Something strange is happening in my bedroom and I can’t work out why!

[Wendyer]

I’m sorry, it’s not very exciting but I just don’t understand it.

I have a bedside cabinet, and about 6 weeks ago I noticed that there was some gritty rubbley type stuff on it. I wiped it away but later on there was more there. I thought I mustn’t have cleared it up properly so did it again, more thoroughly.

And basically, ever since, there’s nearly always this gritty stuff there! I can’t imagine where it’s coming from - there’s nothing above the cabinet except the ceiling and a hanging light but they don’t seem to be the source. I never hear it dropping onto the cabinet, or see it dropping, it’s just there!

Where is it coming from?!

Curiouser and curiouser.

At least it's not woodworm then!

How strange!! You need to stand on something and inspect the ceiling above

Maybe there's a little creature living in the light fitting and when it moves then it dislodges some of the brickwork?

@immersivereader

Your son looks like someone famous when they were young but I can't place him.

I thought exactly the same! A young Alistair McGowan, perhaps?

As long as my baby spiders arent house / wolf spiders they are welcome to stay. I suspect mine is a garden dweller as I cant spot it. It's well well tucked away in the window vent.

House spiders are evicted on sight no matter how small.

Ok I had this same issue in my kitchen, turned out my kitchen roll holder had grit and sand in to weight it down and had torn on the underside and was leaking.

In that picture you have a lamp which might be weighted, is the underside still in tact with no rips?!

Check around the lightbulb and it’s fitting in the lamp? If there’s grit there too then I suspect it would be coming from where your lamp fits into the ceiling. Is there a room above yours? Maybe movement above is disturbing something and it’s causing the grit to come through the light fitting?

Ok tape paper to the underside of the light, obviously don’t use the light while this trap is set.

Could it be the coating from the light shade, it looks a bit cracked? Is it some form of glazing coming off?

Actually, just looked at your picture of the bedside table again. Is it placed next to a door? If so, is it anything hung there that could be the culprit? Or is the door fitting coming away from the wall or anything?

If it's coming from the plastic fitting around the lightswitch, do be careful before unscrewing it.

Put a dustsheet over the area before you do anything else. Then make sure your stepladders are stable.

Do you have safety glasses and a headscarf? If not, use a pair of tights over your head bank-robber style. Reason being, if you unscrew the plastic fitting, you're likely to be underneath it and looking up at it, but not expecting the plastic fitting to be full of a load of that grit which will tumble all over you, maybe get into your eyes and hair. As it's coming from above the ceiling, you don't know what it is, e.g. it's not plasterboard dust, that would be pink and chalky.

Whilst unscrewing the light-fitting, I'd be tempted to vac it at every quarter-turn, to lessen the amount that's likely to fall out.

Good luck, can't wait to see what it actually is, but as above, please be careful not to get any in your eyes.

This is a pleasing thread.

I thought the woodworm suggesters had it, but now it looks like you need to set up a camera to record slow motion for an hour or so.

Could it be from your bedside lamp? Is it old? Could the plastic inside the lampshade be degrading?
Loving this post by the way..

Love a good mystery.

You're a Weeping Angel and that's just your stone skin flaking off?

DP says he reckons mice in the ceiling, dislodging stuff - maybe the plaster in the architrave or the ceiling fitting itself.

Be careful taking the rose down in case it is rodents. When we removed the spotlights in my kitchen, a tsunami of rat poo rained down on us! (not envy)

That dog has the sweetest face ever 😻

@43leftfeet
But if it were coming from the ceiling why would it fall so specifically and precisely onto the bedside table?

@43leftfeet

DP says he reckons mice in the ceiling, dislodging stuff - maybe the plaster in the architrave or the ceiling fitting itself.

Be careful taking the rose down in case it is rodents. When we removed the spotlights in my kitchen, a tsunami of rat poo rained down on us! (not envy)

Maybe I’ll just live with the grit!

Thank you @BlankTimes - I will be careful.

Is it not on the floor / bed anywhere else at all OP? I'm very invested in this now!

@IaltagDhubh

Move the bedside cabinet to a different place. If the grit turns up on the floor in the place where the cabinet was, you’ll know it must be falling down from above or from something near by. If it still turns up on the cabinet itself, you can be pretty sure it’s woodworm or some other nasty living in the wood, and you can take it out in the garden and set fire to it.

Are some people just born sensible? That’s such a clever and obvious step that I would never have thought of.

I have nothing to offer, but I'm invested now!

I hope it’s not nice / rats

@RunningFromInsanity that’s exactly what I thought when I read that post! And ChonkyDonkey’s suggestion of putting paper on the cabinet! I wish I had lots of common sense.

I will do some thorough investigating tomorrow and report back! Maybe even with pics :)

Fgs mice/ rats

@Booklover3

I hope it’s not nice / rats

I hope they’re nice rats too :)