Hoarding...not just on TV

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Brighton_belle wrote: »

Is this Metho Jojo? I am on that for PA. Good luck with the job app, it's a tough one when health issues get in the way of your promise and general abilty/reliabilty.

Yup. I've started and discontinued everything else they've given me due to allergies/side effects, so stayed on steroids alone. But I don't think that's an option anymore.



Just been in the animal place, dropping off a donation and spoke to one of the people who do the same job as is advertised - she seemed quite positive (didn't try to put me off ) - so I'm going to have a go at it this evening.

Fortunately, the post being (I think) 3 and a half days a week means I could have time off between shifts to get used to the aftermath of MTX doses.


I'm not having the slightest bit to do with the job centre though. Not going to even mention I'm thinking about it, as I don't want their dodgy private companies wading in and trying to get money out of the charity, etc. If I'm going to get this job, it's going to be all my own work.


But, as I am quite used to starting jobs leading to major benefit screw ups (like backdating the cancelling of a housing benefit claim for 2 years, not two weeks, that kind of thing), I'm thinking it might be a plan to gradually build up a tiny store cupboard - beans, pasta, tuna, that kind of thing, just in case I have a couple of months with only part time wages going in.

But NOT food hoarding!!!!!!!!!





I think the problem is with me that I seize upon the better days and do tons of things, as I never know when I'm going to find the effort of standing up after getting out of bed too painful.

And when the difficult days extend into weeks - or months - that's when I find keeping everything clean and tidy harder and I get tormented by the thought that I'm going to wake up in my mother's sort of environment.

lostinrates

Good luck jojo!

I am another who has good days and bad days. I have been in a slump for almost a month now and its starting to get me down. I cannot do too much even when i feel good because i have been warned not to lift heavy things or bend over or.....

Piddles me off.:(

Brighton_belle

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Yup. I've started and discontinued everything else they've given me due to allergies/side effects, so stayed on steroids alone. But I don't think that's an option anymore.
Yup - me too, been a complete 'mare at times. Am also on a biologic. With metho, after 18 months, the oral meds have been awful with side affects these last 2 months and have literally just switched to the self injecting version, which they say generally is much much better for side affects (and so far so good but very early days.) Have spent previous 18 months writing off 2 days a week due to the metho effect.

I think the problem is with me that I seize upon the better days and do tons of things, as I never know when I'm going to find the effort of standing up after getting out of bed too painful.
Yup.
And when the difficult days extend into weeks - or months - that's when I find keeping everything clean and tidy harder and

Yep, my fluctuating energy levels have a similar effect
and I felt for ages my home felt too grubby, hence continuing working at decluttering - it has definitely made my life easier having less and makes it easier to have simple cleaning routines. And I dont want to have to move anything to get to anything else, and this is still a work in progress, particularly in the kitchen because sometimes that hurts.
I don't use cupboards below the worktop any more, (i.e I have nothing in them)I have minimised enough so everything I use fits on easy to access shelves above the worktop.
Having had very bad, completely crippled, episodes
it has been a great motivator to clear out stuff, knowing we never know when iillness and disability might strike.

Byatt

Good luck Jo-Jo, it sounds like it will be perfect for you.

thriftwizard

Good luck, Jo-Jo! Fingers crossed for you.

I'm getting going again after my horrible cold - in the last two days I've taken more clothes to the charity skip, two car-loads of stuff to the dump (and only came back with one sombrero... actually there is a clear & present use for that, oddly enough!) put together the storage solution that will be holding the remnants of the Ghastly Piles, and made a start on civilising DS3's room. I have to do that because I've been talked into hosting two German students at the end of August - it's very good money & I'm well-used to feeding the ravening hordes on a shoestring, so "all" that I need to do now is make it look like a room that human beings can sleep in! I can feel another set of before & after pics coming on, but it will take a while...

wannabe_sybil

AlwaysHappy wrote: »

Just found this thread so only read the first and last pages - will try and read more later. This has resonated with me - my Mum is exactly the same (in the hoarding dept - not threatening). She is 81 and I have tried all sorts of ways to help her and get her to deal with some of her posessions but she won't have it. I know she hasn't got over the death of my grandma some 20 plus years ago (still infact has her furniture as well now) and hasn't thrown anything away voluntarily for long before that. I can't go into her kitchen - I wouldn't be able to ever have a coffee there again, and nor would I be able to resist sorting it BUT she has said that would be the end of our relationship if I ever did. I worry that I think about it a LOT and as an only child am concerned that when anything does happen to her instead of grief I am only going to have anger - it wells inside me now though I do love her. I have health issues of my own and am a carer for my son and I have tried over the years to reason with her that if she loved me why would she leave me with all this but to no avail - the illness (or whatever) is larger and I resent that. Oops, sorry for hijacking but it was great to get off my chest and you are doing really well.

