Does this bring back memories?

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Vonny
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Re: Does this bring back memories?

Post by Vonny »

ColeridgeA40 wrote:I have a bar of soap from my days with the Civil Service with the Crown on it ( & HMSO) from when I used to work at The Land Registry at Lincoln's Inn Fields in London; as a Cartographic assistant (Clerical Officer grade) we were allowed 5 minutes at the end of each day to wash our hands from the ink stains. We were issued with a bar of soap every three months and if you were frugal, you could stockpile soap!
They are still just as tight!
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sejintenej
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Re: Does this bring back memories?

Post by sejintenej »

Vonny, please excuse me but I might appear just as tight.

A while ago a sum of money was left to an NHS (un)Trust for the benefit of staff. Alledgedly it was used to specially print paper napkins for use at a senior management meal (can't remember if it was an alcoholic luncheon or a dinner.) OK so I suppose they were staff but ................... (they won't get a brass farthing from me)
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
Fjgrogan
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Re: Does this bring back memories?

Post by Fjgrogan »

I am definitely tight in terms of not throwing stuff away - I have too many clothes, shoes etc, but many of them are dozens of years old and still usable, because I buy boring classics which will go with anything and not go out of fashion. I cannot go out of fashion, because I have never been in it! It makes decluttering a big headache. I blame it on the Guide law - a Guide is thrifty - and the fact that I was born at the end of World War Two when things were in short supply and everyone had to make do and mend - nowadays we call it recycling, so perhaps my personal ethos is back in fashion after all (the Wombles were definitely ahead of their time!). However I recently did an inventory of my wardrobe and am ashamed to say that I own several dozen T-shirts, most of which represent something in my life, rather than having been bought as items of clothing - perhaps just as well because as I get older and go out less frequently I am able to live in T-shirts and trousers most of the time without thinking about what to wear. I don't have stocks of civil service soap, but I do have in the loft a number of inefficient vaccuum cleaners - I always keep the old one just in case the new one packs up and there is something to fall back on! There are frequent cries from my daughters of 'Get a skip, Mum!' and eventually I will, but meanwhile I am too busy reading books on decluttering and getting organised! However I am stockpiling fewer books these days - I use my new hudl to find books and just read the free samples, or I borrow from our local community arts centre, which has a book swap shelf, and return them when I have finished with them - mostly! I would use the local library, but I recently lost a card case which contained among others my library card (and my B&Q diamond card) and I haven't yet got around to replacing them - it's on the ever-increasing 'to do' list. Thinks! Is there any call for a decluttering topic on this forum - surely I am not the only person battling between getting organised and preserving one's heritage!?
Frances Grogan (Haley) 6's 1956 - 62

'A clean house is a sign of a broken computer.'
michael scuffil
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Re: Does this bring back memories?

Post by michael scuffil »

For things which might be 'useful' (appliances that still work but which we don't use) we have a limbo, in which they are allowed to remain for a year. If we haven't missed them by then, we throw them out. Clothes I never throw out until they fall apart. I have thrown books out and later regretted it, so now I'm more careful: nowadays I make the decision on the spot -- if I think it's rubbish after the first reading, out it goes. If I don't, I wouldn't throw it out just because I haven't looked at it for a year or five. I went through personal papers a few years back, and reduced them to five file boxes which I labelled archive.
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LongGone
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Re: Does this bring back memories?

Post by LongGone »

Our local dump has a swap shed. Anything you don't need, but might be of use is left there for anyone to take. There is a limit of how many items can be taken at once, to avoid commercial outfits from cleaning it out.
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DavidRawlins
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Re: Does this bring back memories?

Post by DavidRawlins »

I had always hoped that the local record office would take my papers. They seem strangely reluctant. I have about 3 filing cabinets full, and the financial items in the attic. They will be valuable in one to two hundred years time. I am sacrificing myself for future generations.
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eucsgmrc
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Re: Does this bring back memories?

Post by eucsgmrc »

DavidRawlins wrote:I had always hoped that the local record office would take my papers. They seem strangely reluctant. I have about 3 filing cabinets full ...
I hope we have digressed from the original topic of this thread. Otherwise, I feel that their reluctance would have some justification.
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sejintenej
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Re: Does this bring back memories?

