Hoarding...not just on TV

valk_scot

wannabe_sybil wrote: »

I could see the craft potential in so much!

How I empathise with this! I do a great deal of crafting and try to justify the craft hoard as raw materials...but of course a lot of it is simply junk and there's only so many hours in the day/week for crafting after all. And the junk stuff stops you seeing the good stuff and then the good stuff starts losing its freshness and turning into junk too. Not good.

(But I'm not going near my craft hoard till I've worked round the more boring bits of the attic first...)

elona

I don't dare mention the loft to DH as last time he went up there he nearly put his foot through the bedroom ceiling :eek:

Managed to have a proper talk to hospital and dd is being treated for pneumonia and a blood clot at present and her kidneys are not working properly but they can't do a scan yet in case they upset the blood clot. Hopefully early next week we should get a scan done and find out how bad it is. Fingers crossed I am being a drama queen as dds have suggested but doubt it. At least the rest of the family are now beginning to realise the situation.

Three dds are having a great time in London (already booked and I insisted they go). Builder is still working on bathroom and walk in low level shower which will be a blessing when dd comes home.

Need to set off again soon with her favourite soft drink and a couple of tops to wear. Took clean pjs and towels this afternoon.

Visited garden centre on way home and just had cup of tea - no cake etc and very tempted by pretty shiny things as Cat from Red Dwarf would say ( floral crockery etc) but bought nothing.

Hugs to all

wannabe_sybil

Elona - hope things work out. It is hard, but your daughter is in the right place, so fingers crossed! I am thinking of you

valk_scot - I was looking at old jeans and imagining them as converted into cushions. There was some lovely fabric in the heaps, including a pure silk shirt. I had to walk away quick - I've already got rid of a load of 'it's too beautiful not to use for something when I get round to it' stuff' And while I did get the stuff to unravel, that already has a destination.

Brighton Belle - little bear has several hundred books The Illustrated Children's Oxford English Dictionary was definitely worth picking up as little bear loves to read through the Picture Dictionaries he already has. I'm not exactly sure about the rest but he loves new books, so for the coppers they cost it will be fine. He has swathes of the little, pamphlet type phonics books. We all love books, the family approve of eduction, books are bought... The books are getting pruned next week.

And I walked in with two new duvets and immediately walked straight out with the old ones to hand to next door neighbour. That felt good!

Hugs to all

Patchwork_Quilt

Thinking of you Elona and hoping that everything is sorted out soon.

Another challenge for you - has anyone sorted out their key pot? Or is it just us that keeps thirty-odd keys from former houses, relatives' former houses and wind-up clocks that were charity shopped a decade ago? However, it was very scary. I got DH to check through for me before they all went in the bin. Why would anyone need an old key for a house we don't own any more?

I'm more of a hoarder than I thought.

In other news, DH stopped me going through a skip this afternoon. It was full of lovely offcuts of wood just the right size for our stove. But having cleared out the garage in a gallant attempt to join in the Massive Clearout and taken eight carloads to the tip, he said he didn't want anything extra coming in. I had to give way graciously, as he has even sorted and cleared his tool cupboard to please me.

Still, I know it's out there...

GreyQueen

Wow, tackling a loft on a hot day like this; respect!

Spent the day (well 9 am until nearly 2 pm) on the lottie with my folks and this was the first time they'd been up in about 7 weeks. D'you what the first thing Mum said was when I opened the shed door?

It's really tidy.

I coulda burst with pride.:o

THe knackered rack-thingy has departed to the tip (far to rancid for a c.s. and no Freecycler wanted it).

Out; kitchen rack and one book back to library. Plus a sheet of bubble-wrap to my online bookseller brother. Plus a huge bag of horrible non-compostable weeds to the tip and 27 gastropods.

In: jar of homemade pickes from Mum, 3 library books, tall glass storage jar (donated from Mum's kitch to my kitch at my request) and 2 newly-created rolling storage trollies.

These count as double-bonus bonzo decluttering points on Mum's account as they were made from stashed scrap materials from her shed, with salvaged screws and the sole new contributions were 2 x sets wheels from £land. We made earlier trollies from stashed scrap wood and stashed wheels but have run out of (or would that be rolled out of ?:rotfl:) little wheels.

