All our worldly goods – Chapter III
Quite what it was that I was doing on December 11 that prevented me from writing the final installment of “All our worldly goods” I don’t recall, but I was prompted to revisit it today by a dream I had last night; a beautiful, glorious dream that we’d finished moving all our stuff into storage ready for the renovation to commence in earnest.
You see, during the five years since that first night spent in a sleeping bag on the kitchen floor I brought in items of furniture and decoration slowly and tastefully, in keeping with the style of the house. At all times I was in control and could make sure it never became too cluttered.
Then I got married.
Now I love Wifey more than anyone or anything, but nothing could prepare me for the astonishing onslaught of STUFF. Each time she went to visit her mother in Maryland she’d bring back huge crates of STUFF and as if that wasn’t enough, frequent visits to Argos ensured that more STUFF conspired to fill any remaining corners. International tat bazar eBay too, has been a prime provider of STUFF.
The last straw was that during 2008 branches of Primark and TK Max (purveyers of VERY CHEAP STUFF) opened in London, ensuring that the final pathways to storage areas are now completely blocked with YET MORE STUFF. Since we can now no longer reach the limited storage space we do have we can’t even use that to store the STUFF that’s blocking it and walking from one end of any given room to the other involves placing ones feet in very precise positions. In fact some cross-room paths can no longer be negitiated without arial movement.
I’ve previously mentioned that a considerable amount of the STUFF comprises shoes and suggested several ways in which their storage problem could be resolved. More practically though (at least in Wifey’s eyes) is the fact that we put down a deposit on some storage space some three weeks ago and, following the wonderful, heavenly dream that I had last night that the flat was as empty as the day I moved in (or rather, the day before Wifey arrived), tomorrow I’m going to start taking some of the accumulated STUFF up there.
Loading ...
December 28th, 2008 at 12:18 am
Stand Firm my good man, wife’s do eventually start to declutter the ‘nest’, although it tends to be ‘our stuff’ that is first to go to the local charity shop, so keep prized objects close, may be fit them into the sleeping arrangements so they look as if they have a useful use!!!
December 28th, 2008 at 2:04 am
Never let your stuff go!
January 5th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Might a wifey comment here? Hubby and I renovated an edwardian school building as our first project. It took 7 years. We accumulated stuff suited to a building with 4 metre high ceilings and class sized rooms. Then we moved into a caravan to build our current house. EVERYTHING went into storage except clothes, useful books on building, and a choice few bits for camp cooking. We planned a renovation and ended up doing a new build. 7 years, 3 months and 4 days later we had a big lorry deliver the forgotten stuff and we unpacked all the stuff I had since added in friends and family’s lofts and sheds. Some stuff was great. Our young son could not believe we owned real furniture like other people. However, less than a month after we moved into the house another large lorry took the majority of the stuff to an auction house. Sometimes a project needs to be completed before you feel able to get rid of stuff. It’s a comfort thing. It reminds us that one day we will have a home not a building site. It’s not until we actually have a home that the stuff becomes surplus to requirements. My sister-in-law is the same. Held onto everything until their home was finally done and then whoosh – all gone. (that took the best part of 7 years too!) t.x
January 10th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
[...] English Rose Kitchen The restoration of a 50s vintage English Rose Kitchen « All our worldly goods – Chapter III [...]
March 7th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
[...] all we need to do is to get the rest of our damned STUFF into storage so that they can lay the floor in the first [...]