Hoarding...not just on TV

SpikyHedgehog

VJsmum wrote: »

Hi all - I think I have been around on the earlier part of the thread but since have been reading and doing nothing about decluttering. Just nodding sagely.

I love that "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got" quote - is it from "Feel the Fear and do it anyway?"

JoJo, love your German sig. :rotfl: Should we embrace the wurst or ignore the wurst though? Reminds me of a saying my sister in law uses "Es ist mir wurst", meaning it's all the same to me (not literally translated)

Anyway, today is a new day and the decluttering is beginning. I, too, have a stash of old craft stuff including a candle making kit! It was bought by my now deceased mum and I can't seem to chuck it - I have had it years and years. Someone give me permission, please! We have had to clear out our conservatory as it is having a new roof, I don't want to put a lot of the stuff back in it - camping gear and so on. We have paid a fortune for the new roof and I would like to use it as a proper room as the kids have taken over the lounges (yes, lounges. THey seem to have one each - but if we kick them out or interfere they would disappear to bedrooms and I would rather them downstairs). We have an office which we could declutter and a spare room, so I am thinking that the camping and other stuff could go in there. I just have to persuade OH.

Ah, just remembered I have been on the thread as I mentioned having a gazillion felt tip pens and old pencil cases. Jo Jo told me to chuck them and buy one new pack. I am going to do that today! :T I have also thrown one theme park cup that you get refills in. I don't need it (we have a dozen others that don't get used) and out it went. Baby steps.

I am determined to make steady progress and report in as I do so.

VJ's mum, you have my permission to get rid of the craft stuff!

Byatt wrote: »

Thanks Alec, I cam on to post an insight I have just had, and funny you should mentions the getting new "space saving" things, as I do that all the time, I almost did it yesterday as I was looking at baskets (I love baskets ) to use as space savers but then looking around realised I had more than enough!

Anyway, I realise I have a problem putting things into cupboards, storage etc...one of the reasons why everything piles up around me. I have for instance a pine chest box, which I got last year at a boot sale with the intention of doing it up, I did decoupage the lid but nothing else so far and worse, nothing in it! :eek: Loads of stuff piled on top, but empty inside. Am I the only one with this strange reasoning...I am now trying to put stuff in it, it has to be tidy though, can't be all piled in and hidden away...or can it, mmmmhhh...

It's partly because I forget where things are, or out of sight out of mind, and I worry...about what I'm not sure. :cool:

Anyway, whatever it is, it's stressing me putting it in the box!!:o

I am doing much better with open storage - though there is still lots of bags of stuff around...

I realised one of the reasons I was feeling that I couldn't get anywhere, the landfill & recycling bins are FULL. The landfill has gone out for emptying tomorrow, DS1 has stood in the recycling bin to try squashing it down more, but that doesn't get emptied till next Wednesday. Sigh. At least the black bin will be empty tomorrow, & I can get on with putting more rubbish in it! I can't even clean out the cats litter tray till then!

My new vacuum cleaner arrived today, checked it works, & posted the old 1 on freecycle - no takers yet.

MIL gave me a pretty top for my birthday, doing her usual pull the whole tag off & not supplying any receipt. & I think its going to be too small. This is particularly annoying as she always takes back anything I give her & asks for the receipt if I've not given it to her!

blossomhill_2

Well I made it back from the tip empty-handed before the torrential rain

Now the giant TV is gone I can get into the shed without taking
g-i-a-n-t steps over it, and use my storage system again - I was pretty impressed when I got to it again as it works and everything is being rotated nicely and is in its place.

My main bugbear is bluming mouses, they have eaten into 2 plastic tubs of slug pellets so I have pellets everywhere

My 3 plastic cat carriers are hanging from hooks on the shed roof, held up by cable ties - 3 baskets for 3 cats, used to have umpteen spares ...

I did find a special lightswitch that I didn't know I had - I had asked the electrician to source some when we had work done recently and he couldn't, so fitted cheap nasty plasticky ones and now he has left I have found the swish one - grrr! It is a big rocker (the switch, not the sparky!) so I can hit them with an elbow when slalem-ing around the room avoiding junk on the floor - oh, I forgot, I won't be slalem-ing(?) much longer

[Byatt, such miscasting, don't know if I will watch. Will read the new book tho! Glad you had a laugh.)

edit - PS there's another new thread called Huge admission...but a new start I hope! which has posters asking the same questions and getting similar answers to this one (such as do CS take videos, and about emotional hoarding) I've tried to direct the posters over here

blossomhill_2

VJsmum wrote: »

I have also thrown one theme park cup that you get refills in. I don't need it (we have a dozen others that don't get used) and out it went.

They going out then?

Byatt

Spiky, Happy Birthday again...

Our recycling boxes can have bits in bags left by the side if they are too full, not for the landfill, but useful for the green bin. Does yours allow the same?

katep23

Byatt wrote: »

BTW and totally OT so said in a whisper there is a Jack Reacher film out in December and Tom Cruise is the lead! :eek::eek: Read on Lee Child's web site. Tom Cruise????? I've seen a trailer.:eek:

Hi Byatt, I had heard this too and told my dad (another Jack Reacher fan) who replied "what, that short arris"! Not good casting at all and I won't be watching the film

Taken 2 bags to the charity shop - had a bit of a wobble as OH had chucked out some shirts I had bought him and was a bit upset, thenI thought "they're Regatta and never been worn, I can sell them on eBay" then realised I would a) never get round to it or b) get burger all for them so finally put them back in the pile and they are gone - phew! And I didn't even buy anything in the charity shop :T

OT alert! Well, as it's official I can say on here now - I have a new job starting next month! Very similar to what I do now but without management responsibilities which I hate and have made me really miserable, stressed and angry in equal measures and put a real strain on relationship with OH.

