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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2016 15:46:54 GMT
The vast majority of the coins arrived in 2005 when I brought my mother back to France. We had pretty heavy baggage!
The lacquer is on the outside of the vase. I wouldn't call it a vase if I couldn't put water in it.
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Post by htmb on Apr 1, 2016 16:21:09 GMT
The coins sound a fabulous (re)discovery! I have a few stashed away, but certainly nothing like you.
Our office assistant has been cleaning out piles of junk left by the old office assistant. I'll post a picture of something he found later, but neither of us knew what it was until we read the manual. It has never been used and was a total waste of space and money.
The retired assistant's last day was before Christmas, yet she's still returning to finish cleaning up all the garbage and important matters she left until the end. Since her old office is next to mine, and there's a connecting door, I've expected to see all kinds of creatures run under the door as the massive piles of papers and endless boxes are tackled.
At this point, I think she's about finished, but there's still a lot of mess left to deal with and no one here really wants to take on the task.
You might think this whole situation is strange. So do all of us here, but if you knew our old office assistant you'd see this was quite typical. She's a wonderful person with a big heart, but a true hoarder.
Fortunately, her replacement is completely organized.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2016 16:41:17 GMT
Nice score Kerouac. I'm a coin hoarder but nothing quite that dramatic. I'm really envious. I do have a couple hundred silver dimes. Many of which I have give to people with the year that they were born. I'm really fond of the Liberty Lady ones before they switched over to FDR in 1946 after he had died in 1945.
What a lovely thought regarding the tulips. Truly, truly lovely Kerouac.
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Post by htmb on Apr 1, 2016 19:02:34 GMT
Here's one of the work items discovered in the supply area today. Never been used.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2016 19:22:49 GMT
Pray tell what is that? Maybe put it in the mystery item thread. Don't have a clue myself.
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Post by htmb on Apr 1, 2016 19:35:58 GMT
I was looking for the mystery item thread, but couldn't find it.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 1, 2016 20:01:40 GMT
Amazing. Do you have any idea what it is?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2016 20:04:38 GMT
Page 2 in the Arcade section is the Mystery Object thread. I remember it was alot of fun.
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Hoarding
May 22, 2016 15:21:31 GMT
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Post by Kimby on May 22, 2016 15:21:31 GMT
So the Family Archive impasse has broken for the Kimbys, with Mr. Kimby agreeing to my purchase (with inherited funds) of an 8 X 12 storage shed painted and roofed to match our house. Then I bought $600 worth of adjustable shelving to house the 10-15 boxes of family archives, while I take on the task of digitizing them for my sisters and niece.
The deal with Mr. Kimby that broke the impasse - and let me stop looking at gloomy basement office spaces - was that I would empty out the 3 closets in the house - and the garage attic - that I have filled with piles of boxes. The spacious shed gives me a work place to go through these boxes and decide what stays and what goes. Yesterday I pared down my fabric collection to 1/3 of its former bulk, and disposed of 3/4 of my hoarded sewing patterns. (I once worked in a fabric store and my employee discount enabled a serious fabric addiction.)
The shed was a big breakthrough , and the improved Feng Shui in the house and garage is helping Mr. Kimby's disposition, which is helping MY disposition.
Now we just have to survive the trip to Wisconsin to bring home a UHaul filled with treasures from my family home. Part of the deal is that Mr. Kimby gets my Dad's snowblower and maybe his table saw....and gets to store them in my shed...
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Post by htmb on May 22, 2016 16:32:05 GMT
It's got to feel good to have started making a little progress and to have a plan of action.
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Hoarding
May 22, 2016 18:44:49 GMT
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Post by Kimby on May 22, 2016 18:44:49 GMT
Yes and no. I can't just dump whole boxes in the trash. I have to go through each box and separate out what I want to keep. Then I sort the discards into the three types of paper (office, magazine and newsprint) for recycling.
My archivist tendencies have gotten me into this situation, and aren't making it easy to get out of it.
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Post by bjd on Jun 12, 2016 9:32:25 GMT
I am emptying cardboard file boxes of old New York Review of Books (2003 till the present). I only save the previous year's worth. I do this when my husband is not home since he claims he might want to reread one. Which, of course, nobody ever does. And I threw out (into the recycling garbage can) papers from when I was working. Not the actual work, but corrections, lists of vocabulary, etc. I even found an old floppy disk in there. My husband the hoarder is having a hard time watching me, but I tell him it's my stuff. I just hope he doesn't fill the empty spaces on the shelves with his own junk.
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Post by lagatta on Jun 12, 2016 12:19:30 GMT
Kimby, I trust that the snowblower is for Montana, not Florida...
