Feeling a bit daft today

MissAdventure

Barrow Manilow?

Im letting my old barrow just rot away it is 60plus as i played with it when a kid. It has herbs and aubretia. I also stick cuttings in and they uaually grow. Ive yet to name my barrow.

Oh how I feel for you! I find it so hard to part with things. We are almost as the stage of being morbidly cluttered so you can't navigate the house. A friend helped me clear out a few years ago and it was great. She had no sentimental attachment and was able to see objectively. Labelled boxes for various destinations: Dump/Charity/ even compost !! and things I really refused to part with she helped me tidy away. I think my children will bring in the house clearers when we finally depart with a skip outside.

Overthehills, I did go and buy some bras today. Bought 4, so 3 are going out

We have a very wonky wooden table outside. There is moss between the lengths of wood that make the top of it. It's in front of the garden bench so useful for putting drinks on. It is long overdue to be replaced but my late uncle made it over 30 years ago and I sort of inherited it. I can't part with it.

Tegan.. why don't you use Matilda as feature in your garden
you could hang flowerpots from the frame or the handlebars something like this

feelitcool.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/1340.jpg
I hope the link comes through.

After reading a thread on here I went and bought some new bras Auntieflo. Neither fitted so they’re going back - maybe after all this about getting rid of things I’ll just hold on to the old old ones - I wouldn’t want to upset myself ...

I shall post on here when my best cardie goes to the bin and will expect a 2 minutes silence to be observed. Parting with the wheel barrow is a wrench.

Buy yourself a bright new one. Mine’s yellow and it stands in pride of place opposite our back door, next to the bins. Always cheers me to see it.

It's easy to get replacements but not so easy to get rid of the things you are replacing! I have a cupboard full of pretty teapots without lids and cups without saucers......some saucers without cups but they don't match up! It seems so heartless to throw them away. I still love them. I like to see it as Wabi- Sabi......the Japanese way of seeing beauty in imperfections.

Our generation repaired and continued using household items. Today's generation is a throw away society. If it breaks replace it. So they don't have the emotional connections that we do. I have managed to wean myself and if something isn't working properly or efficiently I will replace it. But i do wonder if getting rid of something old and decrepit hits a bit of a nerve because we are getting old and facing getting a bit decrepit ourselves!

Auntieflo, I'm with you all the way. Yet again it's 'things' but it's the memories they evoke rather than the item. Long may we have human emotions even over inanimate objects. It's irreplaceable so don't bother trying but cherish the memories. Lucky us who have them.

It might seem like an old and now useless wheelbarrow but think of the memories - all the lifting, planting etc. No doubt you feel that you are parting with those too - but they are still with you.
I've got my dear late husband's old Black & Decker Workmate in the shed - it's got paint spatters on it and takes up space. I rarely use it - yet I can't bring myself to part with it. Maybe I'll use it as a plant stand if I ever get a conservatory. It's not very aesthetically pleasing but still.

Make Matilda a feature in your garden. My next door neighbour is growing ivy around her old bike.

I am ' letting him go' . The other day I cleared the space where he had lived for ages, of all the accumulated leaves etc, but after all these nice comments, it got me thinking. Of course he had feelings. He came from a nice family background, where he had been well looked after, until recently! I think he is now in a comfy corner at the tip, taking all other discarded wheelbarrows (and bicycles) under his wonky wheel and giving them the benefit of his wisdom. Then when they get called to the recycling machine, they go knowing they will be re-invented as a nice piece of shiny new steel? or something. Forgive me this morning, I'm off to gird my loins and see if I can find some new bras to fit me. They may even come with recycled underwiring ?

Tegan, round my way there are charities that take old bikes and get young people who have been in trouble to repair and make them over, as part of a rehabilitation thing, for both the kids and the bikes.
That might be an option for Matilda

I don't blame him for wanting to go back to Cornwall; I tried to get back there for nearly 40 years before I resigned myself to having to live somewhere else ...[he's blue but, unlike Matilda, doesn't have his name on his side....] I think Matilda is going to end up in a corner of the garden. I asked my ex today if he wanted to give her a home but he says he's trying to cut back on his two wheeled vehicle collection.

Are you sure he was stolen, Tegan? Perhaps he ran back to Cornwall. I live in Devon, next door to Cornwall so could look out for him if you could give me a description...

Yes, take Matilda to the tip with the wheelbarrow. Tell the man at the tip that they need rehoming together, not to separate them.

Matilda was the replacement for Socrates who I bought all the way back to Birmingham from Cornwall only for him to be stolen when I left him outside a phone box I was in ...

I have become a very hard woman and over the last 5 years I have 'moved on' more items than I can remember. DH has found it very difficult and mourns for everything he realises is no longer there. I am having to become ever more cunning now that I have moved my attentions to his study, his shed and the garage. We are about to have the outside electrics rewired and the garage needs to be tidied before the electricians can get on with the job. The garage contains many items we do not use, for example we have housed a roof box for over 30 years during which time it has never seen the light of day. I organised for that to be moved on last week and the gardener took it away in his trailer for his 'friend' who just happens to be someone who works in the local tip which he uses regularly due to his line of work. I made sure that DH found the keys for it so you never know but someone may well be glad to make use of it. DH said he would really miss Rufus the roof box!

Tegan2, big mistake to humanise objects by naming them. It makes final partings even harder. I was only saying that to Bobby Bosch the other day.

I had a pang when the washing machine was replaced a week ago. A faithful friend for seventeen and a half years. But like wheelbarrows, washing machines don't have feelings. We need to get a grip! I will if you will.

AuntieFlo.....Let It Go ?
Have a large G&T and raise your glass to an old friend ( aka
The wheelbarrow) and as soon as possible buy a new one, which hopefully will see you out.

I have a yellow bike called Matilda that has lived in the garden shed for nearly 40 years. My ex bought it for me when we lived in Manchester when he was a student and he and his friend did it up for me [it was at the time when we all though it would be impossible to travel anywhere; can't remember the reason...anyway, bikes were like gold dust at the time]. She's now been moved into the garden and is rotting away. She isn't even smart enough to put outside the house in case the Tour de Whatever passesthis way. She has to go to the tip. But I can't quite bring myself to do it. By the way...she's currently leaning on [you guessed it] our old wheelbarrow...[maybe they can go together [sob]...]