Hoarding...not just on TV

SpikyHedgehog

lostinrates wrote: »

You know this is important i think. It is very important aspect of humanity to help when we can. Its alao important to know our limits and boundaries.

Atm i have had to tell my parents ( in the process of separating) that i cannot get involved in conversations about npone to the other. I don't want to and although i am adult and accepting its still not my ideal to have separated parents. I feel reasonably stressed on their behalf about practicalities, like selling their house and one of them buying another one, storing their stuff etc. plus a good friend is going through a less pleasant separation wich for practical purpose i am helping ( storing a departure stash, babysitting) and being a shoulder to cry on. Plus, althou i am ashamed to admit it the building stuff is worrying me and i had a minor health scare this week...yesterday someopne asked a big favour from me and i had to sa 'i need to think about it' and i will almost certainly have to say 'no'. We have limits to the persnal resource we can give away, even to people we want to help, so if unable to b e a support for a friend, sometimes, sometimes, that happens.

((lostinrates)) My best friend's parents waited till she (the youngest of 3 children) left home to divorce, saying 'We were never really happy'.

I'm very good at telling other people to make sure they say 'No, I can't do that' when they're getting overwhelmed... Just not [STRIKE]so[/STRIKE] at all good at doing it myself! Which relates to the stuff I get buried under...

DS2 got a hamster for his birthday from Errant Husband, & the poor thing came in a tiny cage, leading Muggins 'Ere (apologies to any user on MSE with the name muggins...) to buy a new big enough cage as I think it's cruel to house the animal in substandard housing. I'd posted a picture of the cage I wanted on facebook (that'll teach me too - stay of facebook if you want to get things accomplished!) & my sister in law reminded me that she'd offered me a wired cage for the hamster when I said I needed to get a bigger cage. Sister in law is Errant Husband's sister & gets affronted easily, so I said 'Oh yes that would be lovely' so I didn't upset her, without actually seeing the cage.

& when it came round, it was horrible! Very rusty, not cleaned properly, & not actually secure enough to keep a cuddly toy hamster in let alone a live one, or secure enough to keep the cat from getting the hamster out. But I didn't feel able to say 'Thank you for the kind thought, but I think I'll stick with the one I'd seen online as it's quite a bit bigger.' So I stashed it in the Cupboard of Doom. I gave it to mum & dad in law to give back to her today, but I've still not actually said 'Yeah, I never used that for one of our animals.' I told them the truth about the reason the hamster's in the cage she's in now, one without much she can chew as she's the chewingest hamster ever.

I feel such an idiot typing that out! For 3 months, I've had the horrible cage staring me in the eye & making me feel guilty because I worried more about someone maybe feeling upset that I rejected their rubbish than the good of my household!

Anyway, it's gone now. Also dropped of a bag of stuff to the CS (umm, might have come out with another bag though... More useful than what went in ), & took the library books back & didn't get more out. Got a refund on trousers that didn't fit me but BHS wouldn't take a faulty top back because allegedly their policy is not to accept worn returns unless you've washed them. So it's waiting for me to wash it before putting it back in the bag with receipt on the hall-stand till I next go into town.

Gingernutty

41 pages? :eek:

So. This last couple of weekends, I've ruthlessly gone thorough all my clothes.

I've taken out the clothes I've worn for work but don't actually like wearing, taken out the 'souvenirs' like the T-shirts I wore working at Summer Camps over 10 years ago, taken out the stuff I've bought from CSs on impulse but never worn and all the stuff that I've avoided wearing for whatever reason.

I've taken out all the tat junk jewellery that I've worn routinely but I'm allergic to - my skin's playing up at the moment and adding contact dermatitis to the problem just isn't a smart move. I can always get more.

I've have gone through the kitchen cupboards and drawers too.

There was a load of plasticware that was mainly packaging "that might come in handy" - like the mini tubs of Carte d'Or that "might come in handy for lunch boxes" or the lidded Yeo Valley yoghurt pots that "might come in handy for storing stuff in" - completely ignoring the lidded Tupperware style plastic stuff in the cupboard for precisely that purpose.

