Hoarding...not just on TV

calicocat

Hi folks ,
Well I haven't stopped all day have done bedroom and hallway x2 rinse , then x1 again with tiny amount of shampoo in incase it was residue bakins soda amongst other things I have put on carpet ,I still think it seems a bit sticky , but will wait for it to dry to judge n then do it again with just water. After that I give up and it's new.

Whilst in the bedroom I attacked under the bed boxes and alll my drawers.....I am cat-flapping..... 8 x shirts/tops , 4 x trs , 3 cardis , e x hoodies , 3 x dresses , s x skirts . At one point I was very fed -up and going to just put it all back......then I began to think why ? I think with clothes I am hanging onto a younger and thinner me.....there is still loads to ditch but I didn't do it . However I have made a start at least .

LOSTRINATE....your post made me giggle....did you buy any ?

Hope all are well , I've had enough of the cleaning and de-richerding for today and now have a half duck (de-richarded freezer a bit too) in the oven to double roast for chinese duck pancakes and seaweed.

Christ I hope I don't have to do the s***ing carpets again tomorrow , fingers crossed they dry ok or I may become hysterical , I have done more sorting in the last couple of weeks than I have done for the last 6 months.....at least:o.

blossomhill_2

GreyQueen wrote: »

Whilst wasting at least 10 hours of my life over the past few days decluttering ...

I had an imaginary conversation with a friend today;

Friend: I am in your area today, would you like to meet for coffee
Me: Oh no, I am far to busy finding space for the sachets of coffee and sugar I brought home from the hotel I stayed in
Friend: I will be your way again in 6 months time, shall we meet up for coffee then
Me: Oh no, I shall be too busy throwing out the sachets of coffee and sugar I brought home from the hotel, as they will be past their use by date and cluttering up my life

It's a waste of time, people, we need to find something more productive to do! That is 10 hours GQ will never get back!

Green Awareness.

Yup, an almost obsessive feeling about recycling can easily lead to clutter, especially in a home as small as mine

Good point. I was talking to a local man a few years back who said he had to check his car each morning as he was worried it would get vandalised being parked on the street. I said "why don't you put it in the garage?" - his reply "sigh! It is full of yoghurt pots" !

Remember that these pots are designed to be attractive - as a vessel for the contents - resist the urge to keep them forever. If I do save and reuse a plastic container I restrict myself to one reuse only

Don't go overboard and feel I have to run up the road to the recycling banks as soon as I get a bagful at the weekend. I pass the onstreet banks 5 days a week on my way to work. 5 opportunities to recycle. Mustn't become an obsessive

I passed a house with shredded brown net curtains yesterday, the bottom 12 inches look like they have rotted off along with the window frames - but the recycling bin had been put outside so all must be right in the occupants' world - NOT!

lostinrates

calicocat wrote: »

Hi folks ,
Well I haven't stopped all day have done bedroom and hallway x2 rinse , then x1 again with tiny amount of shampoo in incase it was residue bakins soda amongst other things I have put on carpet ,I still think it seems a bit sticky , but will wait for it to dry to judge n then do it again with just water. After that I give up and it's new.

Whilst in the bedroom I attacked under the bed boxes and alll my drawers.....I am cat-flapping..... 8 x shirts/tops , 4 x trs , 3 cardis , e x hoodies , 3 x dresses , s x skirts . At one point I was very fed -up and going to just put it all back......then I began to think why ? I think with clothes I am hanging onto a younger and thinner me.....there is still loads to ditch but I didn't do it . However I have made a start at least .

LOSTRINATE....your post made me giggle....did you buy any ?

Hope all are well , I've had enough of the cleaning and de-richerding for today and now have a half duck (de-richarded freezer a bit too) in the oven to double roast for chinese duck pancakes and seaweed.

Christ I hope I don't have to do the s***ing carpets again tomorrow , fingers crossed they dry ok or I may become hysterical , I have done more sorting in the last couple of weeks than I have done for the last 6 months.....at least:o.

Nope, be ause cannot get there intil at least next week, more like.y week after.

I have been properly dericharding instead. Recylcling bins full and a bin bag full of richard.

Including .....my calandars, often unused but bought or sent from countries which make up my patchwork genetics. Do i really need old calandars to know where i am from? I think not.

RAS

Thrift

I recognise that.

Mum's family were better off than most given the slum poor background of her parents because they lived in India and the army paid for schooling etc. Then they came home. Evacuated with a few clothes, bombed and looted so they had very little left of their previous lives, on a day to day basis or in terms of their assets.

Roll on 25 years and she opens the door to the bailiffs. She knew nothing about the mess.

We had to leave our home and our belonging were put in store. I will not go into details but the roof over our heads disappeared almost overnight three times in a year. Most of the bigger possessions were sold to pay bills and the smaller stuff (toys, photos etc) ended up abandoned in warehouses and barns. We ended up with relatives and slowly mum pieced our lives together again.

Like you, there was not enough money. Single parents were very much discriminated against and there was no state help for those who worked, even if they earned less than they would claiming dole. I learned to eat seconds and thirds at school to get the calories in so that I could stop mum giving her portion to the kids at night. Feeding her was a priority if we were to survive.

