Piglet, do you have any charities working with the homeless/ abused people moving into their own properties and needing furniture? Otherwise, do you have any furniture recycling groups near you?
I'm not sure, but I'll look into it; there are several charity shops in the High Street, but they're closed at the moment, so probably not accepting either.
Alas (as Boris would say), that's probably true for most of the Untied Kingdom just now.
Do you have a Crook or a Nanny in which the redundant furniture could be stored (perhaps in a partially-dismantled state) until the charities are up and running again? If (as I suppose) it's in good nick, it will be in demand at some point.
I'm not sure, but I'll look into it; there are several charity shops in the High Street, but they're closed at the moment, so probably not accepting either.
https://freshstartweb.org.uk/. This group is based near you but works throughout Scotland, I think. I also am pretty sure that they are’s till working in some way in lockdown, as the problem of people needing homed does not go away.
Thanks for that, Cathscats, but according to the link, they're not taking anything for the rest of January.
@Bishops Finger - the château is, sadly, not well endowed with Crooks or Nannies; the space under the bed is getting decidedly crowded ...
The table that's to go with the chairs is still some way from being delivered; it's still at the "we'll send you an e-mail when we're going to despatch it" stage, so I'll still be using the old one for a wee while. As the old table and chairs are very definitely a set*, I'd prefer if I could get rid of them all together.
I'd love for someone who really needed them to get them - it's just the logistics at the moment.
* It's an Ikea number - probably called "Splåttvørk" or similar - square table with rounded corners, with quadrant-shaped chairs that slot in under the rounded bits (and that wouldn't really work with any other sort of table).
(It used to be little shops run by men who had been in R.E.M.E.* for National Service.) I suspect some bought up stock at closing down and have marketed it on ebay, but that only works if you know what you want.
*Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
*Also known by some as Rough Engineering Made Easy, but you have to know who you are talking to if you mention that. There can be consequences.
Happy to report the dam has broken and things are moving. Gone one table, gone two beds, about to go one chest which has 15 people interested so I am drawing a name tonight. Free seems to be a very good word after all. My goal is to post one thing a day. Feeling lighter. Guess I need to return to the de-clutter post. Hell is over.
@Piglet I find the website Nextdoor to be invaluable in all sorts of respects - a major one being for getting rid of stuff I don't want. It operates all over England, and I imagine in Scotland as well. They ask for quite a lot of information when you join, which at first I found off-putting, but a friend who works with computers assured me it was okay, they just want to establish that people joining the website are bona fide members of a local community. You can sell things on the website or give them away for free. So far I have given away a rug, a towel, and a new toilet bowel! It's also a place where people share all sorts of local info., or they put in requests for recommendations for handymen, or they just ask for help. (I put in a request for someone to help me learn how to use my iPhone, and 3 people volunteered....) It's a great website for people living alone.
When you place info or a request on the website you can also stipulate whether you want it to go to the whole of your city, or just to districts near where you live.
Anyway, it may not be your cup of tea, but thought I would mention it.
@Piglet I find the website Nextdoor to be invaluable in all sorts of respects - a major one being for getting rid of stuff I don't want. It operates all over England, and I imagine in Scotland as well. They ask for quite a lot of information when you join, which at first I found off-putting, but a friend who works with computers assured me it was okay, they just want to establish that people joining the website are bona fide members of a local community. You can sell things on the website or give them away for free. So far I have given away a rug, a towel, and a new toilet bowel! It's also a place where people share all sorts of local info., or they put in requests for recommendations for handymen, or they just ask for help. (I put in a request for someone to help me learn how to use my iPhone, and 3 people volunteered....) It's a great website for people living alone.
When you place info or a request on the website you can also stipulate whether you want it to go to the whole of your city, or just to districts near where you live.
Anyway, it may not be your cup of tea, but thought I would mention it.
Totally agree, a very useful community site for all sorts of things!
I'm not sure, but I'll look into it; there are several charity shops in the High Street, but they're closed at the moment, so probably not accepting either.
