My home is a mess

rigsby1967

Well i haven't posted for a few days but i have been popping on to have a look at how well you are all doing :A:T.

I started on the kitchen a few days ago and have decluttered 3 cupboards and 3 draws so far, still got a long way to go but it's a great start for me :j, in 2 of the draws alone i got rid of a LARGE bagful of paperwork, some dated back 6 years :eek:.

For any of you who do lists like i do on cozi, i read on a forum
"It is better to have a short list that gets done and not a long one that depresses us!" Very true i thought.

I can see you are all keeping up the good work, well done everyone .

rigs

GreyQueen

:j Big Woohoo from me....I found one of those annoying "missing in action" thingies yesterday evening and am sooo pleased. I have a very small flat, 4 wee rooms and 2 tiny cupboards (one linen, one cleaning carp) off the hall so there aren't too many places for things to hide but I'd managed to misplace my fridge's instructions when I moved in 6 years ago....and I found them last night.

Fridge will be 11 y.o on 14th May which makes it one of my newer possessions.

Right, this time it goes in the folder with all the other appliances' manuals & receipts not in the little poly bag it came in with the 4 plastic thingummies which do gawdknows what. Go figure; I have run the fridge 11 years at 2 different addresses and haven't needed the thingummies yet so they can't be important and can GO.

I found the fridge manual when I was going thru the files on the top of my living room's storage unit, which is the only place I ahve to keep that sort of thing. Did 2 of them and turned out some stuff for scratch pads plus some confidential shredding and recycling; meeting notes for the job before this one, anybody? Plenty more up there to go thru but if last night was an example, there's plenty of carp lurking among the important stuff and I shall fillet it out.

Have a great Bank Holiday Monday, y'all, but don't do too much as we are the Messy CLub. F'instance, I shan't do the dishes before I go out in order to preserve my reputation as a S-L-O-B.

Buddingblonde

Rigsby and Grey - how well are you doing? Clearing out the kitchen is my most hated job, sorting paperwork is second to that.
I havent done the junk drawer in the kitchen - I am dreading it as I know there is a pile of rubbish in there!

GreyQueen

Buddingblonde wrote: »

Rigsby and Grey - how well are you doing? Clearing out the kitchen is my most hated job, sorting paperwork is second to that.
I havent done the junk drawer in the kitchen - I am dreading it as I know there is a pile of rubbish in there!

I have been postponing dealing with the files for years, BB, it's a universally hated chore because you need to keep an eye out for the important stuff among the rubbish. As to the kitchen drawers, have only 2, a regular one which I can get at and a stupid small one which is hard to gt a hold of. What worked for me was having the entire contents out on the table top and giving everything the 3rd degree before it went back in. F'instance, on closer examination, my collection of plastic cutlery saved from aeroplane trips years ago (:o) was cracking up. I also decided that if I only use a utensil once a year or so, I can improvise with something else or just forgo whatever it was that I was doing with the blessed thing.

Kitchens are dangerous places, BB, do be careful in there. Plastic containers are breeding in the wall cupboards and waiting to leap out and devour the unwary. Cutlery drawers are part of C-space and connected to the Primal Drawer, and can re-stock themselves from the Motherlode the moment your back is turned. One woman I know had such a trouble with her cutlery that she resorted to extreme measures and got rid of it all bar chopsticks and spoons.

Buddingblonde

You crack me up Grey!!!
My plastic containers are breeding but someone keeps pinching my cutlery. I have about 20 knives and yet I only seem to have 8 forks - is this cos I dont drink tea or coffee so dont use and lose tea spoons?????
My utensil drawer is shocking - I think I need one of everything but at the last count I had 4 garlic presses!!! Why????

jackieglasgow

My achilles heel in the utensil drawer is ice cream scoops. I cleared mine out yesterday, and have four of the darned things. I don't even particularly like ice cream! :rotfl: Today my plan is to have a clear living room and kitchen. We shall see how it goes....

Loulou2010

hi everyone - i am officially coming out of lurkdom :hello:

i've had a size 8 boot up my backside for a while to come and join in here and its getting a little uncomfortable so hi i am full of good intentions today and have lots planned to do but my motivation seems to be missing :think:

i have written a list of things to do and its a very pretty list. i have drawn lots of little flowers and butterflies (seriously ) and thats about as far as i have got. i need to pick one and getting moving.... oh where to start

the bathroom i think is going to be my number one thing to do...

GreyQueen

Buddingblonde wrote: »

You crack me up Grey!!!
My plastic containers are breeding but someone keeps pinching my cutlery. I have about 20 knives and yet I only seem to have 8 forks - is this cos I dont drink tea or coffee so dont use and lose tea spoons?????
My utensil drawer is shocking - I think I need one of everything but at the last count I had 4 garlic presses!!! Why????

I got rid of my garlic press years ago because I hated the faff of washing it up so much. One woman I know couldn't work out where all her teaspoons were going until she tracked down the culprit; her teenage daughter was taking one a day to school with her yoghurt and chucking it away when she ditched the empty container.

Have you tried looking in the garden or the toolshed for forks? Seriously, OHs or others have been known to "borrow" them for non-food related tasks and leave them out there. You can use the butt end of cutlery as bike tyre-levers. Should your household be equipped with OH or offspring, I'd pin them to the counter and ask some Hard Questions. Alas, as a singleton, any shortcomings are squarely mine own........:rotfl:

Either that, or you've been colonised by a family of Borrowers....

procrastinator

Quick question
How do you overcome the manic hoarding instinct. I get very distressed when having to make the decision to chuck...anything.
Items bought after much thought and given with love, now unused and disgarded. We had so little money when i was a child and everything was precious. Now we have more than I did then but still tight and way behind the average. My teens are shocked when entering friends houses, makes ours seem like a time warp. How do you overcome the massive fear and guilt and depression. I'm near to tears thinking of all that has to be done.
For some the messy comes from a deep physcological place. How do you overcome that?

Buddingblonde

Hi LouLou - nice to meet another messy - we are a friendly non judgemental lot here - just do what little you can when you can - small targets of even a drawer or a shelf all adds up.

Procastinator - I know where you are coming from and this is an area that I struggle with myself. Where I started was with impersonal items that I felt I could manage - eg the odd sock bag and my make up bag. I have to say that it took me a day or too the empty the bins afterward (incase I might to dig something back out! OMG I cant believe I have just confessed to this!!!!) I have loads of nick nacks and personal items that I cannot bring myself to look at YET but just managing to get rid of some stuff has been theraputic.
The only other thing I can think of is the tip my MIL gave me when I moved in with OH who is a hoarder is bag up stuff and put it in the back of a cupboard and then set a month 6 months or so in the future to pull it out and bin. If you havent needed it in the last 6 months (or year if it is seasonal) then you can safely cope without it.
If you cant bring yourself to charity shop or bin stuff then why not sell all the bits and invest the money is something that will make you feel better - maybe decorating a room or buying new cushions or bedding or whatever. Yes there are things that were given with love but no one expected you to love it forever. Your memories of the person are more than what they gave you. If we kept everything that was ever given with love we wouldnt be able to move!!!!

Do you have a firm but fair friend or family member who can help with this job?

Grey - OH denys everything re: missing cutlery and the cats are keeping schtum!