Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

What is the strangest thing you have kept?

51 replies

INeedToGetHealthy · 28/01/2019 19:45

Name changed for this as it is quite possibly outing.
What is the strangest thing you have kept hold of? Mine has to be the gallstone that I had removed in 2016. I was given it to keep by my surgeon as they had never seen one as big as this.

OP posts:
eurochick · 28/01/2019 21:52

I have all my positive pregnancy tests. It was a four year journey involving four rounds of ivf so I could never quite believe seeing the second line. But a box of pissy sticks is quite an odd thing to keep.

HeronLanyon · 28/01/2019 21:58

My beloved ma died recently and I became worried the funeral home wouldn’t take somemhair for me (they did but god knows why I wanted it really). Anyway she had her hair cut the day before she died and I kept hold of hair from her coat collar ‘just in case’ they fucked up. Seemed really important. All a bit confused and irrational but glad I have both sets of hair (??).
I also have a bit of artery from surgery on femiral artery decades ago. In proper medical tube at back of fridge. Absolutely no idea why I still have it !! In Marie Kondo terms it does not ‘bring me joy’. Hmmm

HeronLanyon · 28/01/2019 21:59

Femoral.

DramaAlpaca · 28/01/2019 22:05

eurochick me too Grin I've got all three of them somewhere, one per pregnancy. The oldest test is 26 this year Grin I know it's a bit grim but I can't quite bring myself to fling them.

3boysandabump · 28/01/2019 22:45

Oh yeh I have my pregnancy tests too. One of them was a clear blue and the battery died long ago but I can't get rid of it when I have them for the other 3

Geekster1963 · 28/01/2019 22:58

My toenails that have fallen off through running Grin

juniperbushes · 28/01/2019 23:08

I've got one of my dog's teeth, it dates from the early 70's. No idea why I kept it at the time, and only found it again recently, while looking through some old trinket boxes I had as a teenager and had never thrown out.

Empathy56 · 28/01/2019 23:15

I used to keep my dogs and cats baby teeth,claws and whiskers.😊 in a trinket box in a cabinet.Someone dropped the box and I lost a lot of them.

user1483390742 · 28/01/2019 23:17

My dad died 6 months ago. Every time he is prayed for at mass, i keep the newsletter with his name on in my coat pocket. I have 13 of them folded in there!

SpoonBlender · 29/01/2019 00:04

I hope all you tooth-fairies paid for your collection!

Only odd thing I can think of is a lock of my first proper DP's hair from 30 years ago.

landmarkfuture · 29/01/2019 00:50

I had the clamp and umbilical from my DD too. However, a wee while after she was born, I came into my bedroom, and my dog was playing with something on my bed. I looked closer to see what he was playing with, and it was the umbilical clamp and cord! I freaked out and tried to take it off him, but he ATE the umbilical cord bit Envy (not envy) before I could get it off him. So now I just have a chewed up umbilical clamp. Which I'll treasure forever I imagine. Our dog passed away a few days before Christmas, so it is a story which makes me laugh now. And the clamp has even more memories attached to it. We joked he had gotten a taste for human flesh, but in reality he was the soppiest Bichon in the world.

I have a box with my dd's first baby grow, the hat from the hospital (also with "gunk") her wrist band and leg band, and some other keepsakes.
I also have all my baby teeth, as my mum kept them for us. I imagine I will be exactly the same. I have a LOT of trouble throwing sentimental stuff away.

BrylcreamBeret · 29/01/2019 01:51

User148 not strange at all, I get it. Brew

BrylcreamBeret · 29/01/2019 01:52

I kept the bible made of marzipan and icing that was on top of my sons Baptism cake. It was wrapped and carefully stored in the freezer until the bastard fucker broke :( I was devastated, sobbed for ages (hormones).

BooseysMom · 29/01/2019 09:00

So many crazy stories and the things people keep show there's none so queer as folk!
landmarkfuture.. I know what you mean..I also have alot of trouble chucking out sentimental stuff. I have boxes of old cards and calendars and diaries I can't bear to part with. We've moved house recently and I need to buy a massive cupboard for it as we can't store anything in the attic!

3boysandabump · 29/01/2019 09:37

I also have our name cards from the tables of a few weddings we've been to. Most of them are divorced now but I've still saved them.

I keep cinema tickets too.

And orders of service from funerals.

Vitalogy · 30/01/2019 06:19

My sons umbilical cord stub. It doesn't smell, it's in a small envelope in his baby book.

Vitalogy · 30/01/2019 06:21

*I've got most of his baby teeth too. One got lost at school and the other was swallowed we think.

Northernlass69 · 30/01/2019 06:25

I've got a bus ticket from going to work one morning. That evening my dad dropped down dead unexpectedly. That ticket is the last time that my life was ok. Almost 20 years ago.

confusedandemployed · 30/01/2019 06:27

My and DD's hospital bands and the shirt I bought my DM the Christmas before she died. I've never worn it, it's tiny, but it's beautiful and reminds me of hrr. It's covered by an old fashioned, bright green M&S carrier bag.

bert3400 · 30/01/2019 06:33

When my grandmother died many years ago I wanted her hearing aid from her things . I was very close to her and my lasting memory was either turning it up so she could hear me or turning it down as it made a high pitched noise. I spent so much of my childhood sorting out that device I just liked the idea of keeping it safe . Fuck knows where it is now 😁

DontCallMeCharlotte · 30/01/2019 09:51

Possibly outing...

A perfectly preserved grapefruit. My Mum's brilliant and hilarious best friend gave it to her fresh just before she (the friend) died suddenly and unexpectedly. It dried itself out and just never went off. My Mum couldn't bear to part with with it. When my Mum died, it was still in her house and I now have it in a box of keepsakes. I miss my Mum's friend easily as much as I miss my Mum and it's a symbol of their brilliant friendship.

The grapefruit is now 40 years old.

PassingWind · 30/01/2019 10:37

You're still her baby

oystersbutnopearls · 30/01/2019 11:08

@DontCallMeCharlotte that's so lovely it brought a tear to my eye

I've got some of my baby teeth, some of my nephew's curls from when he was younger, possibly outing but a pair of his socks that are now my "lucky socks" and go everywhere with me.
I had a small op recently and pulled my stitches out the other day, I didn't think and threw them in the bin then suddenly realised I should've kept them (no idea why) so DP spent ages rooting through the bin but couldn't find them :(

Me and my gran were v close when I was younger and when she died a few years back, she had a suitcase in her flat that was crammed full of things we'd done together like paper with games of hangman on etc.

IthinkIsawahairbrushbackthere · 30/01/2019 11:16

In 1979 my boyfriend (now husband) and I went to Windsor Safari Park. We had a blue raspberry slush for the first time. It was the most exotic thing we had ever experienced (we come from a very small town in the middle of nowhere) and so we kept the cup it came in. When he left home he took the cup and it lived on his dresser and he kept his change in it. When we got married we continued to use it. We've been married over 30 years now and the cup has been relegated to the loft but we could never throw it out.

Dowser · 30/01/2019 12:03

Well if any of you take up dowsing or radionics for a hobby you’ve got the perfect witness in teeth, hair, nails, stones, cords etc😂😂😂

Back in 1989 we bought a holiday home in N Yorks. A lovely little two up two down.
It had an ugly gargoyle type door knocker that I didn’t like..so had exh remove it and brought it up home.
30 years later it’s still in my house.😱

I believe it was meant to keep evil spirits away. Darent part with it now!