Entertainment For Lively Minds
Where's your stash?
I've finally relegated my CD collection (in alphabetical order, natch) to the loft. Discounting my 5:1 surround system and my car, I no longer have anything handy to play my CD's on as I've uploaded the lot. I have Mr Jobs finest now playing my tunes. But as they got hauled up there I've realised that they now join my ever-growing hoard of stuff that I call "stuff".
There's the first 10 copies of Q mag. My original Action Man from 1971 (including British Army uniform). Oh, look, over there are my videos...loads of stuff off the TV (the first airing of Woodstock on Channel 4 in it's first week of being on the air - they didn't have enough sponsers and so cut to an ad break with just a blank screen and after a few minutes went back to the film). I haven't got a working VCR. In another box, my cassettes - band demo's, 1978 Yes in Concert, family Xmas 1974 recorded by my dad. I haven't got a working cassette player.
It's all up there - books, school stuff, the original newspapers when Lennon got shot, photographs, old love letters...but why do I keep it? I never look at it - what will become of it once I've shuffled off? Will it just all be binned anyway??
What have you found "up there"? Do you have a, ahem, "clear out" every so often?
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From the last days of VHS
I have the Ken Burns Jazz box set. It's wonderful, but I'll never watch it again. It's worthless.
Get rid of it? Nah.
I love my loft
Don't tell the wife, but it's starting to become a treasure trove of lovely bric brac. (She doesn't like climbing the ladder so she'll never know)
"Lovely bric brac"...?
If this is what I think it is, stop it or you'll go blind.
And in a loft as well.
I think about this too - with very little storage room....
I do occasionally have a look through old diaries and bits and bobs. I'm a bit of a hoarder and as I was in a band or two so I have the old memo's of that stuff too.
But when we do shuffle off this mortal coil will the grandkids be happy chucking in an old hard drive or would they like to rummage through the pile of 'junk' that was actually mine?
I hope it is the latter and in the meantime it's still there for me when I fancy a rummage.
Rummaging is good
My CDs and music DVDs are now stored in the attic but are easily accesible - when I have the occasional rummage it is a few minutes well spent.
My next challenge is the film DVDs and TV boxsets.
Old album
I found an old album in my Mum's loft last week. It was obviously my Dad's and it was full of postcards. Some dated back to 1920 (that's what the postmark said). Scans of the same things would have been easier to flick through but it wouldn't have been the same. I'm sure your children will feel the same.
we have a very tidy and fairly empty loft
annual clearouts are rigorously enforced by Mrs BP. My vinyl and record deck are still hanging on.
I wish Mrs Wheaty was the same
Clearouts are not a priority despite occasional reminders that it is all her stuff that prevents other things she wants to keep being kept.
I try not to keep stuff
One box of letters, a few photo albums, a minidisc to remind me of the car stereo that I ran over all by myself, and the spectacularly huge nuts and bolts that were used to rebuild my broken leg. At Christmas, if anyone asks me what I would like, I ask for either chocolate, a bottle, or a book. The chocolate and bottles usually last about 48 hours, the books are read then taken to Oxfam.
There is a big old crate of CDs in the loft, next to the sledge (mine from Christmas 1983) and fairy lights. I once found a tupperware box up there, labelled "batteries". I investigated, and found it to be full of AA batteries, each with a little stripe of tippex, upon which was written the word "DEAD". Needless to say, this didn't belong to me.
Rosebud?
?
Definitely not Rosebud
After a unfortunate interface last winter of said wooden sledge, mulled wine, a steep hill, a snowy ramp, a high kerb, a chiropractor and me, I have decided to call it Bindweed.
Crap
We've got two lofts and both are quite full of crap. We moved house twice in fairly quick succession but it seems to have multiplied again. This thread has prompted me to have a purge. I keep sentimental value stuff but anything like books, old VHS tapes etc has long gone to the charity shop or Freecycle. Not entirely sure what's up there. Hold my coat...I'm going in.
