Hoarding...not just on TV

whitewing

I have chucked out 50 postcards. That probably took me more time than any other decluttering I have done. They weren't even that nice. As soon as they were in the recycling bin I wondered why I had kept them so long. Believe it or not, I had even checked out postcard websites as 'they might be worth something'.

I talked to my brother on the phone earlier. He is clearing some stuff out. He started at 7am, my father rolled up at 11.30am and immediately started swearing at him for putting particular items of wood in the trailer. They 'may' be worth £30 (and that is only if he'd ever let them go). My brother wasn't even putting them for the bonfire. He was merely moving them to another place to be sorted at a less pressing time. Things being 'worth' something is a really unhealthy excuse my family uses all the time. Every so often someone needs something that they can sell that can be used to justify the keeping of everything. They can selectively screen out the comments about things being an eyesore, and just listen to the comments that support their unhealthy way of life. I sometimes really wish that someone would put them into separate rooms, and record a documentary where they force them to answer questions from a psychiatrist about everything they choose not to see. Maybe then I could feel a little understanding.

GreyQueen

Ooohh, how so many bits and pieces of different people's stories resonate. The hoarding OH for 40 years with the partner who'd like to declutter? That's my parents but t'other way around and pushing up on the Golden Wedding. Dad joked that when he retired he was going to hire a skip, park it under the bedroom window and pitch fork it all out.

I ruefully told him to get a big 'un and budget for plenty of trips. And it hasn't and won't happen and one day I will be executrix and de-muddler in chief........Already I've gently tried to get Mum to round up the bits of the 3 knitting machines and put them each with the correct machine. She's been about to get started on machine knitting again (but hasn't) since at least 1986.

Mum is a serial buyer of certain kinds of stuff esp stuff which could be useful e.g. kitchen kit. So, we often have several generations of certain types of equipment, each being replaced with a "better" version but the old cannot be discarded because that would be "wasteful". So, offer it to daughter (me) whose kitchen is 6 foot square and has to decline it and back it goes into the cupboard..............arrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhh!!

Truth to tell, she had got a little better at giving stuff to strangers via c.s. but attempts to get on her Freecycle group stalled with inital people asking for stuff and zero actually turning up to collect, which puts the giver in a bit of a spot. So she de-Free'd and found other methods of getting shot.

Today I have done a few chores and some allotmenteering (decluttered a few more slugs) and am now going to try to set myself a Task A Day to get thru those niggly little things which are taking time and causing other things to be uncomplete and out of kilter.

Today I mended a garment which was stalled between wearing and washing (OK, it was laying on the bedroom floor ) which took nearly an hour of finicky hand work but is done, dusted, laundered, maybe ironed by bedtime and on my back tomorrow.

Tomorrow I shall extract the last of the rawl plugs and polyfill the holes which means the polyfilla can come out of the bathroom to be out of the way for the plumber tomorrow........

:question: Do many of your have stuff underfoot because it needs something done to it before it can be put away? Or am I just a messy mare?

Byatt

Brighton_belle wrote: »

Well, I am recording a complete failure to get anything to the c.s. today, despite my promises of yesterday. I can't believe the procrastination and dithering that goes on for me to get stuff out the house. It is just a ridiculous fear that I know is irrational. I also know that the last thing I took and panicked about, last month, took me about 5 days to stop feeling anxious about and today, I struggled to remember what it even was,lol.
So I know these are 'just' feelings that will pass. But I have to get the things there for this to happen.

However, the items have now been moved nearer the front door, so I will try again tomorrow. I am more likely to go out tomorrow (whereas today would have been a special trip)

On the plus side, I have undercoated the planks I am converting to shelves for books that need a home. This job has been sitting waiting to be done for over a month now. The brackets up already up on the wall.
My clutter free kitchen and bathroom are proving so easy to keep clean and tidy now the new lodger has moved in.
'Everything has a place' works!

And my labelling freezer drawers in to veg/white meat and fish /homemade ready meals/red meat/puddings and fruit/bread last month has transformed my knowing exactly what food I have in there and what needs using up/replacing. If the drawer to full up, nothing more gets bought in that category, I don't care what is on special offer.
After reading your lots experiences with AF, I won't be dipping my toe in that water either:D.