At some point in the next couple of days, probably Monday when the weather is sheduled to turn carp, I'll get the boxes holding the bits of the underbed larder out and decant them onto the trollies and then the boxes can go.

I have a very small kitchen. My tinned goods live under the bed. I have a valance, no one other than very close friends and anyone in the world who cares to read on the OS Board knows about this little foible. Pls don't tell on me, OK?

Elona, keeping fingers crossed for your DD. Hope that there is some good news soon.

VJsmum

Many years ago, MIL - a hoarder by proxy donated 6 duvet sets to us. THey are for a single quilt. We have one single bed in our house and a spare single mattress for when a lot of people come to stay (DS sleeps on it in our room and we lend his room out). I already have about 6 single quilt covers. But they were decent so I kept them. They have sat in the drawer for all of those years. Today they went in the bag for the charity shop :T

I have sorted all of DS old uniform (sweatshirts and polos - all with school logo) and will take into school on Monday as they have put out a call for second hand jumpers for those who are still in that uniform. THe change over is for the whole year and Year 11 will not wear the new uniform. However the uniform shop isn't stocking the old uniform any more. If school don't want it they can go to the textiles recycling at the tip, together with several bags of odd socks, trackie bottoms with holes in that can't be mended etc. And 2 coffee tables we don't need and that are minging and that only cost about £10 from the Swedish superstore. 2 bedrooms now cleaned and fairly tidy.

I don't have that many spare quilts - tho I do have some - but I seem to have LOADS of sleeping bags. we do use them in the caravan and awning tents but how many do we really need?

lostinrates

Not dericharded, merely reassigned, but oh so much better....

My family have a nasty, nasty habit of leaving whatever tools they have been using inside our front door and hallway, so when people come they have my hedge cutter, dh's petrol hedge cutter and brush cutter, a
Ladder etc etc etc to walk past.

I cannot always put mine away if i work past comfort zone, so dh says he will, then leaves it with hi sin the hall. Also there is some stuff of parents.

Dh walked in and agreed it looks dreadful, has just taken all the tools out to the tool barn and put the stuff of parents on the understairs cupboard, which had room because it was earlier in the year dericharded (the ninth square!)

Now, when the nice people from the charity we are going to have to disappoint come for tea this afternoon to discuss why we cannot do what they want us to, at least they won't kill them selves on hedge cutters, and after a vacuum i should be less embarrassed about the state of everything.

lostinrates

Patchwork_Quilt wrote: »

Thinking of you Elona and hoping that everything is sorted out soon.

Another challenge for you - has anyone sorted out their key pot? Or is it just us that keeps thirty-odd keys from former houses, relatives' former houses and wind-up clocks that were charity shopped a decade ago? However, it was very scary. I got DH to check through for me before they all went in the bin. Why would anyone need an old key for a house we don't own any more?

I'm more of a hoarder than I thought.

In other news, DH stopped me going through a skip this afternoon. It was full of lovely offcuts of wood just the right size for our stove. But having cleared out the garage in a gallant attempt to join in the Massive Clearout and taken eight carloads to the tip, he said he didn't want anything extra coming in. I had to give way graciously, as he has even sorted and cleared his tool cupboard to please me.

Still, I know it's out there...

I just did a key sort out because when the parents sold their house i gave my keys to it to them and did a sort out.

Otoh, i need to sort out the locks to our doors! The very cranky front door is unlockable from outside, and tbh, takes up to ten frustrating minutes ro unlock. It needs a new to us lock, but its an old door, so we want a reclaim lock with a big key if possible! The back door is lockable, but has a dodgy handle, so we keep a pair of scissors by the back door to open it once on locked should the handle come off. We have dhanged rhe handle rhree rimes, they all just get eaten by that door.

Not as bad as the bathroom door though, which when we had guests recently we warned that we must fo upstairs for the loo one at a rime and leave door ajar rather than risking closing it. It was dh who forgot this, got locked in and had ro get out by climbing out of the window, over the roof and down the side of the building and then go back up to open the door drom the outside!:rotfl:

babyshoes

More small steps here, my Mother wouldn't notice the difference yet if she popped in (unlikely as it involves an 11 hour flight :rotfl:), but I can tell.

