Hoarding...not just on TV

thriftwizard

Thanks, ladies, calming down now. It's what happens when you try to squeeze the contents of two households and a shop into one, which was already cluttered... what will make it much better is when the Tools With A Mission rep comes later this week to pick up loads of scrap metal; they use the proceeds to send more tools out to the 3rd world. In my garage & driveway are an old & very rusty industrial sewing machine table, two dead Kenwood mixers and an assortment of deceased sewing machines as well as some old frying pans, lengths of chain etc. - I have been collecting these up for a while for him but the influx of stuff from my mother's & the shop has meant I need the space back quite urgently! Once they're gone I will be able to see the wood for the trees. Some of it, anyway...

System

my neighbour has just had a skip delivered. I wonder if he wants any donations.

whitewing

Judi wrote: »

my neighbour has just had a skip delivered. I wonder if he wants any donations.

Perhaps he's reading this thread!

I am still laughing about the cat flap. Great story, it has brightened up my day. So good when things can be passed on usefully.

lostinrates

The relly interesting thing to me is that while i knew i hung on to things a bit i would have said dh was the real hoarder. Its my reactions to things like old freezers that has really shocked me.

We call bishing stuff 'de-richarding' since the first of the hoarding programmes where the guy was called Richard. We also refer to stuff we think the other is hanging on to as Richard.

We have been steadily de richarding for a while, but at a slow rate.

Things we keep include cardboxes thatvthings come in (to put other things in, like gifts) pretty bixes, like chocolate boxes...because dh gave them to me. Some where dh has a box of paper on which he wrote out the texts i sent him when we were newly together.....i sent a lot of texts. I think that sort of thing is richarding. He doesn't. He thinks everything i keep is valid. E.g. I have a dress i have tried to chuck several times and he has retreived because its from before i was ill, when we were first together. It doesn't fit on one arm of me and has a hole, so would ot wear it even if i lost weight, and it cost about a tenner.

I still think he is a lot worse than me, but i am beginning to realise i am not as good as i thought.

VJsmum

lostinrates wrote: »

The relly interesting thing to me is that while i knew i hung on to things a bit i would have said dh was the real hoarder. Its my reactions to things like old freezers that has really shocked me.

We call bishing stuff 'de-richarding' since the first of the hoarding programmes where the guy was called Richard. We also refer to stuff we think the other is hanging on to as Richard.

We have been steadily de richarding for a while, but at a slow rate.

Things we keep include cardboxes thatvthings come in (to put other things in, like gifts) pretty bixes, like chocolate boxes...because dh gave them to me. Some where dh has a box of paper on which he wrote out the texts i sent him when we were newly together.....i sent a lot of texts. I think that sort of thing is richarding. He doesn't. He thinks everything i keep is valid. E.g. I have a dress i have tried to chuck several times and he has retreived because its from before i was ill, when we were first together. It doesn't fit on one arm of me and has a hole, so would ot wear it even if i lost weight, and it cost about a tenner.

I still think he is a lot worse than me, but i am beginning to realise i am not as good as i thought.

I think that hole could get a bit bigger - no? then you'd have a reason to throw it.

I have been following this thread with interest. My late BIL had severe OCD that took the form of buying and hoarding. The number of CDs he had - many still in cellophane - was startling. And now SIL won't get rid of them, even though they are a symbol of the illness that ultimately led to his committing suicide. (the OCD was one of many mental illnesses he suffered and didn't necessarily lead to the suicide).

My OH (BIL was his brother) I have realised, is also somehting of a hoarder. He has a collection of fish on his bedside table - some are nice, ornamental ones but some are plastic "cracker type" toys, people have given him for a laugh that he now won't get rid of. He goes nuts if i suggest he chucks them. He has three coats. THe oldest makes him look like a tramp so he has bought new ones, but still wears his tramp coat. I hate it. He will continue to wear underpants with holes in - goes nuts if I chuck them, but eventually I do. We are not hard up, so it isn't like it is thrift making him do this. He also buys CDs - but doesn't have the same issues as BIL.

He has a file of rejection letters for jobs from 1981 - even though he has worked for the railways for 30 years. This thread has made me realise that it isn't a joke - he is a hoarder with some OCD tendencies. I think we might have to have a chat.

whitewing

My mobile phone froze one day, and after googling we eventually found out that it was because I had more than 1500 text messages saved.

My husband found the Delete All option. I would have gone through the whole lot individually. I think a lot of that came from being a single parent previously and not really having someone to talk to to keep those little 'remember when....' memories alive. I was scared of forgetting it all.

