I don’t mean binning just anything. Obviously we must be good citizens and re-use and recycle whatever we can. But there are some things that just have to go in the GOD DAMNED BIN.
We are crawling to the very end of the refurbishment of the first floor of our house. We are waiting for: a floor socket and a part for a ceiling fan (which has to be sourced from Spain. Ha ha! *Sobs*), both of which seem stubbornly impossible to sort out.
The thing that all refurbishments require is a huge amount of clearing-out: of clothes, of shoes, of books, of stuff. But there is always a pile of things that is left over - dried-up lumps of plasticine, deflated helium balloons, this odd-shaped piece of plastic. My tendency is to shove all those sorts of things into a bag and then hide it at the back of a cupboard. But this time round I have decided that, no: it must all just Go In The Bin. Or to the dump. Or whatever.
I either send it to landfill now and then do 50 Hail Marys for my Landfill Guilt, or I wait until I die, and then my children have to send it to landfill. Keen-eyed readers will know that I have written about this before and the fact that I am repeating myself in such an un-therapised way shows you how much it bothers me.
NEW SUBJECT! A medical breakthrough! I have been exchanging messages with a local mum about her teenage son’s mysteriously very smelly bellybutton. He is fastidiously clean and is greatly distressed by this stench. She asked me if I knew what to do. I made a few weak suggestion but ultimately didn’t have a clue. I offered sympathy and told her to keep me posted.
She emailed me this morning thus:
Okay so I assumed it was an infection because it absolutely stank so tried Canestan for two days which did nothing. Also kept cleaning it out with Clinisept that you recommended for spots. Then had a brainwave… Louisa [daughter] had infected finger and was given “Fusidic Acid” some kind of skin antibiotic. I still had it as I hoard medication [same!] and tried that and bellybutton stench eradicated in 24 hours!!! I know this is a niche and disgusting complaint but I am so proud of myself for sorting I need people to know. Not sure BMJ will be interested.
I live to serve.
How about you - have you diagnosed and treated any minor but strange family medical complaints and can share valuable experience with the group?
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Cleaning out/getting rid of things is an almost daily task for me; I rarely do a big cleanup any more and keep finding stuff as I move around and made up my mind recently that I need to be brutal and just throw out then shut the lid and walk away. This seems to work because I really don’t want to dumpster dive.
This piece and the attendant discussion thread is excellent, helpful and enjoyable to a degree that is hard to express. Thank you!