I sit here with my hands poised above the keyboard drawing a complete blank today. I have been a little side-tracked as my son had all four of his wisdom teeth extracted this morning. So due to my lack of sleep last night, sitting in hospital waiting rooms for half a day, swapping ice packs, warming soup and serving ice-cream to him I have been a little distracted.
So I am going to keep it light today and just admit to you the strangest item of clutter lurking in my home. Being as we have discussed this week about childhood clutter and in keeping with the above paragraph I think this is an appropriate confession. At the fear of losing all respect as a declutter blogger this is it…
I have two tiny bottles stashed away in my jewellery box which contain the baby teeth of my two children.
So does anyone have anything stranger than that hidden away somewhere? If so please tell us about it because I would like to think that I am not the weirdest one among us.
ITEM 168 OF 365 LESS THINGS
I am on the fourth go around in the kitchen and these didn’t make to cut this time.
My mother kept baby teeth from both my sister and me. And an ex had kept the baby teeth of our dogs. I got rid of those when I got rid of him.
I kept my son’s tooth that was extracted. It’s in his baby box…so not weird to me!
I was just thinking about this subject yesterday and wondering if I’m completely weird – I have a lock of my deceased father’s hair and my dog’s baby teeth.
Hi Sarah,
I see this is the first time you have left a comment, thanks for dropping by. I had a quick look at your blog and will go over and have a better look later. Usually I reply to every comment I receive but I am going to leave commenting on this topic until the end of the day and we will see then who has the stangest clutter items. I am afraid you may be winning at the moment though, SORRY! But as you can see you are not the only person to have collected puppy teeth.
Yep, Mum kept ALL the baby teeth from my sister and me! She also had the creepiest ventriloquist dummy (in the original box) from the 60’s. Where she bought it, I have no idea. My husband sold it on eBay for $150 recently.
Love those decanters, I bet you saved those to use as fancy water bottles when you had guests?! I did the same, then got rid of them recently too.
The funeral director clipped the lock of hair and gave it to me as a kind gesture (my dad was young, as was I when he died) and I just can’t bring myself to throw it away, as strange as it is 🙁 Thank you for stopping by my blog.
Sarah,
that is something I would never consider clutter and never throw away. I still have the crucifix off my grandmothers coffin who died and I don’t consider that clutter either.
Colleen I hope your son recovers easily and in record time, and that you get some much needed rest. The closest I can come to the baby teeth, and puppy teeth, are the curls from my son’s first haircut tucked away in his baby book. I don’t consider that clutter in the least. ♥
Hello to everyone who left a comment for this post. It seems baby teeth collecting isn’t so strange after all. Puppy teeth collecting is just a little stranger than that but still more popular than I would have thought. I am thinking that Loretta mothers ventriloquist dummy was a little different though especially if she wasn’t a ventriloquist.
Betty Jo, thank you for asking after my son. He has made a remarkable recovery and actually went to work today 24 hours after surgery. He has always been a good patient probably due to how much practice he got when he was a baby.
Hi, I’m late to the party because we had unexpected overnight company. I didn’t keep baby teeth, although I think I have a clipping of my son’s hair from his first haircut. However, I have a huge picture of my great grandparents (great, great grands?) that is really grim–no smiles there. My youngest was terrified of it; I gave it to my brother, and 3 years ago he told me I had to take it back! Not creepy weird, just scary.
Hi Willow,
I did a little genealogy a couple of years back so I really love old photos but some can be a little strange. I remember one my grandmother had of two young ladies, their eyes would follow you around.
Um. We kept our daughter’s umbilical cord (the part that fall off at around one week old). I sewed it inside a piece of fabric. She was connected to me with that… If we ever have a yard I’d like to dig a hole, put it in there, and plant a fruit tree on top, and do this together with her, maybe on a birthday or something :)!!!!
Also I kept a first lock I cut from her hair, taped to her baby book.
You would NOT believe what my husband, and my sister’s husband, kept -though we have made them see the silliness and get rid of those things 😀
Hello Cat’s Meow,
You are the only person I know who has kept the umbilical cord from your baby but that is not to say there aren’t others like you out there. Locks of baby hair are far more common I would say. I made a scrapbook page once to remember the day my son had his rats tail cut off and I attached the rats tail to the page in an acid free bag. As for your husband’s and brother-in-law’s souvenirs I really am sure I don’t to know but my imagination is running away as I write this.
I kept my puppy’s baby teeth too! She was three dogs ago (the last two were shelter dogs adopted as adults), but I still treasure them. I’m glad to know I’m not alone!
Hi Peabrain,
thank you for your comment, it is good to hear from you. It seems those puppy teeth are very popular. Maybe I could develop a tooth fairy box for puppy teeth and become rich, mmmm I will have to give that some thought. Good for you for adopting your last two dogs and giving them a good home.
Hehe
I don’t have any children but I know my mom has some of my baby teeth and a lock of hair in my baby book too. I can’t think of anything weird that I personally own at the moment, but I know my uncle stores the tip of his index finger (which he accidently sawed off) in his freezer.
I’m glad your son healed so quickly!! Awesome! I got my wisdom teeth out last month and it took a few days to get back with it.
Hi Ginger,
welcome, it seems a have a few new commenters today, thanks for dropping by. I have to admit your uncle’s finger tip is a pretty a grose piece of clutter. I am curious as to how old he was when he sawed it off. My dad almost sawed of two of his fingers when he was young but they managed to sew them back on. The saw finally go the better of him last year though when he lost the end of his thumb to it and then not two months later my Godfather did the same thing. Both are over 70 maybe there should be an oage limit for electric saws.
It may run in the family, but my mother-in-law and myself both have one of the pacifiers from our kids. Hers is the grossest thing, it was one of those old yellow latex kind and it turned all gooey and sticky over the past 27 years. I expect mine will to in about 24 or so! But item #2 may be worse! I have TWO of my pregnancy tests (those pluses have blessed our life for over 11 years now!)
Hi Ticee,
it’s nice to hear from you, thanks for contributing to my blog. I must confess that I also have a pacifier from when my son was a baby it glowed in the dark. It’s been a while since I last saw it so I don’t know what condition it is in. The new ones are made of silicone so maybe they will last longer. As for the pregnancy tests, I don’t have any of those but I do hope you store them in a well sealed snap lock bag. lol!
It is hilarious that you all are keeping body parts.
To answer the question, the weirdest thing that I found (this spring, 2010) was a bunch of unused hypodermic needles from a procedure I went through in December 2000.
They weren’t even that hard to get rid of, as there’s an eye surgery place in my office building that had a “sharps” disposal container. Gone now, and so is the bag they were in — I used that bag to haul stuff to the Goodwill. 🙂
Hi Rachel,
nice to hear from you please drop by anytime. There were quite a few body parts involved it that topic wasn’t there.
I hope your procedure went well back in 2000. I suppose it would look a bit suspicious having a batch on hypodermic needles in you home. Best that they be gone.
I found a braid of hair in a box recently, along with a whole lotta what can only be described as JUNK. I have no idea who’s hair it was, or why I kept it…so strange. And there was a leather stubbie cooler in there with Nanna on it too. Also no idea why I had that. That was an easy box to sort through, I think I kept 2 things.
Hanna,
you must be Australian which state are you from.
Sounds like you are going great guns with the decluttering. Nanna must have enjoyed the odd beer or two it would seem. Good for her. I wonder who the hair belonged to maybe it was yours. I keep a pony tail of mine for years when I was a kid but it is long gone now.