throwing stuff away - help!

Well it makes sense to me Jess - if you can tone all the other muscles in the body, why not the facial ones.
Botox and fillers are a step too far for me

jane I think Eva F's methods probably work if you can be bothered. There are a lot of little muscles in the face and all of them seem to sag with age.

Bags I can so sympathise with your DH's feelings about books as I also grew up in a house with few books.I had a tome called 'Childens Everything Within'.which my mum got by saving coupons from 'News Chronicle' I read it from cover to cover many times.My DD1 now has it -on lifelong loan!

janeainsworthMy copy of 'Eva Fraser's Facial Workshop' was the large A4 size with good illustrations.I thought it very good -we had lots of laughs from it in various women's workshops.
I see it is now available as a DVD.
I might troll the charity shops to see if I can find a copy of the book or DVD.

solver!

Thanks for the tip about Barbara Kinslover, btw. I'll check her out.

He hasn't put anything in the space that the fat Latin dictionary took up yet. This feat clearly needs a lot of thought.

Meanwhile, whenever DDs 1 and 2 visit I urge them to borrow lots of books on lifelong loan, then if DH asks where they are, I can just say one of the DDs has borrowed them. So long as he knows they still belong to us he's allright

The thing is, he grew up in a house with no books. His mother couldn't even read and his father struggled with very basic stuff. DH said that when he discovered that he could join a library and borrow books his whole life changed. So I can understand why he feels so possessive about books.

Maniac What did you think of Eva Fraser's facial workout? I have been tempted for some time but not got round to doing anything about it.

Mine are on kindle. Fantastic writer. Not read The Bean Tree yet - maybe one to get for my forthcoming travels.

JessM I gave away Eva Fraser's 'Facial Workout' some time ago in one of my declutterings. Need it more now!
Notice you are a fan of Barbara Kingsolver.So am I. Can't find my copies of 'The Bean tree','Pigs in Heaven'and 'The Prodigal Summer'. I would never have given them away .

always difficult parting with books isn't it. I had about 8 dictionaries of quotations and it was hard to pare those down.
I am getting a bit concerned that DH thinks we will have no problem with taking stuff to N Wales. I moved 12 times in 13 years during my first marriage and have no illusions about just how much stuff there is when you move. We will be moving into a much smaller rental house for a while. I can envisage the mounds of boxes and black plastic bags with nowhere to put them and i can see he is not.

Jess
Yesterday I found my Latin/english dictionary from grammar school -70 yrs ago!!
I spent most of Easter Monday helping my son and my exH sort all the books and stuff stored in son's garage for last 3 years since ex gave up his flat and went into care home.Now moving to a new care home in Cheshire near to DD2 and so had to decide what if anything he wanted to keep.
It was mostly tools,pictures,kitchen stuff and loads of books
Almost entirely non-fiction books related to his career and interests -
music,religion,psychotherapy,counselling,art,history etc etc.
many huge tomes -dictionaries,encyclopaedias and reference books sadly most of them now redundant in the computer age.
We managed to reduce them to 3 small boxes to go with him - my son will
send the rest to charity shops and car boot sales.
Quite an emotional day for the three of us.

How funny Bags - i had my agonising moments over spanish dictionaries. Just how many does a woman need? But happy to find a welsh one, which I did need.
My best "find" yet has been my orthotic shoe inserts. Sore "glutes" much improved already. I have been struggling on for months without them - they were in a shoebox...

Only got rid of one book bags ??

It's going to take a while then

Even DH has realised at last that we need more bookshelves and that one way to get more book space is to get rid of some books that we never use. He gave away an ancient Latin dictionary recently. We still have several.

It's a start!!!

He might need a few years to recover though...

Am busy packing up boxes of assorted "treasures" for DD2 and DGD2 who are planning a car boot sale. Then at least they can chuck whatever is left over! We used to freecycle, but it cluttered up the inbox and drove us mad. I have some good old china, of which my daughters will only want an odd piece because it was Granny's. Do you suppose the National Trust would like it to "dress" some of their barer houses?

Hope your wool was ok,JessM, bought bag of wool from charity shop only to find it was a moth's take-away. You cant knit much with wool that is only inches long!

A local charity that run an arts centre have flea market once a month. An indoor carboot I suppose. Who would want to go to an outdoor carboot in this weather. they seem to open at the crack of dawn as well. So I thought i would go along, pay my £5 and see if I can sell some stuff. You are right about not buying though - i went into a charity shop lats week to look for a book for MIL and came out with a carrier bag full of knitting wool. [shame]

What fun,JessM. will you have a stall or are you just browsing? If you're browsing, don't be tempted to add to you collection !

It's true you never know. Well if there are old things anyway.
Alas I think there is only the one book worth £15 in my "chuck" pile. But I am thinking of trying selling some of them on Amazon when I come back from my travels. Also I have a flea market planned next saturday.

The point about sending your''rubbish'' to auction is that all the £15 add up .Six like your Three Men in a Boat ,JessM , adds up to nearly £100. The Auctioneers also put several related small items together in one ''lot''. people like these because, as witnessed on Antiques Roadshow more than once , there may be something like a little Faberge lurking!

Go for it tegan - I know what you mean. I think that sadness is part of the reason I tend not to think about the past.

I threw a lot of old calendars out last year as I found looking at them made me feel sad [childrens parties etc]. In fact, I burned them in the incinerator. I sometimes find that easier then shredding or recycling. Three Men in Boat. Wonderful book, that [along with Diary of a Nobody]. Was hoping that I could have more time to read old books/watch unwatched dvd's when I cut my working hours but, not only not being allowed to cut my hours but being made to work extra ones due to so many people leaving/being off sick. Am most disgruntled by this. But will now join you in a spot of decluttering. By Tuesday morning this house will be unrecgognisable.

I thought i had found a first edition of Three Men in a Boat. Well I had, but being a best seller it appears to be worth a magnificent £15 or so. And that first penguin edition of Lady Chatterley. Again - they sold so many it would only be worth something if in pristine condition, and then probably not much.
Second hand possessions rarely worth something are they. Antiques Roadshow very misleading. They show us the best 10 things out of about 500.

Second lot of stuff from the roof went off with the Auctioneer today. Not expecting so much from this collection. Sad thing is , when all is said and done,the amount raised would only keep one or other of us in a care home for a few weeks! Ah well!

Ahh Jess ...Diaries. There's a conundrum. I'm having similar thoughts about what to do with mine, which sound similar, with the addition of bits and bobs about the weather.
I've come to the conclusion that I won't take mine with me when we move. I trust that anything worth remembering will be remembered. Leap of faith. I'll start again in the new place.
Keep the faxes.