Keep something for seven years…

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Keep something for seven years and you will find a use for it – at least that’s a proverb I have heard. Well today I found a use for something we have kept for about eight years – although I have to confess I didn’t keep it deliberately, in fact I tried to get rid of it in the past but no-one wanted it! The previous owners of this house loved rather fancy fixtures and fittings. For example instead of just having regular curtains you draw across by hand, they had curtains with pull-cords, with a custom-made pelmet over the rail and in many cases blinds as well. We were not particularly bothered either way so many of them have stayed, but in the main bedroom they wanted to take the pelmets, so we were left with the rails and cord mechanism but nothing to attach them to. We just replaced the set-up with regular curtain poles, and the spare rails went into the garage. I did offer them on Freegle but only one was taken. Fast forward eight years and the plastic (which must be almost 30 years old by now) is deteriorating. The cord mechanism in Little One’s bedroom had a major malfunction – although of course she forgot to mention it until bed-time when we found the cord dangling across the window and the curtains stuck half open. Luckily it goes dark quite early these days. So today I took it all down to have a proper look (difficult to examine something closely when you have to look at it backwards in a confined space about a foot above your head). I found that some of the little curtain hanger/ runner things have broken, the spindle from one of the little pulley wheels has vanished, and the plastic cover has cracked in half. But then I remembered the unwanted rail in the garage! Sadly this one was also missing the plastic cover from the same end, but it did have plenty of runners I could use and the end-piece which holds the pulleys, which was easily detached and swapped over. Then I glued the broken plastic cover with super glue, and tried to give it a bit of extra reinforcement by cutting a sort of washer from a clear plastic lid, punching a hole in it and gluing it over the top of the crack. I didn’t really think it would work but it seems to be holding. So in the end I’m glad I was left with it after all! Hopefully the repair will last a few more years. All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2025.