Hoarding - A New Start

Molly41 wrote: »

Hi x
We were told by a educational psychologist that dyslexia presents in many ways, including an inability to organise your environment. In fact when I was a Midwife (retired now because of ill health) I once visited a postnatal woman who I had got to know antenatally.I walked into her house and knew instantly that this lady had dyslexia - her house looked like a bomb had hit it - but in a very particular way - like my DD's bedroom. I spent a long time at the visit as her baby needed help feeding and she was telling me about her experience of uni and how it was there that she was finally diagnosed with dyslexia.

Anyhow things we try with my DD (who is now 20 btw):
Keep important papers in a drawer and put things away straight away when the postman brings things.
To have things of a similar usage kept together so when she comes in she puts her bus pass and keys in a bowl by her bed. She also keeps her makeup together and has a basket for college stuff.
She loses her bankcard and mobile on a regular basis and now has a bag to put things in. When out we encourage her to loop her arm through her bag as she has an inclination to leave them on the bus. At home she has a peg to hang things on as she comes in.
Work (she works pt as a supervisor) have given her a clip on key fob as she often puts the keys down and forgets where:eek:
She has a wash basket at the end of her bed and again encouraged to put dirty stuff in and pair socks up as she is notorious for losing odd ones - note encouraged does not equate to doing.

However her motivation is another thing - all her cds and dvds/ games and art stuff are catalogued and tidy so it depends on how much she likes doing something :eek:

I dread to think how she will be with a baby of her own but she does always seem to know where things are in her bedroom so hopefully it will be the same for her in her own home x

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU. This is so so helpful, not only in your advice but about how my dyslexia manifests itself. I also was diagnosed at university, it was never picked up at school because I was seen as a 'gifted' child and I got top grades in English (I never had a problem reading fiction) But my spelling can be really hit and miss, I am the most chaotic and disorganised person I have ever known or met, my house DOES look like a bomb has hit it like this other lady but it is an organised (to me) chaos as I know where things are. I have a very short attention span even though I don't mean to and I am forgetful. Can I blame all of these things on being dyslexic? :rotfl:
I am getting better with age though as I know my habits and I do my best to organise myself, this takes some serious effort though, I don't know how others can do it so easily

Molly41 wrote: »

Some of the posts about childhood resonate with me very strongly. Absolutely I know that the lack of fashionable clothes and the odd one out look that my parents inflicted on me has made me hoard my clothes. I also have to make a very special effort to wear all my clothes and not save stuff for best.

Ohhhhh yes i think I am the same as you with clothing. My parents were generally very good but didn't see the importance of fashion and having 'the right' clothes. its not like I asked for much but I owned probably two casual t-shirts, 1 pair of jeans and a pair of addidas trousers which I was SO proud to own as they were 'fashionable' then. (I am a 90s girl ) this was when I was 12/13. Everything else was out of fashion hand me downs that didn't fit as I was a skinny little thing and very self concious of my figure so I was very unhappy. I'm trying to stop buying something everytime I like it and just buy things that I need to go with outfits. I have had a good clear out quite recently and though I do need to have another one the situation is a bit better at the moment :T
Maybe if you ebay things that you like but aren't going to ever wear it will give you satisfaction enough to let it go? This helps me let go of things if I know I have made money and it has gone to a good home.

katep23 wrote: »

Not sure if he will be selling them on or just playing with them to get experience and don't really care - the guy phoned when he said he would and turned up (when he said he would but - more to the point - he turned up!)

Starting to gradually tackle the larder of doom - I have bags of food I have collected to donate to a food bank but they make it so hard round here (not open at weekends except Sunday mornings, my one lazy day, don't have contact details etc).

Binned some crushed ginger biscuit mix (bought for a specific recipe some years back then never used) which was dated 2009 and a few other bits, donated a few tins of things we can't have on the food plan we are doing etc. It's going to take time but we will get there.

Wow where did you find this rare breed of freecycler? :rotfl:
I love it when a plan comes together, most freecyclers are nice and friendly but I just DON'T understand why a) people are blunt and rude when responding to your posts and b) why people say they want something and then don't bother turning up. I wouldn't mine of they said I've changed my mind or said they can't come but it's the people that just don't tell you and don't turn up that are infuriating!! WHYYYYYY??! :mad:
Well done on your larder clear out, that sounds like it is going really well so well done you. I hope you are finding it really satifying.

suzitiger wrote: »

Wow where did you find this rare breed of freecycler? :rotfl:
I love it when a plan comes together, most freecyclers are nice and friendly but I just DON'T understand why a) people are blunt and rude when responding to your posts and b) why people say they want something and then don't bother turning up.

