Hoarding...not just on TV

blossomhill_2

wannabe_sybil wrote: »

it is so much easier to get something out of a house if it is actually going somewhere with a purpose

I can see this, but have tried to turn it round so that its purpose in going is to create me some much needed space

I am the world's worst at trying to reuse things for another purpose, today I stripped down a divan bed base to reuse the frame as a mini greenhouse ! LOL! Because I dont like throwing away the bed base, paying the council to remove it and don't like paying for a mini greenhouse of dubious quality

wannabe_sybil

Cat501 - the book isn't a proper reprint, but it is stuff including the maps and a bit about them, published by the AA. I think I picked it up in a remaindered shop.

Lostinrates - :o:o:o I know all this stuff about kindles, but I don't have one, and OH has the kindle app somewhere on the computer - but I have no idea where. So I haven't road tested it. I just clicked on Amazon, went to the kindles page, looked down the left hand side bar and found 'free book collections'. You would then have to click on the 'buy it now' and then it downloads to a kindle app registered to your account. I am going to try and download the app tomorrow - OH set the comp doing something complicated before he went to bed so I don't want to disturb it.

Cat501

Byatt wrote: »

Well I am on a key meter so don't understand why they need to read it, but the time before, I almost slammed the door shut saying, I have a key meter, I have a key meter, :eek: you don't need to read it. He said, I still need to read it! :eek::o

Having said that, the meter is under the stairs and as I said before, the cupboard is really tidy, phew...but my door opens onto the living room, no hallways to hide behind.

Night, night, fellow hoarders, sleep well.xx

They have to have access once a year or something don't they?

I'm safe till next March:rotfl:

wannabe sybil, thanks for the info

wannabe_sybil

blossomhill - that is something I am really working on, just getting rid of stuff. If I get rid of eg an empty snack pot the minute I have finished, no problem (though I look at the sturdy little pot and wonder) but if I keep them for any length of time it is tougher.

atm I am also working on 'I will do all the recycling/donating/repurposing perfectly - but only when I have cleared the house.' This helps me get a move on and I can just dump stuff rather than trying to work out when I can get rid of stuff.

rozmister

I've been lurking reading this thread for a while so I thought I'd chip in with a few things that I've been thinking!

1) My older sister very wisely said to me in IKEA yesterday: "Don't fool yourself that buying more storage is the solution. The more storage you buy the more things you try to store"

2) A house caught fire near where I live recently and they reported in the news it was really hard to tackle because the resident was a hoarder. The article in the news implored hoarders to consider the risk their hoards pose to emergency services in a crisis.

3) Despite all this great anti-hoarding advice I am on a saving mission for a new bookshelf with doors so my books get less dusty! I have decided I'm not going to buy anything else but work on saving to replace my furniture and storage with better quality products to hold what I have. I've had one clear out already but I'm going to have another when I get back from my holiday. I'm terrified of ending up one of those crazy hoarders; my granny and aunt were and I've definitely got the tendency!!

blossomhill_2

rozmister wrote: »

1) My older sister very wisely said to me in IKEA yesterday: "Don't fool yourself that buying more storage is the solution. The more storage you buy the more things you try to store"

your sis is very right; I read a decluttering book that said that any storage you buy will store one less item than you have

the risk their hoards pose to emergency services in a crisis

Good point, not just the hoarder at risk

I am on a saving mission for a new bookshelf with doors so my books get less dusty!

Billy bookshelves come up on freecycle all the time - can get doors for them

blossomhill_2

wannabe_sybil wrote: »

If I get rid of eg an empty snack pot the minute I have finished, no problem (though I look at the sturdy little pot and wonder) but if I keep them for any length of time it is tougher

Don't wash them up - that's fatal - and if you have more than one, they are a "matching set" !

Thrillho

I had a minor decluttering frenzy after reading this thread. I have hoarding in the blood. My granny hoarded "antiques" to the extent that my grandparents could only sit on table chairs in the kitchen as she had filled every other room with her junk.

I found it especially hard to throw out things like old used up perfume bottles in their packaging that my partner had gave me. Once they were in the bag it felt better.

I think am very attached to my books. Someone mentioned letting people pick a book for themselves from your collection and the thought of someone doing that actually made me feel ill! I have them all piled in the floor in the spare room but I think I really should get a shelf. I've been saying I'll get a shelf for ages.


Another thing I collect is train tickets if I go somewhere for the weekend with my partner. I suppose that I see them all as paper memories. It is silly as I remember all the places we have been anyway and have got photos from most places on my hard drive but I am scared to throw them out in case I forget what date we were in such a place.

Clothes are another issue. I keep some clothes because I feel guilty if I haven't worn something or if it was a present. It's like if I haven't worn something for a while I feel sorry for it so plan to wear it again then never do. I need to be very honest and go through my wardrobe.

Throwing a big bag of junk in the bins felt really, really good!

Softstuff

Thrillho wrote: »

Another thing I collect is train tickets if I go somewhere for the weekend with my partner. I suppose that I see them all as paper memories. It is silly as I remember all the places we have been anyway and have got photos from most places on my hard drive but I am scared to throw them out in case I forget what date we were in such a place.

You could scan them and save the images. I did that with a lot of old photos, the advantage there was that I was also able to restore them and now can flick through them easily. It would be nice for you to create photo collages, with photos from the places and piccies of the ticket using something like picasa.

Another thing we did for reducing "stuff" recently was purchasing some nice large CD wallets, we then transferred all our DVDs, CDs and games to them and got rid of the cases. It's possible to get ones where you can keep the printed covers with them, but we weren't fussed about that. It reduced the amount of space they took up to less than 1/10th.

rozmister

blossomhill wrote: »

your sis is very right; I read a decluttering book that said that any storage you buy will store one less item than you have

Good point, not just the hoarder at risk


Billy bookshelves come up on freecycle all the time - can get doors for them

Annoyingly my sister is always right!

Thanks, I'll keep an eye on freecycle; the problem I have is I have a chimney breast in my bedroom and I want the bookshelf to fit in the gap between the wall and chimney breast which is narrower than the standard Billy bookshelf.

It's not allowed in the rest of the house because it's shared and we have a rule of no personal clutter in the rest of the house. We used to live with a girl who was an actual serious hoarder (floor to ceiling wardrobes that covered a whole wall in the biggest double bedroom filled to the brim with clothes and shoes; most with the tags still on, 3 bookcases in the lounge of DVDs, etc) and after she left we loved all the extra space so banned shared space clutter!