Hoarding...not just on TV

vivaladiva

thriftwizard wrote: »

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...

Thanks for the mention of Tools With A Mission, thriftwizard. This is definitely going to help with garage clearance here - I've only been putting it off for almost 3 years .

Byatt

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:

I love the idea of us declutterer's randomly shoving things through cat flaps...:rotfl::rotfl:

I'm having a non motivation day unfortunately, partly the weather but trying to cope with emotional stress which makes me want to hide under the duvet.

Austin_Allegro

Sorry to hear this. My mother is similar, though not so bad. She has a large house, about half of which is completely filled with junk. I think I have reacted against this the other way - I tend to get very depressed by even small amounts of clutter because I am terrified of ending up like that - in fact I just had an argument with my wife about this today as she tends to be less tidy than I am. Whatever you can or can't do to help your mother I think it's important to ensure your own life isn't too affected.

System

Another thing i found hard to deal with was my Mothers ability to eat rotten food.

Her fridge was full of open tins and salad that had obviously been there weeks. Tins open so long that they had grown a fur coat and her refusal to throw them away. Her option was to scrape the mould off.

I wasnt surprised she went on to develop the early stages of bowel cancer.

calicocat

:rotfl: I am glad to see that I am not alone in thinking cat-flapping is a good idea. The funny thing to me is that until I had read someones post I hadn't given the action any thought whatsoever !

I also like the 'de-richarding' phrase , may have to pinch that .
I had planned to attack another area today for a while but have ended up with zero motivation and spent all day in bed thinking about how I may not have a job in two months. However there is a side of me that thinks if I get my flat more in order , my head may be in more order , which will make me feel better on the whole and in a better frame of mind for any up-coming interviews , and just more organised in general. I will be looking at doing more my next days off as back at work from tonight.
Some of my problem is I get pet 'loves' reguarding shopping , I have I think 20 duvet sets , am a bit addicted to cushions , candle holders,xmas decorations......I must stop doing this , and have managed to curb it a lot. One of the main reasons I don't have a computer is that I am afraid of the financial damage I could do to myself with on-line shopping .
I am quite random with de-richarding too , I will suddenly decide to do it , then find I have to get rid of it immediately or it will end up back with me. I shall have to look at this more sensibly as I could sell or take to charities as don't really want to waste stuff that can be of use to someone. When I have changed furniture I have simply stuck the old at the end of my carpark and someone always takes it , can't stand the fact that the council probably just stick it in the ground.

Good luck to those de-richarding today , and for those inclined keep your eye out for cat-flaps.;)

lostinrates

Dericharding and cat flapping. I love catflapping, and i am glad others like derichading. Have i made a phrase that OSers will accept, like twinks or whoopsies? I would be very excited if i had!


Anyway.

I am ignoring the carpy stuff In my house to ask a serious question about some potential Richard.

Its glasses. Dh aphas some from someone in his family, and i have just been told i am going to get some from mine. Mine will be a complete set for eight of water, red and white wine glasses and flutes. Dhs are an insane numebr of absolutely beautiful but pretty much unused sherry glasses, and other odds and sods of glasses. In addition to these we were given a dozen champagne flutes a couple of years ago. Again, very pretty and old.....not cheapies.

I don't see any of these as richard. Perhaps the sherry glasses, but i am trying to think of someThing decorative to do with them (the most we di usually is drink a digestif out of them.

So....i also have some other cheap wineglasses that i keep as 'kitchen' glasses...ones to be a little less precious about. Are these richard? Should they go? Or are they sensible things to hang on to to reduce risk to the expensive and old glasses?

(and yes, while i obcess about glasses io am ignoring the heaps of other stuff, but i plan some serious attack on more serious stuff over the weekend. The things like glasses are a stumbling block and diversion both to approaching the more straightforward 'junk'.

wannabe_sybil

Coolcait - my OH pointed out that coming home to random textiles pushed through the door may be a bit unnerving - is your neighbour okay with catflapping (used in our house for someone who swings both ways, btw) I personally think it is a brilliant thing to do (your version of catflapping, though not denying anyone lifestyle choices)

Do you have other people who are happy to take stashes left in coal bunkers and recycling bins and then pass them on/deal with them? That could be a really good way to go - I have just disposed of three stuffed bin bags for my uncle with no pain whatsoever. Perhaps we could do an exchange...

My experience - just do what you can when you can. Please note, I am really, really not decluttered, but it is slightly better. I am bringing less in as well.

lostinrates - the rule in our house re books (weakness of all of us) is that the only reason to keep something is if we want to, no other justification needed. Do you like the glasses or do you think you ought to like the glasses. Personally I think now is a good time to act because once something is actually in then it is harder to get out. Would you clean them? How would you display them? I think this is a good one to treat seriously as it sounds like it could be a block to have nearly a hundred items (from the sound of it) of a fragile nature that are awkward to clean, display and store. Personally I would get rid of the cheapies at the bottle bank, use the practical lovely ones every day as you deserve to use nice things and the really nice once that you don't use, well, I have no idea. I have a decanter that at some point I am going to send to the charity shop as I don't need it, but I have it on a window sill filled with coloured water and it does look pretty. Does that help with inspiration? I hope the questions are useful, I am not really in a state to give any more than suggestions as I feel like I am living in a complete pit. Yesterday I got rid of nearly ten kilos of clothing and you can't really see the dent

I hope I haven't offended anyone, I am not my normal self today but hoped that the above was helpful. I apologise.

IHateBinBags

Don't know where to start with this really, so will probably end up like unintelligble ramble, but here goes. I am an habitual lurker of ths forum, for info and basically just being nosy in all honesty, but this thread has kicked me up the arris to register. I have been with OH now for six years, although we do not live together, for the first four years i never went to his place, always some excuse why not to, i seriously began to think he was married, with umpteen children racing around, anyhow he finally admitted he was too ashamed for me to visit because of the state of the place, crickey, what an understatement that was, not one inch of flooring was visible and "stuff" almost to the ceiling, well after two years of me nagging, pleading and telling him i'd help him sort things out three weekends ago he finally said i could. Well i've managed to clear the living room, bathroom and kitchen to some sort of order, but here's where i'm stuck, last weekend the local tip refused to take anything else off us because they believe he is a business, took his car reg and told him to expect a visit from some Town Hall jobsworth, he refuses to have a skip because he feels ashamed of the neighbours seeing what goes in, the next nearest tip is miles away so any thoughts about where to go with this now, i really need to keep momentum going, i dont want to have to bag things up in the bedrooms to go into the rooms i've cleared and cleaned or it will really feel like back to square one.

lostinrates

Wannabesybil, yes helpful, and not at all offensive!

calicocat

. ..........
Wannabe sybil.........you can reassure your OH that she is happy with my cat-flapping , she loves it in fact as she gets a load of free stuff . I put a couple of coats through a year ago , have put books through , food if I have made a batch of soup or biscuits. It wasn't until read someones post and then re-read what I had put that I thought......Mmmmmm could look a tad odd to the everyday person.
Another neighbour puts a punnet of strawberries on my door handle every other day.
Tell your OH he is safe , I only do it to people I know.;)