Hoarding...not just on TV

valk_scot

I went to a craft MacMillan Coffee Morning today. There was a Bring & Buy table to raise funds so I took along a big bag of yarns and patterns etc, almost all of which got bought. I didn't buy anything off the B&B table though except for one item of equipment I knew a friend was looking for. (I phoned her up and checked with her first, I didn't want to get stuck with something I wouldn't use.) It was a pirn winder, for the curious among you. It's a weavers tool. I was thrilled with this find and it sort of satisfied my desire to buy something, you know?

There were other nice things on the table but frankly I didn't need any of them, I'd just be buying them for the sake of buying after all which is not good if you've got several of the same sort of thing at home anyway. Even for craft supplies! So I bought a plate of cakes to take home for the kids instead and put in an extra fiver as a donation. Good cause and all that and I didn't want to be mean. I was quite happy not to bring home any extra stuff though. Sometimes buying things like that can make you feel a bit sick, like eating that extra cake you really didn't need.

So bagfull of stuff Out and only edibles In. I was quite happy with that for a day's work but....I noticed that after the last trip to the CS the space in front of the big coat cupboard was empty, which meant I could get into said CC easily and get DD's packamac out. So I did and while I was in there I worked along her section of the cupboard and tossed out all the school fleeces and jackets she'd grown out of since last winter. There were only four but hey, decluttering! They're all in good nick too so I'll give then a quick wash and see if my two immediate neighbours can use them, they've got younger kids at the same school and are usually very pleased to get uniform passed on.

I'm definately settling into a groove with this decluttering thing.

Gingernutty

I need to start up again.

I've had an awful day at work (yes, an office worker in on a Saturday :eek:) and all I want to do is veg.

I've only got Sunday to fit a whole weekend into.

Clothes, the dreaded cupboard under the stairs (second only to the attic of doom), all the weeks laundry and I've got to find a way to stop my fence flapping across the communal path now someone has busted the fencepost.

I think I'm looking for something like reinforcing brackets - a bit like Meccano, I suppose.

I find I'm now wandering around shops thinking "I don't need that", "I don't need anything from that aisle", "I can't think of anything I need in there" and starting to not go into some shops altogether.

Wow.

Shopaholism can be cured.

GreyQueen

You can get various metal brackets in hardware stores, flat metal pre-drilled with holes for screws and several inches long.

You can get staight ones, L-shapes and T shapes in the flat brackets and right angle brackets, too. They're pence each. HTH.

KAT44_2

Welcome Joolz and thank you for your post, I felt "lighter" and more optomistic just by reading it.

Jojo I was exhausted just reading what you have got done today but I do love a productive day even if it's not my own:D

alec_eiffel wrote: »

The fear of change can hold us back because the what-ifs we see are the negative ones, not the opportunities for things to be different in a positive way. Getting rid of the stuff will never be for nothing, it's just we can't know how things are going to end up until we do them.

So true Alec and thank you for your insight

Byatt wrote: »

I also want to add that everyone's posts help me. I don't always respond, because I get very brain foggy and can't put down what I feel, but each and every post is read, and so often I think, wow, that's me, that's how I feel or felt...or a post will enable me to reconsider, re-evaluate my preconceptions, face my terrors.

I second that Byatt, I read and learn something from each and every post, and appriciate the advise and input from everyone. The de-cluttering is going slowly at the moment but I can feel a change within myself. My mindset and attitude to things is changing and that's the important thing as the old mindset got me here and the new one will get me to where I want to be

lostinrates wrote: »

Don't think we are gog. To get to the great wardrobe clearance today. . However, we are going to have a glass of wine and a snuggle, which is, frankly, as important.

This is so true and something I often forget, sometimes I'm to busy reorganising carp that I should be getting rid of to notice that dh, ds or dd could do with a bit of extra TLC and time with me. Again that's because of the way I was thinking, i.e get the house perfect then I can concentrate on being the perfect wife and mum, have now seen the flaws in this plan, by the time the house is perfect dh and I will be in a nursing home and the kids will be shovelling my perfectly organised carp into a skip :rotfl:


Had a major lightbulb moment today whilst out shopping, I had a few items in my basket that I did need as they where replacing items that where not fit for purpose or broken. However at the checkout I found myself finding reasons to keep items they where replacing as they would come in useful for ????. So I reluctantly put them back and I'm now sat here really regretting not getting them and I want to go back and get them tomorrow but I'm not letting myself until the old ones are gone. By the way all this deliberating is over a too small sieve and a broken retractable dog lead :rotfl:someone slap me.

KAT44_2

Yeahhhh it worked I can now multiple quote :T:T:T thank you Brighton belle

wannabe_sybil

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

I have just baked some bread in the slow cooker :A

Good cupful of flour, yeast, salt and a squirt of golden syrup, warm water, some caraway seed, mix and chuck in on top of greaseproof and forget about it. No kneading, no proving, just mix and bung in.