Yesterday I sorted through a shelf in the wardrobe and also pulled out a few of the obviously too small items on hangers - most of a bin bag now waiting to go to CS on Monday, along with a bag of books and a 'bath spa' machine which has been used once as it was a present and I wanted to try it out. Turns out it is pretty pointless!

The bag of books will be picked over by the guys in my department, then go to the ladies in the office - it's important to keep them sweet.:cool:;) Once they are done with them, they pass them on to our local charity shop. The local CS is good, it is quite a small one but they sell books cheaply - used to be 20p per paperback, now 50p. I can go in with the change from my lunch money and buy a handful, and I don't feel bad getting rid of them when I'm done, as they have little intrinsic value to me.

My next 'thing' to get rid of is a pile of magazines which have been at the top of a cupboard for some years now. I need to a) physically get them down, which isn't trivial and b) decide on the best place for them to go. Logically, they could easily go in the recycling, but as they are a 'special interest' type magazine I can't help feeling that either a local organisation or a collector could make use of them. I shall do some digital investigation to see if there is anyone I could offer them to in the area (or maybe even sell them for a lot of money!), otherwise I shall just pop them in the recycling bin. The next paper collection is next Monday, so I guess that could be my deadline. I won't get them down until I have decided where they are going, otherwise of course they will just sit around being clutter. Where they are now is at least out of the way and not visible.

I don't suppose any of you have any ideas for me? They are about 2 years worth of Diva Magazine (lesbian glossy) from about 4-6 years ago, I think. Could be more issues, and from longer ago, I don't quite remember!

valk_scot

I need to sort out my linen cupboard next. It's not actually that bad hoarding wise tbh, just that while I've got the new duvet system fresh in my mind I should sort the bedlinen to match. I CS all the Thomas the Tank Engine and Power Rangers duvet covers years ago thank goodness (DS is 16) but I need to go through DD's stuff now she's got to a newly sophisticated 11. And there's some curtains on the bottom shelf, they need to go.

The hall is now full of boxes and bags again, thanks to my foray up to the attic yesterday. Enormous linen bag of duvets, cushions and a couple of old pillows, destined for the textile recycling. Three boxes of mixed "things" for the CS. A big shopping bag that's filling up with old comics and magazines. A linen bag full of soft toys and a big bin bag filling up with clothes and shoes. It's a big hall and I'm finding it useful to establish my own mini recycling "skips" out there so if I find even one stray object when I'm doing something else I can walk out to the hall and toss it in the relevant bag/box. I have to repack them more compactly of course before they go out but I tend not to take things back out again.

I also finished getting the playhouse/shed emptied last night so I'm ready to start bringing the last of the allotment shed stuff home. There was a giant wool sack containing six Cheviot sheep fleeces in there (I'm a spinner, remember?) and I needed to pull this out, take out each fleece seperately and reroll it so it fitted into an old pillowslip. These fleeces aren't for me, they're for spinning friends but I needed to split them into six seperate bags for distribution. The whole job took me less than half an hour, I've been putting it off for six weeks. So they can go next week.

I also had one almighty splat of a fall in the garden shortly after this. Dodgy discs in back = poor balance, especially when I'm tired. I usually just get winded, I've not got to the stage of breaking things yet. This time though I crashed down on the paving steps and narrowly missed hitting my head on a stone pot. MY DD was there in the garden though and my OH heard my screech of alarm and came hurtling down the stairs but I was okay, just a bit bruised. However he then kept on going on as to Why did That Happen, as if he's not noticed the past three years of me falling over things. Stupid man. DD (aged 11 as I said) finally had a real go at him about it. So domestic harmony has not been noticable around here lately.

But it's also strengthened my resolve to get this place dejunked sooner rather than later. It's not that I'm falling over boxes and crap in the house as I make a point of keeping the floors clear and safe as much as possible. But there may come a time when I can't get up the attic easily (I'm fine on the Ramsay ladder atm, don't worry) and I don't want to leave that mess for anyone else.