 2:15 AM
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| lesley153
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The sheepskin boots are brown, with white wool inside. The other boots are black or brown, with flat or low or medium or highish stacked heels, and they're all size 5. I seem to remember that the flat brown ones were the next pair I bought after the purple ones. :) I haven't tried the plain leather ones on yet. The heels look a bit high.
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I bought a "life laundry" book, named after the TV series, and it got buried in a heap of unread free newspapers. I tried decluttering, watched every programme and read every article, but still didn't get it. I kept saying that the only solution was a gallon of petrol and a box of matches.
What I'm starting to do now isn't a declutter - it's a full-blown purge! I don't want to spend the rest of my life hanging on to things Just In Case. Someone else can have the pleasure of the ugly, shapeless sweaters and the beanpole-sized skirts: the things I made in the 70s will be perfect for fans of vintage/retro clothes (we're getting to the stage when last week will be retro) or perhaps a drama group doing 70s and 80s drama. Oooh - perhaps I'll throw in the camel-coloured cashmere and lambswool wrap coat, with big floppy lapels, patch pockets and tie belt, that I made in 1978. Camel is the top colour this season, apparently, but I'm sure the styles have been updated.
What surprises and distresses me is how many of the bought garments were made in England or the UK. They all kept their shape, colour and texture, no matter how often they were worn and washed. Now almost everything we get is made in China, the rest is made in Taiwan or India, and you delay the first wash for as long as possible because there's no guarantee that it will still be recognisable after it's washed.
There's more - there's about a cubic yard of old tights, clean and bagged, ready for stuffing toy animals. Who's going to stuff that many toy animals? What do I do with a giant bag of bits of nylon?
My mother kept things that were labelled Empire Made, and we wondered why she needed to keep it all. When I've finished, I hope people who come to my house at any time will not have those thoughts.
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Thanks for that little ray of cheer, Gary - or should we call you Pollyanna?
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Reply #2283. Jan 31 11, 5:44 AM
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| lesley153
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It is said that pregnancy makes your shoulders and feet broader. Makes sense. I've had fitted jackets since BJ that I can't wear now because the shoulders are too tight, and shoes dating from BJ are just silly. Not because they're laughably old-fashioned, because they weren't fashionable when I bought them, but because they're all too small now.
I just tried to put on a black leather boot with a two-inch heel, even though I've been wearing flat-heeled shoes for so long, I fall off anything higher than half an inch. I got my foot in but it was so tight I think the circulation stopped, and I felt dizzy from the heel height. More charity shop fodder, I think. |
Reply #2284. Jan 31 11, 8:42 AM
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Rowena8482
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I was always a shoe size 7, until the kids came along, and I am now a 9 or 10 depending on the width! Not sure about my shoulders though, they're pretty much buried under a nice warm layer of flab.. :-D
Reply #2285. Jan 31 11, 4:51 PM
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| lesley153
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Yes, two of us! Having children is like a prolonged weight-lifting course, and we need extra stability to carry them about, so our feet morph into skis.
I thought shoulders were the only bits of us that stayed bony - or have I been watching too much Gok? |
Reply #2286. Feb 01 11, 8:52 AM
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Rowena8482
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The only bits of me that have ever been bony are my bones :-|
Reply #2287. Feb 02 11, 10:06 AM
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| lesley153
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Sorry Rowena - there's no answer to that. :)
Good day today.
This afternoon I went to my cardiac exercise group. I've got used to the 1kg weights so today I used 1.5 and 2kg weights without falling over. I had a couple of goes on the mini-trampoline as well. Up till now I've just bounced on it ... carefully ... so that it went up and down a bit with my feet stuck to it, but today I bounced up in the air and shouted "Yippee!" quite a lot. It's been a very long time since I had both feet off the ground simultaneously. Might try the odd star jump soon - haven't done one of those for ages either.
I put some more clothes away and now have a wardrobe stuffed to bursting with clothes that can go. I've also dragged out a load of boots that haven't seen daylight for twenty years.
Jonathan and Lyndsey are coming here at the weekend. They're going to empty the loft, which is going to be lagged next Thursday, in return for train fares and unlimited food. He's coming back on Wednesday to get his sight tested and his hair cut. Sounds like fun. |
Reply #2288. Feb 02 11, 9:30 PM
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| lesley153
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Last week I went to Sainsburys and took advantage of a rather nice offer on fruit - cherries, blueberries, a few other things, and any "Taste the Difference" oranges in packs of 4, were two for £3. So I picked up a punnet each of cherries (£2.50) and blueberries (£3) and the system took £2.50 off my bill. I also picked up two bags of "Taste the Difference" oranges (£2.50) and they showed up on my bill at £5. Naughty.
I went back the other day, checked the shelf labels, and asked about it at the Customer Service desk, where I was offered a choice of two possible explanations:
1. The offer wasn't yet in force at the time.
(Perhaps it hadn't been programmed into the system but the shelf labels were very clear about it. I wouldn't have known about the offer if the shelf labels hadn't announced it.)
2. The oranges I got were blood oranges and they weren't included in the promotion.
(Weren't they? The shelf label said "any" TTD oranges - it didn't say the offer excluded blood oranges.)
The best she could manage was an apology for the inconvenience. I don't think that's good enough.
