Hoarding...not just on TV

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Can I be joyful at some sad news?


DD1 has dumped her boyfriend.

:j:j:j:j:j:j:


A bit of internet tomfoolery had revealed that, on top of his usual controlling, infantile, stroppy, I-can't-exist-without-you-for-5-seconds nonsense, he'd thrown a strop and packed in his job, hightailed it off up to her art college and tried to shift himself into her halls to smoke dope all day and try and get her to not attend.


I do hope this time it's permanent. I might actually get to hear from her occasionally. But maybe not. At least she might be free at long last - just in time to enjoy her Fine Arts Degree without the dead weight.


Must track down the cat soon to take her to the vet for 9. She was already suspicious when I was downstairs in the pitch black of 6am and then the cat carrier came in from the shed. At least I know she can't be that far away.

blossomhill_2

With D&DD's mention of sorting out recipes I decided to tackle mine - turned out I only have 3 (seems I am not very self-aware sometimes!) but were strewn about worktops so some merit in putting them into one plastic sleeve, and will type them onto computer soon

I sorted out my man-drawer last week. All the half packs of batteries are now in the understair chest of drawers instead, in drawer marked Lightbulbs (will change label) which is far more logical. Found a brilliant pocket knife in there, which has persuaded me I don't need to buy a £1 tacky-orange-use-once-then-store-for-eternity-pumpkin-carving-plastic kit. Also found a handy little keyring with what I thought was a tapemeasure, felt a bit silly when I tried to use it on the curtains - it was a compass!

Byatt, thanks for the invitation, we'll all be round at 10 - ok? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:(Lovely state to be in,well done YOU!)

I found a set of twins :T- one folder marked Utilities which contained phone contracts, another marked BT - now smugly merged - and BT stuff will soon be going into File 13 bin marked Companies That Have No Regard For Customer Service) anyway

alec_eiffel

Elona, yes you can use poppadoms as part of a crumble/breadcrumb topping. We buy a pack very occasionally but there are always too many for the two of us so I use them for that purpose. In fact tonight I'm doing it with some left over taco shells to make a chilli bake *yum*.

I love the Lakeland shelves too, I use them for my spices.

There's nowhere else for me to put this so I'll put it here. I am really peeved with Ikea. I can't believe how poor the quality it for some things now. 11 years ago when DH and I moved in together we bought some bedside cabinets and a few other things, they were cheap but solid pine so I have always been really positive about their stuff saying it was good quality etc. Fast forward to this summer we bought some picture frames for our big bunny pictures (nicer than they sound) to hang in the living room. One frame broke getting it out of the packaging, one piece of glass broke as I was framing a picture which was bad enough. But then last night I wanted to move them from under the spare bed so we could hang them, the two remaining frames had split down the side! Amazing. I thought about pinning and glueing them but then I thought there is no way on Earth I'm going to hang them on the wall where they could break at any time and injure someone. Really annoyed and disappointed at how poorly made they are now compared to the past. Totally off topic but needed to get it out there!

elona

eiffel

Lakeland shelves - ooh - must have a browse and try to resist temptation at the same time. Mind you if they make better use of shelf space and help me find stuff - er - it is not clutter if you use it - right?

Saw an old fashioned kettle that could be used on gas hob in charity shop the other day so thinking of rescuing and hiding it so DH does not throw it out. I am hoping that as long as things look organised and are in spaces he thinks of as my domain I can hang on to stuff.

He was forced to admit that I had a point in having a few bottles of water when the tap ran dry a few weeks ago because neighbour had cut water supply to have work done. While he was looking in disbelief at the tap, I had nipped out to garage and got a couple of bottles, filled kettle and made him a mug of tea!;)

idristhedragon

Grrrrr @Ikea!
Im off there later for lunch for the kids and the holy grail lime green curtains..........note to self- measure window BEFORE I go lol

So today brings talkative painters (LEAVE ME ALONE- I dont want a 20 min debate about Jimmy SaVILE in my hallway thanks) and a visitation from Father and Step Mother. As I mentioned before they are VERY proud of their combined weight of about 45 stone- I find it VERY difficult to deal with - their utter delight at being so disabled by their sheer obesity. They have between them two new knees, two new hips, high blood pressure and diabetes, oh and gout. They seem to delight in asking me about my job and how many "fatties" Ive helped this week...........They are also FASCINATED by my weightloss and like to tell me Im wasting away- 5 ft 5 and a size 14 with a Double D chest- I dont think Im escaping down plugholes anytime soon ha ha.
Right- The charity bags are going in the car before I start fishing through them *guilty* and then Im off to prepare tonights slow cooker feast- beef kofta bhuna

valk_scot

I've brought the final car boot load of things back from the allotment shed.

