After a very funny twitter-conversation with @RedTedArt and @ChildLedChaos about our terrible hoarding habits, and reading RedTedArt’s brilliant post on her plan of action (hop over to it here) I got to thinking…
I’m such a magpie, a squirrel, an obsessive hoarder of box after box and bag after bag of arty-crafty STUFF. Every corner, every cupboard – bursting at the seams. And my kids have always been busy arty-crafty makers and do-ers at the kitchen table, as I was (there’s a bit about me and my mum here).
And YES…
it’s very very nice when everything’s sorted and in it’s place. I definitely plan to bin a LOT of stuff: it is very anti-creative to have to fight one’s way through mountains of unappetising, wasteful rubbish. From now on I will think – no one has wanted these dusty lolly sticks the last hundred times I put them out: bin them!
and I DO like a set of frumpy plain boxes with a promise of colourful chaos inside
(possibly with an exciting decorated inside-of-lid?)…
and I WILL try harder to be tidy.
But I’m also going to add a huge and deafening HOORAY for all those mums and dads who give their kids the chance to do art in their homes. These small people are the best, the luckiest, the elite! We can have chic, neat, smart homes later. When one of my gang said to me ‘I urgently need some purple wire!’ it was so funny to be able to say ‘purple wire? why yes of course!’ (even if it did take about a week to find it).
And thank you Anne-Marie and Maggy – our plan to hide behind a fort made from a thousand empty loo rolls will make me laugh FOREVER!
Yet another encouraging post! I love this blog, Clara. It makes me feel so much better about the bags of material, saved paper, loo rolls, pencils & pens & crayons & coloured paper that cascade out of the cupboard every time we open it, and it makes me feel v glad that the children have always done loads of Art. My problem is that I need permission to do my own now – when they were young and needed help it gave me the right to spend years alongside them drawing, painting, sticking and making, but now that they’re teenagers or nearly teenagers and do it by themselves I feel like I don’t have an excuse and should be doing grown up things like making the dinner and cleaning. THIS IS WRONG. So, Clara, I find it INCREDIBLY inspiring to see your blog with all your drawings and stories and craft projects- it is giving me shy permission to reclaim that still bulging cupboard for myself , not just secondary school Art projects- and my first steps towards Artistic health came at the weekend when I bought some fur to make a toy of Caryl Hart’s Whiffy Wilson wolf character…I hope to start soon..
Thank you!
Wonderful news, Anne – and I love the expression ‘artistic health’… I wonder why we struggle to give ourselves permission to have crafty fun now that the small folk don’t need us so much, and feel we should be putting the hoover round instead? We MUST stand firm against the hoover! Onwards with the Whiffy Wolf toy!
Love this post! Proves I’m not alone and that being a hoarder isn’t a bad thing 😀
It’s been very liberating – confessing to being a hoarder… there’s an army of us out there, it seems – all optimistic about future as-yet-not-sure-quite-what arty crafty projects… but I hope not to be become one of those mad old ladies that can only be reached through tunnels of rubbish!!
I’ve gone and put .co.uk for my website instead of .com doh!
Oh, I do that ALL THE TIME…
This post made me smile as am definately a hoarder & my son is beginning to follow my lead! Unfortunately it’s getting a bit difficult to do crafty stuff with all the boxes, foil cases, bottle tops & yoghurt pots in the way
Unless our kids react against us and go all neat and tidy (fat chance!), then I fear it’s a hereditary gene. I am contemplating a trip to the skip, though, for just the same reasons you give. It’s a bit like, d’you find you don’t get to enjoy the fresh bread because you’re having to virtuously finish off the mouldy bread first? My plan: lovely crafty stuff – YES! Bits of old tat: NO…
I am not a hoarder usually but I do love ribbon and I have a box full of bits I have kept and those I buy. I remember going to your Lucky Wish Mouse event at Bath Kids Lit Fest and being jealous of all those lovely bits and bobs you had in your boxes. We still have all the bits we put in matchboxes :0)
It’s so lovely to know that you were there! Those teeny-tiny boxes of secret treasure really do appeal to small (and in my case not-so-small) people. I invested in two or three plastic boxes that jewellers use, with compartments, which have been good…
now if I could hoard on a matchbox scale all would be MUCH improved!
*Has heart attack at photo of BUTTON ORGANISER*
I once had one of these lovely boxes with dividy spaces in it but someone put it in the loft and it’s been lost ever since.. sniff.. Inspires me to buy a new one!
So relieved you approve of my button organiser! I TRY to be very spontaneous and free with my buttons, but secretly I am terribly anal about them…
but that is very tragic about YOUR box with divide spaces: another thing on the list for a crafty shopping spree!
At last – a kindred spirit! My poor house is far too small for the junk inside, and when people offer me more – I have no choice but to accept! mountains of fabric, buttons, ribbon etc etc etc etc. And much as it’s a bit sad, sometimes just going through it and organising is as much fun as making stuff!
Someone once told me – only dull mummy’s have immaculate homes!
I whole-heartedly agree – about dull mummy’s and their immaculate homes, and also about the therapeutic value of sorting through one’s stuff… I love just tipping my ribbon bag out and carefully coiling every piece up again – and then all is right with the world! Hope that doesn’t sound completely mad. Do you accept the not-so-nice junk people offer too? I’m trying to resist, but it’s tricky…