h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've done some of the dusting, does that count? When I was fall cleaning last September, I wrenched my shoulder moving a big pot when I straightened a cupboard, and my excuse this Spring is I don't want to hurt myself again. I'll get to it one of these days, maybe!

hello Barneys Bucksaws - pleased to meet you! I agree, dust can always wait another while longer. Unless you have rude guests who sign their name in it.

Lanzababy

Barney's Bucksaws! How nice to see you around this corner of the Internet! It's been way too long.

My housekeeping skills are woefully rusty. I really don't care much.

Witty Moniker - its great to "see" you again!

I don't seem to have time for spring cleaning - I'm just too busy enjoying retirement, and life in a new community! I don't know when I found time to work.

I know exactly what you mean, Barney -I'm on maternity leave and suddenly I have a social life!

Main thing I like about spring cleaning is chucking stuff away and finding stuff I'd forgotten I owned.

Main thing I don't like is ruefully putting something back in the cupboard/attic/garage and reprieving it for another year "just in case", in the *almost* certain knowledge that I'm never, ever going to use it again but not being able to be bothered to find a suitable home for it (I'm looking at you, three grand's worth of windsurfing gear > )

The main thing I find is that it takes until the clocks change before I can be bothered to do anything vaguely outdoorsish at home after work. Cleaning out the garage when it's dark is horrible.

Spring cleaning this year will be more thorough than usual...

A couple of years ago I bit the bullet and sold my hammered dulcimer. It was gorgeous, and I loved it, but because I played it so infrequently I spent more time tuning it than I did playing it.

'A damsel without a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw...'

There's nothing like a move half way across the country to help with the spring cleaning. When I moved from Manitoba to Nova Scotia, I got rid of all the dross I'd lugged around for years - well, most of it anyway. Every pound I kept, I had to pay to move. Its amazing how ruthless you can get!

When my plans were to emigrate properly, we went through the house with a checklist which made us justify keeping an item, or getting rid of it. This is why my total belongings are squeezed into a single storage unit rather than the three pantechnicons from previous house moves.

At this time of year I hanker after a home of my own, half of me wants to look at my 'stuff' and half of me doesn't miss it at all now after all the years since it got stored.

Oh lordy yes! I still shudder at the memory of moving to Lux with my 2 kids, then aged under 10. My son was an avid hoarder and collector of things: I had to get him to use a "sorting hat" approach - dump, store in Granny's attic (I think his Star Wars toy collection is still there....), take with, or give to a friend.

It was very rewarding choosing the right recipients for guitars, playstations, CDs etc.

And since then I've made sure I do not amass a load of stuff that needs sorting.

Dai on the other hand, has a garage that resembles an Aladdins Cave for bikers

We're getting a skip this summer. The attic and the shed are going in it.

"(I think his Star Wars toy collection is still there....)"

Pension plan, right there...

Beatrice De'Ath - following Jedward so you don't have to.


Hello friend...

There may have been a Harrison Ford trapped in carbonite, still in original packaging...

I should hasten to add, that is at the concept of the action figure mint in its packaging, not at Harrison Ford.

I'm a geek, I'm not gay or anything. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

There's *everything* wrong with being a !

(yes - I know that's fighting talk on this site. I suapect I'm in a minority of one. I'm not a - I have Enthusiasms.)

Are we watching "Get your house in order" on channel 4?