Hoarding...not just on TV

katep23

Imataloss, I think you have already had some great advice so nothing more to add but you are amongst people who understand here.

Can anyone tell me how to add a photo which is on Flickr?

Possession

I've been doing some major clearing following the Wardrobe of Doom - have copied all the music we actually want onto a 64 GB iPod and got rid of about 300+ CDs. Realised a few of them haven't been played in almost 20 years. How silly to be keeping them.

katep23

Wow Possession, that's an impressive amount of music! Well done for tackling it.

Byatt

I'm taking time out for a while guys, so don't worry about me, no ending up under loads of stuff...take care of yourselves, until I come back.

Kate, will reply to your Pm...xx

katep23

[QUOTE=GreyQueen;57502467
Today I had a Conversation with my hoarderish side. Because I've had some home improvements done which mean that the bathroom lampshade is now and forever a redundant item (new kind of lightfitting althogether).

But the redundant lampshade is a close kin to the hall lampshade and of the same type as the ones in the other rooms. All were originally bought secondhand for 50p-£1. Any of them could be replaced new with change from a tenner. But my hoarderish side was trying to tell me better keep the ex-bathroom one in case the hall one breaks and then you'll have a spare without going shopping or spending any money.

Non-Hoarder GQ spoke up after a struggle; but I've never broken a lampshade in my life and even if I somehow break the one on the hall ceiling, I can easily get another for pence. And the only place to put the ex-bathroom lampshade is in the shed where it's quite likely to get broken. And once it breaks it'll be no good to anyone and will end up in landfill and I know how cross that'll make me feel as I hate waste.

Lampshade went into the c.s. bag and is now at the c.s.[/QUOTE]

Oh the relief that I am not the only person having this kind of conversation with myself

Worse is that I sometimes accidentally have the discussion out loud and OH thinks I'm quite mad :rotfl: He has been known to ask if I am arguing with myself "again"!

Anyone able to help with the uploading photos? Am feeling up to posting a pic of my "larder of shame".

lostinrates

Kate, the best way is to use photobucket, image shack or tiny pic, (not sure which doesn't require sign up as I use a photobucket account these days) but some let you just free upload a pic, then copy and past the link to here.

katep23

Thanks LIR, thought Flickr might work but it just showed the link and I didn't know if I had done something wrong. Will try that tomorrow.

lostinrates

Well, we are getting there, slowly, very, very slowly. I thought we would have the ground floor done in two days, but we have not even finished one room to perfectionist standard (I could have people in the sitting room again now with no shame though, my desk surface is the only thing that needs sorting). The dining room we didn't even get into really.


Having the space of the new kitchen to move in to has obviously helped, as rooms are not just storage again now (before summer for example, the dining room was 'normal').

Having spaces that are just 'space' is soothing and I cannot wait to create more, but there is so much to sort though.

I am also very very daunted in the knowledge that in the new year we plan to get rid of our spare room and box room to turn into a really decent bathroom. This means....well, clearing the spare room and emptying the box room, and frankly.....with the mess still around us from this business it's making me want to run and hide. I do NOT want to spend all dh's Christmas time off goin through boxes, and so need to get to grips with this stuff quick, quick quick.

As soon as we clear stuff more emerges from parent, or other parent who is moving again and is hoarding by proxy by storing here. It's all just....defeating!

Patchwork_Quilt

Very sad to hear of all posters who are suffering from other people's hoarding. Our family tend to do that. One brother uses my Mum's house as his 9th square, and a friend's barn to store all his bikes. Another has had stuff at Mum's for years and is thinking of moving it only now it's for sale (to his gf's house. Moral dilemma: should I warn her?).

Going back to our childhood: my small bedroom was full of Mum's stuff - a folding bed that was never used, drawers full of linen etc. Apparently, I had a 'messy' room. This fits in with a hoarder blaming the children for the mess.

Have just backslidden quite a long way and ordered a whole set of plates on eb4y to match the ones I was forced to take when we cleared Mum's house out. OH is a little cross. We don't have twin plates now, we have triplets.

And for those who have a cupboard of doom, mine has taken four years to sort out.

However, hugs to JoJo and Byatt, with anyone else that needs a sisterly shoulder.

Am editing this to say that this all sounds a little depressed. I'm not really. It's just a case of two steps forward, one step back.

blossomhill_2

imataloss
- welcome along, you will get there! On reading your post my reaction was to think the mag rack would be easy - but actually haording isn't logical so it seems easy to me because I am someone who hasn't filled it.
If magazines are a particular problem for you (and I know at least one poster on here who can't get rid of them) then another approach would be to just pick a random number and decide to find that number of items that can go out - say 10 - look for 10 items that could go out without much effort, and just get them gone. Just bin, no recycling, washing, reselling, passing on, just bin them. That way you are not getting bogged down in perfection, because its random, you won't be thinking "I must really sort out that particular place properly", you will think "I just have to find 10 unrelated things" and its measurable and achievable

Then you have something to build on

Byatt - we'll miss you, take care of yourself
PQ - no don't warn her, warn HIM - he will put the relationship at risk and its not worth it for "stuff" so he should hire a Yellow Box Store instead