Whitewing - love the things you have leant that you post.

That's me exactly! :eek: I gradually move things towards the front door, and then look at them for a while, mull things over, sleep on it, mull some more, move it an inch further, mull, and so on...

I think the things that might be valuable also comes from seeing way too many programmes like Flog It! and such, whereby someone has taken in an item and gets thousands, or even a hundred pounds. Now I know none of my stuff will get £1 but I still have this inner belief that I might be hoarding a hidden treasure. Apart from the fact I have spent money on it and want to at least make that back to not feel so guilty for getting rid of it and wasting money.

short_bird

valk_scot wrote: »

IEverything that's currently due to be taken somewhere else (CS, tip etc) is boxed and bagged and labelled ready to go into the car tonight and tomorrow, then tomorrow morning I'll drive to the back door of our biggest CS and dump the bags with them. Can't park there long term so I won't be tempted to go in.

:j
Yay! Fantastic news.

valk_scot

GreyQueen wrote: »

:question: Do many of your have stuff underfoot because it needs something done to it before it can be put away? Or am I just a messy mare?

Puts hand up....

Yes, far too many times. Sometimes I get so sick of it I buy a new one and then...yes, you guessed it, I hang onto the old one "just in case".

Picklepot

whitewing Well done on getting rid of the postcards. :j

Something similar happened to me today. I went to make a start on 'my side' of the garage:eek:. Saw some little boxed card games that as a child in the 1970's i loved. I played with the idea that when we hire a motorhome next year for holidays we could use them in the evenings so fished them out to show DH. In my memories i knew the pictures by heart and loved them but when i saw them today i found them quite horrible, some of the pictures on the cards would be quite unacceptable today.. a cartoon on one of a dog with a cigarette in its mouth, a crocodile with its mouth tied up and a pig with someone putting a cartoon fork into its bottom !! Horrifid. I looked on ebay and these 'vintage 70's games' sell for 2-7 pounds.I dont ebay ,firstly becase i have never learned how but secondly its just another obstacle for me to get things out of the house. I was glad to just get rid and put them straight in the CS bag:T

Jettycat

whitewing wrote: »

Don't feel sad, I'm making a choice not to feel sad about it. I know I will be grateful that I kept it until I could sort it.

I'm trying not to but keep putting off doing anything with it as I don't have the time to do it perfectly!

:think: :think:

Perhaps I should break the job down into steps and set aside a little bit of time each week to work on each step? Although I also have the where to do it puzzle, as it does take a lot out of the 'doing time' if I have to get it out and put it away each time. I'll have to work on that.

Good luck with yours, Whitewing, hope the storage space thing works out for you. I would only be able to do this in the evenings so unfortunately that's not a solution for me.

x

Jettycat

GreyQueen wrote: »

:question: Do many of your have stuff underfoot because it needs something done to it before it can be put away? Or am I just a messy mare?

Yes, I have little piles of things all over the place which need repairing, adjusting, new batteries, etc especially broken toys or bits of toys which I can't find the toy to stick them back too

lostinrates

I mentioned yesterday that an mse friend who is an ebay seller came to visit. I showed her some of my hoard. She said some of the things i have are definitely worth me selling. A few i am comfortable with selling, others i am less sure about.

My kitchen table. Its a victorian scrub top table, which has had lots of wood worm in the past so is shabbier side of shabby chic. A few years ago i painted the legs of it with some beautiful paint in one of my favorite colous, and lovingly re scrubbed the top. Its gappy, and rustic, but it is beautiful.

The only thing is, its going to be a little small for my new kitchen. It seats four, and we could easily get a bigger, more sociable table for relaxed suppers with friends in the kitchen. I am going to wait and see what the kitchen looks like when done, and try the table back in there. If its too small i will sell it, ut i will not buy a new one while i still own this one.

The bedside table though, i think that might be one of my first attempts at ebaying.

lostinrates

Jettycat wrote: »

Yes, I have little piles of things all over the place which need repairing, adjusting, new batteries, etc especially broken toys or bits of toys which I can't find the toy to stick them back too

Oh, me too. Everywhere. Not toys. Paperwork. Passport forms atm. Advertising for my business ( i like being word of mouth but i could do with some new clients now, and they need to be able to find me!)