So sorry to hear that you are in that place - do dip in and see what can help. I hope that what we are sharing gives you some insights and some help in sorting stuff out. If you have questions, please post.

Jojo - you should have a medal for starting this thread, you really should!

As for energy fluctuations, I don't have a consistent energy level at all, so just do what I can, when I can. Bad days stuff comes in, but they are becoming fewer. A lot of the reasons I have been holding on to things have been looked at coldly and fizzled out. Today I was exposed to a cupboard where I used to do baking. I'll have to tackle that soon, but I need to get back on top of the ironing. I need to learn to mediate as I iron, it will do me no end of good!

Tomorrow I want to take little bear for a day out. I am not sure where, but I will be missing in action somewhat. Little bear deserves it, though.

Also, re knitting, I have at least fifty, if not more, unfinished projects hanging around. I shall just have to keep on keeping on. My late grandmother used to finish a complicated sweater in a week. My late great aunt used to mentally work two or three patterns together for the most intricate and mathematically challenging aran sweaters as recreation. Another late great aunt used to keep a wool shop. My mother didn't knit much but had her own approach. She would look at a pattern, change the yarn, change the colours, change the length and the sleeves and then knit it up over a few weeks. I think I need to reassess normal for knitting here. I have never, ever just knitted a pattern as shown.

alice-mary

Talking of knitting, or rather unfinished knitting... I am so proud of myself as 3 years ago I snapped up some gorgeous fluffy wool in a charity shop with the intention of creating some lovely scarves. Well, the yarn was not easy to use as the fluff stopped me from seeing the stitches easily and so the wool (2 carrier bags of it) stayed put, making me feel guilty every time I happened to see it:o. Today, I took both bags to the nearest charity shop and donated the blinking stuff so that somebody else can make use of it! And it is no longer in my house:D
I have also finally put up some black-out blinds that have been waiting for over a year, leaving a bit of space on the table where they have been gathering dust.
Am keeping going, slowly but surely!

Alice
xx

p.s. all the terracotta flower pots that I left by my front door grew their own legs and toddled off to new homes too which was exactly what I'd hoped would happen!

sjprmc01

Good luck JOJO!

Not had a very successful few days. Have been bringing more stuff into the house, ok, it's stuff that will be used but I've not really gotten rid of anything!

Got 4 sets of sale bras n Knicks from debenhams. But with 2 sizes Knicks as I plan to lose weight after this week and next (OH off from work just now so it's 'holiday' time) the mon I plan to start (13th) is 2 days before the kids go back to school here so seems a good time to start my diet.

I also bought clothes in the sale in Mr A's which I wouldn't have done if I hadn't gone for a nosey. (they were between £1-£3 and I actually got a very good previously £18 cardi for £1). But I unnecessarily ordered eldest dd a gilet and polo top from joules just coz I liked them!

Off caravanning the next two days, then working sat, off sun for an event, then have another week of OH off so hopefully I will be able to squeeze in a proper decluttering day

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

AlwaysHappy wrote: »

Just found this thread so only read the first and last pages - will try and read more later. This has resonated with me - my Mum is exactly the same (in the hoarding dept - not threatening). She is 81 and I have tried all sorts of ways to help her and get her to deal with some of her posessions but she won't have it. ....

Hiya, AH. All I can say is you don't have to take the responsibility. If you are able to maintain a relationship with your Mum, then by all means do so - but do not concern yourself with her crud.

In a similar situation, I would be tempted to say if she ever gets defensive like that again, that it's OK, you're never going to touch it, once she's gone you're going to pay someone else to come along and take it all to landfill, as it's obviously not valuable if it's heaped up like the binmen just upended the cart contents though the front room window.

And then move on to a different subject.


But that's just me.

And I did agree with my sister that if we have Her stuff to deal with in the future (whether by demise or eviction), it's all going without a second glance, as life is too short to be examining every last scrap for signs of worth. We know of some cheap jewellery, a couple of photographs and a few 1950s glasses inside a bureau buried under the stuff. Everything else is going to be gone without a single moment's thought.



Just sat down to have a look at the job form. So much they don't want to know nowdays. And so little to put in the form when I haven't worked for years.


Just realised. I last filled in an application form about ten years ago, when they wanted precise dates, names, job titles, salary figures to the penny, that kind of thing. This has a huge empty box where I have to convince them of experience, interests or skills I could bring to this position and my reasons for applying.

_pale_

Byatt

Jo-Jo, I hadn't applied for a job since about 1980's so when I had to in 2009 it was a real shock to the system. Very, very different. Write up a draft and add, take away as you go along, when do you have to hand in? Maybe Google job applications, there's lots of stuff out there. Selling ourselves is not a very British thing but that's what you have to do. I'm sure more experienced people than me here can help you.