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?!

Can you literally just sit and stare at the spot until you see it appear? I'd do it for you if I could

Yes, please report back on the paper tomorrow and also the unscrewing of the ceiling rose.

Do you have a webcam that you can train at the paper?

Nice rats 😂 bloody autocorrects gone nuts

I never thought I could get invested in grit on a piece of paper. But here we are.

I had something like this on my kitchen windowsill. I realised it was bit of wall/plaster coming away every time I rolled up the window blinds. My house is quite old and crumbly though! @Martz seems to be thinking along the same lines. Do you have any blinds/curtains etc nearby?

@LuluBlakey1

Spider poo? We have a small spider living on the ceiling above our kitchen window. She has laid a small sack of eggs and is guarding them. She poops every night and it falls down onto the same spot on the window sill, one dot of gritty poo the size of a small pin head that I clean up with kitchen roll and antibacterial spray every morning. I am fascinated by her. Not sure how long the eggs take to hatch but it has been a couple of months so I think they might not now.

Thank you for letting her live.

Great thread. I'm really excited!

Is the ceiling light directly over the bedside table? Because where the cable goes through the ceiling rose there is a gap on the right of it. Grit could be falling through it.

The question is how is the grit getting there?

I’m invested now! I thought it was going to be more like dust. But that’s very big pieces and a lot! Even if it’s coming from the ceiling why is there so much grit up there??

@BlankTimes

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.

NEW GIRL CRUSH

It must be the light fitting...

I can’t wait to find out what it is!!!

@LuluBlakey1

Spider poo? We have a small spider living on the ceiling above our kitchen window. She has laid a small sack of eggs and is guarding them. She poops every night and it falls down onto the same spot on the window sill, one dot of gritty poo the size of a small pin head that I clean up with kitchen roll and antibacterial spray every morning. I am fascinated by her. Not sure how long the eggs take to hatch but it has been a couple of months so I think they might not now.

Wish I hadn’t read this

Blatantly placemarking because I think this is the best thread since the plate down the back of the toilet. OP I hope you know how excited we all are for tomorrow's updates

@LemonySippet

Blatantly placemarking because I think this is the best thread since the plate down the back of the toilet. OP I hope you know how excited we all are for tomorrow's updates

A plate down the back of the toilet? Where does one find this thread?

@KosherDill I never kill any animal. We have whole conversations about her. She, or someone very like her, did exactly the same thing in the same spot last winter. I did not think spiders lived that long.

@DuckPancake

Can you literally just sit and stare at the spot until you see it appear? I'd do it for you if I could

Perhaps it is ectoplasm and a ghost is trying to communicate with OP.

I am intrigued by this!

We get grit in our bedroom when it’s windy. The chimney breast is exposed brick, and there must be cracks in the mortar.

That is really weird. Spider poo tends to be like little speckles when fresh, and goes to white when it has been there a while.

I bought a large old rocking horse that had lived in a barn in Ireland for many years, and he has both bird and spider poo on him, plus spider shed skin on his nostril, and mouth which I did clean away. These little crevices make ideal homes for spiders.

You don't have a loft that could be leaking stuff via the light fitting? Eg, that insulating stuff in the form of pellets?
BUT...if you have grit UNDER your paper in the morning.. That will be alarming.

Do you have safety glasses and a headscarf? If not, use a pair of tights over your head bank-robber style.

^

ingenious! So proud of MN tonight

@BlankTimes

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.

And please, please, please get someone to take a photo of you doing this and share it with us

@BlankTimes

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.

I can picture OP on a chair with American tan tights on her head and two children coming in dresses as Christmas trees, holding pickled onions. Wonderfully bonkers!

Dressed*

[quote BrightonOrLancaster]@43leftfeet
But if it were coming from the ceiling why would it fall so specifically and precisely onto the bedside table?[/quote]
I’m assuming it wouldn’t be so obvious on the carpet, if it’s also falling on there.

Yeah that bedside cabinet looks like it's had it and is likely infected with woodworm