Hoarding...not just on TV

lostinrates

blossomhill wrote: »

I am having my 1930s/40s kitchen & dining room decorated in January - do you know what, I may even stop living in the past - and have it done 1950s-style!

Rofl.

What period is your house and stuff mainly?

Fwiw, we are totally eclectic, from brand new to really rather old. We are too scatterbrained to be anything other than eclectic, and while I adore period rooms I think unless we are talking medieval I would find them stifling in style to live in.

415SanFran

Silly question, but what is a Richard??

blossomhill_2

415SanFran wrote: »

Silly question, but what is a Richard??

Glad you ask .. Richard was the reluctant star of a programme about extreme hoarding, who gave rise to a phrase coined by lostinrates, so we call clutter etc "richard" and decluttering "dericharding" - he is held in very high esteem here but is a cautionary tale - the programme is available on the net but gave me sleepless nights as he lived as very claustrophobic life

I saw him in the street after the programme and now kick myself for not asking him how things were going now

lir - I am 1930s/40s but not religious about it, just drawn to that era and it suits the house - found an original sales brochure and whoops, it could have been ours in the 1990s! Have added lots of modern twists but some modern things actually make it feel more authentic than the older stuff does, and have done things like take off the stair panelling (60s) to reveal ballusters from 1930 and replaced 1960s tiling with quite modern ones but in the 1930s layout

lostinrates

Sounds super blossom hill! I love it when people's homes look like individuals, not like pages of a bland magazine or furniture sales ad. I dislike impersonality.

GreyQueen

blossomhill wrote: »

I am having my 1930s/40s kitchen & dining room decorated in January - do you know what, I may even stop living in the past - and have it done 1950s-style!

Steady on, girl, that's a bit fast and modern, isn't it?!

I quite enjoy 50s design myself, used to know a woman in the early 1980s who had a flat and a wardrobe full of the stuff. She was well ahead of the curve, stylistically. It's quite kitsch and fun and I like what they termed "harlequin sets" such as crockery in the same design but each plate/ cup a different colour. If challenged about a mish-mash, say airily that you have a Harlequin Set and see what they make of that.

I'll be back at my homestead in about 24 hours and will set to the decluttering. My principle decluttering project of 2013 is the several stone of fat which has unaccountably attached itself to my person in the last few years. I blame it entirely on a gluttonous love of chocolate and cake but have reached the point where the wobbling bits are annoying me and almost no clothes look good.

I'm not a particularly vain person, heaven knows I was never a looker even in my salad days, but I don't want to wobble any longer. So, starting on New Year's Day, there will be a healthier diet. Bliddy shame weight comes off a lot slower than it goes on, isn't it? :rotfl:

As that will be a very long-term project and far too boring to share, I shall continue grubbling around in the corners for non-lardy physical stuff to declutter.

I have decided that the jamjars lurking on the draining board at home will go to recycling. Yes, they're cute but I want to think of myself as a Minimalist in the Making not a Boarderline Hoarder. I am not ruled by jamjar-lust, I am in control.

Yeah, right.

Trouble is, I watched too much Blue Peter in my formative years and can see the potential in just about anything.

I had a LBM the other week; a lot of the clutter on my premises has always been stuff that other people have given me, by way of decluttering their own homes.

Fair do's, I accepted it with gratitude and even with glee, and was grateful for their generosity, but I'm not as hard-up as I was 30 years ago, I have a well-equipped home, and I don't need to glom onto every cast-off and freebie as if I will never have one of whatever-it-was otherwise.

It's OK to say no, or to offer to rehome it for them at the c.s. where I do my gift-aid donations. I feel as if I could almost dance when I step out of the c.s. having handed over the donation bag. It's physically and emotionally lightening.

Hokay, wishing all you lovely people, posters and lurkers alike, a sooper New Year. May your Piles get ever smaller.*

* Double entendre fully-intended.

Laters, GQ xx

Byatt

My home is a mixture of vintage French, Roccoco, 30's to 50's style with a few 70's pine and a couple of 21st century.

I've been to my DD's for a couple of days, and it was lovely to come home and walk through the door and know it was tidy and homely.

sjprmc01

Ash, bedroom is now in what could almost pass for a 'normal' state.

Patchwork_Quilt

What is 'normal' anyway? DH and I were just wondering if we knew anyone 'normal', including ourselves. But congratulations on the bedroom!

Patchwork_Quilt

Popped back to say that Mum looked rather regretfully at her classic china on my table and said it looked very nice. I'd give it back at once but I know she's got nowhere to put it in the new house and the new husband won't have it anyway. Unfortunately, she was dehoarded by circumstances, rather than by LBM.

Also wondering how soon I can declutter some of our presents. Terrible, when people have been so generous but it will have to happen at some point. I imagine the charity shops are bracing themselves for the influx.

Brighton_belle

blossomhill wrote: »

I am having my 1930s/40s kitchen & dining room decorated in January - do you know what, I may even stop living in the past - and have it done 1950s-style!

Ooh lovely, I'm Well Jel My fave piece of furntiure is my 1940/50's Kitchen larder.

Just popping on to wish all a Happy New Year. We are very lucky to be spending it quietly at home together and we are grateful for such good fortune.
Thanks for all the supporton on this thread over the year and the courageous steps people have taken and shared about, the supurb advice and the breakthroughs shared.

I am definitely definitely beginning to experience the "decluttering and simplifying your life creates space for new opportunites to enter your life" as extraordinarily true. It's exciting.