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  House Warming Presents <grin!> - Version 4.0 

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Part of the joys of setting up your first house is getting to fill it with just the stuff you want, and to define your own style. However, unless you are incredibly rich (and I'm not), once you buy the house you have no money left to do anything for the first couple of years so you make do with whatever you can beg, borrow or steal. And you start with the utter necessities and most desired luxuries (that you can afford), and work your inwards from there...

...So, having survived for around five years in the new house, what things do I still need/want: (I've broken this down into similar sections to the House Contents list to make things easier)

So if

• you've got junk sitting around in cupboards/drawers that you want to get rid of
• you've got a handy second-hand/charity shop with stuff in it that would suffice
• you're feeling generous
• you've got stuff that you don't want to sell/dispose of permanently, but that you don't mind lending out on long-term loan until you either need it back or I've bought one of my own...

Note: I'm not asking you to go out and spend vast sums of money. Some of these things are quite cheap (e.g. an adequate corkscrew is only three or four pounds, a cheap one even less), but I'm counting on some of you having duplicate items at home (perhaps two of you have moved in together and have now decided to de-dupe your kitchen stuff so you have a spare tea strainer or water filter jug, or even a spare coffee maker you got from some catalog with your first order) or items that you got years ago and now decide that you don't want (a spare futon, some candlesticks that just don't match your decor, a cheap set of kitchen knives which you've replaced with a much better set), or perhaps you've finally bought that Dyson vacuum cleaner and have an old Electrolux/Hoover/whatever taking up valuable closet space. All donations are welcome! If I get any duplicates then they will be passed on to other deserving people I know, and as I get around to upgrading the bits and pieces over the years to come, I'll pass on the old ones to the next people moving so you never know, your kind gift may help out several people in the next few years... <grin!>
Oh, and some of the things I've got a the moment are on "long term loan" which means that I get to keep them until the person asks for them back or decides that they never want to see them again. So if you have a spare futon filling up valuable space in your spare bedroom, or you've bought a better scanner for your PC and still have the old one sitting around in a box "for emergencies", then they might as well live at my house where they will be used and loved, and you can still have them back whenever you want!
 

Thanks

Kitchen & Cleaning Stuff

Tableware (and such)

• Dessert bowls/dishes (thanks J&O) could still do with more/better though as I've broken the bowls J&O left me.
• Matching set of plates (I've odds and ends at the moment...)
• Tea cups & saucers (I've a lot of mugs already, but I won't turn down more, but what I don't have is a reasonable set of tea cups & saucers)
• Wine glasses (but I could always use more, thanks M&L)
• Cork screw (thanks Alex)
• Other glasses / tumblers / goblets (probably have enough for the moment unless they're pretty!)
• Place mats
• Trays (well, I've been given one, more are welcome!- J&O)
• Coasters/beer mats (I've found that if you ask in the right places, e.g. pubs, Belgian restaurants etc. you can get the cardboard ones cheap/free!)
• Chop sticks, Chinese food bowls and spoons
• Fruit bowl
• Candlesticks (silver, gold, tin, crystal, plastic, whatever! And for tall candles or short or even for tea-lights...)
• Ice bucket (got one for 50p in the local charity shop, a plastic one that has seen better days, but for 50p I can't complain. However I am looking for Moet et Chandon ice bucket in the shape of a top hat)
• Cafetiere (I've got a one cup cafetiere, thanks Steve & Guilia! And I've got a bigger bodum from the car boot sale)
• Water jug/pitcher
• Water filter jug (thanks Eddie!)
• Tea strainer
• Salt & Pepper set (cruets) Again, the charity shop provided them for 50p!
• Trivet (tea pot stand)
• Toast rack
• Table cloths/napkins etc

Appliances

• Tumble Dryer (a small one has been donated, thank you Penfold!)
• Vacuum Cleaner (ended up with a cheap charity shop upright and a cheap small one from Tescos)
• Dishwasher (unlikely, but worth asking... ok, I waited for three years and then finally gave in a bought one, it's fab!)
• Popcorn (hot air) popper
• Coffee grinder (elec./manual)
• Sandwich toaster/maker (little Breville thing, the one you thought was so great for making toasted cheese sandwiches but you haven't actually used it in the last two years!)
• Bread maker
• Ice cream maker <grin!>
• Rice cooker
• Slow cooker / crock pot
• Carpet Cleaner/Carpet  Shampoo Machine-thingy
• Carpet Sweeper (bissell-y thing)
• Dustbuster-style hand vacuum cleaner
• Plate stacking rack for cupboard

