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What do you hide from your family? (Woe is me. My husband is a maker!)


PollyOR
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LOL, my kids just started MA a few months ago, and they've gotten through a couple of belts each so far. I'm not sure what to do with the broken boards either. I will let them keep the belts, though.

 

Oh, and that's the other problem -- several of us are sentimental. None of us are minimalists. Not a good combination.

 

They also want to keep all the ribbons and medals that document their participation in every extracurricular and field day etc. etc. etc.  (I did throw away the ones from preschool when they weren't looking.)  I don't understand all these participation medals.  Maybe they should give beads to put on a chain or something.  It is ridiculous to have a tangled mess of junk in a box commemorating how Mom spent her money.  :P

 

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My family steals buckets and extension cords. ALL I WANT is one bucket to clean with that I don't have to hunt down and scrub out and ONE extension cord that's not four miles long so I can clean the patio and porch with the leaf blower. These things are NEVER where I leave them. I've purchased more, but the still get taken. I do not understand at all.

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Tile it? https://www.thetileapp.com/

 

I have this problem with my children and just about anything they can use to "invent" things. With my dh it's usually when he unloads the dishwasher. I often have to wander around the kitchen opening every drawer and cabinet to find where he put things. :0)

Yes!  A common thing around here is:

 

"Has anyone seen the colander?"  

 

"Dad put away the dishes."  

 

"Oh."  (I realize that I will be without a colander for the next 3 months until I accidentally find it in the roasting pan.)

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In my family I am the maker, and I have corrupted ds into this pursuit as well. Thank you all for sharing your hiding places -- I will go check those spots in my house to see what DH is hiding from us. :)

 

The key to the scissors issue is to buy a pair for each room. Seriously every room, including the bathroom. Then get a Phillips screwdriver (the + head) in a small or medium size for each room too. That's the one that opens most battery compartments, so they used to wander off until we got enough of them. We buy tape in bulk at Costco, so we have a nice supply, although we need more weighted dispensers (we only have 3 and I am hoping for a new one for Christmas this year).

 

Our problem is that dh recycles our cardboard stashes. Now when ds wants cardboard he asks if we can buy more books so Amazon will send us a box.

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My dh is the exact same way. I put a wooden bowl on our dresser where he can put his stuff. Keys usually find their way there, but wallet, phone, glasses, etc., are often missing.

 

My dh finally trained himself to put keys, phone and ID badge on the dresser. However, the other junk that's pile up there. Sigh.

 

Let's just say that I seldom have to dust that dresser.

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My family steals buckets and extension cords. ALL I WANT is one bucket to clean with that I don't have to hunt down and scrub out and ONE extension cord that's not four miles long so I can clean the patio and porch with the leaf blower. These things are NEVER where I leave them. I've purchased more, but the still get taken. I do not understand at all.

 

buckets...

 

Sigh,

 

I live on a farm so there are approvmately 155 buckets in the barn and on the property. However, MY mop bucket is often the only one handy. So I get ready to mop and it's got old oil, rocks, or something else icky in it.

 

I've taken to hiding it in the shallow corner behind the dryer. Since noone but me ever uses the laundry room, it's pretty safe there.

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Dh realized that he always used hammer, nails and screwdrivers and rarely returned them to the same place. One day, he put a set in an old fishing tackle box and handed it to me to hide so I would have some essentials on hand when I need them. I hid them under my bed - don't tell him.

 

We are still working on the bucket and broom issues...

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One of the advantages of having a family of guys, is that I can buy some things in hot pink - not that I like hot pink so much, but no one touches Mom's stuff.  I hide batteries in my drawers with my underwear (and the dark chocolate) because no one would touch that spot.  And I hide office supplies up high with only one of each left out.  It helps.

 

The guys live in fear of my minimalists urges.  One time I cleaned out a bunch of my son's treasures.  It went okay until I had him help unload at the dump.  He kept finding stuff to keep.  LOL.

 

Haha.  My younger two read this post over my shoulder.  Now they know where the chocolate is.   :glare:

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I used to have to hide an extra roll of tape in my underwear drawer, my son is old enough that this is no longer necessary. My scissors are pink and there are threats made to people who don't return them. 😃

 

Yes! A common thing around here is:

 

"Has anyone seen the colander?"

 

"Dad put away the dishes."

 

"Oh." (I realize that I will be without a colander for the next 3 months until I accidentally find it in the roasting pan.)

My husband does the same thing!

 

The children have a nice little spot on the counter where they put away things they don't know where they go. My husband just picks a random spot for things that he does not know there spot. This house has a lot of cabinet space, which is nice for some things but frustrating for this.

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Pink scissors, etc.?  It wouldn't phase DH in the least.  He would still take off with them.

 

Yes! flashlights.  I've gone ballistic over that one too.  I keep a flashlight in one of the kitchen drawers.  Each family member has their own flashlight but since Mom is the only person who puts hers back, when they need a flashlight that is the one they use.

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Junk food -- I have to hide it from my husband whenever he's working late or he'll just plow through huge stashes of it.  Instead I leave a lot of fruit out in plain sight.

 

Unfortunately, he seems to always be working late.

 

From a financial standpoint, I think we'd be better off if he plowed through junk.

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I kept an empty tampon box up in my closet for years.  That is wear i stored my stash of chocolate.  No one ever touched it!

 

I used to keep cash in a tampon box.  And it worked.  We got broken into and that was the one place the thief didn't think to look.

 

But I'm not sure it would work anymore.  There are now a ton of websites advising people where to keep their valuables to thieves won't find them.  And I suspect thieves read the internet too.