Unfortunately, I still need to buy some bread, as I tried some and ate the entire loaf (it's a tiny slow cooker) with my homemade tomato soup (small onion, sieved tomatoes, season, bit of Worcestershire Sauce and BBQ sauce, boil and serve).

Definitely doing it again, though.

Please can I have an idea of quantities! - would love to try this. I am also working up to trying bread in the microwave.

So am sorry that you are still suffering - good looking getting it sorted soon.

Ten bin bags out of little bear's room, his clothes sorted and too small put to be disposed of, desk and storage unit disposed of, will go to tip tomorrow. Stair gate gone after being hidden behind the desk for years, hopefully kids from next door but two haven't lifted it out of the garden, they have been in and out helping themselves to stuff all day. Two large bookcases up, furniture rearranged, storage boxes retrieved, under bed cleared, new lamp set up, packaging from bookcases disposed of into car boot ready for at least two tip runs tomorrow, I am going to use Lazy Liz's tip for a bit of a reveal.

OH also put together the flat packed table lamp that comes complete with flat packed lampshade - IKEA are very ingenious. I managed to get four loads of washing dry on the line but have at least the same again retrieved from the nooks and crannies of little bear's room. My dining room is not quite literally full of ironing, but it is doing a remarkable impression and I know what I will be doing tomorrow, after little bear goes to bed!

Elona - hope all is well.

Jojo - thank you again for starting this thread in what were really tough circumstances for you. I was explaining the thread to OH, and I was struck again how the thread has taken such a life of its own.

hugs to all!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

wannabe_sybil wrote: »

Please can I have an idea of quantities! - would love to try this. I am also working up to trying bread in the microwave.

It's about as scientific as;

Pick up cup. Just cup sized. Fill with flour (I used up the last of the strong plain, along with rye flour - it was just what I found in the cupboard). Chuck into mixing bowl (in my case, the wok - it was easier to reach).

Add good pinch of salt,

Add roughly half as much volume in warm water and around a teaspoonish of yeast

(I'm using conventional yeast that has to be activated in a little warm water and something sweet - I used about a teaspoon of golden syrup because I didn't have any sugar, but would have used molasses, honey or maple syrup if necessary, it's just as food for the yeast, after all;

- but everybody else seems to use easy action yeast, the stuff that's got 'suitable for breadmakers' printed on it. I just picked up a tub of yeast in the supermarket months ago and only realised I had to do this when I got it home).


Make a claw shape with your hand (not hard for some of us ) and swish it around until it looks like a fairly ropey dough. Bundle it into a blob, sprinkle a few caraway seeds/poppy seeds/sesame/nigella/whatever on top and then bung it in the slow cooker and leave it.

It'll seem very soft, lots of condensation on the lid, but the base begins to brown slightly as it's nearly done - pick it out, flip it over for a few minutes and it's done.


Worked for me, anyway.

whitewing

We went out yesterday to a children's farm-type place, which was great. Saw mini ponies. Fed the goats but they were very enthusiastic so DS had to come into the pen to rescue DD, and she was really upset as the goats were jumping up on me, so she refused to go until I was out too. Bless her little cotton socks. We had such a great time. We needed the change of scene.

DH went to recycling this morning so the mugs are finally out of the house. I can't believe how many times I had to remake the decision to get rid of some of them, just because they were still lingering around the house.

We've chilled out this morning and done a bit of housework. I bought DD a set of beads so she has been happily occupied making necklaces. She's only diddy but I am impressed with how she stuck to the task.

I need to stop reading MSE and get on with scanning. DH is really anti this scanning. He has made noises about how I will use up all the external hard drive. So I said I'd simply buy another - it was still worth it to me to save the physical space. I did suggest he set me a good example by throwing out his uni coursework (hasn't finished his degree yet but has completed some modules), but he won't. He says his isn't twenty years old!

Getting round to starting the scanning has proved a problem for me over the past fortnight. I enjoy it when I do start.

Byatt

WW, can you put the items scanned on a memory stick, or whatever they are called...:cool:

I've got back from my house/pet sitting gig, and had terrible anxiety dreams as well as thrashing about with my pillows as I was convinced they were something else! :eek:

Now I have stayed at this house several times and I'm not afraid, or don't feel generally afraid, but I do miss my own house, but wonder how this is going to continue as it's quite upsetting.

whitewing

I am typing this quietly so DH can't hear when I say that actually he is right. I couldn't face scanning in some of the stuff. So far I have emptied 6 folders and just put the contents straight into the bin. I have pulled out 6 sheets for scanning but even they look a bit pathetic in their own.

Had to laugh at a photocopied sheet for writing essays. I wrote on it 'should have a climax somewhere in your essay'. That's now in the bin!

byatt,

I have been having horrible dreams too over the past couple of days. In one I dreamt I was high up on modern building spire that had a square staircase spiralling up the top and the sides were glass and the wind was blowing and I was so scared that I was clinging like crazy to the inner sides and could hardly move. My brother was there perfectly fine, even though he is the one scared on heights in real life.

I think as I dejunk, my brain is also dejunking.