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Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

Stupidest items among your clutter

19 replies

Sandthorn · 27/09/2014 20:48

I know we're all about the de-cluttering here. I got rid of a carrier bag out of one of the drawers-of-crap last night, including the instruction manuals for the previous three freeview boxes, and a couple of lightbulbs that don't fit any of our lamps. Hmm I know this just the tip of the iceberg. I know we're clinging onto all manner of crap that anyone else could immediately see for the energy-sucking shite it really is.

So, make me feel better... What's the most pointless stuff you've been hanging on to?

OP posts:
Coffeeinthepark · 27/09/2014 22:07

I've often kept odd socks in the hope the other one will show up

erin99 · 28/09/2014 10:33

A box of ryvita best before 2009. We had everything out of that cupboard a few months back, and DH put every single thing back in afterwards without checking the dates! For speed, apparently.

CrumblyMumbly · 28/09/2014 10:37

Mystery keys that don't open any locks here (and I may even have brought them from last house!). Still can't bring myself to chuck them heeeeelp!

Tanacot · 28/09/2014 10:40

(I put odd socks back in the wash, until those magical occasional days when there IS no more wash, and then I throw those socks away. It works.)

Mystery keys for me too. And I know they are not FOR anything cause I only moved in last week so I have brought them all with me. And yet...

Peanut15 · 28/09/2014 10:42

I found a key for a tractor we sold in 1987 this week!

ElephantsNeverForgive · 28/09/2014 10:45

I have all of the above, plus crates of electronics scrap from the 1960-1980's all obselete and very dusty.

Baby toys when DDs are 13&16 and friends DS is 3!

Clothes and shoes have been culled, but I need another go.

My real absolute bug bear is magazines! All the useful electronics stuff is on the WEB, non of them have been down off the top of the living room shelves for 10 years!

SlatternLovesLots · 28/09/2014 15:15

In relation to the odd socks - i used to keep a plastic bag in the sock drawer and any odd socks went in it, every couple of months I emptied it out and sorted any pairs. There were always loads!

Now as a family of 4, the bag has upgraded to an entire drawer in the utility room and I check it every few weeks - I have never failed to find at least a couple of pairs.

I know there have been some singles in there for years - but I still keep them just in case its pair should turn up.

lazysummer · 28/09/2014 21:44

A closed padlock with no key. I am keeping it in case the key shows up.

VroomOnTheBroom · 28/09/2014 21:54

Broken plastic wind-up nuns.

They were a Christmas present... I don't even see the giver anymore but I hate throwing out things someone else spent money on for me.

MrsGSR · 28/09/2014 21:58

Cardboard egg cartons and toilet roll tubes. For making rockets etc. DD is 8 months old...

DH threw them away!

Christinecagney · 28/09/2014 22:02

A carrier bag full of Christmas cards that we received in about 2005. Obviously tidied them up in a hurry and they ended up in the loft with some university text books.

DH looked through them all carefully before they were binned in case there was a significance to them that we had forgotten! There wasn't.

TiffanyToothache · 28/09/2014 22:42

A lava lamp, not plugged in for at least 15 years. Dh won't let me throw it away because he likes it.
Ditto: talking Yoda, a metal tankard engraved happy 18th birthday, a spare christmas tree, 2 waist height wooden camels Hmm

nousernamesleft · 28/09/2014 22:52

I have a key on my car keys. It's been there for at least 15 years, moving from car to car. Fuck knows what it's for, cos I don't remember ever using it, or where it came from. Can't bring myself to throw it away though, it's been there longer than my kids!

ArtyBat · 28/09/2014 22:57

A life - sized model of a foot skeleton.

BertieBotts · 28/09/2014 22:59

DH found today medication with a date of 2007, left by the previous tenant Confused

Also millions of glass holders which once had candles in but are unusable for anything else.

PurpleFrog · 28/09/2014 23:05

I went through a box of stuff last weekend. There were 4 regional daily newspapers from Oct/Nov 1997. I searched through them really carefully but couldn't work out why I'd kept them. Then I realised why we had bought them - dd was born in Jan 1998 and we were in the process of looking for a new car at that time! Grin

ElephantsNeverForgive · 28/09/2014 23:11

Oh yes I've still got the krook lock key in my key ring.

No idea where the krook lock is, but I haven't had a grotty car with a broken door lock for 20 years.

Nerris · 30/09/2014 14:39

A harness for a rabbit, (we haven't had a rabbit for ages).

ItIsntJustAPhase · 30/09/2014 19:36

I have so much stuff like this I can't even bear to think about itBlush but I am enjoying reading all of yours. Grin

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