There is never a good time for something bad to happen, but if the boiler had to go wrong, why did it have to wait until the winter? We had no heating and no hot water, and the plumber had no sense of urgency! When he finally turned up he announced that the problem was caused by something in the hot water tank and we needed a new and very expensive tank. He grudgingly agreed that he would fit us in on in several days time and he would need the airing cupboard that housed the tank to be completely empty. When we bought the house all those years ago, the large cupboards were one of the things that attracted us. The once large airing cupboard seemed to have shrunk, it was bursting at the seams with piles of bedding, towels, old curtains and assorted odds and ends and I had to find somewhere else to put it all until the work was done.

When the plumbing work was completed I realised that my next priority was to reorganise the airing cupboard. every couple of years I have had a sort out and tidy up, but it was clear that more drastic action was needed. Usually we reach a point where the airing cupboard door refuses to close properly and then I reluctantly sort through and rearrange the piles of bedding and towels until looks a little more orderly again, but this time I simply had to get rid of all the old or unused items.  Anyway, I spent almost a whole day sorting though piles of stuff trying to decide what should stay and what should go. There was my older daughter’s Thunderbirds Duvet set – she was a great Thunderbirds fan when she was tiny. I asked her if I should keep it and received a resounding ‘YES’. My younger daughter (now 18) still uses her Noddy set, but we also have her 101 Dalmatian’s bedding and there is NO way she will part with that! My son proved less sentimental, but somehow I couldn’t quite bring myself to part with his old covers either, they are a record of his different interests as he grew up. Dennis the Menace, Sharks, Super Heroes and Simpsons. I packed them all neatly into a storage bag to be stowed away at the back of the highest shelf – just in case.