Help! Getting Behind the Bed!

[Griffin NoName]

I have a thread catcher which was hanging over my bed head holding useful things like my spectacles. The pin cushion end was hanging down behind the bed head acting as ballast. Tonight I took the last thing out so it was empty, and the whole thing upped and slid down behind the bed head. I assume falling to the floor, although faintly possible it might be stuck some part way down. I can't see. My nose is too big to see down the narrow gap with a torch.

The problem is my bed is immoveable. The only way I could get behind it would be like with a fishing rod. I need something long enough to poke around and try and hook or grasp the thread catcher to raise it up. I thought of a wire coat hanger unwound but that would not be long enough.
Likewise the things people use to pick up stuff off the floor aren't long enough. My walking stick is not long enough.

[Swatopluk]

First use a hand mirror to locate the position (it can also reflect the torch light down).
You can't get at it from the side? (a photo from the crime scene would be useful).
Do you have a broomstck with an eye on he end? You then could attach the coathanger to that (otherwise adhesive tape might serve*).

*if you have really good adhesive tape, that could be used as the catcher itself.

[Sibling DavidH]

I've got a flexible wire thingy with a claw on one end and a button on the other to work the claw.  I think you see them in pound shops IIRC.

Edit: ha! found a picture -

[Opsa]

Another idea might be a curtain rod with a wire hook taped to the end. Or maybe you could slide two curtain rods back there and work them like chopsticks.

[Griffin NoName]

Have already tried the hand mirror trick. doesn't work as gap too narrow (about 1") and drop too far. One's head has to be so close to the wall that is impossible.

Side access is obscured by immovable furniture on oneside and movable furniture and loads and loads of junk on ther side (to the extent where it becomes reality TV calling in the Hoarder Psychotherapist (UK only?). Side access would be easiest option if I could ever clear all the junk (unlikely).

I might be able to do the broom and hanger trick.

The flexible wire with claws looks good, but possibly not long enough. May investigate as would be useful thing to have anyway (old age).

I have a long curtain wire but not a rod.


Thanks to all.

[Griffin NoName]

I've got a flexible wire thingy with a claw on one end and a button on the other to work the claw.  I think you see them in pound shops IIRC.

Edit: ha! found a picture -

  Ordered this exact one from Amazon..uk  cost me £1.99 incl. postage :-)

It's 600 mm - may just be long enough but I have another place I constantly drop things down which is a total pain and it will be a great help there.

[Aggie]

Side access is obscured by immovable furniture on oneside and movable furniture and loads and loads of junk on ther side (to the extent where it becomes reality TV calling in the Hoarder Psychotherapist (UK only?). Side access would be easiest option if I could ever clear all the junk (unlikely).

That's a good idea.  Feign that you are a hoarder, and become a 'success story' by letting them convince you to clear out all your junk for you.

[Griffin NoName]

Feign? I'm the real thing.

[Sibling DavidH]

I was thinking of training a hamster to "fetch", but it would probably take a while.

[Swatopluk]

I was thinking of training a hamster to "fetch", but it would probably take a while.

Could be difficult to get a 1" hamster 

[Roland Deschain]

Griffin, I can understand the difficulty you are having with the size of the gap and not being able to move stuff out of the way, but i'm not sure how an unwound wire coat hanger couldn't be long enough. How deep is this hole behind your bed? Are you having to go at it from the side, in which case, aren't those immovable objects in the way? I'm imagining an arrangement something akin to The Princess and the Pea.

Could be difficult to get a 1" hamster 

Have you ever tried hunting for a lost hamster and thought, "No, it couldn't get under that gap," only to find it had? Hamsters can fit anywhere. Ask Richard Gere.

[Swatopluk]

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!
(Could not resist, sorry)

[Roland Deschain]

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!
(Could not resist, sorry)

That's ok. I fart in your general direction!

[Griffin NoName]

Yes, definitely Princess and Pea - had to build woolly ramp to climb in (search for thread here for details LoL)

[Aggie]

I suppose shifting the mattress is out of the question? Going in below the headboard might be the easiest option.

[Griffin NoName]

No!!  The space there is miniscule  - ie. between the back board and the base.

Anyway, I can't shift the mattress !!

