As we are coming up to Bonfire Night on November 5th I thought the TBT picture should be the Boys with sparklers!!!  This is from 2005 so Eldest was Ten and Youngest was Six!!

Talking about Clearing Out the things you don’t need created quite a few comments, a lot of which were don’t throw out anything really important which I would never do.  I think what all the experts were saying is just get rid of the rubbish.  My own experience with my Grandmother’s house is quite funny in some ways but not when DH and I were in the middle of it.

My Grandmother used to pay her bills in cash (she was born in 1904 so they always dealt in cash) so she would get the bill in the mail, she would then take it to whoever it was from and pay it in cash and then put the bill back in the evelope she had received it in, the receipt and sometimes the change!  So when she passed we had hundreds and hundreds of envelopes with bills and receipts and even some money, long out of circulation, in!  Of course we had to go through every one to make sure that there was not something important in it and it took us weeks.  DH went to the tip with two trailer loads of just paper.  I think that this is the sort of thing which needs to be sorted and not left.

However I did find something very interesting; I found the family bible.  It’s a big old thing with big brass catches on and in fact I must get it out and get a picture of it.  Anyway it was obviously given to my Grandparents as a wedding gift and it had their wedding details in.  Eventually we found all the family papers and I was going through them and I found my Grandparents marriage certificate which had their wedding date as 29th May 1929 but in the bible it said 29th May 1928!  Which meant that my Grandmother was already expecting my Mom when they married!!!!!!!!   I never knew and I don’t know whether my mother knew as she had already passed!!!  DH and I corrected it and also added our marriage to the bible.  Just shows you all those family secrets finally see the light of day!!!!

DH’s Dad moved from the family home to a sheltered accommodation and when he did we did have a big clear out then so when he passed the job was no where near as bad as with my Grandma! 

With out business we have to keep our records for seven years so each year they get put into clip boxes and as we put one in we take the oldest out and shred it all, so at least we are keeping on top of that.  The Boys have Keepsake boxes which have things in from all the years they were growing up.  They are all filed and labled and in the attic  although we have sorted some of their things our, with their help.  I kept every single book from all of their Primary and Senior school years so we whittled it down to just a few they wanted to really keep and have shredded the rest. 

There is a lot of stuff in the attic which I know I can get rid of but as I said the other day it needs a nice weather day to do it so I am planning it as part of the Spring Cleaning.  It will probably involve the whole house looking a tip for a few days whilst everything comes out but I think it will be a good job done. 

I used to collect Bookmarks, you know I love books, and I did have them displayed in frames down the stairs at our old home.  Originally I got them from places I visited which was great and then other people started to buy me them which was lovely but it was really for me to remember where I had been.  Eventually I stopped and when we moved I did not want to put them up, so they are all now stored in the attic still in their frames.  So I think I will take them out and put them in a scrap book, a lot smaller to store and get rid of the old frames.  Again something I can do, of course I am sure when I am gone and the Boys are having to deal with it, it will go in the donate pile but hey ho I liked them at the time and that’s the important thing.

So on that philosophical note I bid you a Thrilling Thursday.

Hugs, Susie xx