Hoarding...not just on TV

Byatt

Pickle, believe me, if you saw my house you would not think I was doing well. Still loads to do, and I mean loads. This past week has been the first time in ages, possibly the whole of September that I have done anything. It can feel disheartening though, as I can feel good when I've done something but then look at it through others' eyes and feel downhearted again because there is still so much to do.

2 bin bags of clothing and 19 books is excellent, well done you!! :T:T:T I sometimes do the paperwork as I sit watching tv and shred between adverts like you.

However small it may seem, it's still progress. My paperwork seems to breed! I have never been able to cut down to the bare bone with it, no matter what I do.

My first cat was a tortie and toally neurotic.

xxxx

falady

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

My major dilemma at the moment is incredibly shallow and superficial. I've got (or had, the white seems to be making headway) conkery red brown hair naturally. For ages it's been bleached gold blonde (kept the reddish tinge to it) and it's severely overdue for redoing. Do I just repeat as usual, or do I even it up then get a red on the top? Not pillar box, not burgundy, not orange, but proper Rita Hayworth red?


Decisions, decisions......

RED!!! Go for it JoJo! I had red streaks not long after finishing uni (about 10 years ago) and loved them!

Thanks to everyone else for their posts over the last few days that i have been catching up on - lots to make me think, especially re decluttering clothes. There a couple of tops that I bought about 4 years ago as part of a personal shopping session at John lewis. I think i was trying to buy clothes for the person i aspired to be. This aspirational buying is really a problem, especially with clothes for me. I should just accept who i am and dress for me, whilst also not wearing the stuff that makes me feel frumpy. Hmmm, most of my wardrobe will be going then!

Thank you.

skateykatey

Pickle (and others); I've just happened amongst this thread out of interest. I'm not a hoarder nor have any experience so can't offer any advice aside from practical.

When sorting out paperwork I've found that by ripping off the confidential stuff first, likes addresses etc from insurance companies, and then putting them on the shred pile makes for a far smaller, and more manageable job.

The bulk of confidential mail is the bumph that is sent to everyone, so no identifying features in it, and can be popped in the normal paper recycling.

Does that make sense, it's late and I'm rubbish at explaining things!

Apologies, if I've come accross as patronising, it wasn't my intention.

falady

Picklepot wrote: »

Just checking in to say hello. I am still lurking and read the posts most days. I have been a little disillusioned that i cannot match all your progress you are all doing so well.. i can only report 2 bin bags of clothes and 19 books to the charity shop since the beginning of the month.
However...my real issue is paperwork years of it in boxes, bags, carrier bags etc. I have set my self a little routine of sorting through a small pile whenever i am watching TV and shredding during the ads (which also saves me overheating the shredder). I now have two bin bags of shredding plus the non confidential that goes in normal paper recycling. I must be making progress surely??
Cats seem to be a common theme on here and my neurotic tortie nicknamed the 'demon princess' has been the catalyst (whoops bad pun!) for starting the boxes of paperwork first.. If she comes across a box of any type paper recycling, magazines, box files, even empty cardboard boxes she will wee in them hence paperwork being stuffed in bags and out of her reach.I am working on her neurotic behaviour but need to remove anything that could encourage it and paperwork is it.Trouble is you see so little progress with paperwork..

Any tips on paperwork or neurotic naughty torties gratefully received

Hi picklepot,

I can sympathise - paperwork is my 'thing' too :-( I had at least 4 years of paperwork in the very spare room and made a half hearted attempt to sort it out every 2 years or so, getting fed up and stopping half way through.

Since i have 'joined' this thread I decided to sort through it. I basically decided that all bank statements should be shredded - I get paperless now. Apart from the most current tv licence, council tax bill etc, all the rest has been shredded. If the piece of paper was that important I would have needed it before, and I didn't, so OUT it goes!

I took it all into work (in stages) and shredded it in the big industrial shredder there, which doesn't have a meltdown after half a pile of papers, unlike my one at home!.

I have also bought an expanding file and use one section for my payslips, one for OH's, one for little ones accounts etc and wrote an index. i put all paperwork received in the correct slot straight away. i am still training OH to do the same, but he doesn't mind me doing it for him. It keeps our kitchen dresser a lot tidier too, as we don't just dump everything on there now.

Hope that helps.

Ali x

Byatt

skateykatey wrote: »

Pickle (and others); I've just happened amongst this thread out of interest. I'm not a hoarder nor have any experience so can't offer any advice aside from practical.

When sorting out paperwork I've found that by ripping off the confidential stuff first, likes addresses etc from insurance companies, and then putting them on the shred pile makes for a far smaller, and more manageable job.

The bulk of confidential mail is the bumph that is sent to everyone, so no identifying features in it, and can be popped in the normal paper recycling.

Does that make sense, it's late and I'm rubbish at explaining things!

Apologies, if I've come accross as patronising, it wasn't my intention.

Not patronising at all, and an excellent tip! :T I must admit I did something similar for my sister's paperwork when it became just too much. But hadn't thought of doing it for mine. Will save a lot of angst too, because I love shredding but the shredder stops after about 10 sheets, so very frustrating so I let the papers pile up.

I think also I've seen or heard about a gobbledy gook stamp thing you can put over names and addresses which saves on shredding too.

