Irrationally upset over a washing up liquid bottle…

[lifestooshorttodickaboutwithaubergines]

Ok, so I’ll preface this by saying I know how utterly ridiculous this is, but I need an outlet for my grief.

Years ago I purchased a Limited Edition Fairy liquid bottle, one of those tall, white ones with the baby on it, which I’ve happily and diligently decanted washing up liquid into ever since. It’s been sitting there on the windowsill of the last three houses I’ve lived in, and although it’s just a plastic bottle, it’s just brought me a little bit of joy. It’s silly, but it’s mine.

Until yesterday morning, when my well-meaning MIL saw it beside the new bottle (waiting to be decanted) and threw it into the recycling bin! I didn’t realise this until my “D”P casually mentioned this morning that he’s made a quirky little LAMPSHADE for a lamp we have in the garage, using that “old washing up liquid bottle”. A fucking LAMPSHADE. Out of my prized possession. It doesn’t even look good, because why on earth would it? It looks shit.

I’m irrationally heartbroken about the death of this bottle that’s just been sitting there for years, minding its own business, harming nobody. I know, I know, it’s just a fucking plastic bottle, but it was MY plastic bottle and he’s watched me decant the washing up liquid into it for years. He KNEW it was important to me. But because it’s just a plastic bottle, I’m going to have to bloody get over it, aren’t I. He’s already ordered a replacement, apparently, but it’s not the same, it’s not the same bottle. I’ve shed an embarrassing number of tears over it and as it’s still so raw, I feel like I’ll never forgive the twat for it.

Cheer me up a little, let me know I’m not alone and come share your stories of silly things that to everyone else seems trivial and ridiculous, but for you has been a source of heartache and woe…😢

Strangely, I thought the same when she said lampshade, but didn't mention it my earlier post 😬

I still can't understand it, even seeing the pic with holes in- was the bottle cut down the middle and flattened to make so sort of shade shape or simply a hole cut in the end for the light bulb to sit it- illuminating an almost intact plastic bottle! 🤔

I hear you... I have one in the craft cupboard which we're going to make into a fairy on top of the Christmas tree like the advert. It had to be done!

Update - a new one has definitely been ordered, I’ve salvaged the baby off the old one with the intention of doing something creative with it, MIL is mortified and upset with herself and I no longer have leaky eyes.
Thank you so much to everyone who understood why I’m upset, it’s what the bottle stood for rather than the thing itself. Some people seemed worried that I couldn’t see that in the grand scheme of life it isn’t that big a deal…I can absolutely see that but it upset me nevertheless.
Reading other people’s stories has helped - one person’s Pringle tube/washing up liquid bottle/old wooden spoon passed down for generations is another person’s trash, but it still really stings.

[Big hug]
I get you @lifestooshorttodickaboutwithaubergines . My DM is like that. Doesn't ask, just takes. She doesn't bin anything, just nicks it, and it will be something that seems trivial but it was special to me.

I do totally get it, I've had the same travel washing up liquid bottle since the 90s, it's been to so many countries, so many caravan mini breaks, I'll never replace it, or the manky threadbare 'cuts of meat' tea towel companion. Do you think your dh and mil deliberately did this? It seems odd that on same day she chucks it, he effectively destroyed it

Definitely not deliberate, just incredibly unfortunate!
Aww I love that you have a well-travelled bottle 😊

I can’t understand how she could have put it in the recycling when she’s been using it for years, is she a bit stupid? And for your Dh to put holes in it and use it as a fucking lampshade, wtaf?!

I'm so sorry @lifestooshorttodickaboutwithaubergines but the tale of the columnar Fairy.Liquid bottle and the decanting and the lampshade made me howl with laughter.
Go on, snap a picture of the lampshade!

I had an upside down fairy liquid bottle for a few years - maybe 2 and DH threw that away I was gutted, and you can still buy them! He’s not taking my next one!

It's not really up to you to tell other people how to feel, though, or what is or isn't important to them.

OMG. I thought this was somehow written by me. A really similar thing happened to me last year.

The design museum did some limited edition washing up liquid bottles and I usually pour refill stuff into it. I’d let it get low but my ILs came round and my FIL threw it out.

When I realised I had my DH rooting around the bin. When we found it the label was all damaged :(

I still think it was done on purpose. I like my clutter and they don’t. Still so upset they came in my house and touched my stuff like that.

Slightly off topic but if I went out of my way to go to my DS's house once a week to clean their kitchen, and then found out that my DS was using that time as his own to make shit lampshades out of recycling, I'd be fucking furious! He'd be cleaning his own kitchen going forward....

I totally get it. My wedding gift cake knife got broken. H ordered a new one that is the same except the handle has a different pattern on it. I've kept the original broken one as the new one is Not The Same.

I wonder if your h is a mummy's boy and couldn't or wouldn't speak up and say to his mum not to put it in the recycling but why the hell mutilate it?!

omg he's butchered it.
🤬😪

He honestly works incredibly hard, his mum massively helps us out with the school runs and cleans the kitchen on a Friday before she takes the kids to school. Extremely kind of her but she doesn’t come specifically for that. She loves to be busy but it’s not an agreement or anything…her own mum helped her a lot when her kids were young so she enjoys helping us too. DP does loads around the house and doesn’t have a great deal of spare time, this was done last night after a beer or two 😂

Oh I feel so sad for you with the cake knife, I hope the replacement still brings you some kind of joy.

Not a mummy’s boy, thankfully!

I also have that white washing up liquid bottle that I refill, and had it for years!!

I thought I was the only one. I would also be incensed and heartbroken. Solidarity. Are they available online?

Sounds to me like the sort of MIL who, the second you leave the house, would shave your Persian cat because she thinks it looks "much better". And when you return to see your DH parading around in a pair of underpants he's woven from the discarded fur, they'll both try and makeout that YOU'RE the weirdo for questioning their perfectly innocent actions!

Yeah, the washing up liquid bottle is just the slippery slope. Hide the razors and the loom, OP.

If it weren’t for all the PPs giving similar stories, I’d wonder if you’re pregnant!

We have Guinea pigs! I’ll keep a close eye on them 😂

Feeling your pain. I too have household items which others would consider to be insignificant but they either have sentimental value or I just like the look of them or using them. FWIW I think your dh should give up crafting

I hear you @lifestooshorttodickaboutwithaubergines . I have a very old tea tin from Whittards. It’s rusty a bit and I think my mum bought it got it for me when I went to uni in the early 90s. She died in 2003. I’d be devastated to lose it even though to most people it would look like rubbish.

Sorry about your fairy liquid bottle xxx

Buy a cricut. (Nice thing to have) and get a green baby logo cut out on vinyl stuff. Then shop around until you find a similar white bottle.

Sympathies.

This happened to me too OP only it was my husband who used the bottle for lubricating pipework when they built our extension.....it was my royal wedding one and I've never quite forgiven him! They do come up on eBay but for a lot of money

My chum's DH made a ROCKET out of hers.