Clutter and hoarding - help!

Savvy_Sue

freecycle wrote:

I haven't read the whole of this thread, so sorry if I'm repeating someone - try www.freecycle.org and see if there's a group near you - that's how I get rid of my clutter

You're almost repeating yourself, as I spotted your post somewhere else and put a link to it a few days ago, giving you due credit. But then we hoarders can never find anything, so it's useful to have multiple copies.

I like Judi's idea: I send loads off to the jumble sale and I don't begrudge the Scouts getting benefit from my junk, but at the same time I know they have so much left over afterwards and some of it gets sent to charity shops but other bits just get dumped.

savvy

suki1964 wrote:

If you have a scanner then use a programme like scansoft paperport and get it all onto disks. I only mention paperport as I find it easy to use, you just make the folders you want ie gas bills, water bills, mortgage etc and scan away.

This is a flippin good idea.....................and I know why I've never thought of it before......I don't have a scanner Now I want one even more than before :rolleyes: I'll have to sell some of our junk, then I'll be able to buy one!

These jumble sale posts, got me thinking................I haven't seen one advertised for years..............are they beginning to fade out??

savvy

Oh crikey I've just realised............................I hoard in my office at work as well!!! :rolleyes:

electracy

Hi,

I found this site about extreme mess, and I hope no-one here is this bad (see the photos on the site). It is good because it is talks about the psychological reasons why people hoard and has an online support group as well.

http://www.squalorsurvivors.com/index.shtml

The Flylady site is brilliant as well if you deal with the ammount of email that comes through.

I'd also like the information on the life coaching course as well, if you can find it...


KT

hrafndot

electracy wrote:

Hi,


I'd also like the information on the life coaching course as well, if you can find it...


KT

I'm going to get my tooth taken out now (I've been hoarding it). I will start digging in my piles and find it when I come back this afternoon. It would help me if you remind me whether I have applied for it as well.

Cheers

Rachel

moggins

I'd love the information on the life coaching course too please.

moggins

I have to add that I've been following Flylady for the past couple of years, you don't have to opt in for the e-mails, I bought the book and found it a lot easier to use, I just nip on the website to give me a kick up the behind whenever I feel myself slipping.

KK

I am a weird mixture of sentimental hoarder (diaries, cards, letters etc) and ruthless chucker outer. I believe a house devoid of any reading matter (magazines, newspapers, books, brochures, catalogues etc) is just plain dull. I have 100s of books and occasionally cull them and chuck out ones I've read and won't ever read again, ones I thought I'd read and haven't and ones that are out of date (e.g. travel guides over 10 years old etc). I used to work in publishing so had a supply of free books for years so getting rid of them isn't particularly painful. I still have all my favourite books I had as a child and my daughter now enjoys the ones she is old enough for. To me my books are part of my life and are like old friends. We live in a tiny cottage and we have put up shelves in all sorts of strange places to store my books. Above the stairs I have approx 250-300 books on shelves which can only be reached by ladder, but fill up an otherwise empty space. I also have them on high shelves along my landing - these can be reached.

I keep paperwork in my dining room, I have 3 boxes (wooden magazine boxes) one for my in-tray (bills to pay, filing etc), one for stuff which is useful to have around (labels for my daughter's school stuff etc) And one for my husband's business post. This in theory keeps my dining table clear of paperwork. Every week or so (not always adhered to!) I take it upstairs to our office and file it away. My filing cabinets are beautifully organised into receipts/guarantees, car files, health (insurance, passports, medical info etc), work, pensions, house file, domestic bills, savings, investments, bank statements etc. Every now and then I clear these out and shred the stuff at work. It sounds as if I'm showing off and in a way I am as when it works it's brilliant, but when I get behind with the filing it's chaos! I have a drawer downstairs for blank cards, stationery etc, one for bits like string, sellotape, and all sorts of other useful bits. My hubby has a junk drawer which has batteries and things in. I keep current catalogues and holiday brochures in a basket and when that gets full I clear that out.

My daughter has 2 baskets in the dining room with little bits that she likes in (she's 4) like cracker toys, little bags etc and generally things get tidied away in those. The rest of her toys are upstairs in her bedroom, apart from her painting and drawing stuff which I keep in a drawer downstairs so I can keep an eye on her! Nearly everything in my house has a place, but it's not always easy to keep it in the right place... I wish I was better at throwing things away!

I do get rid of stuff on ebay, I give children's clothes away to friends with younger ones, toys I give to a charity shop or other people. Since we have had wheely bins I recycle loads more, but I really can't thrown things away which might be of some use. Under our bed my husband has those plastic boxes on wheels full of bits of wire and tools and door knobs and all sorts, but at least they are out of the way!

We have a website where I live called something like Swapshop Surrey where you can post what you want to get rid of and what you would like in return - like old fashioned bartering really!

I do envy people who's houses are really organised though - they must have such unluttered brains!

KK

For years I have collected recipes cut out of magazines, newspapers, printed off websites, handwritten by friends etc - for years they were stuffed into a folder, so that each time I went to get a recipe I had to unfold them all to find it. My friend's idea which I embraced wholeheartedly was to buy a ring binder file and fill it with plastic punched pockets - into each pocket I put a recipe so that I can read it easily, and the pocket can be taken out and used in the kitchen and then wiped of any spills. I use this file all the time now and soon I will be purchasing a new one as it is full. It is also roughly categorised into savoury, puddings, cakes, bicuits, drinks etc (plus playdoh and salt dough recipes!). A really simple idea that has proved invaluable.

hrafndot

KK wrote:

For years I have collected recipes cut out of magazines, newspapers, printed off websites, handwritten by friends etc - for years they were stuffed into a folder, so that each time I went to get a recipe I had to unfold them all to find it. My friend's idea which I embraced wholeheartedly was to buy a ring binder file and fill it with plastic punched pockets - into each pocket I put a recipe so that I can read it easily, and the pocket can be taken out and used in the kitchen and then wiped of any spills. I use this file all the time now and soon I will be purchasing a new one as it is full. It is also roughly categorised into savoury, puddings, cakes, bicuits, drinks etc (plus playdoh and salt dough recipes!). A really simple idea that has proved invaluable.

Sounds like another suggestion where a scanner would come in handy?