Post by sejintenej »

LongGone wrote:Our local dump has a swap shed. Anything you don't need, but might be of use is left there for anyone to take. There is a limit of how many items can be taken at once, to avoid commercial outfits from cleaning it out.
In the UK it is actually illegal to "sort over" anything at the dump but there are private exchange / swap internet arrangements in some areas and there are the ubiquitous charity shops which will take reasonable items

I understand that at least in one city in Germany on specified dates you can leave things on the pavement and if they haven't been appropriated by the evening the council removes them
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
michael scuffil
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Re: Does this bring back memories?

Post by michael scuffil »

Until a few years ago, most German cities had a monthly or three-monthly collection of 'bulky waste', and it was normal to scout around for useful stuff. Once I picked up a 1950s table, an exquisite period piece, and the woman who'd put it out said she was so glad it was finding a new home. There is (or was) a museum in Wuppertal of valuable or curious stuff put out as rubbish.

This system has been replaced by one where you have to make an appointment for the collection of bulky waste. Some councils have by-laws forbidding its removal by anyone else (as they hope to profit from it), but these by-laws (like all others in Germany) are rarely/weakly enforced.
Th.B. 27 1955-63
Chris T
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Re: Does this bring back memories?

Post by Chris T »

I lived in the USA for some years in a middle class residential area. There were two designated days a year called 'Spring Clean-Up' and 'Fall Clean-Up' when anything could be left outside to be picked up by the garbage collectors, who used a large open truck for the purpose. This was especially useful to rid oneself of old/broken washing machines, refrigerators, large pieces of furniture, etc. The 'Sanitation Dept' kindly timed its 'Clean-Up' rounds to start in the evening and it was acceptable to wander round and help oneself. So I was able to ‘re-home’ some small tables, a cabinet, etc, all in excellent condition. Because the USA (then and in that region) was virtually 100% a consumer society, almost anything second-hand and mundane had effectively no value. For a Brit this was a great aid in balancing my budget.

Therefore this eminently sensible practice is not only followed in Germany.
ColeridgeA40
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Re: Does this bring back memories?

Post by ColeridgeA40 »

on the sub-subject of not throwing things away - I used my School swimming trunks the other day - the elastic still works! Well done John Lewis (we had to buy sports wear from them you may remember). I love the comment by Frances, sounds just like my attic.
michael scuffil
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Re: Does this bring back memories?

Post by michael scuffil »

I still have my CH blue cravat and occasionally wear it, and I still use my shoebrush, pokerworked by my father with my name and house number. While the house provided 'blackers' and 'polishers', it was the received opinion that polishers were no good, and I pressured my parents to buy me one.

But CH swimming trunks? Ugh. They were (even by the standards of those days) horribly scratchy.
Th.B. 27 1955-63
sejintenej
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Re: Does this bring back memories?

Post by sejintenej »

ColeridgeA40 wrote:on the sub-subject of not throwing things away - I used my School swimming trunks the other day - the elastic still works! Well done John Lewis (we had to buy sports wear from them you may remember). I love the comment by Frances, sounds just like my attic.
I've still got my rugby stockings though I think there might be a hole somewhere (not to worry - I learned how to darn a sock at school when I was six. A year later it was embridery though the cloth was preprinted!)
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
Fjgrogan
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Re: Does this bring back memories?

Post by Fjgrogan »

Yes - I too still have and use my school shoe cleaning brushes. And I love the thought of a 6-year-old boy learning to darn socks - must try that one on my grandson. I dearly wish that the overload of clutter was confined to just the loft, but it is actually taking over the house and garden. Somewhere amongst it is no doubt the darning mushroom which was on the kit list when I started at Hertford - the handle unscrews to store needles inside when we had finished darning our thick lisle stockings - I doubt whether there were any other girls in the country in the late 1950s wearing such outmoded garments! Perhaps they are due to come back into fashion soon?! I really do intend to start shifting stuff from the loft so that I can move stuff from the house up there. Unfortunately my son-in-law decided to be helpful and instal a proper loft ladder (bless him - he meant well) and I now have difficulty getting up and down to and from the loft because the rungs are too far apart for my short and ageing legs! I have a postcard on my wall which says 'Keep calm - old is the new young!' - I have my doubts about that idea!
Frances Grogan (Haley) 6's 1956 - 62

'A clean house is a sign of a broken computer.'
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