Stuff And Spong

I've felt this post coming on for a while and was spurred on by Steve's post on stuff.

As some of you know, I like to muse about stuff.

Sometimes stuff and nonsense.

Sometimes stuff and spong.


For anyone who is bemused by the word "spong", I direct you to another, earlier, post of mine (rather a personal favourite).
And I would urge you to begin using this engaging and all-but indispensable word.


Anyway, my current musings about stuff are related to the ongoing* (um..... in the sense of still existing, not in the sense of anything happening in a 'going' sort of way...) plans for decoration of our dining room.



I did start stripping off wallpaper in July, workload declining, full of summer zest and energy.

I did foresee that this would be a project requiring some months.... given the way things go in our household (use of 'go' related to 'ongoing', see above*).

I did think that I'd have made a bit more progress by now, but






















(end of strategic empty space)

Any old 'ow - and heres where the Stuff And Spong comes in - I have made significant progress since the summer with a complete clear out of The Cupboard.

We have too much storage space in our kitchen and dining room. Way too much for hoarders.

The dining room has a Very Large Victorian Cupboard which has been full of all sorts of old stuff and nonsense. And Spong.


The top shelves (too large and too inaccessible) have been groaning for lo, these many years past, with:

never-used childrens' party ware;
scarcely used pasta-machine;
more cake tins than we would ever use at one time;
milk-shake-maker which worked for about 3 days;
little Ikea box full of drawers containing candles, night-lights, pastry cutters, old (or are they new?) batteries, assorted spong;
wine-making kit;
flasks;
dyeing equipment;
mystery plastic cutlery, don't know how it got there, ever ready to fall on your head;
old plastic containers which might come in handy one day;
other less interesting and less useful items.


you get the picture?
here is a picture:



In addition to the old, out-of-date, never-will-be-used and simply useless, this cupboard also contains way too much crockery. We have recently inherited my parents' Greenwheat dinner service. I love this crockery, I grew up with it and am very happy to have and use it.

But we now have 27 large dinner plates.
Does anybody need that many?



SO

* lots of bags have gone to charity shops, recycling, rubbish collection
* bits and pieces have gone to friends and family of the easily-persuadable variety
* some Stuff is cluttering up the study waiting to be given to friends with small children (watch out oh watch out friends with small children)
*some Stuff is waiting in the study (also clutterwise) to be given to local primary school



There was Stuff which my family were happy to pass on.



There was Stuff about which they were given no option, and of which they remain ignorant.
There are no pictures of such Stuff.


There was Stuff which M. was unwilling to part with last time I cleared out, but which he was now quite happy to pass on:

:o/


There was Stuff which I thought we could get rid of, but which other members of the family wanted to keep:



(should have put this in the "no option/Ignorance" bag. Its NEVER been used)
(do you know what it is?)


I'd have taken more pics. but i was having too much fun playing loud music and being ruthless.


So, here is our newly sorted, emptied, re-classified and altogether more spacious Cupboard:




Beneath these capacious cupboards are two drawers, and then two smaller cupboards.
These little cupboards contained much spong and at least one slug - discovered, during the process of the clear-out, squished beneath my knee.

I am still in recovery.


The trauma was mitigated, however, by the most precious and unexpected find of the day - in amongst some bags and boxes and piles of LG's drawing-sticking-colouring-cutting-painting-sparklythings-collage-creative past:


This is now in the garden, adorning the fence near my girl-shed and frog-pond.


The cupboards currently house the contents of our china cabinet which, now being empty, can be moved - in order to continue stripping wallpaper.


So you see, there is method in my Stuff and Spong.










(what a lot of words. My musings about Stuff always produce a lot of words. I suppose its something to do with the nature of Stuff... and Spong....)

(the drawer-spong which featured in that earlier post is now, once again, encroaching. The kitchen was not part of my rather half-hearted springJune-cleaning... Question: will the mice find it? will they find it appetizing?)