We've been fighting the battle of the loft this year.
anything of any value (like your action man) went on ebay. Anything not worth the effort of trying to sell (ie too expensive to post or only worth a quid) went to charity or the skip - we made a reasonable amount which was very welcome for spending on donkey rides this summer hols. Ive had a good clear out of cds only keeping the ones I went to the effort of putting onto the Ipod. We are even selling off baby stuff at local NCT sales, as our girls grow out of things, which gives a bit of cash to them and some to us. Its been quite cathartic in its own way and the money has been a help. Stuff is just stuff at the end of the day. Mind you there is still plenty more in there..
I must be the odd one out
I have just spent stupid ££££'s on a cd shelving system and desk and basically turned a bedroom into a music room/study. As far as I am concerned it is a thing of great beauty and leaves me growing room to add to the cd collection. Mind you anymore shopping trips like the one with El Toro on saturday and my spare capacity will be buggered.
To be fair before we had children...
that was my spare room. (Although my shelves were IKEA, sob)
Two lofts Nigel
We built an extension 18 years ago and have 2 lofts - where do I start? Every Mojo ever, every Q since no 8. Hi Fi boxes, suitcases, tools, camping gear, baby stuff ( my kids are 24 & 28...yes, yes, I know), toys galore (including some of mine), Brown Owl's Brownie stuff for pack holidays, paint, wood.....get the picture?
Maybe you could convince Mr
Maybe you could convince Mr Chairman who started this thread to donate his first 8 issues of Q to you
He clears some space and you now have a full set.
Yes!
I spotted that too! I somehow think that Mrs. NigelT would prefer that I provided issue 8 to date to Mr. Chairman...!!
Shit my loft contains..
Lots of crap purchased on eBay which I smuggled into the house. Mrs L will go batshit if she finds some of the stuff. The three large-scale models of WW2 battleships are particular crackers..
Boxes of invoices and paperwork which one has to retain in case The Revenue comes knocking.
Camping stuff.
Fancy-dress stuff.
Some binliners filled with clothes which Mrs L insists are important.
Mrs L's wedding dress.
Two pairs of skis which I refuse to chuck.
Attic, of course...
...all the above, plus old computers, boxes of leads, hubs, chargers, defunct hard disks etc, books, unmade Airfix kits from my second childhood phase, my dad's stamp collection, kids' toys, bags and bags of clothes...and then there's the storage space, containing far too many books, CDs, vinyl, several guitars...I don't have a problem any more with getting rid of any of it (though I'd like to make a bit of money here and there), but I tend to fluctuate between can't be arsed and having no time.
Heirlooms and junk
as defined earlier this year. http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/star-hits
We got rid of all nearly everything, including my 200 issues of Q and all our old cassettes. I can't say I've missed any of it. There's a double layer of insulation where my LPs used to lie rotting in a box, and I think on balance it's a better use of the space.
My shame
Booked the guy to come and lag the loft under the Government grant scheme. Told the surveyor I'd clear most of the crap so he quoted on that basis. Of course I couldn't be arsed, so he has now laid lovely thick insulation everywhere except an island of old shit in boxes in the middle. Pathetic.
Electronics and bits of wood.
There's a half-finished clone of an old Fender 5E3 Tweed Deluxe guitar amp up in mine. The PCB's done, and about 2/3 of the wiring, and most of the cabinet. It's been there for two years, after I ran out of summer holiday.
There are also a few spare guitar pedals which survived my cull of three years or so ago. My ABY amp switcher, my Big Muff and a couple of half-rack Boss boxes. An off-brand but rather cool speaker cabinet from the late 60s. My soldering stuff. Old bits of long-expired computer from my PC days.
Other than that it's luggage, dining chairs from the set we got as a wedding present and have never yet had space for, and endless clothes belonging to Mrs B and the Boblets. If I had my way, all the clothes would go, barring a handful of the cutest Bobletwear. That'd save us about half the loft. Oh, and my CDs. I should just get rid, in bulk. I'll never play them again, and haven't done since we moved in, in 2005.