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Hoarding
Jun 12, 2016 12:28:00 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Jun 12, 2016 12:28:00 GMT
:-)
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Post by Deleted on Nov 16, 2016 21:20:41 GMT
While in NY recently at the place were I grew up, this being the first time I have spent time there at my mother's cottage since she passed away in 2010, I experienced a most odd feeling of "hoarding deprivation".
All my other trips to NY since 2010, I stayed at either my brothers home, or a friends home and in one case an air b n b as the cottage and the main house were rented out. (the main house remains so but on this trip the cottage was free).
I found myself so incredibly bereft of closets and drawers that held things that were previously there. It only holds the bare necessities that a tenant would need. Absolutely no indication, remnants of a previous resident/owner (in this case my mother with the many additions of things I had stored there for visits).
It was so strange, alien and left me with an empty feeling at times although, not persistently or desperately so. The shed adjacent to the cottage still held a lot of familiar things so as to make me feel as though all was not gone. My old bicycle was there and after filling up the tires with air I was able to take some long familiar rides along old paths. Garden tools, fishing gear and some other caches of clutter remained and gave me some comfort.
I desperately wanted to go into the main house which is rented year round and having knowledge of the tenant of 15 years or more comings and goings from NYC could have gone in but of course, did not as it would most certainly violate her privacy as a tenant and all that goes with that. The cellar which I know she never steps foot into because of phobias was at my beckon call and I pondered going down there to take a look at where many a memory abides. The light switch however, was burned out and I wasn't quite sure I could safely turn it on so, I abandoned that notion.
The point being, I was looking for something, anything that I could take away with me whether it be a canning jar, an old tool, some remnant.
I did find an old pair of secateurs in the shed, albeit rusty, but with a wire brush and or some steel wool and sharpening I would have something. (Not, remind you, that I don't already have enough "stuff" from when I spent seven weeks there right after my mothers passing).
It was a very odd and complicated emotion/recall of which I can't further explain.
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Post by bjd on Nov 17, 2016 7:05:03 GMT
Casi, before I read your post just above, I started re-reading this hoarding thread. After reading a few pages (mostly you and Kimby talking about being incapable of throwing things out!), you might eventually be pleased that this visit to NY was as "empty" as you found it and not "hoarding deprivation". At least you were able to go for bike rides and move forward rather than being dragged back into the past by stuff that was no longer there.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2016 1:15:56 GMT
Thank you BJD for the astute and succinct post which in essence does indeed capture much of what I was trying to convey. Brevity has never been my strong suit. I will add however, my success at passing on a slew of "stuff" from the shed (eel and crab traps, fishing rods and reels, nets, and the like, to someone dear to me and a fellow hoarder. He was in heaven and I in glee as he drove out the driveway with his rear windows protruding his cache. (surf casting fishing rods are quite lengthy). It was quite satisfying.
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Post by lagatta on Nov 21, 2016 12:11:32 GMT
Oh, I'm glad you were able to pass that on to someone who is at least in theory a fisherman... And also that the old bicycle was in usable state.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2016 0:48:23 GMT
Oh, I'm glad you were able to pass that on to someone who is at least in theory a fisherman... And also that the old bicycle was in usable state. Well, sort of in theory but not totally. Aside from the bicycle which I used quite a bit, we did end up using the crab traps and a couple of the nets (only the nylon ones as the others were dry rotted) and "scored" about 8-10 blue crabs off the bridge that is the namesake of my village of birth Bridgehampton. So, YIP, YIP for that. The other thing was a small fishing rod and reel that was (is ) mine that I always used to go "snapper" fishing with off of a wharf in Sag Harbour with the same person. It was past the season for such, but, I now know where the rod is should I ever be there during that season (mid-September). (Snapppers are baby blue fish that make great pan frying most especially for breakfast).
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Hoarding
Nov 24, 2016 12:05:00 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Nov 24, 2016 12:05:00 GMT
As part of preparing my mother-in-law's apartment at the retirement community for Thanksgiving dinner (and impromptu memorial gathering for Mr. Kimby's dad who died yesterday morning) for 7 nearby family members, I defrosted her upright freezer, which hadn't been done for about 4 years. It took most of the day yesterday, as the ice was 3-4 inches thick in places and food items were entombed in this ice. I could've built a small snowman with the chunks of snow and ice I removed from the freezer First step was to throw out 32 loaves of bread! Though frozen since she bought it, it was unusable. Though her husband had been in nursing care for the past three years, she kept buying bread on her shopping trips because he always ate a lot of bread. Never mind that she receives a slice of bread with each Meals-on-Wheels meal she gets, and these also end up in the freezer, individually wrapped in plastic wrap. She was horrified at the waste, but I suspect will enjoy being able to find things in her freezer. Other items we found in abundance: 5 blocks of cheddar cheese and 4 packages of sandwich sliced ham. Never mind that she has more of all these things in her kitchen refrigerator's freezer...