Jo-Jo, definitely red!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Think that's a yes for the red, then.


Went to the gig. Evaded a random bloke who saw me at the bus stop and bundled across the road to ask me for my number. He didn't get it. Got to the pub, saw someone I know by sight, so sat down with them - he's not a big talker, which was fine by me. Then another random bloke sat down and basically hit on me all the time. Probably a nice guy when he hadn't had a drink and was making a bit of a twit of himself, but I'm not interested, so as soon as the gig finished, I legged it home.

Sounds horrid, but I went there with grubby hair in a bun, no makeup, no nails done, nothing, but he still tried. Even allowing for beer goggles, I can't be that bad after all

**********

I think, now I've had the slow cooked scraps (bunged some broken bits of spaghetti in as the tomatoes were too juicy), I'm going to try and get some kip and then go and get the dye in the morning.


If the idiot cat doesn't murder me in the meantime. He's hurling himself at the scratching post at the moment. Just as well I built it from solid wood, or it would have been halfway into the street by now.



Can't give any advice about weeing cats. Except for the obvious not leaving them anything they like to wee on. My old boy had a thing about carrier bags on the floor, along with eating plastic if he couldn't get his own way about things, so I never really leave them around out of habit.

*********

That house was horrible, but at least it was clean. An ex's grandmother had her bedroom full - and I mean FULL - of china dolls. They were posed from floor to ceiling, all spotlessly clean, as was the rest of the house. I took one glance in there and never used the bathroom again, as that meant coming out where you were facing one corner of the bedroom (she didn't shut the door) - and her husband slept in there with her.

[shudder]

A friend of that ex's Dad ran a collector's shop and she had a very similar choice of home decor - bright pink patterned shagpile over what felt like a duvet instead of underlay, lace, velvet, ribbons, plates. It gave me a migraine just sitting there. Again, spotlessly clean, not a single scrap of untidiness or grime, but truly hideous.

I suppose having those things and that amount of stuff makes them happy. Which is fine when it doesn't affect the day to day functioning of the home and family - those are clean homes, organised homes, just never in a million years to my taste homes.

There's quite a difference between having a shelf with ten co-ordinating plates properly mounted for display, keep clean, dusted, polished and perfect and ten piles of chipped, unwashed and generally cruddy bits of crockery that mean you can't fill the kettle, can't find a cup without a half inch layer of blue fluff in the bottom and have flies crawling hopefully around.



I'm not trying to sound mean. But there's a distinct difference between liking *that* sort of thing and hoarding crud.

Brighton_belle

Byatt wrote: »

I think also I've seen or heard about a gobbledy gook stamp thing you can put over names and addresses which saves on shredding too.

You can get one through Lakeland....and well as lots of other lovely things:o:D

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/22155/Hide-IT

Thanks skateykatey - no not patronising at all. All tips welcome - they will spark something for someone.

blossomhill_2

Picklepot wrote: »

Any tips on paperwork or neurotic naughty torties gratefully received

Hi Picklepot, yes paperwork and tortitude are a theme here too

Tips on paperwork here - I also ditch any T&Cs from utility companies, cc providers etc as soon as they arrive, as I figure they are always available online

Have you tried a cat repellent spray around the paperwork while you are getting it under control?

Anyway please don't be intimidated by our efforts, we are just a bit ahead of you and still overwhelmed - I am just aiming to get to a stage that I can get other people in to help, I know I can't do it all myself (well actually I could do it all myself but it's not what I want to spend my life doing!)

I just saw a comedian on TV describe someone as " 2 plastic bags and a trolley away from being a mad cat lady" - sorry, love, I am already there and proud!

My best bit of today was putting a newly washed dress into a transparent clothes protector with some sprigs of lavender and into the wardrobe, instead of leaving it hanging (fading) in a doorway for weeks! Little things! :rotfl:

PS Family bought me this!

seven-day-weekend

I may be thick, but I have wondered for months, what's the problem with addresses? You address is on your letters that come through the letterbox, so hardly private information.

Oh! Just realised.....I suppose if someone came across a bank statement with your name and address on, for example, they could use that informatin to create themselves a new identity for fraudulent purposes (as they would know you were associated with that bank)....but no, that doesn't work, your name and address is still showing on the envelope.....genuinely puzzled......

Please help!

blossomhill_2

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I may be thick, but I have wondered for months, what's the problem with addresses? You address is on your letters that come through the letterbox, so hardly private information.

Oh! Just realised.....I suppose if someone came across a bank statement with your name and address on, for example, they could use that informatin to create themselves a new identity for fraudulent purposes (as they would know you were associated with that bank)....but no, that doesn't work, your name and address is still showing on the envelope.....genuinely puzzled......

Please help!

A frauster could use your utility bill as proof of ID (ie address and existing legitimate account no = bona fide householder) to open a new fraud account - whereas they wouldn't be able to use an envelope to do this

But the real issue is that the more small pieces of info a fraudster can pick up about you all accumulates into a big jigsaw that fits together and tells them too much about you to use in ways you probably haven't imagined

Even things like the speed you say your postcode are used as ID checks on the phone

Well Byatt - this "useful thing" was on the Lakeland link too - My cakes turn out this shape anyway, does that mean I am height of baking fashion?