Cooking tools

• Baking sheets/trays/dishes, cake pan, bread pan, cupcake tray, cooling rack etc. (been given one roasting tray, J&O)
• Kitchen knives (bought some cheap ones, but one or more good ones would be welcome)
• Microwave cookware
• Measuring Cups/Spoons
• Serving spoons/ladles/slotted spoons (bought a couple of plastic serving spoons from Sainsbury's)
• Spatula, Potato masher and other similar cooking tools (mostly sorted now, thanks all, especially Selina)
• Large bowls (for salad etc.)
• Kitchen Scales
• Kitchen timer
• Potholders / oven mitts
• Rolling pin
• Cutting Board (J&O I think, plus more bought in Tesco's)
• Mixing bowls (bought three small pyrex bowls on sale at Christmas)
• Garlic crusher (finally splashed out and spent £1.99 on one from the Kitchen Reject Shop in Kingston!)
• Meat tenderiser (mallet!)
• Kitchen scissors (thanks Susan!)
• Pasta fork (bought one and it broke almost immediately! Second one seems to be holding up! Thanks Selina!)
• Ice Cream scoop (thanks Selina!)
• Apron
• Cookbooks
• Wine rack (though another would be very useful: J&O)
• Spice Rack and contents
• Storage containers (e.g. sugar, flour, cookies etc.)
• Paper towel holder
• Bread box/bread bin
• Juicer (for squeezing oranges)
• Biscuit Barrel (mostly sorted by small biscuit tin and by larger Christmas chocolates tin)
• Food Storage boxes (e.g. tupperware)(been given some small plastic storage boxes, could do with more)
• Reasonable saucepans (or at least one big saucepan)

Other

• Clock
• Kick stool / step ladder
• Magnets for refrigerator (Paul gave me a couple of Wallace and Grommit magnets, thanks! And I've been picking up stuff on my travels, but if you have something nice that you want to donate, I'm happy to receive them, especially any magentic poetry!)
• Fire extinguisher (small powder extinguisher cost me £1.50 in Hounslow car boot sale)
• First Aid Kit (bought small cheap one from camping shop)
• Ironing Board (ended up buying a cheap one, should have waited it isn't really good enough but I have other priorities)

Living Room / Dining Room

• Lamps (table and floor, oh and lava lamp style lamps, particularly a rocket shaped one!) (actually bought one rocket shaped one with glitter in it from Homebase at Christmas, and my brother gave me a proper Matmos lava lamp also for Christmas, but a couple more wouldn't go amiss <grin!>)
• Chairs (regular, folding or beanbag)
• Little tables/End tables/coffee table (had one as part of a deal with J&O, but it went in a swop with someone else for some conservatory furniture so I'm needing one again)
• Dining Table and chairs (I have a drop leaf table that doesn't look too bad if you put a table cloth on it, unfortunately I don't have a table cloth!)
• Area/Throw Rugs (particularly a white sheepskin/bearskin run for in front of the fire!)
• Plants
• Throw Cushions
• Wall clock
• shelves/storage (always need more!)
• TV/VCR (grin! Projection TV preferred of course ... and NICAM stereo VCR, but I'm happy to take an old 14" and a mono vcr if that's what's offered... Actually, I bought a projector for a very good price, and since then have been offered one even cheaper, so I think I'm actually ok for TVs and Videos for the moment)
• Decent Indoor TV aerial (perhaps you've gone to Sky digital or cable and don't need the aerial anymore)
• Decent outdoor TV aerial
• Interesting lighting (disco projector, mirror ball, rope lights, oil wheel etc.)