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2016 14:51:30 GMT
JEEZUMS Kimby!!!!!!!
What a trooper you are!
(I had a real strong inkling you would be posting in this thread after hearing the news of your father in law's passing). I wasn't sure as to in what capacity but it always seems to come into play in some fashion when these passings occur).
How old is this refrigerator? I thought that the ones that accumulated that amount of packed ice were long gone.
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Post by lagatta on Nov 24, 2016 15:41:40 GMT
They definitely still exist: alas the old ones, while less energy-efficient than the new ones, tend to last a lot longer.
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Hoarding
Nov 24, 2016 23:52:05 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Nov 24, 2016 23:52:05 GMT
How old is this refrigerator? I thought that the ones that accumulated that amount of packed ice were long gone. It's actually an upright freezer, big as a small (American small) refrigerator. Not frost-free, in theory so frozen foods keep longer. They used to defrost it every year when they left Florida for Wisconsin, but it's been about 4 years now that they haven't traveled. Today's finds were drawers packed with every piece of foil and every plastic bag she's gotten over the years. Each day's Meals-on-Wheels dinner comes in multiple styrofoam containers wrapped in foil, inside a cardboard box with a handle, inside a heavy plastic bag with handles. All disposable, but not for a "child of the depression". And don't get me started on the individually wrapped tea bags, sugar packets, salt & pepper packets and condiment packets, and little tubs of butter and margarine which come with every meal. At least she's stopped ordering s 1/2 pint of milk with each meal. On previous visits I would discover 20 seriously outdated milk cartons in her fridge, some over 6 months past their use-by date (and congealed in the sealed carton). We feel lucky she hasn't gotten food poisoning.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2016 0:12:48 GMT
I definitely get the picture now.
My own freezer, frost free, is a horrible mess but, we have never really got into properly using a freezing method save some stocks and such. I can see it's merits when one has a family to feed and the convenience of it.
I can remember my mother's refrigerator many years back when I would visit and how many near empty jars of condiments she had (6 or so mayonnaise jars with only a couple of tablespoons in them) and how I teased her and she got angry with me so I just tossed them when she wasn't around.
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Hoarding
Nov 25, 2016 2:51:43 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Nov 25, 2016 2:51:43 GMT
This time, thankfully, my mother-in-law isn't fighting our efforts to declutter her apartment. Unfortunately, I suspect losing her husband of 70 years has affected her spunk...
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2016 5:40:15 GMT
That's exactly what I was thinking -- it's a miracle that she hasn't been fighting your cleaning, especially since you are not even a blood relative. Most of us have had to deal with taboo rooms or taboo drawers over the years. I also had to throw a number of things out of my parents' freezer, especially recognising some of the items as things that had been there since before the year of the 4 hurricanes and the week-long power outage that they had had.
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Post by bjd on Nov 25, 2016 7:36:09 GMT
I can see that one day one of my sister's daughters-in-law or one of her sons will be complaining about emptying a huge chest freezer. My husband and I were visiting and I asked why on earth she had 48 bottles of liquid soap. My brother-in-law laughed and showed me their freezer -- packed to the top with frozen food. There are only the two of them at home, and they have a big American-type fridge with a freezer section, also full. She does cook but seems to buy things on special or when they go to the States because it's cheaper and then has to store it all somewhere.
I would imagine that with a chest freezer, the stuff at the bottom is never found and used, so all the more reason not to have one unless you are living out in the country and making a lot of your own preserves, hunting or whatever.
I don't think my sister is a hoarder as much as she is a buyer of unnecessary stuff.
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Hoarding
Nov 25, 2016 12:23:50 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Nov 25, 2016 12:23:50 GMT
Cognitive issues are a big part of it. On the rare occasions she has gone shopping for wine and kitty food (usually with her sister-in-law, but rarely on her own, driving her car-yikes!) she has a list, but probably thinks "oh, do I need bread? Do I need salad dressing? And then buys some, just in case.)
She still isn't receptive to us hiring a once-a-week lady to help her with groceries, changing the kitty litter box , maybe laundering her knit blouses and her slacks which are getting pretty spotted with food spills, and sorting junk mails and old newspapers from more important stuff. We'll keep trying.
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Post by lagatta on Nov 25, 2016 12:52:53 GMT
bjd, do these people live in Canada or in France? I couldn't see hauling groceries across the oceans, except for speciality items.
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Post by bjd on Nov 25, 2016 13:07:02 GMT
Lagatta, my sister lives in Ontario, within an easy drive from the US border.
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