General Chat

Erm, what is a man shed and how do I find a local one please? I'm assuming it is some sort of club thing.
Thanks.

BTW .................... man sheds are VERY uncommon here. I think they're just beginning to appear in places like condos where there are several retired men who push it.

Vera ............ my husband is 85 this year, still "plans" to do x, y, z

I did eventually get him to agree 5 or 6 years ago that getting someone to cut the grass would give him more time actually in the garden, but he still plans to climb the ladder and prune the kiwi vines out of the cherry tree, double dig the veggie patch, etc etc. When he does climb a ladder, he expects me to stand there "in case" and to help steady the ladder. That's beyond me now, but he won't accept it.

He was a university professor, and luckily realises that he can't mess around with electrics, plumbing, etc.

We have unknown amounts of screws, nuts and bolts, his tools, his father's tools, etc etc in the basement (no garage), and I'm getting to my wits end, not only on how to get him to get rid of "stuff" but to stop doing dangerous things like climbing ladders.

I have de cluttered more stuff from my room, hubby was surprised at what I saved "just in case" old hearing aids, B M D certs which weren't mine and I couldn't find anyone that wanted them :-(

Getting rid of photos grrr!

My mother got rid of photos as we ‘wouldn’t know who anyone was’. But she got rid of everything. Luckily I had lots of cousins who came up with some of them but there are no pictures of of family holidays etc.
cousins acquired a load of family photos and got rid of all those they didn’t know - which was a great shame as one side of the family were great photographers. I had already made contact with cousins from the wider family who would have welcomed some of those.

I meant to say Maggi, how lucky you are to have all those old letters and postcards etc. My Dad had been a bit of a hoarder and had lots of old photos and mementos but in his later years he had quite severe dementia and burned all the photos if he didn't recognise the people in them and got rid of all his souvenirs if he didn't know what they were. My late brother found out what was happening and managed to rescue what was left. We can see family resemblances in the photos we've got but have no idea who they are. A few years ago I put the most puzzling one in my Keepsafe for members to help with dating the clothing. Even then I couldn't fit it in with anyone on my tree but there is a strong family resemblance.

Florence, I feel much the same about my OH. He'll always have some sort of project to hand. I did manage to persuade him to have a painter in last year but when I suggested an electrician to put right some wiring and replace an outside security light, I was told very firmly that he would do it, (he is qualified). So yesterday I heard some banging outside and found him on the top of a rather wonky step ladder but the job got done and he did agree that the step ladder was a bit unstable so has now straightened and reinforced it. He's fine but I'm a nervous wreck! I just have to close my eyes and hope for the best.

Maggi, whether we clear out the garage-cum-shed or the kids do when we're no longer around, it will only be the real rubbish that goes to the tip. We don't have a Men's Shed near us, though I understand there is one in development, but there is the Tools with a Mission charity or our local Freecycle which we have put things on before.

Vera, dad is nearly 86 and has great plans to put up collages of pictures on the hall wall. he has bought another fruit machine to repair and resell and still ha a jukebox to finish.

He has finished making a well in the garden and paved the ground over.

The day he stops repairing and fixing will be the day he passes sadly :-(

I should imagine tools, screws etc would be welcomed by the local 'Man Sheds'.

Strangely I have just had a conversation with my OH along these lines:

Him: I am going to work in the garage. I need to sort out all those jars of screws and things

Me: Well, I think we ought to have a good clear out and declutter the garage. It's not fair to leave it for the kids to do when we go.

Him: They'll probably just dump most of it at the tip.

Me: So why can't we do that gradually over the next couple of months and save them the job.

Him: Well, some of it might still come in handy.

Ever had the feeling you are going round in ever decreasing circles? Apparently we now have another jar on the shelves. This one now contains bolts that don't have matching nuts! Give me strength. He is coming up 86. How much more diy is he going to do?

I suppose without someone else's 'clutter' a lot of museums would not have so much to show us.

Ann, one of my nephews is 'into' genealogy - and a grandchild may be interested in the future.
Otherwise, the local Records Office, various museums etc may show an interest.

I've already sent a couple of things that belonged to my mother's husband off to museums - after asking his family if they wanted them (they didn't).

Having now sorted all of mums things which has taken 8 months, I now do worry about father's things as he not only has his own stuff(hoards of it) but everything my grandparents had as he is an only child and he just wrapped all their china etc and stored it in the attic. he has never sorted any photos, letters, docs so the enormity of what's to follow is already a nightmare especially when you live 900 miles away.

Trouble is, my grandparents had lovely furniture but as much as i would dearly love to keep say the welsh dresser, I simply do not have space in this house!

