Hoarding...not just on TV

mollythewestie

Well, so much for spending the day decluttering.
DH went out last night and is currently nursing a severe hangover! So crashing about the bedroom going through wardrobes and chests of drawers is out of the question.

I can't really complain, he rarely goes out or drinks normally, he has just had his annual quota in one night :rotfl:.

Hopefully he will leave his cave soon and I can crack on with the bedroom and office.

lostinrates

A recycling box filled with miscellaneous jars, not even pretty ones, OUT. All from what i thought wa s a small cluster by the sink.

wannabe_sybil

Just posted around five kilos of clothes to someone who could use them.

So, can someone explain why I have no compunction in paying out for postage to get rid of clothes for free but won't pay for the bus fare which is less than the postage to get rid of clothes that I get paid for?

I am impressed at all the stories. Lostinrates - you have a beautiful cupboard!

When we moved into this house, nearly twenty years ago, it was empty. Our stuff sat in the corner. One room had one chest of drawers in one corner and a small cardboard box - and it is a massive double bedroom. Now everywhere is crammed. Okay, not quite as crammed as the hoarders on tv, but crammed.

Actually, there is one room as bad as the hoarders on tv, the junk room. I think I will start tackling that next week.

Brighton_belle

wannabe_sybil wrote: »

So, can someone explain why I have no compunction in paying out for postage to get rid of clothes for free but won't pay for the bus fare which is less than the postage to get rid of clothes that I get paid for?
No, but the end result is perhaps the important bit - you got rid, hurrah AND satisfied the inner need to do it the way you did. A good result.


When we moved into this house, nearly twenty years ago, it was empty. Our stuff sat in the corner.
Now everywhere is crammed. Okay, not quite as crammed as the hoarders on tv, but crammed.
This is why it is important to be learning new habbits and strategies to stop the flow of stuff IN, so that however much you get rid of, you are not left still facing the same situation next year/next decade.

.

Somethings (say in good condition, or very good quality clothing that I will never wear again) I find very difficult to let go of: I find it easier if I take those to the local hospice CS,as then I feel I have done something really good, IYSWIM. That also helps with the guilt of 'I should try and ebay that (so it then hangs around for another year and becomes another stressful 'undone job'). Giving it to such a good local cause = my charitable giving for the year, when I can't afford to give actual cash.
Sometimes after walking away from the shop I feel overwhelmed by a panicky feeling. If I can ride that for a few days, then the item is forgotten about and I just feel relief.

I went back once after 10 mins and asked for the item back as I didn't want to cope with the emotional pain I felt as i had other things to del with at the time. They were very kind and handed it back. 6 months on I think I am now ready to give it back to them for good. Will report back on that in the week.

Well done lostinrates!

lostinrates

Re outbuildings, mine are actually connected to my business. But when we bought here (1 year eleven months and two weeks ago) everyone said...what on earth arr you going to do with all those barns. We just blinked at them, the idea of too much storage being alien to us.

The problem is we HAVE filled them. We have twenty years supply of kindling, for example, because i hate the idea of burning free wood, even if its twigs, on a bonfire.

We lived for years before here out of one bedroom and our storage, and before that out of what we could fit in the car when we lived in italy, yet now that stuff, without buying very much at all, has filled our house and a lot of the barn space.

Btw, all that stuff we moved for the builders? Has to be moved again...they need access to the room we have put it in...d'oh!

GreyQueen

lostinrates wrote: »

Btw, all that stuff we moved for the builders? Has to be moved again...they need access to the room we have put it in...d'oh!

Grrr, what a pain in the posterior that must be. Do you have to empty the whole room or just create an access to whatever it is they want in there?

Today has been a strangely-satisfying day. I arrived at my allotment circa 10.30 am with a cunning plan of the gardening I was going to do (machete-ing the long grass and committing slugicide, mainly) and seconds after I got the shed unlocked the heavens opened.

Not the kind of gentle summer rain which you can work thru but a no-holds-barred downpour. I lurked in the shed where there is a small area of clear floor near the door. The rest is solid clutter. You can imagine; peasticks and hoticultural fleece, flowerpots and string, tools and misc and misc and more misc. All of this liberally garnished with cobwebs and dirt which I've tracked in from the plot.