I did send some CDs off to music magpie. I know you could probably get more elsewhere for them but they are nice and simple to use.

wannabe_sybil

Thriftwizard - I have been attacking on Operation Clutterbust in fits and starts for nearly a year. Sometimes I wonder where the dent is that I should have made (blog in profile has a sidebar with all the stuff I have got rid of).

I have found myself going in fits and starts, but I am being more and more resolute in not holding on to things in the first place. If I can get it straight in the bin then it isn't so hard. And I cannot consider buying yarn with a straight face atm. I have mounds of the stuff, even though I have got rid of a load.

My house is still just too full. But I will get there. It's just some days it is easier than others.

calicocat

:rotfl:

whitewing wrote: »

Perhaps he's reading this thread!

I am still laughing about the cat flap. Great story, it has brightened up my day. So good when things can be passed on usefully.

:rotfl: you are making me laugh now , to be honest at the time it seemed like a perfectly normal thing to do , but now see that it does come across as a bit bonkers.
Thing is once I get an idea or plan in my head I usually have to do it there and then , if I had kept the jeans in the hall they would have eventually been put back in the bedroom.
I sneaked a peek through later and Starz ( upstairs cat) was well happy with the deal:).snoozing on said jeans ...so much so that he came with me to the back garden to hang out with me to put the washing out.
Maybe this is the way forward , I could keep all my rubbish in the car and when I see a cat-flap just shove something through......a drive-by thing. :rotfl:

GreyQueen

calicocat wrote: »

:rotfl:

:rotfl: you are making me laugh now , to be honest at the time it seemed like a perfectly normal thing to do , but now see that it does come across as a bit bonkers.
Thing is once I get an idea or plan in my head I usually have to do it there and then , if I had kept the jeans in the hall they would have eventually been put back in the bedroom.
I sneaked a peek through later and Starz ( upstairs cat) was well happy with the deal:).snoozing on said jeans ...so much so that he came with me to the back garden to hang out with me to put the washing out.
Maybe this is the way forward , I could keep all my rubbish in the car and when I see a cat-flap just shove something through......a drive-by thing. :rotfl:

LMAO, drive-by dejunking, it could be the new craze, like guerilla knitting or something, for the oranisationally-challenged.

I completely understand what you mean about wanting it gone NOW once you've made that decision. Shamefully, I have kept the bags destined for the charity shop on the premises for weeks at a time (or even months, when they got lost in the clutter ) and then gone back through them and taken some of the stuff back in.....aaaaaarrrrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhh!!!

Lostinrates I shall treasure the term "de-richarding".

thriftwizard

Another trip down to Mum's today to help her unpack her vast china collection at the new flat, then to retrieve a couple more items from the old house... these are a couple of large chests of drawers that my great-grandfather made, which are still in need of a home... my brothers are all agreed that they MUST stay in the family, but sadly they just don't have the room for them! To be fair, they are lovely, sturdy pieces of furniture, and they are much-needed here, but I've totally failed to persuade DS2 to dismantle the falling-apart "white" melamine collapso'd B&Q drawers in his room that they're going to replace. He's been filing his clothes on the floor since the bottom fell out of all but one of the drawers, which has led to rather a lot of totally unnecessary washing, or would have done if I hadn't refused to wash anything which is still folded, even with muddy bookmarks on. So there's nowhere to actually put them yet... aaaargh!

ETA: something somewhere is on my side - trip cancelled due to illness, so I now have a chance to physically remove the dead B&Q drawers whilst DS2 is at work (he won't mind, he has no attachment to them, he just hasn't made the time to do it himself, too busy between work, football & girlfriend) and the decent ones can be slotted straight in on Monday instead. Phew...

Actually I can see now how things have got so cluttered elsewhere; for example, in DS3's room are two large packages of IK&A Expedit shelves, as yet unpacked (for two weeks now) because there isn't enough room to put them together where they need to be, because the old sideboard/bookshelf ensemble that was doing the job of storing my own craft stuff (as opposed to my business craft stuff, which has its own shed) is still in situ. If I'd taken those out first, and put the stuff into boxes (whilst weeding out the stuff that's no longer wanted) the Expedit could have gone straight up & the conservatory & DS3's bedroom would both be a) less cluttered and b) more organised. Ditto the desk that I am typing this on, which is appropriate to a whacking great tower PC with CRT monitor, which we haven't had for several years. The smaller, neater desk that the tiny PC with LCD screen should be on, is also in DS3's bedroom, behind the IK&A packages... poor boy! Ah well, as I don't now have to trek 26 miles each way to unpack 5 (large) boxes of china into a smallish flat, it can be Action Time here instead!