Well.

There's a LOT.

Trouble with sheds is that even small ones do hold a great deal. I've been very good about giving away a lot of my unwanted equipment to other plot holders, I gave away my wheelbarrow on the back of a completely random conversation last week with a plot holder I hardly know. Nets, storage trays, barrels, the contents of my compost bins, tools, support hoops etc. They've all gone and folk have been very welcome to them. And I made a point of decluttering my gardening equipment here at the house a few weeks ago too. Still, two sites worth of equipment coming together in one small space? There's a LOT.

I've got four spades for example, not counting the two that live in the back of our two cars. Three garden forks. Seven pairs of secetaurs. A dozen trowels and the same of hand forks. (Folk regularly give me sets of these for Christmas.) Plastic trugs x6. Nets x Too Many. Rakes and hoes and dibbers and loppers...well, I could start a small self-sufficiency commune with what I've got here. The only thing I've got a single of is my sledge hammer and as DS says, that's the only thing that would be useful against zombies....:rotfl:

Anyway today's task is to take a couple of these trugs and fill them up with hand tools and excess garden sundries. And then to take them to DD's school next week, they've got a couple of garden projects running there and DD says there's never enough tools for all the kids to use. But really, how did I collect so much stuff? It's not like you can dig with two spades at once!

blossomhill_2

I am going to be very irreverent and suggest that idris you pull up an Ikea sofa for your in-laws to sit on - we have a new one (mid-range) and it is creaking at the end that petite little DD sits on, after only a month - after she leaves the room it carries on creaking (so alec e, I'm with you on this)

valkscot - I have similar tool collection and am trying to pluck up courage to do the tools to Africa thing - I went to a community harvest the other week and took along my tools and was able to supply the whole team when the organisers' tools didn't turn up (which has reinfirced the illusion that I might neeeeed them!)

jfdi

Nigella Lawson's birthday custard sponge is in the oven!

TY for the idea - even the batter looks lovely - that deep, rich yellow!

So shall I get showered & dressed now & continue housew$&king? (already got 1st of 4 washes on!) or play on here for a bit? Decisions, decisions!

Should really go through the bookcase in here (I'm in 'my' study - LOL - which in anyone else's home would be the Utility room, but needs must!) - if I can work out how to use the scanner I could start de-richarding 50 years of photos!

mollythewestie

Idris - Not Bristol Ikea by any chance? I was supposed to be going there today, but DH has had a better offer - The new James Bond film with a friend:rotfl:, so will be going next week instead.

My next door neighbour (who I mentioned before had a hoarder husband. The extent of the hoading only becoming apparant after his death a few months ago.)
Anyway, their children have been helping clear the house and outbuildings today. They have managed to donate the best part of a transit vans worth of clothes to the local charity and have filled a house-clearance truck today (Think flat-bed truck piled 6 foot high :eek:).
I would never imagine that there was room in a modest sized house for that much junk, and junk it was: random bits of broken wood, plywood sheets, rubber piping, carbdoard boxes, rotting wooden boxes etc.
It was not useful things at all, well not to me anyway - I guess it was to him.

My neighbour is so relieved that it's all going, she has been treating herself to new things including replacing the bedroom carpet that had been bought in 1949!

EDIT: The rubbish-clearance people have had to come back and they are rapidly filling a second truck - I don't know where it was all hidden, their house looked so tidy and pristine from the outside.

Watching the effect this has had on my neighbours family has just made me more determined to sort my hoarding out now, I would hate for my family to be burdened with it.

elona

Feeling quite virtuous for once. After sorting out all the clutter under the sink I went on to another cupboard that had a huge box full of cleaning stuff in it. That is now tidy and sorted out so things can be found and even managed to get a lot of packets of dried onion stored in glass jars and put on shelves.

There is now space in one of the cupboards to store the bargain snow shovel I got from am***n as if we need to dig a path to garage or drive then it is no good if the shovel is in the garage..

Molly

Well done on thinking ahead and the impact for family in future. I am just trying to clear as I go so I can find things and don't get overwhelmed by it all.