2020. The year of decluttering

I have decided to rid my life of stuff that there is no chance that I will use before I die.

We have to dispose of a load of surplus stationery and filing apparatus after revamping the home office, but I have also decided to offload a lot of wargaming stuff that I bought on retiring that in retrospect is never likely to be used.

When I retired I decided to scour the internet for the stuff that I saw in wargame books and wished I could afford as a teenager in the 1960s/70s. Alas, most of it languishes in my loft.

I have an excellent opportunity to clear my stuff and raise money for a good cause at the auction in aid of Combat Stress run by Henry Hyde at the annual Donald Featherstone memorial wargame dinner. This charity has recently been in the news because government funding has been withdrawn and they can no longer afford to take on new cases of military personnel mentally affected by their battlefield experiences.

So I am accumulating a pile of models, books, etc. for fellow wargamers to spend good money on for a good cause, and to stuff their own lofts with in the vain expectation that the purchases will ever be used.

Meanwhile I am also gradually disposing of re-enactment gear. Today I sold a Brown Bess cavalry carbine and gave away an old oak table and four folding chairs, last used in the officers’ mess tent at Waterloo in 2015. The table was in poor condition as the lashing rain attacking it on the roof of my car en route from Hougoumont to Hampshire stripped most of the varnish from it. That probably makes it better for its intended new use as a battlefield surgeon’s table.

On the other hand I have today unpacked a cart, bought last year from Poland. This is intended for use at our ECW events in my civilian “camp follower” rôle for carrying water and other requisites for the cavalry. The youngsters can drag it while I supervise…

Tomorrow I hope to deliver the wheels to a friend to have steel tyres added. Then I need to work out how to build the cart in a folding or flat-pack style for transport.

This is a replacement for the wheelbarrow that I bought a few years back and lovingly restored to “original”, oiled, and flat-pack status before losing it in a fire the very next day.

To supplement the cart I have also bought in the last year or so wooden water buckets, stone water bottles, wicker bottle baskets, canvas buckets, a yoke, etc., etc.

Now, back to the objective of decluttering………..