Try these: Salvation Army, Cyrenians, St Vincent de Paul Society, Social Services department.
Might also be worth checking Linlithgow FaceBook pages. I've bookmarked one local to me - the Meadows Share - which is full of folk offering or asking for all manner of stuff.
Thanks, everyone - that's quite a bit to be thinking about. I've now finished assembling the new chairs, so once the table arrives (whenever that may be) I'll be very keen to get shot of the old set.
👹 More fly-tipping in one of our small lanes. Builder's rubble, concrete with reinforcing rods protruding, smashed furniture and an old-fashioned chemical toilet.
I called the local plod who were inclined to leave it until I mentioned the loo, at which point they took a different tone.
Drove past site on my return journey 2 hours later and there were police (2) plus 3 others in hazmat gear 😯
👹 More fly-tipping in one of our small lanes. Builder's rubble, concrete with reinforcing rods protruding, smashed furniture and an old-fashioned chemical toilet.
I called the local plod who were inclined to leave it until I mentioned the loo, at which point they took a different tone.
Drove past site on my return journey 2 hours later and there were police (2) plus 3 others in hazmat gear 😯
Good grief, and I get really angry about a bit of littering in our lane - what is wrong with people 😡!
I sometimes think there's a breed of Brit that cannot see a pretty country lane without experiencing an overwhelming urge to cover it with garbage and filth.
Lots of fly tipping like that around here, The ones I pass with regret are the leather sofas. I want a leather flying jacket, I have the pattern, and I've seen and left several options for material some distance from home as I didn't have the tools to skin the leather off or bag to carry it home. One was on a track leading through the golf course to some farm buildings, another on the track to the cricket ground.
With more sympathy, one of the better local walks is currently off limits to us as the farmer is so stressed by the fly tipping on his land and I don't want to add to his stresses.
I sometimes think there's a breed of Brit that cannot see a pretty country lane without experiencing an overwhelming urge to cover it with garbage and filth.
If all the stuff came from the same place, it might not be too hard to track down someone local who's just replaced an old chemical loo...and to track down the gits who were supposed to take it away, and dispose of it *properly*.
Here we need to be very careful who we hire to take our stuff to the county dump. People are reported to pick up your stuff, receive their pay and then just dump your stuff on the road thus avoid paying the land fill fee. If it is found and identified as yours, you then have to convince them the person you hired dumped it. My answer is to make them return with a receipt from the dumb before I pay them.
For various reasons, we go to church in another town, and have to use a mountain road to get there. Every time we travel that way, I am horrified by the amount of rubbish on the sides of the road, a lot of it being fast food containers with a yellow M on them.
For various reasons, we go to church in another town, and have to use a mountain road to get there. Every time we travel that way, I am horrified by the amount of rubbish on the sides of the road.
Yes, been along there too. It's awful - and it's not the only place up there like it.
And it’s not just “kids” who dump rubbish - 30+ years ago we had some friends staying with us who were horrified at the amount of rubbish dumped along pretty “country roads”. (Actually local main routes from our town - they just happen to go across moorland)
I remember hearing once that franchisees of a certain fast food company would drive round until they found an area with none of their litter, which indicated that there was a need for a branch in the neighbourhood.
When they opened up in an ex pub at the end of the road I used to live in, they initially sponsored a bin outside our place, but this was eventually re-used for dog litter. The fast food place then used to send an elderly man up the road who did a sterling job of clearing the detritus, which particularly gathered outside us, as that was a "good" place for people to stop and park and eat, wind down the windows and drop the bag of bits on the pavement (sidewalk). He was replaced by a plump young woman who found exercise unnatural and didn't come at all unless the outlet was phoned.
The usual place round here, a layby in a wood, has been clean for some time now, and always puzzled us as the nearest outlet we knew was about ten minutes away.
Priscilla befinitely mentioned a letter M! And those laybys would not be of any use for other purposes - there is too much traffic too close, and the laybys or more of passing places.
