my squirrelling tendencies finally come good

We have, as you are doubtless aware, a house full of stuff. A great deal of it is stuff that I have hoarded, convinced that it will at some point be useful for something. The remainder is stuff in which I have invested either too much money or too much emotion to admit that it is never going to come in handy again. I’m trying to be good, and gradually work my way down through this, but in the mean time, a large curtain I bought about thirteen years ago, has finally found a purpose. It was a beautiful shade of blue, cotton velvet, and going for just £2 at what was then the village charity shop. I didn’t think it would take me this long (but then I never do). It was a well made curtain, and so managed to avoid being turned into a school costume as the years went by – although it had a particularly narrow escape last summer when Super Girl was a lord in the school show and needed a suitably lordly cape.

Then, the other day I was in the hall and I could feel a distinct draught coming from the door. It was such a draught that although it made me sound just like my mother, I couldn’t stop myself commenting on it. Something had to be done, and so: pole has been bought, the husband has been sent up the stepladder with a brand new beepy thing to check that he wasn’t about to electrocute himself, and we now have a nice, new metal curtain pole, that I’m about to rehome the beautiful curtain from.

I just have to keep reminding myself – that doesn’t mean that everything else should be kept until useful too.