I'm trying not to keep buying trinkets but just can't help myself

I mean, it's always been a bit of a problem. I've got a penchant for kitschy trinkets which I think I inherited from my Mum. She passed away in November 2023 and I remember my Dad despairing after she died. "What am I going to do with all of this stuff?!" - it's not like he didn't know it existed. Of course he did. He just knew that she liked a lot of "stuff" and also she found it hard to let things go. Especially things that were sentimental; things that belonged to my Nan for example. Whatever that thing was, she just couldn't give it away. Going through a bunch of old birthday cards, I found a promotional one that the Postcode Lottery had sent her. Now I'm not that bad...and I guess that's my marker or warning signal that things are getting a bit 'mum'.

I've been trying to declutter recently and have succeeded (a little bit) but I still can't cruise past the shelves of the charity shops without scanning them for vintage treasure. I mean, how could you not pick up a kitschy kitten money box. The clown was a special find. He's Oleg Popov, Russian and painted by the Verbiliki Dimitriov factory from the 1950s. Worth more than the £5 I paid but that wasn't the point of me buying him. Look at him, showing off his fabulous trousers!!

And then we come my Oriental monkey.

Couldn't pass him up - he's got The White Lotus, season 3 written all over him.

I sneaked him onto the shelf when my husband wasn't looking. He does despair at my collecting and clutter. Sometimes, he'll gaze up at the walls or a shelf and say "Oh my God Coz, how long has that been there". If I've succeeded in my sneakiness it will have been there for at least a month and therefore owned it's right to stay. Well that's my logic anyway, he heeeeee.

#thrifting #secondhand #charityshops