Agreed! When I tried freecycling I was amazed how offhand and even rude people were, and how they just didn't turn up. It's free stuff for goodness sake! (Come to think of it, that last bit sounds like hoarder-speak).

On the other hand, I had a very high hit-rate when I contacted people who were advertising things on freecycle because I took the trouble to send them a nice polite and chatty message and say why I could use the stuff. Even when they initially said it was already gone, more than once they subsequently contacted me and offered me the item because, guess what, the person they offered it to didn't turn up.

Now though, I have given up using freecycle - even if I'm offering items, it gets me back into checking the site for what other people are offering and it's just too tempting/dangerous to bring all that lovely free stuff into the house.

:eek: Oh gawd, freecycle!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've met some real sweethearts but I've also encountered some right PITAs. Or I would have encountered them if they'd bleeding well turned up.:mad:

You have two dozen people after something. You choose one, email and deathly silence. You email again. At what point do you say oops, sorry, need this item gone, if you can't collect it, I'll offer it to someone else?

One of the best was when I gave my old sofa away. Dealt with a lovely lady by phone, next day by arrangement her OH came around. I opened the door and this geezer grunted "Sofa" at me and had to be told that it had to go out of my (very tiny hall) in the way I said not the way he thought because hey, I know how to fit it around the doorways without gouging stripes into the paintwork and divots out of the walls.

Now you can call me old-fashioned but I would think if someone had just given you a perfectly usable leather sofa you could have mustered a simple Thanks. Or even perhaps cracked a smile.:rotfl:Maybe he was charming once you got to know him.

I've not using freecycle at the moment. If it's portable it's going to the c.s. So much less hassle.

Nothing much decluttering going on here today but I may take a snow day tomorrow and pick through some corners. I have just tidied the fabric stash which is in one modest box. I use it because I make stuff and repair stuff. Only this week I've used something out of there to make a cushion cover rather than purchase new cloth. And that cloth had previously been something else I'd made and prior to that had been a 20p jumble sale skirt.

I don't have DVDs as I don't like to re-watch movies so I rent them from the library service or borrow them informally from a friend. Very occasionally I'll see one I like in £land and buy, watch and donate. Amusingly, the often price them at more than a £ and get it, too.

The_Dragon wrote: »

Hmmm are they freezer ones Brighton Belle (I am just about to order some!)

Sorry for the delay in replying Dragon - I am away from my laptop mid week. Yes they are...but I am not ready to let go of the shiny shiny nice colour topped thingies yet:D

Taken a while to catch up on 3 days of posts. Lots of good stuff and being real:T

I've tutored dyslexia awareness courses and can recognise the odd trait in myself too.

Dyslexia is such a variable, but seeing the whole picture at once is much better than a list of things.

So a mind map is better than a list - in the house a notice board with post it notes all over it is a good idea. I used Tarsia jigsaw software -it's a free download - to make puzzles for my learners with dyslexia who benefited from physical methods of learning (kinaesthetic).

Difficulties with maths often emerge in being unable to remember sequences like times tables but there are lots of work-arounds - there's a lot of information available online. Or get any of Steve Chinn's books from the library.

For example one work around is that the 9x table is very easy to learn - the two numbers that make up the sequence from 1- 10 x 9 always add up to 9, and the first number of the sequence is always one less than the number you are 'timesing' 9 by. If you know 8 x 9 (72) you also know 9x 8 so it helps with other times tables as well. Remembering fixed points like this and then adding or subtracting from them is how many people work out tables.

I'm making progress...
Today I discovered that a wind up torch/radio no longer worked as a radio.
Previously I'd have kept it for use as a torch, but I have a wind up torch for use as a headlamp on my trike.
So it's going out. Except that it has a big sign on it saying Don't Put in the Bin.

Freebies... I received a flag as a prize in a FB competition, that's going straight in the CS bag! (I was after a T-shirt, I wear them under jumpers in winter)

I used to be a very successful competition winner, but now I only go for things I know I can use. Though there is also the temptation of Amazon Vine offering me free stuff to review. That's another tale. I was good, yesterday was Vine day and I asked for something I will definitely use.