to wonder where the f* all the crap came from in our house?

[OrmRenewed]

Because I am sure we never acquired it? How many small super bouncy balls can one family need? How many tennis balls? How many dried up felt tips and unsharpened pencils? And why did FC insist of bringing them Christmas colouring books for years running when they clearly never opened the covers? And why does Playdo turn into small rock-hard multi-coloured turds? And single gloves? And old school books with "Very good try Alex but please remember your spellings!!" written in them.

And why does my dining room look like the aftermath of a jumble sale in aid of the homeless?

And what will I do if this move falls through? I feel like a refugee already and my cat is giving me reproachful glances and my children are acting more feral than usual? Do children up and leave if they feel uneasy like cats do?

Yes, odymandrell, their teachers sure saw you coming. Did you not notice their looks of delight when your DC ran beaming out of the door with another masterpiece that they don't want cluttering up their classroom?

From my parents' house, ILs, IL's parents, huge amounts of stuff for the offspring from absolutely anyone...

We've been in a right state for a couple years - toddlers plus a loft conversion plus downsizing parentsx2 - but are getting on top of it as NO JUNK is allowed into the new loft storage or the rooms up there and we're sorting room by room. Doesn't help that we're against waste and landfill so keep thinking about recycling textiles etc, Ebay, Freecycle...

I've given up on selling stuff unless it's worth a fair bit and everything goes to charity shop (keep bags on porch until full, then sort into what the different shops take), textile recycling bag also stored on porch, and bags of 'mixed baby stuff'/'bag of craft stuff' for Freecycling. Everything else to go is binned or left on porch - it usually vanishes before we need the bulky waste collection!

If we had a shed for all tools/bits of wood/DIY stuff, and sorted out the rest of the computer junk (LOADS of stuff for the WEEE collection on the porch!) we'd be doing quite well - also waiting for pregnant friends to pop so can give them lots of baby stuff without offending people who gave it to us... apart from sprog stuff we do OK about not buying anything.

liliac21 I know I am a lost cause! But I have managed to get rid of those, let's call them abstract designs made out of toilet roll tubes and masking tape after a week or so!

Also, only DD1 is at school so far but with 2 more starting school in the next few years I realise I am going to have to give myself a talking to. That corner of the garage I keep boxes of drawings in is going to get ridiculous pretty quickly!

Right. We have the 2 understairs cupboards sorted - everything in boxes or bags and tidy! DD has blitzed her room and put all the packed boxes under her cabin bed - still looks horrendous but I suspect a lot of it is binnable. DH started on the garage but from the look on his face it's a painful and slow process Two trips to the dump, one trip to the CLIC shop and 3 bin bags of clothes to be left for the Tree of Hope that happened to leave a leaflet in our letterbox last week.

But haven't started on the attic (most of it boxed already though) or hte boys' room.

13yrs of accumulation and 3 children from babyhood. It leaves it's mark.

Oh god..... we have weeks of this and I'm already hitting the vino at 6 on the dot.

Artwork tip - take a photo of said 'artwork' (my DS likes to bring home cardboard boxes he has glued together ) put photo onto computer, save onto disk.

I put real showstopping artwork on the fridge for about a month, then in a file with his school certificates.

For a few years our school used to mount and frame a piece of the DC work and sell it to the parents in an art show. Cost about a fiver IIRC. It was great - it meant I had one well-presented and carefully protected 'masterpiece' from each child for each year and I felt less guilty about chucking the rest. They stopped doing it for some reason.

I'm emigrating in 11 weeks.

Dh is already out there.

I have two houses (MIL died last month leaving us her house) to completely get rid of.

[cries]

Bloody hell words! Poor you. So sorry about MIL.

Ta Orm

I really am going round in circles.

The loft is stuffed with crap and I'm scared of heights so can't even get myself up there to work out what to do with it.

Have sorted MIL's foodcupboards this morning.

[gibber]

I have a drawer full of bouncy balls

[sigh]