First thing I did when I got home was ring their central customer service line. The woman who took my call asked me for the barcode and a few other reference numbers and letters, said she could understand my frustration, and asked if I would accept £5 credited to my loyalty card. That would be nice - yes please thank you.
Amazing what hoops we will jump through for a £2 overcharge!
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J and L arrived yesterday evening, just enough time to eat and sleep. Today we took a carful of dead computers, monitors and printers to the dump: got new lamps for the loft - the old ones have burnt out: bought a new fluorescent light fitting for the end of the kitchen because the existing one is dead, and one light in the middle of the kitchen isn't enough: and took about seven bags of clothes and some sheepskin and leather boots to a new charity shop. I now have a wardrobe with nothing in it except coat hangers. Looks good.
The extra space will make it easier for me to get rid of more dead wood. A month ago, there was little or no space to put anything to wait till I was ready to throw it out. I am looking forward to having a house that won't make Kim and Aggie blanch. |
Reply #2289. Feb 05 11, 4:29 PM
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Rowena8482
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Probably because a shop is legally required to sell goods at the price shown on the shelf, regardless of what "the computer" says at the till.
I once got about £10 worth of hair care products for a pound from a chain chemists here because they'd labelled the shelf with the wrong price, and I pointed it out and stood firm.
Reply #2290. Feb 05 11, 4:59 PM
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| lesley153
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Ooh nice!
I'm not used to having to stand firm against Sainsburys - usually there are good people on the "customer service" desk, and they simply say mistake - sorry - have some money back. I obviously got a bolshy one, when all I really wanted to do was go home, unpack, put my feet up and eat... and I knew I'd get a better response from the "careline" anyway. (There's no point phoning the local shop - they all say someone else can answer it.)
I seem to remember that there's a sort of loophole - that a seller can refuse to honour a published price if it's obviously wrong, like a house for £5, but I've also heard of shops being forced to sell stock at silly prices, something like an oven for £1, that sort of thing. An "obvious mistake" is too subjective, and not always obvious at all.
At least I've learnt something from this: Lucy and Sheelagh are competent and honest, and Kerrie is neither. |
Reply #2291. Feb 06 11, 5:49 PM
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| lesley153
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Today they finished clearing out the loft. There's a lot of junk but there are also some perfectly good, outgrown clothes: some nice toys: a lot of children's books and some "Playdays" comics - and three leather handbags. Grrr.
There was also a ton of carpet in a fetching mustard colour. Lovely. That was today's tip trip.
There were boxes and boxes of paperwork, like notes from a computer course I did, and a catalogue from 1983... and the table plan from my wedding! Jonathan said "cool" and we're keeping it.
First step is to take a Stanley knife to the cardboard and chop it up for recycling. Then I can go through the clothes, books and toys, and not play with the toys for too long.
Years ago, I made a two-piece from off-white satin, and a top from gold-coloured satin. When Jonathan was tiny, I used off-cuts and some padding to make fried eggs, and I used some orange towelling to make "golden fishies" for his play house. I showed him a golden fishy today, and he whistled and put it in his pocket. :)
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Tomorrow GarrySouders is starting a new job. He'll be working at the city library, and he's really looking forward to it. I hope he enjoys it.
GOOD LUCK, GARRY! |
Reply #2292. Feb 06 11, 6:01 PM
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Jazmee27
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"GOOD LUCK, GARRY!"
Ditto :)
Reply #2293. Feb 06 11, 10:01 PM
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Rowena8482
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OOo what a perfect job for Garry! Good Luck Garry :-D you will be so good at it, I just know it!
Reply #2294. Feb 07 11, 2:10 PM
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| lesley153
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Agreed.
He's said on FB that he liked his colleagues and enjoyed the work, and he sounds very excited about the books. Good! |
Reply #2295. Feb 08 11, 7:34 AM
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Professer
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Good to hear Garry is enjoying the job
Reply #2296. Feb 08 11, 8:38 AM
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garrysouders
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Oh,how nice all of you are, yes I love the job and thanks so much for the kind words, we need them here as we are in the middle of our second blizzard in two weeks. Many winters we go with no snow at all and our average in a winte is about four inches total for the whold season, we have received more than 18 inches of snow in the last two weeks, I am so ready for some global warming.
Reply #2297. Feb 09 11, 12:52 PM
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Jazmee27
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Here's to an early spring :)
Reply #2298. Feb 09 11, 1:03 PM
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satguru
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That's my kind of job as well Garry, looking back it may have been another closed door with my lack of a maths exam along with teaching and about 10 other options, although I tried many clerical jobs which didn't require librarians there and still didn't get one. We shared our building at college with the library students so got to know quite a bit about the course, lots and lots of numbers which again may have derailed me had I tried it.
Reply #2299. Feb 09 11, 9:31 PM
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| lesley153
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Garry, snow like that isn't funny at all. Snow, snow, go away, don;t bother coming back.
My SIL did a librarianship course and emerged with an ALA. She was working in a library in London when she met her husband-to-be, and they got married and disappeared into short-arms-deep-pockets-land together. Romantic parsimony.
My loft is now lagged - at last. This means that the next bout of global warming won't freeze the cold water tank in the loft. Yippee! |
Reply #2300. Feb 10 11, 9:23 AM
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