I started decluttering and tidying in a desultory fashion whilst waiting for the rain to stop. Lottie is a mile and half from home and I'd biked up in shirtsleeves. The rain stopped. I stuck my head outside. It started again. There was a run of nearly 4 hours of torrential downpours with no more than 5-10 mins between them. I was stuck in the shed.

You'd be proud of me. I'd told myself I couldn't tidy the shed until I had a day with settled weather, because I need to drag everything out. You know how few and far between those have been this year, hey? But I was rained-off gardening and, if I left the plot, going to be soaked to the skin long before I reached home. So, I decluttered where I stood and really made headway.

I have turfed out several (thing about 8) bags of carp. I have repurposed some things for the recycling. I have moved some stuff around. In fact, I managed to reach the back of the shed (by leaning, there wasn't room for my feet on the floor) and that hasn't been done in a year.

I was overladen with stuff at the end and some stuff needs to be dragged away to recycling/ the tip but I can see where I've been and I feel WONDERFUL.

As I was pawing thru the soup of carp in the shed, I was having internal dialogues about the might be usefulness of the stuff. A lot of it was packaging intended for single use which should have been binned at the time. Or better, not brought home in the first place. I have turfed out 3 huge bags of flowerpots in the past few weeks via Freecycle but there are still loads. I recalled that I accepted them as other people were decluttering. I then started to decline offers of more but the damage was done, I already had far too many. More of them are eyeballed and scheduled for giveaways.

There is still shedloads (sorry, couldn't resist ) to declutter but I feel very happy that I have made inroads into the eyesore. Still haven't found the pair of scissors which I lost in the shed in 2011 and a few other bits and bobs. I also discovered a trowel which I'd not seen for so long that I'd forgotten it existed. Must examine my 3 trowels and give away the least-favourite one.

And I have added 2 cans of tommies to the chili I'm cooking right now so that's the stockpile down to a mere 57.

Keep on posting, ladies, this is such a food-for-thought thread that it is really life-changing. I'm also reading my way thru this blog and my eyes are out on stalks.............

http://hoardingwoes.wordpress.com/

short_bird

OMG the Hoarding Woes blog.
I'm at May 10th and dread what they're going to find next...

oh, be careful on May 7th if you don't like rodents.

blossomhill_2

GreyQueen wrote: »

In fact, I managed to reach the back of the shed (by leaning, there wasn't room for my feet on the floor)

LOVE the leaning bit! That's why I advocate getting on both sides of a clutterheap, otherwise we can kid ourselves - but you know the saying "it's an ill wind...", well that's what that rain was for you today, so, GOOD JOB YOU! and you must feel so great. Well done!

I have decided to only keep 3 sizes of flowerpot, any others I need I can get from the dumpbin at the local garden centre as and when needed. I have been potting up hundreds of lavender today at a community project, needed your hoard!

I'm also reading my way thru this blog and my eyes are out on stalks.............

http://hoardingwoes.wordpress.com/

Wow, good find - can't help thinking that the blogger is a bit sign-obsessed though! LOL! (Psst, what's a dropbox? I might want one)

I had a mixed day - went to collect a tressle table at a freecycler's, to help with decluttering bootsale tomorrow and some other toad had taken it. The kind freecycler is finding me another one though for next week

SmallL

Im a 'hobby hoarder'
Iv had various hobbies (even though im only 20) painting,jewellery,fabric crafts etc
Whenever im out il buy 'bits' for my hobbies with the intention to start again and sell on etsy, to be fair i did sell 2 things on etsy XD
perhaps il start next week....

GreyQueen

:eek: It's unbelievable but look at the pictures of the back garden covered with piles under layers of rotting tarps, the use that linkie to the BBC Hoarders programme 1-2 pages ago and watch that little clip and you can see the same thing in that back garden.

This is another great blog.http://tetanusburger.blogspot.co.uk/

Be warned; as well as witty writing and clutter-from-hell it contains LOTS of CUTE PICTURES OF KITTENS.

ETA they have pix with drop boxes in them. Its Americanese for a skip, I guess, though they have big ones with an end which opens like a double door. There's lots of drop-boxing being done on that site. Works just like a skip anyway- hire company drops them on the road outside your home and collects them when they're full.