Hoarding...not just on TV

Byatt

That's a shame Kate, very disappointing for you.

The weather is supposed to be pretty bad this way through Saturday, so take care. xx

blossomhill_2

You made good progress there sjp, wll done

If some of the CDs are yours, can you get rid of them and leave OH hugging his? Personally I detest DVDs for the space they take up, DD has half a wallful and my rebellion is to refuse to keep any that are bought for me, I just watch them once and they go out, as I do with paperbacks

Your realisation that it is not just untidines ... is a breakthrough
I am at the opposite end now, where I am looking at things and realising that actually I probably just need to tidy up, as the bulk of mine (well 65%) is sorted now

Byatt - who is that cutie in your new pic?

If there was one thing I could impress on people going through this, based on my experience YOU HAVEN'T GOT TIME FOR THIS! I have been in the lucky position of going freelance and having a lot of spare time on my hands for this past year, so I have in theory got time for it, but I've had to realise that in some respects I have had to speed up from the sorting every little thing, and do it by category in bulk, as I do not have time for it

You need to think "I made rubbish clothes choice in the 80s so anything 80s in the wardrobe must go" or " Aunty May always buys the kids market tat that is hazardous so I need to ditch all the stuff she has given them before it breaks" or "clothes from Store X never really fit me properly so I need to throw them out and stop shopping there" or " even if I get round to making cards I have enough kit to make 100 cards and only 25 friends so I need to reduce my stock by 3/4s". And do it in bulk

Or you need to double your labour - eg get a friend round to give you frank views on your wardrobe - eek!

lostinrates

Well, yesterday was exhausting.

The builders have put some furniture in our new kitchen, hence opportunity to bish as we refill. We still have no heating on, and for some reason yesterday our electrics kept tripping.....maybe electric heaters too much for the system?

Any way. I have reluctantly parted with some rusty baking tins, including a beautiful madelaine tin of my mothers and the spring form tins that she baked with to make money and keep food on the table, and my charity shop copper pans might be next to go ( I can see copper in the base now, so probably unsafe to cook with.

Trying to find a place for everything is quite difficult, it's now a freestanding kitchen made up of various bits we had/ eBay provided until we get 'the' kitchen in a decade or so.

I thought we would get lots more done than we did, which is always dissapointing.

katep23

Thanks Blossomhill, that really puts it in perspective. Am guilty of doing dribs and drabs (one or two things out of the wardrobe at a time) - it is working but very slow progress and can be demotivating.

Bit of a break-through - have a dress which cost me £80 and have worn twice. Now doesn't fit me and unlikely to in the near future. Was going to put it on eBay as "it's worth a bit of money" and decided yesterday (after getting back from the cs) that actually it isn't worth the bother of eBay, probably won't make much anyway and that I would rather take it to the cs. Now to actually do it!

idristhedragon

Morning all!
I am very proud of myself- I made a cracking start on the bedroom/wardrobe/floor drobe and have a whole bulging bin bag for the CS and a bag of rubbish (out of date lotions and potions, dried up mascara etc) I was pretty damn ruthless in the clothes cull and only saved 3 things for eBay
I culled a long jumper dress thingy that cost me £25 at a vintage type sale. It makes me look fat, red and sort of like a woolly chorizo sausage. However every time I go to chuck it I hear " but it was £25" loudly in my head. However I tried it on yesterday and "but you look like a knob" was louder. It is, however in the ever growing eBay pile but at least it's not taking up drawer room.
I had a bit of a struggle with some cosmetics etc - again "but it was expensive" yes, yes it was, but now it's out of date, crusty and you WON'T USE IT. Keeping it is just adding to those guilty feelings about aspirational spending every time I look at them.
Clothes wise I have also decided to stop trying to lose weight *faints* this has an impact on my wardrobe decluttering and my head in general- hopefully it will stop the incessant "I'll slim into that" (I haven't) or "I'll need that if I put on weight" ( I dont want to) I am going to focus on my exercise and remind myself that I am 36, with 4 kids and still fit into my wedding dress I wore 9 years (and 3 kids) ago so it's not all bad

Today I'm dead busy with ballet run ( thank god footy is cancelled for both boys) and school fair (yawn) and then tomorrow is Christmas day ( yes, really) at my mums as she's going away for 6 weeks over Christmas.
So I've been buying and wrapping all week

Lostinrates- I hope your heating is sorted soon
Blossom hill- getting a friend on board with wardrobe culls is great- I did it last year with two girlfriends sat on my bed and they were RUTHLESS and also went home happy with a bag of cast offs each

alec_eiffel

365days wrote: »

'because it's still really hard for me to have empty space. The need to fill it is immense, and I am having counselling.' Byatt.

This line made me sit up. My empty space is inside me, and I fill it with food (was alcohol; now 3 years sober) Your line made ME realise that hanging onto stuff was a way of filling that emptiness inside. Which of course it doesn't.


SandraHiggs your post made me smile. i grew up in a house which was almost clinical. I suppose that has made me rebel in an opposite direction. Be interesting to hear what all our childhood homes were like.

My childhood home was "normal" no clutter, tidy as a small house with 5 people and a dog can be, clean, no learned behaviour or rebellion for me!

Byatt

I've decluttered 15000 emails. Dating back to 2008 a grotty time for me. I didn't even look through them, but deleted the lot in one go.

lostinrates

I don't think we are 'that' bad, Our house can look normal. But ATM I don't see the end of the mess and the sorting and the 'Richard'

I am shattered. Tomorrow I HAVE to sort throug the clothes on the spare bed, where I dump clean laundry beore sorting it, It's buried ATM. I am feeling panicky about sorting the house now. Not getting rid of stuff. I have been making piles of 'good' stuff for outing. It's just getting through it all.

Wish I knew crafters for my fabric hoard.:(

thriftwizard

Oh my goodness, LiR... you're not anywhere near me, are you? I can use & rehome almost any amount of fabric, after disposing of all the stuff from the shop that wasn't saleable! Literally vanloads, from tiny scraps to rolls of furnishing fabric, has gone off to various destinations including a craft workshop in India. It broke my heart to part with some of it but I was drowning... Although I do still seem to have rather a lot - but it does pass through our hands fairly quickly, with 3 stitchers in the house & a 4th part-time (DS2's girlfriend) to use it up. I just need to watch that more goes out than comes in...

If you really need to move it on & don't want to be bothered with trying to sell it, try Freecycling it. Or see if you have a Scrapstore locally; ours is always happy to receive donations. Or find your local Morsbag "pod" & ask them; even if it's not suitable fabric for "bagging" I'm willing to bet they'll be able to use it one way or another, or know someone who can. Some charity shops accept it & may sell it on directly to people like me who have a market for some fabrics; vintage fabric, in my case. Fabric is easy to rehome once you've made up your mind to part with it - it doesn't need to be a burden to you for very long!

ETA - Byatt, you are an inspiration to me - well done! Heaven only knows how many emails I have backed up... however I do need to go through them as some are "Guild" or business & shouldn't be deleted, but the vast majority are just junk. Luckily it's under a year since we had this computer... time to tackle it before it gets any worse.

lostinrates

Hmm. I might not be too far thrift wizard, it's hard to let some fabrics go, ( that's my hoard, and tbc it's three trunks, not a garage full.

On the plus side found two pieces big enough to make a blind for my utility room from, I just have to decide which to use.