When the time comes, I will have to go down for 3 months at a time and just painstakingly declutter bit by bit.....what a thought.

But apart from my daughter, son wouldn't be interested in old things so who do I give things to? Its a house of history as Maggie said from 1911 to present day but also, my grandparents have their family history from before that too like their parents so a huge task to deal with.

At least all my things are in order :-)

Florence in the hebrides

I accumulated boxes in the loft for items bought that needed to be returned in their original packaging in case of problems under the guarantees

We needed to clear the loft because we were having the house electrics rewired and it was omg why do we have all this crap in the loft on a just in case needed basis

Many of the boxes were for items long gone anyway !

I say i.m not a hoarder but in fact it’s surprising how much I do keep “just in case “ and
“ too good to throw away “

But !! After a year I did suddenly say I,m ready to sort out hubby’s clothes and give to charity which I know he would have absolutely wanted

Definitely not clutter Maggie. Who will keep it after you have gone?

My granny was a hoarder :-S
My mum and I were interested in genealogy.
We threw a lot out when gran died, but some stuff couldn't be thrown out
Mum took some stuff, I took a little.
Mum died. I ended up with everything.

By 'everything' I mean love letters between my grandparents, letters my great uncles sent during the war. Birthday and Christmas cards - one dating back to 1872,. I have menus from the SS Empire Windrush (my parents and brother came back on this), menus from SS Devonshire :-S

I've also got the tea set my g grandad brought back from China for his sister, my g grans Victorian piano stool, my gran's HMV gramophone, g gran's home-made sewing table.
True, there are boundless postcards, 78 gramophone records - but they go well with my (not working) bakelite radio, and my art deco bed.

I thought I'd lost the Astrakan collar and fox fur granny had (I don't approve - but they're there) when I moved, but it seems my daughter took them for me, and can't wait to bring them back!!

Add to that my own collection of tin toys, old bottles and books - this isn't clutter - it's history! :-D

Well with the chargers Rose, I have not really got any idea what they are for, although I did find a spare phone charger for my Iphone so that was good. Basically they sit there while various members of the family dig around if they need one. and yes there are keyboards, at least one of those found a home when one grandson visited recently.

As it is all in what was his office I usually forget it all exists but every so often........

Sylvia, sounds like a very interesting basement :-)

We have 7 small filing cabinets courtesy of Dan's work office who were having a refit amd sold them at a pittance to anyone who wanted some ( proceeds to charity) , plus 2 cabinets ( 1 in the garage one in the house) which is fine as they are useful, but they've filled the gaps that would have given us more space. And because he worked from home through covid and can do so now at times, he has a stand up motorised desk for the work monitors etc, in his room which he refers to as "The hovel" , it isn't actually, it's very tidy, but quite full.

I have books that I'm loathe to get rid of ................ I re-read with the idea of passing the book on, but then put it back on the shelf!

But worse of all ......... I have trouble negotiating the basement area that is OH's office.

He had 5 (FIVE) offices on the university campus when he officially retired at the end of 2003. He was then asked to stay on mainly unpaid but also every now and again becoming "interim something-or-other" for pay, until he was finally asked to give up his last office in 2018.

Every time he closed an office, there was furniture (desk, chairs, filing cabinets, etc) as well as files, books and papers to be moved somewhere. At the beginning it was from one office to another, but gradually the available space got winnowed down and it began to come home ............. not just the files and books but filing cabinets and boxes of ?????. Luckily he didn't bring a desk home, but he did bring home a very nice desk chair that we had bought. He wasn't "stealing" anything from the university, because the things that came home had been bought many years before on special money from outside and the university did not want them.

But the worse came when a) he was asked to write a history of the Botany Dept. and then a history of the Science Faculty, b) he was asked to write a history of the Botanical Garden, and c) he was asked to go through all the files left by a very productive faculty member whose assistant had saved at least 5 copies of every draft of every paper or book the prof had written.

Some of that stuff went back as he finished with it, but there's still one heck of a lot down there, and there is little space to walk.

I keep asking him to get rid of it, or who do I phone to come and collect it!

Then there is the workshop area, with his tools, his father's tools, a circular saw, etc etc etc.

Or the storage shelves with our stuff, extra glasses, crockery and whatever, as well as still some of the daughter's left behinds ................ There may even be some of our university books or work books, or even a few 6th form essays, etc :-0

We won't even mention the clothes that I have tucked away at the back to the closet that are so far out of fashion it isn't funny or that haven't fitted me in many years, but they still have a meaning to me! I have been pretty good over the years about getting rid of clothes, but these ...................

One of my siblings used to hoard everything, it drove our Mum mad as she ran out of cupboard space to store it all.