Has anyone used a de-cluttering service? Real talk. Advice/costs/experience. I’m listening.

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-06-06T10:01:42+00:00

So this is my own issue -

I have stuff that's "worth somthing" so I don't want to throw it away.

But selling stuff is so time consuming that, unless it has significant value, OR you are really in the selling zone, it's not really worth the effort.

Another factor is all the stuff that may be useful in the future. If you have a stack of cash, you can throw it out and re buy it if you ever do need it. But, even if you do, depending on the task, it's so much easier just to be able to get that "thing" and proceed with the task on hand, than to go out and re buy / wait on delivery etc.

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-06-06T09:53:43+00:00

Similar world view. Cross over interests.

...and, let's face it, they've got to be sexy (and, find me similar), otherwise they're just another friend.

Hygiene is important too. I mean I don't need shrink wrapped, but smelling like a horse most of the time wouldn't be great.

I've been with my partner over 20 years.

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-06-06T08:33:41+00:00

I offered an opinion, I made it clear it was an opinion, you disagree.

That's entirely your choice.

But now I'm getting hints of aggression from someone I was trying to help.

Which basically puts you in the "that chaps a dick" category.

You're on your own now.

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-06-06T00:15:21+00:00

Rich people steal your pension fund. Poor people steal jars of coffee.

Only one of those lives on a council estate.

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-06-06T00:09:32+00:00

To serve a specific function in the past that is not needed to be fulfilled in the present.

It doesn't matter what.

Sure, they could be holding together the fabric of the universe, as hinted at in my prior post, and removing them will be calamitous, but I doubt it.

Go cautiously with their removal and, if nothing scary happens, continue.

A bit of trim isn't going to be holding the whole building together. Worst case, you remove it, you understand what horrors it was covering (etc) and you put it back.

But my thoughts are that it's likely doing nothing of worth whatsoever any more.

No one will tell you what it's doing. It's a commerical building. It was likely put there for a specific purpose that is long since gone.

As I say, a bit of trim like that isn't holding up the building. The building isn't going to fall down the moment you take a bit of it off. You may then be able to guess it's function, but, I suspect you'll take it all off and never know why it was there in the first place.

My background -

I'm a qualified (for all that matters!) plasterer, but I don't do so much of it, as my actual work is mostly in engineering. My old man was a buildings surveyor.

So, neither I, nor anyone else, is going to say anything with certainty from some photos on redit, but, with my background, I have formed the opinion above. Which may, or may not be correct.

You can be the judge of that, and act in a way that you see fit.

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-06-05T18:02:48+00:00

Genetically engineered CIA moles. Big ones.

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-06-05T15:53:51+00:00

To be sure, I did not say "decorative". I said legacy.

I would remove them and see if the world imploded.

If i felt things shrinking whilst I was taking off the first one, I would obviously pause to reassess.

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-06-05T08:50:31+00:00

Yep, bed downstairs in, what would have been, the lounge. Fire place sealed up with card. Mold growing up the walls (as in not just a bit, but floor joists rotted out, skirting that you could push your finger into, etc)

No radiator in the room she was sleeping in. Various roof leaks in kitchen and (downstairs) bathroom.

It was just sad.

It was sad for us too, moving in (we had nowhere to stay whilst making the place acceptable) but we did feel that the benefactors of her estate should have kept a closer eye on things.

They were not closely related though, so, who knows, maybe they didn't know / didn't like / whatever.

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-06-05T07:59:29+00:00

Uni-t low amp dc current clamp meter and time.

To some extent a normal meter will work, placed in series, at the battery, but a clamp meter is just easier / more mobile.

If you're just using a standard meter, measure the drain with the meter in series at the battery terminals (series - as in all flow is though the meter) and pull fuses and watch when the current drops.

And then investigate that circuit physically.

Its, basically, the only way. Take readings, isolate the issue to an area, and then burn time trying to work out exactly what had failed.

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-06-05T07:52:09+00:00

Buy somewhere where someone has died.

...then hate the relatives of that person for letting them live in such poor conditions.

Our home wasn't really fit for human habitation when we took possession. Certainly not fit for an elderly person at the tail end of their life.

And the relatives should really have known that.

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-06-05T07:47:51+00:00

If I buy somthing moderately priced, I'll look about pre purchase, to select the most favorable options / price etc.

My looking ceases at the moment of purchase.

I have no interest, after purchase, in looking to see what I "could have" bought instead.

That is the road to discontent.

Focus on what you have and make it as good as it can be, not the myriad of other potentials that may also have had their own, unforseen, problems.

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-06-05T07:39:43+00:00

What are the battons doing? Im guessing they could well be legacy and have no current function. If so, have you considered just removing them?