Bedroom

• Sofa Bed/Z-bed/Inflatable mattress/futon (for spare room) Need something (preferably folding) for the guest room, a (double) sofa bed would be best, but a futon would do... and have now got a double folding sofa bed and very nice it is too!
• spare Sheets / Pillows / Pillow cases / Duvet / Duvet cover (though I must thank my Mum and Sheila for what I've got already!) particularly need stuff in Double bed size.
• Chest of Drawers (one old set of drawers supplied by my friend Steve. Very lightweight and badly in need of paint, but definitely better than nothing! They will do until something better comes along..., second set donated by Clare G. before she left for Zanzibar (she's returned now but I've still got the chest of drawers!) and a third set was passed on by my mother, of course if you've got a nicer set to replace Steve's then he can have his back, or if you have an even nicer set then Clare can reclaim her old IKEA chest of drawers)
• Storage Crates/chest
• Clock Radio
• Nightstand
• Dressing table
• Chairs
• Wastebasket
• Old portable TV (well, I can ask! Actually I'd prefer a nice projection TV but I don't think any of you are likely to have one lying around.... oh, and an old VCR would be great also <big grin!>) Wow, thanks to two of you (Barry and Patrick) I have now got a little TV for the spare room, and a mostly working little TV (with remote) for my bedroom, for a grand total of just over 30 pounds (and that was with the remote costing 9.99!) Thanks to you both... now I just need one for the office and one for the kitchen (and one for the conservatory!) <grin!> And sure enough I now have enough TVs, projectors and VCRs, thanks to all who helped.
• Tall mirror
• Oh, and I collect cuff-links, so if you have any old pairs (or singles!) that you don't want, or you see some interesting ones in the local charity/junkshop then get in touch! Boring cuff-links I have enough of, but if they are either stylish and elegant, or wonderfully weird/fun/over-the-top then I'd be delighted to hear from you. Some people wear odd earrings deliberately, I've been known to do the same with cuff-links, so just because you only see one, doesn't mean you shouldn't buy it!

Office

• General Stationery (J&O left some stuff, and I've got some stuff already but more is always welcome)
• Desk (finally got my old desk back from my mum's, it's seen better days but it works!)
• Desk Chair
• Desk Lamp(s)
• Drawing board (bought a very nice one second hand, thanks Patrick!)
• Filing cabinet
• Reference books, dictionary etc.
• Wastepaper basket (thanks to J&O I've got a little woven one for the dining room, but one for the office would be nice!)
• Computer equipment (graphics tablet, colour printer, scanner, network cards etc.) <well, it never hurts to ask! You might have something spare sitting around that you don't mind lending out on a long term loan because you've replaced it with something better...> Some of you probably thought I was joking, well between donations, long term loans and a small amount of spending (total 85 pounds) I had a 586-100 with 68Mb of RAM, about 1.5Gb hard disk, 24x CD-ROM, 3.5 and 5.25 floppies, reasonable sound card, pretty good graphics card, keyboard, mouse and 15" SVGA screen. This had to be returned, but it gave me a home machine I could actually run things like MS-Office and CorelDraw on... update: the 586 did indeed go back, but I got a Pentium 60 instead (which now has 128Mb of Ram and 6Gb of hard disk, and most of the rest of the stuff from the 586 above). I also spent another 65 pounds and got a Pentium 90 with soundcard, CD-ROM, hard disk etc. and a colour inkjet thrown in for no extra charge! And Ian down in Winchester kindly provided a keyboard and monitor for it, so all I needed was a PS/2 mouse and I had another working PC! I bought a scanner for 50 quid (and got a guitar thrown in for another 25 pounds!!), and I've got a graphics tablet being sold to me cheap by friends in the US so it is all coming together ... and hopefully the network switch and some network cards are on their way also...
• Laminator (prefer A4 size, but business card size would do) to produce luggage tags, ID cards for security at conventions, radio instruction cards for conventions etc.

Music Room (shared with Office!)

• Microphones for recording vocals/instruments (got some but need more, plus mike stands!)
• XLR, MIDI, phono and 1/4" cables for microphones and musical instruments, and adaptors between the various types...
• DI boxes to allow me to plug my guitars etc. straight into a mixing desk
• A good mixing desk <grin!> (bought one second hand, seems to be ok!
• Any effects pedals/rack mounted equipment, particularly compressors
• Any musical instruments, the more unusual the better (particularly a violin, tin whistles in any key (except D since I have one already, thanks Lor!), harmonicas in any key except C (since I have a marine band harmonica in C already). If you give me a grand piano (or baby grand) it will have pride of place in the dining room (and actually will take up just about all the space in the dining room! At least it will be possible to put it in since it can come in through the garden gate, through the double doors in the conservatory, and the double doors into the dining room!)
• Music books/tapes/CDs/videos, particularly instruction ones ...
• Old sound cards, music software, input/output boxes/cables for the PC etc.
• Small practice amps for the guitar/bass/keyboards etc. or a PA system (if you have one spare!)
• Anything else you can think of (nice band posters, little model guitars, strange percussion etc.)

