Hoarding...not just on TV

GreyQueen

blossomhill wrote: »

Anyone fancy a game of “Downfall”? 5 questions about your hoarding, just for fun/insight

· Downfall - What is your hoarding downfall? Books, stationery items esp lovely hardcover notebooks. Things which could serve a second duty on my allotment. Ingredients I bought for fancy recipes I CBA to cook, containers of all descriptions.......

· Easy-What don’t you have trouble throwing out? Ermm, I'm pretty good at getting the recycling outta here......

· Eccentric-What part of your hoard would make you sound eccentric to other people? I have 161 bars of Knights Castile soap. Pls don't tell anyone who knows me.

· Trigger-What do you think triggered your hoarding? Bargains! And fear of loss (poverty in my background).

· Help-What helps? Looking at children-of-hoarders websites and imagining I am run over by a bus and someone has to sort through my stuff. I mean, I'd die of embarrassment, right?!

The things you tell strangers on t'interweb, eh? The soap mountain was triggered by the realisation that the cheap stores were shrinking the packet from 6 for £1 (or 99p) to 5 for......so I stocked up. I may have overdone it. I'm probably good for soap until 2021. If the SHTF, I shall be able to scrub up nicely afterwards.............:rotfl:

Apart from the unwrapped bars nestling in the airing cupboard, it all fits neatly into a shopping bag. Honest.

pavlovs_dog

i'm sure i've read somewhere that soap lasts longer if it has had a chance to dry out properly before use. If true then your stash is extra frugal GQ!

blossomhill_2

GreyQueen wrote: »

The things you tell strangers on t'interweb, eh?

LOL - is the eccentricity the having of the soap or the knowing how many bars you have left? Don't worry, you are among friends

Byatt

blossomhill wrote: »

Anyone fancy a game of “Downfall”? 5 questions about your hoarding, just for fun/insight

· Downfall - What is your hoarding downfall?

· Easy-What don’t you have trouble throwing out?

· Eccentric-What part of your hoard would make you sound eccentric to other people?

· Trigger-What do you think triggered your hoarding?

· Help-What helps?

I’ll start;

· Downfall-seed packets, can’t get enough of the things! And ways to store them ...

· Easy-Newspapers/used envelopes

· Eccentric–1) Making greenhouses out of divan bases. 2) I have every payslip going back toage 16

· Trigger-Family trait/ lack of disposable income/money for essentials/loss of relatives/lost free-time while a carer/regrets about loss of UK manufacturing industry (yes really!)

· Help-Seeing a trend in others and not wanting it to escalate so my children have todeal with my clutter when I am gone or incapable

Your turn;

Downfall, baskets, pictures and furniture...:(

Easy, other people's houses including DD's edit, I don't mean throwing out their houses!

Eccentric, I don't think I have a particularly eccentric hoard. edit, just read GQ's and it's stationery in particular post it notes and diaries/calenders.

Trigger, huge losses (family, friends homes from early childhood, so that when I at last thought I was in my forever home and lost that, well, this is the result. Have not got over it and struggle with anger and bitterness...)

Help, this forum and the people on it sharing their stories.

thriftwizard

· Downfall - My downfall is that I make a good part of my living from "vintage" stuff, so it's all too easy to allow too much of it to cross the threshold! And I also sell the things I make, most often with reclaimed materials, so again, it's too easy to allow too much of it in, especially when other people kindly give it to me - by the skipload - all the stuff they've been hoarding, in fact... the third downfall is only having one lifetime to try to do it all in!

· Easy - it's easy to part with the stuff I can sell on profitably! Or the stuff I know is going to be put to good use elsewhere, particularly in places where people are very much less fortunate than ourselves.

· Eccentric - probably the packaging tape - I weave with it! And sheep & alpaca fleece, which I spin - or maybe the spinning wheels? Or possibly the treadle sewing machine; but I love it & use it all the time, in preference to the electric one - it's much more controllable, if not exactly versatile.

· Trigger - many & various; having long ago been a "scholarship" pupil at a prestigious public school where it often seemed that everyone except me was absurdly wealthy (which wasn't really true - it just seemed that way) as well as thin & beautiful can't have helped, but living with more than one person diagnosed as being "somewhere on the autistic spectrum, probably quite far along it" probably magnifies my natural tendency to deplore waste and surround myself with clutter like a shell I can hide away inside somehow...

· Help - "helpers" who don't insist I should just throw ALL of it out, especially when some of it really is worth a fair bit (I've made nearly £700 from it on Ebay in the last couple of months without making much of a dent in it) but let me reach sensible decisions, which I'm perfectly capable of doing if given half a chance! And a bit of space & peace to tackle it; the more people rage & hiss at me (especially when they don't address their own issues) the less I feel motivated to do it. Oddly enough...