I kept one lidless box for the clothes pegs, the rest went in the Recycling.

I found an old smoke alarm given out by the Fire Brigade. As I already had smoke alarms, I had never even opened the box and when I did today, I found that not only could the battery not be replaced, the alarm was making a weird squeaking noise.

The battery is dying and there is a tab to be pulled before the alarm can actually make a sound. If I put my ear to it and listen carefully, it's making a very faint noise.

It's been in the back of a drawer for years with me thinking that at least I had a back up if one of mine broke down - how wrong was I?

I've given away an old M&S cool bag bought and only used once, recycled an old frying pan and pan cover and gave away the mugs and bowls that have sat out of the way on the top shelf of my cupboards and have never used as I already have bowls and mugs.

I've gone through my stash of toiletries and sent my SIL some L'Oreal Youth Code ("some":rotfl:, I mean the whole matching set; eye, serum, day and night creams) for her birthday and brought more to the CS.

And I've still got loads before I need to buy anything again.

I'm going to be a minimalist before you know it......:p

mollythewestie

beanielou wrote: »

molly~what are skinny sprinkles?

http://www.skinnysprinkles.co.uk/
They are a weight loss aide, you add it to water to make a strawberry flavour drink. I've not tried them yet, but I need all the help I can get!

katep23

Hi all,

Hope you are doing well

The double duvet and monitor left the house and found new homes yesterday. Today I have given a bag of books to my friend :j

I have offered our piano on Freecycle but no interest so far - to be fair it needs a lot of work so I can understand why there are no takers but I cannot bear the thought of getting rid, it was made in 1907 and it seems so callous to think about burning / landfill but we are never going to get round to fixing so re-homing seemed to be the option but apparently not

We ordered an ottoman for the end of the bed which turned up yesterday but it is broken so need to contact the supplier to arrange collection / delivery of new one :cool: Was hoping to get it put together (and filled!) this weekend but not now

On the plus side, about to put our sandwich toaster on Freecycle so hopefully that will be off to a new home soon :T

Byatt

Well done all, you are doing so well! :T Ginger, any more sightings of the thing in the bathroom?? :eek:

I've had a rough day as had to go out for job and as we had a month's rain in 24 hours, the flooding was horrendous. Spent an exhausting time driving around and through flooded roads.

Gingernutty

Byatt wrote: »

Ginger, any more sightings of the thing in the bathroom?? :eek:

Another dead mouse in the back bedroom :huh::eek:, but no, no more sightings of the beastie.

Saw your post about the floods, I'm grateful I live on a hill.

katep23

Gingernutty wrote: »

Another dead mouse in the back bedroom :huh::eek:, but no, no more sightings of the beastie.

That reminds me, I was digging up one of the last bags of potatoes from the greenhouse today and was furtling around to find potatoes when I felt something moving in the bag - looked in and there was a mouse running across my hand.

OMG did I scream - OH came running to find out how exactly I had managed to chop off a limb given the noise I generated

Buffythedebtslayer

Have read a great deal of the thread.

I feel like I am on the edge of being overwhelmed by clutter. Been getting worse - interpersed with Fly lady moments. But really getting silly now.

thanks for starting the thread Jojo xxxx

kiss_me_now9

Just listed 7 things on eBay/Amazon and got a definite plan for the massive box of CDs I've been sifting around for the last two weeks Got a few more things to list on ebay tomorrow, hoping to get most of that box by next weekend. Going to have a quick look through another box or two and see if I can find anything else to flog tomorrow morning.

alec_eiffel

Hi all, Some great work going on here, well done everyone! I've been busy for the last couple of days, DH took a bag of stuff to the cs on Friday - lots of sentimental stuff so I'm relieved it's gone. And the small bedroom is now a nice bedroom/dressing room. I nearly did myself a damage putting the carpet back down but it's done now and I have two totally finished and looking as good as I think they can rooms!