Hoarding...not just on TV

Byatt

LIR, I was desperate for children, long story but couldn't have any naturally and when I eventually adopted in my middle thirties I found out I was NOT the mother earth I thought I would be. :eek:

Well, I have cat flapped the big tv and now have an incy wincy one which is smaller than my laptop. The plan is to turn the room around to make more of the space (GQ, we're going to have to compare notes sometime! Although my bedroom is a very good size, so shouldn't complain) and eventually no longer have a tv.

I nearly fell through the big tv though as I walked across the room with 2 very heavy elephant book ends given to me by my mother, I was planning to give them to my DD, but suddenly tripped, hurtled towards the tv, fell against it and it bounced off the wall. I hurt my ankle. The bookends are fine. :cool:

GreyQueen

LMAO, Byatt, shall I go first?

My biggest room is 9 feet 4 inches wide by 12 feet long. This is the sitting-room. One of the short walls has the window and the end of a piece of furniture which is on each of the long walls.

The other short wall has a sliding door into the kitchen. Kitch is 6 feet wide. The kitch opens off the living room and the difference between the width of the two rooms is accounted for by the cupboards in the hall. Which is a mahoosive 75 cm wide.

If you didn't have to climb over the bed, it would take 7 steps to go from one side of the flat to the other. Width-wise it is 8 steps. You can just about fit the bed and one piece of furniture in the bedroom and open the door (2 whole inches clearance). The bathroom is as small as it could be whilst still holding a bath and a washbasin and if you open the door more than 90 degrees, it would bang broadside into the toilet.

On the plus side, it is very easy to heat and cheap to furnish and provides me with many hours of fun and games in playing Tetris with my belongings. Not to mention being an endless source of mirth to friends and acquaintances.

On the minus side, it would drive a sane person bonkers, so it's a good thing I'm slightly cracked. A housing officer of my acquaintance who is familiar with the Towers once remarked When they built these places, what were they THINKING?!

I suspect what they were thinking was; that's good enough for the proles.:p Howsomever, it is bang in the middle of a characterful city with lots of things to see and do. The Police frequently remark on the endless hours of entertainment they derive from visiting Shoebox Towers, for example.

Byatt

LOL GQ, I will measure tomorrow, at the moment I have so much stuff on the floor I will probably kill myself falling over something! I am lucky with the bedroom though as it's the size of the living room plus a bit more. Nooks and crannies and beams.

I've been out most of the day, had to take pooch to the vet again, now she's on a diet better than I am! White fish, salmon...

katep23

Hi all, trying to multi quote but it's not working so will try and remember.

Another one here who has authority / guilt issues. I always think everything is my fault or that I have upset people. It's almost a bit arrogant (as if I am that important!) but it comes from insecurity not arrogance really.

Also Idris (I think) - I hoard fabric conditioner too. I bought 4 bottles in Costco last week (huge great bottles as well). Am getting a bit panick-y as on my last but one bottle of washing liquid as well but waiting for it to come up on offer before stocking up.

LIR, that is the kind of food storage I want to go for. I have a bit of an addiction to shopping for YS items at the supermarket but actually prefer to buy my meat from our local butcher who is organic (not the reason I buy from him but a bonus) and does such good quality meat which is less expensive than the other farm shops round here.

Once I run down the freezer my aim is to a monthly shop with the butcher. I think it is not feeling worth having good quality slightly more expensive meat (but have it less often) when actually yes I do deserve it.

Oh and Byatt, it would make a great book - to read and then pass on to the charity shop!

idristhedragon

My fabric conditioner habit is fuelled by Costco too!!
I had to physically force myself past that aisle on Sunday as I bought the WRONG lenor last time and wanted a new one (I'd already bought a small correct one in tesco)
A shrink would love us!!!!

blossomhill_2

Oh GQ, your place sounds like my first flat; I was so chuffed moving into my new-build "social housing". I was bending down under the window when I heard a couple stating that these "rabbit hutches weren't even big enough for a rabbit" when I popped up and faced them gazing in through my ground floor window!
And my friend and I planned to write a book one day about all the colourful lives we saw there, we even had the police doing a stakeout in the loft
I started my hoarding while there, but less so as I knew I didn't have much room, but started jumbling and keeping old unloved treasure

I moved out into a rented place so was able to empty it almost completely before marketing it, looking very minimalist, and it sold the day it went up for sale

wannabe_sybil

Not done much, thought a bit, checking in.

Lots of thoughtful posts. I would love a rambling house with a multifuel stove. What I need is a new build rabbit hutch! Blossomhill - what a thing to say!

Lots of insights here, we should try and link academics to it - and it is a lovely group of people, thank you for your support.

Horrific night with nausea and trapped wind. I have been having this all summer, usually after cheese, so I am not worried, just exhausted and almost unable to move.

Elona and Jojo - you are in my thoughts. Hugs to all and waves.

valk_scot

I am off to Ikea this morning to buy DS a new bed frame. I've given up trying to find one second hand, I'm just going to spend the money on a new one. OH is aghast, DS broke the last one (he's a big lad) so he should be made to sleep on a mattress on the floor until he buys a new one. He's slept on the floor all summer and anyway, that bed was eight years old and second hand back then. There has been a slight domestic disagreement about this but I have insisted. Anyway, it wasn't a deliberate act when he broke it, it was an accident.

I've also been rearranging DS's room (with his full permission) while he's away and I'm at the point I need to get some storage boxes. This is a dangerous point for a hoarder of course, out of sight is out of mind! But he needs some....

alec_eiffel

Sorry to go back to perfectionism again but I was talking about it with Dh last night and the conversation always turns to MIL. Her house is always just so and while it's quite calm and not unhomely it's also unchanging. It's a huge deal to even replace a lamp that breaks as the exact lamp isn't available so there's a massive song and dance to get something that fills the exact space the other one did. To me that's really stifling.

Anyway, I was reading one of my favourite blogs this morning and this paragraph jumped out -

"...for all of my perfectionist tendencies, I actually adore imperfection. Imperfection is a sign of hope that things will improve. Imperfection is full of promise. Imperfection makes that which is beautiful look even more so by comparison." from Door Sixteen.

I like that. I really dislike perfection when it comes down to it, it's frustrating. I don't like matching things, I'm happy when a new thing gets a mark on it for the first time so I can relax around it and it becomes a real thing to use not a museum piece. Imperfection is more relaxing.

lostinrates

alec_eiffel wrote: »

Sorry to go back to perfectionism again but I was talking about it with Dh last night and the conversation always turns to MIL. Her house is always just so and while it's quite calm and not unhomely it's also unchanging. It's a huge deal to even replace a lamp that breaks as the exact lamp isn't available so there's a massive song and dance to get something that fills the exact space the other one did. To me that's really stifling.

Anyway, I was reading one of my favourite blogs this morning and this paragraph jumped out -

"...for all of my perfectionist tendencies, I actually adore imperfection. Imperfection is a sign of hope that things will improve. Imperfection is full of promise. Imperfection makes that which is beautiful look even more so by comparison." from Door Sixteen.

I like that. I really dislike perfection when it comes down to it, it's frustrating. I don't like matching things, I'm happy when a new thing gets a mark on it for the first time so I can relax around it and it becomes a real thing to use not a museum piece. Imperfection is more relaxing.

Imperfection is the perfect craze now, shabby chic/vintage chic. I do imperfection, and am frustrated by not doing it perfectly.

I am not a shabby chic person, but I am someone who loves eclectic collections of the sublime and the ridiculous, and I have a lot of 'damaged' stuff because it's beautiful. I agree....
But I still struggle with the perfectionist issue.