Hoping new job will be less stressful but it's going to challenging just starting a new job as I have been with my company over 11 years (1/3 of my life as my OH has pointed out!)

Very un-MSE but I'm having a fire tonight as it is so miserable and as I don't have any wood chopped up it will have to be coal - the cats will be pleased

Kouzapastella

Just found this thread:T great reading folks...

Recently moved from large 2 bedroomed place to a 1 bedroomed small(and I mean small) bungalow, with no space and I'm currently surrounded by huge piles of cardboard boxes and plastic crates, can't even close the loo door when I want the loo:eek:. I'm so embarrassed by the stuff lying around that I haven't invited anyone to my new place yet.
:eek::p
Got so bad yesterday when I came to cook a meal I realised I hadn't even unpacked my pots and pans:o as I've been eating out the local Chinese and chip shop this has to stop as I have been made redundant and can't afford to be wasting money like this.

How do you take that first step to decluttering, I should have done this before I moved, no wonder the man with a van had few weeks off with a hernia:D:rotfl: wasn't my fault then again can't confirm this :cool:

I now have lots and lots of time on my hands, access to local tip up the road, and Finn my trusty Ford Focus has a huge boot, but I'm a trainee lazy git..

What makes it worse my friend and I have great fun showing each other how we have decorated/found bargains etc and she's done her 1 bed place out and all I've done is sit on my ample butt, think I've had a bit of depression re the redundancey but that's no excuse living like I'm on the point of moving house instead of having just moved in.

So come on folks what motivates or motivated you?, I :rotfl::p
need some get up and go tips, also have an inspection from Housing Association, I made a fuss re the floor of the wet room and they are coming to have a look at 9am September 12th so the clock is counting down to then, that's my boot up the bum to start the big declutter...

So I've opened one huge cardboard box:eek: how many computer cables do I need, less of the just incase scenario, I have to be positive, will post later after I have cleared box n!mero one....have promised myself a glass of wine at 9pm provided I have cleared said box...wish me luck.:rotfl:

katep23

Kouzapastella wrote: »

I now have lots and lots of time on my hands, access to local tip up the road, and Finn my trusty Ford Focus has a huge boot, but I'm a trainee lazy git..

Welcome, good luck and at least you have a new occupation to aim for

I love deadlines as I find them really motivating so maybe a calendar with that date circled (but don't buy one if you don't have one, I'm not trying to encourage you to accummulate more here!) or a daily reminder on Outlook with how many days you have left to go might focus your attention?

Who was it that said "I love deadlines, I particularly like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying past"? Or summat like that anyway!

valk_scot

I went to the CS today...I have two favorites I donate to regularly, one in town and one the next town over, abiut 10 minutes drive away. The kids prefer I don't put their clothes etc in the local one as "my friends might see them". I don't quite understand this myself but hey-ho, next town charity shop is well worth a visit, I've got some great bargains from there.

So I get there and there's no parking close apart from the three disabled spots right outside the door. I don't normally even dream of taking disabled parking spaces but accepted practice here if you have a car full to unload to stop in one space, leave your engine running,, throw your bags out onto the pavement, chap at the window and one of the staff members will come out and start carrying it in while you take your car round to the neighbouring car park and leave it there.

So I did this except.....there were no spaces in the car park. What to do? I wasn't worried about my nine bags, I'd seen two of the chaps from the back shop coming out to get them and knew they'd have been taken in by the time I walked back round. Except I couldn't get the car parked and....I couldn't go for my look round the charity shop.

I tell you, I was upset. It was like when you drop your ice cream when you're a small child, you know? I wanted to go in. I might be missing a real bargain, a great find or something useful, no? And then I started to think about it (I'm still sitting in my car in the road in the car park, hoping someone would leave) and remembered the idea was to get rid of stuff, not to replace it as fast as it left the house. But it did feel like I had a gap at home now that I needed to fill.

At this point I metaphorically smacked myself round the head, went to the garden centre instead and bought two things for the garden that I did actually need. I didn't feel I needed to buy the cheapest ones either to save money, I'd already saved a tenner probably by not buying more junk out the charity shop. So I bought the items I wanted even though they were three or four pounds more than the cheapest versions.

It was a weird feeling. I went home feeling much cleaner about my purchases, if that's not a weird term? I had two things I needed and wanted, I wasn't loaded down by a piles of odds and ends that I could well manage without. And I'd spent less money than normal. Very strange feeling, yes.

short_bird

katep23 wrote: »

Who was it that said "I love deadlines, I particularly like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying past"? Or summat like that anyway!

Douglas Adams, the author of Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

dumpy

katep23 wrote: »

Who was it that said "I love deadlines, I particularly like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying past"? Or summat like that anyway!

Douglas Adams author of Hitchikers guide to the Galaxy. So sad he died so young.


Well I stagger into this thread tired and dusty but one spare room is done and it's HUGE now I can see all the floor. No more "walk the available route into the room"

There are a few things on shelves that will need going through again but I thought, get the bulk done first then go back and refine.

Also. there is nothing under my bed...... nothing.... Not even dust! :T:T:T