Bathroom

• Hand towels
• Face cloths / towels / flannels
• Bath towels (thanks to Carol for the lovely brown set! And to various hotels for a few others <grin!>)
• Bathroom cabinet (with mirrored doors)
• Extending mirror (on that criss-cross metal arm sort of thing!)
• Shower radio/cd player

Other stuff / Conservatory/ Garden / Garage / Workshop

• Vases
• Knick-knacks
• Ceiling fans/desk fans (for hot summer days!)
• Coat rack/umbrella stand
• Extension leads (Thanks J&O!)
• Safe/lock box for important documents
• Pictures/posters/frames
• Lamps
• Rugs
• Security Equipment/Alarm, padlocks etc.
• Shelves
• Smoke Detectors
• Barbecue
• Conservatory furniture (something nice and wicker would be pleasant) (Managed to swop my coffee table for some wicker chairs but I still need a table and other stuff ... update, now have table as well!)
• Garden furniture (including umbrella on a stick!)
• Strimmer (Thanks to Neil I had his but he's taken it back now that he's moved so I've ended up buying one in the car boot sale, fingers crossed it continues to work)
• Lawnmower (Thanks to Neil I borrowed his for a while, and after that I had a second hand one I bought, but that has stopped working now ... seems to have started working again (I think))
• Garden Hose (I gave up and bought one, and about a week later Alison gave me her old one! Luckily my garden is long enough that I actually needed both to reach the end, and they had compatible fixings (Hozelock) so I could buy an adaptor and stick them together!)
• Something for washing the outside of upstairs windows (sponge on a stick, high pressure hose system etc. You may have moved to a bungalow and just don't use it anymore <grin!>)
• Garden tools (rake, outside broom, trowel, secuters, hedge trimmer etc.) I've bought some of these now, but any spare tools would be good, particularly a leaf rake!)
• Woodworking, Decorating & Household tools (hammer, saw, handdrill, cordless screwdriver (J&O!), staple gun, hot glue gun, hot air paint stripper, wallpaper steamer, wallpaper trestle table etc.)
• No garden gnomes unless they are SF/Fantasy related (e.g. dragons, hobbits, fairies etc.) or very funny!
• Plant stands/hanging baskets for the conservatory

Non-House Stuff

Camping stuff (I'm doing more folk festivals this year) so any of the following bits would be nice

• Single inflatable mattress or equivalent roll-mat thing (and if inflatable, an appropriate pump would be good, especially if it is an electric one that can be run off the car battery since the car will probably be near the tent at most festivals...) Ended up buying one from Millets.
• A better tent (I have a cheap Milletts 3-man tent (under 40 quid!) but it is very thin/cold so something better would be nice (did you spend a lot of money on a brilliant tent when you were at college and haven't used it for the last 5-10 years? Pass it on to someone who will use it (and sew up anything that has come undone in the meantime) and if you need it back at some point you know that it is in working order!) Bought a large four-man frame tent at the end of the summer, but haven't had a chance to erect it yet, but it's HEAVY!
• One of those nice folding chairs (with the arms?) for sitting next to the tent or up the field from the stage (bought two)
• Travel rug (with the waterproof coating on one side and the place for the picnic on the other!) Bought one from Tescos
• A picnic set (bowls, plates, cutlery, cups/glasses etc.) (have a very cheap and nasty set from Woolworths but could do with something nicer)
• Water carrier (folding?) Bought one from a one pound shop for, gosh, one pound!
• Little kettle/pan for boiling water for tea etc.
• Decent outdoors sleeping bag (mine is a small thin one designed for sleeping on people's floors, and it is over 15 years old and showing its age...) There was a sale on a the Cambridge Army & Navy stall at the Cambridge Folk Festival, so I bought myself a new bag.
• Groundsheet/tarpaulin
• Little sealable containers for salt/sugar/teabags etc. (I'll use ziploc bags where I can of course!)
• Nice little gas stove (camping gaz/coleman or similar) Bought a little single burner one from Tescos and then a nice big two burner top from the car boot sale
• Lantern-type light for area illumination
• Small folding table to put stuff on
• Anything else you think might be useful for camping, since you will have a better idea about it than I will (bug repellant? emergency blanket? Tent repair kit? Walkie-Talkie set? Flag mast with unique flag? World radio? Toilet paper? <grin!>)
• A good packing list (see, this can be totally free, just send me a list of the things that I need to remember to take with me, because otherwise I'm sure to forget something (last time I had to borrow cups, plates and cutlery since they just hadn't occurred to me))

Thanks!

Chris "The Magician" O'Shea