The North East Man and I realised we had become Officially Old and Boring the night that we went out in the car to observe a well-publicised meteor shower and, seeing a car parked in a dark layby in the countryside, blithely pulled in assuming that the occupants of the other car were also star gazing ....
The North East Man and I realised we had become Officially Old and Boring the night that we went out in the car to observe a well-publicised meteor shower and, seeing a car parked in a dark layby in the countryside, blithely pulled in assuming that the occupants of the other car were also star gazing ....
And that, your honour, concludes the case for the defence.
Comments
Do you have a Crook or a Nanny in which the redundant furniture could be stored (perhaps in a partially-dismantled state) until the charities are up and running again? If (as I suppose) it's in good nick, it will be in demand at some point.
https://freshstartweb.org.uk/. This group is based near you but works throughout Scotland, I think. I also am pretty sure that they are’s till working in some way in lockdown, as the problem of people needing homed does not go away.
@Bishops Finger - the château is, sadly, not well endowed with Crooks or Nannies; the space under the bed is getting decidedly crowded ...
The table that's to go with the chairs is still some way from being delivered; it's still at the "we'll send you an e-mail when we're going to despatch it" stage, so I'll still be using the old one for a wee while. As the old table and chairs are very definitely a set*, I'd prefer if I could get rid of them all together.
I'd love for someone who really needed them to get them - it's just the logistics at the moment.
* It's an Ikea number - probably called "Splåttvørk" or similar - square table with rounded corners, with quadrant-shaped chairs that slot in under the rounded bits (and that wouldn't really work with any other sort of table).
*Also known by some as Rough Engineering Made Easy, but you have to know who you are talking to if you mention that. There can be consequences.
When you place info or a request on the website you can also stipulate whether you want it to go to the whole of your city, or just to districts near where you live.
Anyway, it may not be your cup of tea, but thought I would mention it.
Totally agree, a very useful community site for all sorts of things!
I don't very often bother to open the daily digest these days.
Try these: Salvation Army, Cyrenians, St Vincent de Paul Society, Social Services department.
I called the local plod who were inclined to leave it until I mentioned the loo, at which point they took a different tone.
Drove past site on my return journey 2 hours later and there were police (2) plus 3 others in hazmat gear 😯
Good grief, and I get really angry about a bit of littering in our lane - what is wrong with people 😡!
With more sympathy, one of the better local walks is currently off limits to us as the farmer is so stressed by the fly tipping on his land and I don't want to add to his stresses.
https://youtu.be/KM-yIBVEgF4
For various reasons, we go to church in another town, and have to use a mountain road to get there. Every time we travel that way, I am horrified by the amount of rubbish on the sides of the road, a lot of it being fast food containers with a yellow M on them.
When they opened up in an ex pub at the end of the road I used to live in, they initially sponsored a bin outside our place, but this was eventually re-used for dog litter. The fast food place then used to send an elderly man up the road who did a sterling job of clearing the detritus, which particularly gathered outside us, as that was a "good" place for people to stop and park and eat, wind down the windows and drop the bag of bits on the pavement (sidewalk). He was replaced by a plump young woman who found exercise unnatural and didn't come at all unless the outlet was phoned.
The usual place round here, a layby in a wood, has been clean for some time now, and always puzzled us as the nearest outlet we knew was about ten minutes away.
The Other Purposes to which I delicately refer (TIACW) will have been muchly reduced by the current health crisis.
But they were only interested in Venus?
And that, your honour, concludes the case for the defence.
Woof woof!
Or possibly Uranus. Whatever floats your boat.
ITTWACW!
I thought that too, but I was far too polite to say!
Not me. Pure as the driven slush, I am.
Dogging? Or car parks? Or indeed planetary... ahem... alignment?
Ah... found it
Me too!
To quote Marilyn Munroe, I used to be pure as the driven snow... but I drifted.
That was Mae West, methinks
Pure as the driven slush was Tallulah Bankhead.