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I generally don't need tools around the house because when dh is home he fixes everything, but it is handy to have a screwdriver around once in awhile.  Unfortunately, mine apparently grows legs and walks away, because when I need it,  it is never in the drawer where I last put it.  Somehow all of the screwdrivers end up buried in the garage somewhere.  Eventually they find their way back, but by then I've purchased another (at least they are cheap!), and now instead of 0 screwdrivers, I have 5.  Until they all walk off again.

 

I do have a secret hiding place for my own personal flashlight.  Because of course when needed the rest of the family's flashlights are never where they should be, or the batteries are dead.  Matches, too--nothing like searching for matches when the power is out AND the flashlights aren't where they are supposed to be either!  The matches tend to migrate to the garage as well.  Must be some kind of magnetic force or something . . .

 

 

 

 

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DH just buys extra scissors and tape because he knows it's a problem. 

 

 

Then there's my toothbrush. 

 

Don't listen to the ladies saying pink keeps things safe. It's all boys here. Someone kept taking my toothbrush and wasn't putting it back every day.

 

Me: It's pink. No one but me uses pink. Pink is a safe color!

Child3: I have pink, Mom. Then E won't use it. 

Me: ?????

 

So I got purple, lavender really. It disappears again. 

 

Me: It's purple! No one uses purple!

Child2: I use purple, Mom. It was the best color they had last time and E. won't use it. 

 

Red? No, E. uses red. Blue? No, DH uses blue. Thank goodness ds4 uses a child's toothbrush with dolphin's on it. Right now I'm using a nice light green. *crosses fingers*

 

Obviously, E. is the only following the no girlie colors rule. 

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If my SIL sends her chocolate chip cookies home with us, these get hidden. I looove these cookies with milk. I sneak and eat them - not always easy. The kids can have the cake, the m&ms, anything else, but these cookies are miine.

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Fritos and Cheetos.  Also, ALL fingernail clippers and screwdrivers.  Oh my gosh, he NEVER puts these back!! 

 

When we get magazine subscriptions that he and I will SHARE, you can be sure that I hide them until I'm ready to read them first and then generously pass them on to him.  Which is the equivalent of passing them into a black hole.

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Fritos and Cheetos.  Also, ALL fingernail clippers and screwdrivers.  Oh my gosh, he NEVER puts these back!! 

 

When we get magazine subscriptions that he and I will SHARE, you can be sure that I hide them until I'm ready to read them first and then generously pass them on to him.  Which is the equivalent of passing them into a black hole.

 

 

How could I forget fingernail clippers?  Lol!  Yep, I have my own pair hidden.

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Oh yeah, tweezers! I like having a good pair that haven't been used to pull slimy things out of the drain. 

 

Sigh.  I used to have very nice tweezers.  He did eventually return those but I won't use them after I saw what he did with them.

 

And then there are my kitchen scales.  He took those to the Pinewood Derby to weigh the cars.  The scales never made it back home.  WW III almost broke out.  I finally bought another set which I didn't like as much.  Six months goes by and DH finds my kitchen scales in the lost and found at church.   Now I have two.  I never know which one he has used to weigh metal shavings or something like that.  We're probably going to die from lead poisoning.   :tongue_smilie:  

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Yes! A common thing around here is:

 

"Has anyone seen the colander?"

 

"Dad put away the dishes."

 

"Oh." (I realize that I will be without a colander for the next 3 months until I accidentally find it in the roasting pan.)

Not just dad. Here we have five people unloading the dishwasher. We've moved a lot and have reached the point where there's little consensus on specific homes for the kitchen items. It often takes longer than it should to prepare dinner.

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It's not very nice to tease.  (Or maybe I don't really want to know...   :leaving: )

 

I honestly don't remember.  I just know I was done with them. 

 

Years ago I was having problems with my van.  He put the offending car part in one of my cooking pots and heated it to boiling.   No matter how well I cleaned the pot after that, I was concerned there might be a chemical residue.  He wasn't the least concerned.

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I honestly don't remember.  I just know I was done with them. 

 

Years ago I was having problems with my van.  He put the offending car part in one of my cooking pots and heated it to boiling.   No matter how well I cleaned the pot after that, I was concerned there might be a chemical residue.  He wasn't the least concerned.

 

I'm married to a man like that!   :banghead:

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Yeah, my kids always want to keep the boards they broke to get their next belt in TKD.  At first I thought, sure, these could be usedin a project someday.  Then I thought, in a couple of years we're going to have a huge pile of broken wood.  No thanks.  They are lucky I'm letting them keep the old belts - for now.

 

I bought something similar to this to display old belts.

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One of the advantages of having a family of guys, is that I can buy some things in hot pink - not that I like hot pink so much, but no one touches Mom's stuff.  I hide batteries in my drawers with my underwear (and the dark chocolate) because no one would touch that spot.  And I hide office supplies up high with only one of each left out.  It helps.

 

The guys live in fear of my minimalists urges.  One time I cleaned out a bunch of my son's treasures.  It went okay until I had him help unload at the dump.  He kept finding stuff to keep.  LOL.

 

Haha.  My younger two read this post over my shoulder.  Now they know where the chocolate is.   :glare:

 

Okay, there would be severe consequences for anyone who touched my underwear drawer no matter what they know is in there. Egads!

 

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I bought a pink screw driveR, pink camo scissors and a red high heel tape dispenser. That oughta do it!

 

At one point I made sure all of the pens I purchased for myself were pink and/or flowery. It worked for about two months, then they became immune to it and started using them anyway. Sigh. 

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Sigh.  I used to have very nice tweezers.  He did eventually return those but I won't use them after I saw what he did with them.

 

 

AH yes tweezers.... I had a nice pair, DH used it to pluck turkey feathers before roasting it. And wondered why I bought a new pair.... :glare:

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