Everything I wore was handmedowns from cousins and I was extremely grateful for them.

The string tin had a real function in our lives and some of our clothes were literally extracted from the rag bag of more "affluent" days and made do and mend.

There are two side to hoarding - acquisition and retention. I am pretty good with the first, although I struggle with skips. I find it hard to get rid though.

lir - I just binned the calendars last week.

Brighton_belle

Thriftwizard - great insights. It is wonderful how we need just a little insight to start making changes. Change is possible.

Calicocat, hope you [EMAIL="DON@T"]DON'T[/EMAIL] have to do the carpets again! But well done on your progress.

Tomorrow I want to finsh off the dining room, that was half done last weekend. This means co opting asistance of DH as it is half his stuff. Some can go in the attic,but some I would like to see leave the house. And then I have 2 boxes of cs stuff of mine that needs to go.
Then we will have 20ft of spare shelving for books currently on sitting room floor to be rehomed there.:j
Then I want to hoover bedroom floor and then scrubb it (floor boards)

I feel a routle round the attic for stuff to cs coming on...

VJsmum

GOsh, everyone, you are all doing so well

my thing to work on today is mugs. I have a cupboard overflowing with the things. My DD keeps buying or asking for mugs for birthdays etc and OH won't throw anything out even if it has a chip in it. The other day I dericharded a mug that had my DDs name on it but was chipped to death and unusable. I know my DDs name and she doesn't even like it in it's full version as painted on the mug. it has gone.

Todays challenge is to deRichard a mug from San Francisco bought by my SIL. It, too, is chipped. I have just used it for the last time and it will be gone.

OH has a Simpsons fathers day mug also chipped. THat is going next - I hope he doesn't notice as there will be hell to pay! I can't even buy nice mugs anymore as we have so many that seem to mean something to him (I have about 2 that mean something to me - and one of those only means something as it is huuuge, but when they get chipped, they go). It always seems to be the nice ones that get broken.

I also have about 5 plastic cups with straws that the kids bought from Disneyland or Alton TOwers or suchlike that seem really useful, but in reality we don't use them. One Spongebob one from Universal in Los Angeles is Mahoosive and probably full of all sorts of nasties in its corners - so why don't I chuck it? Just seems so wasteful.

Anyway I am soldiering on...

GreyQueen

blossomhill wrote: »

It's a waste of time, people, we need to find something more productive to do! That is 10 hours GQ will never get back!

Too blinking right I won't get it back. However, in a peverse masochistic way, it was almost enjoyable. To see those empty vistas opening up; hello, floor, haven't seen you in a while, matey.

:)Although time de-richarding (and how I love that term) is time which could have been spent on other, more interesting things, it has proved a turning point. The idiot-level thinking required to sort the carp, plus the thoughtfulness of the posts on this thread, and the blogs on the web in general, have proved ample opportunity to meditate on my habits and eccentricities in general and consumerism in particular. That meditation, as it will change my behaviours, is time well-spent.

A few days ago, one of the objects recovered from the bowels of the shed was a flattened and manky cardboard box. I considered it a bit too grotty for recycling so tore it roughly into chunks and added it to the compost Dalek (conveniently-situated right beside the shed). This and various other additions of household waste and soft weeds had brought the level almost to the lid. I had a nagging anxiety about the Dalek being full as I only have the one bin.

Two days later, I took the lid off, and found that the level had dropped about 3 inches. Ditto the next day, and the next. How wonderful is the decay of organic materials, shrinking away within days and becoming compost in a year. Reducing the piles by the hour, all without human intervention.

Compare and contrast this with the unsightly piles of non-degradable carp which we humans produce.............

This morning I re-read (a couple of times) the card from the friend who had received the photographs. I thought about what to do with it. A lovely heart-warmer but nothing I needed to keep. Normally, I would have had to put it somewhere (in a pile of other papers somewhere in the way) to season for a while, a few months, a year or so, then re-discover it and then throw it away. This time, I decided to short-circuit the process.

I read it one more time. I won't forget the context and I put it through the shredder. One small step for womankind.

Brighton_belle

VJsmum wrote: »

Mugs: It always seems to be the nice ones that get broken.

But is that because the favourite ones get used more...therefore a greater risk to damage through greater use?

My DH points out that I am more clumsy than him on the basis that I break far more glasses and crockery in the kitchen than him. I point out that this is because I do 80% more than him in the kitchen and twice as fast,so it is the law of averages:D.

PixieDust

pssst...what's "de-richarding"?

lostinrates

Yep re favourite mugs. I am actually quite good about mugs, its dh who finds them hard. I keep not pristne ones for us to use in the garden, on the yard or for workmen in similarly accident prone situations, and after the 'incident of the kathkidstin mugs on a tray' now realise i don't care to care that much about mugs. Tesco, who i gate supporting but just have to admit i do, do the occasional gem of a mug. Last years were eight graphic floral prints, very retro, this year the ones we have to abuse have foot guards of the household division on them...for jubillee year i guess. They can get broken, abused and whatever.