1 EAGLETON NOTES: Stuff

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Friday 4 November 2016

Stuff

Outside the Oxfam Shop in Heswall (and doubtless in many other places) there is a sandwich board which carries various messages with the aim of getting readers to part with their belongings to Oxfam.

It seemed to me a very strange message. ‘Free yourself of stuff’ is a wonderful, liberating, concept and one people of my age in particular both aspire to and do. However it does rather conflict with Oxfam’s desire to offload that same stuff onto someone else!

18 comments:

  1. Ha ha! Yes that is very true! Although... One man's junk is another man's treasure or so they say....

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    1. Serenata it must be true or charity shops would be confined to selling clothes. Many don't even accept books any more.

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  2. As an Oxfam shop worker, contributing to the charity's ongoing mission to raise as much money as possible each year. I concur with Serenata's simple observation. I have seen interior pictures of your seaside villa Graham and believe you could easily fill a transit van with with Oxfam donations... both to and from the shop.

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    1. YP you are probably correct. In fact I recently did fill a transit van with things for one in town!

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  3. I could travel very lite. I have a partner who is a very capable pack rat.

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    1. I'm not so much a hoarder, Red, as a collector of books and music. Oh yes and pictures and art and.....

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  4. One man's stuff is another man's stuffing...

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  5. I wish I had one of those stores next door. I've been clearing out some old paperback books this autumn though, and actually took the radical decision to put them in the paper recycling bin - as they were either classics that can nowadays be downloaded for free from the internet, or outdated study course literature.

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    1. Yes Monica many charity shops won't take books any more.

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  6. Expensive Antiques gratefully received.

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    1. The most expnsive antique in my house Cro is me!

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  7. You know my attitude towards "stuff", Graham. I'd gladly live with a lot less than I already have, but I do admit I feel emotional attachment to things that were given to me by special people in my life or otherwise hold memories of places and people dear to me.
    As for books, I never thought I'd be able to get rid of so many books - I am, after all, a Librarian. But I did it when Steve and I moved into this flat 13 years ago, and have never regretted the downsizing (although we up-sized, from a two-room to a three-room flat).

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    1. Meike compared with you I have enough 'stuff' to sink a battleship. However it's diminishing by the week. Even the bookshelves in my loft are under attack although few charity shops want books these days. We don't have an Oxfam on the Island otherwise they could take them and put them to their specialist shops.

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  8. Stuff.....that word will forever remind me of no.1 son, who was an expert collector. When he loaded up a van with it to take to the flat he was to share with the woman who later became his wife, she took one look, and wept. I felt for her.

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    1. Frances I have got to the stage in my life when 'stuff' is being cleared more rapidly with every month.

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  9. Yes, but the people Oxfam is giving your unwanted stuff to probably can use your stuff.

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    1. Presumably Lee they can or they wouldn't buy it. Or would they? How often does one bag a bargain only to get it home and realise that one doesn't need it and doesn't actually want it either?

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