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

A string.   A long, long piece of string.

And a weight-- something moderately heavy, like a fishing sinker thingy, or a rock (with a hole innit) or a large metal washer (no, not a washing machine, but a flat, circular piece of metal with a hole in the middle).  Or a coin (also with a hole).

And something sticky-- perhaps, a thistle seed?  These things would stick to the hairs on my legs as a laddy... naturally, I went about during the summer clad in shorts only (cut-off jeans, naturally-- one of the original recycled things) not even shoes.    But thistle seeds would sometimes become tangled in the hairs on either my arm or my legs-- and a ^*#)#)!! to get off.  At least, I think it was thistle-- some called it a cockleburr seed.  I just called it <expletive deleted>.

Now, fasten the sticky-seed thingy to the weight, and go fishing-- the seed ought to catch on the cloth of your bag, and using the string, pull the whole up.

No sticky thingy?   Perhaps some.....(voice of James Earl Jones) duct tape

Twist or fold the sticky-side out, and afix one to the weight, and let the other "out" to catch on your pocket.

Or?

Perhaps... even a good old fashioned fish hook.  Since you're going to the hardware store for a fishing weight anyway (or washer), may as well pick up a fishing hook too.   I'd go for one of those 3 or 4 pronged ones, that has 3 or 4 actual hooks splayed about a central shaft.  Kind of like what Batman used to secure his batrope  to climb buildings with... what was it called?  Bathook?  A bat-grapple-hook?  Something like that, only in miniature.

Put the hook an inch or so below the weight to start.  If that doesn't work?  Reverse, placing the weight below the hook.  

And fish.... use a wax pencil on the headboard to indicate the section of bed you have already fished (and came up empty).  Use different colors for different approaches.  

And keep a diary.  Or journal.  Or YouTube the whole thing.  

Right?  



Edit:

An added bonus:  when you do manage to recover your cloth bag thingy?  Leave the weight innit for a counterbalance....



Edit-Edit:

And tie one end of the string to your bedpost, and the other to a safetypin affixed to your cloth bag.... for the next time it mysteriously becomes empty, and takes a dive behind the bed...

[Griffin NoName]

@ Bob

Actually I do have curtain weights so maybe no need to go to the hardware/fishing store.

But having considered all round, I think I shall wait for my bendy pick-up with claw thingy which should ariive within 2 days and see if I can get that to work, before trying any of the other methods.

[Roland Deschain]

I now fully understand your predicament. The headboard: Bane of all difficult situations. Lol @ Bob.

[Griffin NoName]

I now fully understand your predicament. The headboard: Bane of all difficult situations. Lol @ Bob.

Yes, I could have just said "Headboard". Another Senior Moment.

The thingy did not arrive today.

[Roland Deschain]

I now fully understand your predicament. The headboard: Bane of all difficult situations. Lol @ Bob.

Yes, I could have just said "Headboard". Another Senior Moment.

The thingy did not arrive today.

It's ok, I forgive you.

[Griffin NoName]

Thanks for bumping this.

The thingy arrived but needs some practice to work efficiently. The design is just a little too simplistic.

And anyway, the stuff is still blocking the side of the bed which I would have to use as the entry point, never mind that I am not too sure the thingy is long enough.

I have been much diverted by my latest essay, so this has been on the back burner.

[Roland Deschain]

it's good that it's turned up, but your essay is more important right now. You'll get your thingie back soon enough, i'm sure.

[Griffin NoName]

I need to be drastic and throw out junk stuff from beside the bed. Impossible to work up the required determination to overcome my hoarding obsession while deep in research paper mode.

[Roland Deschain]

I'll be there in 2 hours to stand there and stare at it for you. It'll soon get the message, and slink off.

[Griffin NoName]

LoL!! I might need you to stare at the contents of a few cupboards too. And, are you any good with moths?

[Griffin NoName]

I got a replacement thread-catcher from Etsy. It's not as smart as the one stuck on the floor behind the bed, but it's a little bigger. It's also failsafe, the heavy part placed on the bed head to hold it up is bigger and heavier than the other one so there's no way it is ever going to disappear down the back.

I can recommend these for the non-standard use of bed head storage. This one would hold about four remote controls for example. 

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

There you go.