We have a large attic and quite a big shed, so we never really got rid of anything. Members of the family would die and we ended up with a lot of their stuff, that others didn`t want. We didn`t really want it either, but couldn`t get rid of it for sentimental reasons. Our family were collectors, especially my nanny Bennett. We had the space, why not store it. That seemed to be our mantra.
This picture was taken after most stuff had been removed, but it was absolutely packed to the rafters before then.
So, sometime around October 2013, we decided on the move, for definite. I started to sort out my stuff. I had more things I`d collected, than Jean. I started on my precious vinyl albums. I got very serious. I had several criteria for getting rid of them.
1. Will I ever listen to it again.
2. Do I have it on cd.
3. Is it in poor condition.
4. Am I only keeping it for one track.
5. Do I have a sentimental attachment.
Using these and other criteria, I sorted out several hundred albums. Some were given to my stepson and some to my daughter. The rest were sorted out into various price categories and taken to the shop for a couple of months of selling. The vinyl shop, next door had £60 worth off me. The rest brought in a few hundred pounds over a few months. That money was converted to dollars and is in saving, ready for my first trips to the record shop in our new home country. The final bunch was sent to a charity shop. That was reasonably easy, because I was always more of a singles guy than an album fan. More about the singles later on.
I also sold my Andy Capp book collection, all my 78rpm records and a record player. Various magazines and books. Various bits and pieces on ebay and at a table top sale in Walsall FC club house.
Most of the other sorting, involved keeping souvenir programmes, school work, tickets, anything with a relevant date and anything I just didn`t want to get rid of. A surprising amount of stuff ended up in the tip or the bins. Still a lot of boxes of ephemera, to be sorted again in the future. An archive of our life, so to speak.
All this time, I was filling a corner of the attic, with Jean stuff. She has now sorted that out and we have some more stuff for boot sales.
Then Jean went to Cyprus for a week, with her sisters.
A couple of times, in the past, when she has gone away, I have got out my entire singles collection. Thousands of 7" vinyl jewels, precious things, to be revered, looked at and occasionally played with.
They were all on the bed.
Now this photo doesn`t do them justice. There were more of them, in smaller containers, waiting to be filtered in to the main collection. After spending a couple of hours a day, for 6 days, they were finally sorted out and put back under the bed.
Apart from the very few that I decided I could release into the wild. There were some that were doubles. One Mary Hopkins record, I had got 3 copies of, for some reason. The first port of call for the records, was along with a bunch of more collectable fodder, that we took to Stafford Antique and Collectables fair.
Unfortunately, we chose the hottest weekend of the year, so far. Very few people turned up and we didn`t do at all well. The yellow rimmed box on the left hand side of the table, as you look at it? That`s all the singles I released into the wild. Not many, I know that. I put some on ebay afterwards and have had some success. A Damned single has just sold for £31.00! Result.
We still have some time and as soon as we get a few days sunshine in a row, then we`ll do a couple of the big car boot sales. After that it`s a trip to a lucky charity shop somewhere. I need at least a month of not having this stuff hanging around, so that gives us about 4 weeks to get rid of it.
