Hoarding...not just on TV

thriftwizard

Valkscott, your house sounds exactly like ours! Which looks like a wall with a couple of windows in from our otherwise-pretty little street, because it's sideways on. We don't have any particularly big or gracious rooms but we do have lots of them; sadly now a couple of the Offspring have wandered off, that just means I can shut the door on the rubbish & ignore it... dangerous territory!

Still stuck on the sideboard job - post-viral achey joints mean I'm struggling to get down there & sort out the piles of debris, and it emerges that the dratted thing is probably worth a fair bit so I feel obliged to sell it now, rather than give it away. But I have given away a huge bag of papercraft stuff to a small crafter via Freecycle, and I've made a start on decluttering & painting DS3's room ready for the students I'm hosting at the end of August to earn the airfare to visit said DS3 in Chile next spring.

Got a bit dis-spirited when I realised that I do still really need to get rid of half the stuff in the house for it to look like somewhere I actually want to live in, but told myself off & carried on.

whitewing

I don't have a problem with empty food packets eg bags that rice or pasta come in. I always deal with them as I am cooking/preparing food. I think this is because DH and DS both leave them around as they cook.

Also mail, and that is because I have trained myself (and it really helps reduce clutter), and also I have seen what problems family have had with ignoring post and reminders, and reminders and 'contact us' letters. And the joy of it is that we got £100 tax refund today and I know about it!

whitewing

Ha ha, we all need to learn to throw out negative thoughts with our rubbish.

I have not regretted a single item that I threw out the other day. I am now quite fascinated that I haven't got rid of some of it before. One thing that went to a friend was a (good condition) novelty hat that I got in Blackpool about 20 years ago. I went with a group of people and we all bought similar styles but different hats so we could spot each other easily, and we were part of the group. As I have have depression/anxiety since being a child, feeling like I belong was not a feeling I took for granted. I've kept that hat to keep that feeling. And the world has not ended because the hat's gone!

valk_scot

SpikyHedgehog wrote: »

Oh yeah, I forgot the bubble wand & bubble mixture....

You've not got an awning up by any chance, or awnings on other caravans nearbye, or tents? The detergent in bubble mixture will ruin the waterproofing of a cotton canvas awning if the bubbles touch it and given an awning can cost several hundreds of pounds you might get some pretty irate neighbours. Keep the bubbles for the beach or park, not a campsite. Yeah you may see other kids using bubbles but that's because their parents don't understand either, there will be someone after them in a furious temper soon enough.

cyclingyorkie

Well the good news is that the bin was emptied last Monday and as 3 of us were away until Thursday it's still pretty empty ........ and next door have disappeared for 2 weeks - so when the binmen next come - on monday week I should be able to get rid of a lot of gibble......

I will report back on how much I manage to get rid of...

Byatt

Hiya guys, just a post to say I'm dealing with emotions around a family member who being in her 60's is likely to be officially diagnosed with dementia. I am just now sorting through all the paperwork so I can get an overall picture of what needs to be paid etc...and it goes back to the 70's. I have already filled my recycling bin with rubbish, envelopes and such.

The thing is, is it possible to be a tidy hoarder? There is stuff everywhere, in bags, boxes, you name it, but it all looks tidy, it's not until I look inside a bag or box, that all the carp shows itself. Her home is immaculate though.

Mine at the moment is looking worse than ever. I know my sorting of her stuff is my coping mechanism, if I'm "doing" something practical then I don't have to think, there's a lot of my past tied up with this, and it's come out of the blue. Totally heartbroken. I've had about 2 seconds of tears and then I harden up again.

Anyway, that's my news...thank you for the hugs. Take care of yourselves and well done on all that you're doing.

xxx

thriftwizard

Byatt, huge {{{hugs}}}...

...and yes, it's perfectly possible to be a tidy hoarder. Dh's football programmes are all neatly stashed in boxes to protect them, and the sports books that line our bedroom are all carefully wrapped in plastic bags to keep them safe from dust, dirt & fingermarks, even when he has 3 or 4 of the same book. The problem is that his driving license is also in one of those boxes or plastic bags, whereabouts completely unknown; he's just plain lucky that I'd kept tabs on his passport! There are 30 boxes in our bedroom & on the landing alone, and heaven knows how many in the loft; each one contains several hundred programmes and the license is "somewhere in one of those"...

Periodically I remove the piles of Daily T*l*graph sports pages that he imagines I won't notice growing steadily under the bed...

whitewing

DH isn't well today (too much sun yesterday), so we're stuck at home. I decided I'd find 100 items to declutter. Two hours later, I'm nearer 200 (if I could 15 medicine spoons as single items, lol). This was mainly from the kitchen, which has surprised me because our cupboards weren't full and we had decluttered soon after toddler DD was born.

Some stuff will go for church fetes and others to the recycling centre. Found two bags of bird food under the plastic bags. I threw out my broken plastic bag holder (had it for 20 years - a friend made it for me), and I am having a policy of no carrier bag storage. We always have bags coming in from people passing stuff on to us or from shopping.

I am very tempted to run around the house and choose more stuff to go, but I realise that I need to keep on top of it actually leaving rather than gathering in boxes or bags. I don't always factor in the time it takes to drop it off to various places. Mostly we're going elsewhere anyway so it's not a trip for its own sake. But the chaos of decluttering becomes overwhelming so we are better at getting small mountains out regularly.

We will have various people turn up at the house over the next fortnight, so need to be able to quickly clean and tidy up as we go along or DH will get extremely stressed.

Brighton_belle

whitewing wrote: »

I threw out my broken plastic bag holder (had it for 20 years - a friend made it for me), and I am having a policy of no carrier bag storage. We always have bags coming in from people passing stuff on to us or from shopping.

I am very tempted to run around the house and choose more stuff to go, but I realise that I need to keep on top of it actually leaving rather than gathering in boxes or bags.
But the chaos of decluttering becomes overwhelming so we are better at getting small mountains out regularly.

Ooh, I got rid of our plastic bag holder last week too as I realised it just sat at the back of our recycling area, full and never used: we had somehow graduated to filling a carrier bag with them and two lots under the stairs. All gone (to CS) and now I am allowing a small bag for them and as soon as that is full, they will go. (Personally I use a reuseable bag that lives in my shoulder bag but 'other household members) are not trainable...)

Totally with you on the declutter mountain becoming over whelming - that happens to me a lot and then everything grinds to a halt, sometimes for several weeks. I am currently working through the last lot before I will do any more.

Announcement: the spare scraps of vynil have now left the building.:A

Blossom, one thing I find easy to get rid of is mail: as soon as it is in, it is opened: junk mail/catelogue and charity letters go straight in the recyled bin (I open it standing next to it.) And anyting else gets dealt with. All bills possible are ddm'ed. DH has also developed this good habit. I find it very satisfying to junk the junk straight away.

Byatt - sounds tough. Thinking of you.

short_bird

Brighton_belle wrote: »

Announcement: the spare scraps of vynil have now left the building.:A

Good on ya!