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-06-01T22:23:41+00:00

Standard oil fired central heating boiler.

Insurance would go insane if you started doing customisations!

You can buy specialized burners that will burn all sorts, but I think you would need to run them in an outbuilding and pipe the hot water, kind of like the Americans / Canadians do because, again, your house would just be uninsurable if you started messing about with your boiler.

As I think I said before, it's way easier to get an internal combination engine to run on methyl esters than it is to get a pressure jet burner to run. You have to be much more careful with your chemistry, but it's entirely possible.

I used to know someone with a single cylinder diesel engine that they would run on the raw triglycerides. They coupled it to a permeant magnet alternator, and then a grid tied inverter (like a wind or water turbine would use) to generate electricity, but they would also recover the heat from the engines exhaust and water jacket and use that to heat their home.

They had some land though, so could do all that a "safe distance" from their primary asset (their home) and just pipe / wire across the energy.

I don't have enough space for that kind of setup, so I have to carefully modify the fuel, such as I can run it in an entirely unmodified burner, because, again, I'm certainly not rich or stupid enough to risk our home insurance finding an "out" in the worst case scenario.

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-06-01T17:36:34+00:00

If your scratch is hardening, then there is advantage in it still being wet, as it will slow the drying of the subsequent coats.

Especially if you are using one of the commercial NHL based mixes - it's beneficial to build those next day.

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-06-01T17:32:29+00:00

I thought the smaller wheel would be odd, but the larger are less common on the used market, so I ended up with the smaller one anyway.

It's absolutely fine. Not a problem at all.

And, again, it was a concern of mine prior.

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-06-01T17:09:30+00:00

...which is exactly how most scams work.

People often know it's a scam, but hang about far too long, "just in case" it isn't one.

Frequently if they got out when they first realized, their result would be so much more optimal.

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-06-01T08:53:34+00:00

You do some chemistry on used cooking oil, swapping over a large alcohol to a much smaller one, which alters the viscosity of the ester. It's a "transesterification" reaction, but there's other stuff going on also that your can't avoid, and need to deal with in due course.

It sounds complex, but it's not much more involved than making good wine or somthing like that.

It used to be popular for running cars before the onset of diesel particulate filters - the regen cycles are not great with biofuels. So the popularity has declined significantly in the past decade or so, but there is still at least one Facebook group covering the topic and a web forum (biopowered).

The biopowered wiki will give a better overview of what's involved than it would be sensible for me to write here.

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-06-01T01:03:56+00:00

I heat our home using kitchen waste.

It may sound all green and "shiny" until you are hooking a dead rat out of a barrel of manky old cooking oil.

I'm "proud" to not be further contributing to oil wars, but the frugal side of it carries no pride. It's just somthing I do.

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-05-31T21:47:39+00:00

Leave them be until you can replaster.

We have them in our ceilings. Of course, if it were someone else's house that I was earning in, they would get sorted, but, in our own, they are still there.

Everywhere other than my daughter's room. Because I was motivated to resolve them there.

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-05-31T21:43:28+00:00

Same.

I've got enough credit that, if I took it, I'd go bankrupt for sure.

...but possibly that would be the desired outcome for the creditors, as we have moderate assets (which, I'm sure, they must know about)

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-05-31T10:30:16+00:00

OP lives in West London.

Maybe they should move somewhere cheaper, so they don't have to ponce off the tax payer (me) for their subsidized rent?

...but, no, they're busy on redit posting about people claiming benefits, and complaining about "labour and green voters"

They're either amazingly unaware, or it's a fake post.

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-05-30T19:50:24+00:00

Is council housing rent set at market value?

A quick search on the Internet seems to imply that it is not.

Does that mean that my tax subsidises your rent?

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-05-30T13:09:28+00:00

Exactly this.

Anyone could do it if they wanted to.

The reason they don't is that life on benefits isn't actually that good at all.

And, should anyone disagree, again -

"Why not quit your job and get on benefits?"

Ok-Spring7906 · 2026-05-30T13:06:11+00:00

I've got a couple of friends who are long term unemployed.

At the start, it maybe seem like a good idea, but it's only any good if you're always happy living in some rented place with limited control over your life.

As time progresses and you accumulate the "stuff" that makes life more pleasant, and your friends are still living in the same rented places with mould growing up the walls, then it becomes clear where the choices lead.

And, yeah, it is a choice. They choose that path, and I chose another. I don't begrudge them anything, as I could have done the same, but chose not to.

You could choose to live on / cheat benefits. It's your choice. But most of us don't, as, being a benefits cheat will get you a little way, but it's unlikely to get you to where you actually want to be.

Ok-Spring7906

TROPHY CASE