PS - have to admit to a gentle laugh at the old atlases & maps; amongst the things that I make to sell (or run workshops to make) are little hand-bound notebooks & other stationery items using old maps & tatty sheet music - they sell really well!

GreyQueen

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

i'm sure i've read somewhere that soap lasts longer if it has had a chance to dry out properly before use. If true then your stash is extra frugal GQ!

It's sooo comforting to be among like-minded souls.:)

blossomhill wrote: »

LOL - is the eccentricity the having of the soap or the knowing how many bars you have left? Don't worry, you are among friends

There are 53 in the airing cupboard and the rest in the shopping bag. I don't obsessively-count them (that would be odd) but I do have the toiletries on an inventory and mark down the total when I take one from the cupboard into the bathroom.

The toiletries inventory is to stop me buying any more until I've used up what I have and it's mostly working. Apart from soap, obviously. We won't discuss the 24 tubes of toothpaste, either, if you don't mind.:o:o:D

ginnyknit

Ok I hold my hands up 'My names Ginny and Im a hoarder'

downfall..craft stuff, free or cheap usually. As an ex Cs manager I bought tons of bits and bobs for my early retiement, Im 52 and the stash should see me out

Easy.. will make things and give them to anyone I think of to cheer them up/thank them or jusr generally treat them nice

Eccentric..25 bottles of baby bath @5p a bottle, actually fills a small cupboard in kitchen.

Trigger, parents went bankrupt when I was 6 and they took even my toys and dolls. Never had any money since we got married despite hard work so I make everything I can.

Help..little grandson needs room to play when he stays here so am thinning out slowly but surely. Just wish I could sell stuff on fleabay but it never works for me :mad:

aliasojo

blossomhill wrote: »

· Downfall - What is your hoarding downfall?

My inability to let go of still useful items (Even if I wont actually use them.)

· Easy-What don’t you have trouble throwing out?

Newspapers.

· Eccentric-What part of your hoard would make you sound eccentric to other people?

Don't think there is anything particularly. I'm a 'normal' hoarder.

· Trigger-What do you think triggered your hoarding?

Genes. I am my Father.

· Help-What helps?

Watching movies and seeing beautiful posh clutter free homes. It always makes me want to just go and throw everything out immediately. Or go to Ikea to buy another box to store it neatly. :rotfl:

..............................

lostinrates

Downfall. Hmm. I dunno. Cookwhere, fabric, linen, dog beds, stuff i like even if its broken, books. Just in case things. Old things. Pretty things.used bottles of perfume. Boxes. Old clothes. I am not very good t id'ing what i hoard i think!

Dh's. Paperwork, cds, plastic toys, stuff of family's, nice pieces of wood. Anything he thinks he can reuse. Musical instruments. Anything to do with flamingos. The broken car. Wires and electronics, old mobiles etc etc. books. Vitamins. Toiletries.Dunno what else, but we have lits of stuff so must be something.

Collectively, anything that might be useful in 'The future'. Dh also likes 'tat' which annoys me, but he has the right to. And CS stuff, he cannot walk past a CS.

Oh..i just remembered feathers. We keep feathers we like, which is odd. Atm i am collecting the downy feathers from peacocks with the vague idea of making something from them.

Easy. Hmm, not much. I thimk i am greedy. Things that will be used are ok, cheap paperbacks, stuff i think is ugly but have been given i have no problem getting rid of.

Eccentric. Dunno. I am slightly odd, so it might be most things.

Trigger. I really don't know. I went to boarding school, and i lived away from parents, but i didn't find either 'tramatic'. A few other things i could use as excises but truthfully, I think its partly laziness and partly greed. Not nice, but true. I did go through a phase of taking a packed suitcase everywhere with a just incase mentality. Dh is trickier. Both sides of his family hoard, and both sides were Jewish families who lost a lot in the war. It doesn't take a genius to make a leap of that in the older generations and i think its become a habit, a way of life.

Help. I don't know. More energy. I rarely get the recyling bin out i. Time so we let that build up t o a car load and take it in. Which is a night mare. I want a beautiful home, i really do.

Valli

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

i'm sure i've read somewhere that soap lasts longer if it has had a chance to dry out properly before use. If true then your stash is extra frugal GQ!

This is true...

I have a slight soap stash because we use liquid soap - or we did (the bars were from gift sets) - right now we are using bar saop - stash reduced by 2 bars so far :rotfl:

My BIL empties hotel rooms of toiletries. He gives them my sister. She gives them me. When no-ones looking I take them to school for summer fairs etc. problem solved.