Hoarding - A New Start

This_Year

I'm a great one for saying "not enough time to do xyz so won't do it" but I am now trying to do what I can in (time available) as it's a start. Rome wasn't built in a day anyway!

Thanks for all the advice re voluntary work, I'm feeling happier today in myself, I was on such a downer last night which is not me, I'm usually a glass half full person!

Today I'm going to start an online course which will give me a recognised qualification in my line of work, I'm going to find more stuff to ebay and do it, then make a treacle tart as I feel like making something sweet. That's my list for the day so now it's in writing I must do it.

mcculloch29

This_Year wrote: »

I'm a great one for saying "not enough time to do xyz so won't do it" but I am now trying to do what I can in (time available) as it's a start. Rome wasn't built in a day anyway!

Thanks for all the advice re voluntary work, I'm feeling happier today in myself, I was on such a downer last night which is not me, I'm usually a glass half full person!

Today I'm going to start an online course which will give me a recognised qualification in my line of work, I'm going to find more stuff to ebay and do it, then make a treacle tart as I feel like making something sweet. That's my list for the day so now it's in writing I must do it.

YAY!! I'm an e-tutor atm, so happily encourage anyone doing online courses... :j

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Ergh.

Dieting is irritating.

I have no milk. No teabags. No bread.


I am left with green tea, ginger tea, mint tea, water, squash, coffee, hazelnut coffee and a fridge bulging with food that takes a little effort in preparing.


Maybe if I can't do it all easily and perfectly (ie, pick up two slices of bread and slap some filling between them, then have a cuppa tea), maybe I just shouldn't bother eating at all......


.......doesn't work like that, does it? I won't be able to make perfect cheese on toast, but I can still do something. Like an omelette. Or salad. Or quiche. Or pie. Or curry. Or jacket potato.


Point being, just because I can't do one thing, it doesn't mean I can't do something else instead.

So you can't get the entire wardrobe organised. But you could maybe collect and pair up all the shoes, putting them all in one place, where you can see there are seven pairs of knackered black shoes that cannot be repaired (and therefore dispose of them). That means there's less to do next time. And more space in which to do it.

Pitlanepiglet

What a week...no dehoarding done last weekend as we were away. A busy week and I've felt absolutely shattered as if I was coming down with some kind of lurgy.

I couldn't face any clearing up yesterday so pottered about planning to have a good go at some more clearing out today....the OH woke me up at 4.30am writhing around in pain - 6 hours and a trip to A&E later it turns out he's got kidney stones, he's been sent home now with a bag full of drugs and will have to go back in a day or two for a CT scan to see how bad it is.

So now, I'm shattered and still can't face the clearing it plus I've got some cooking to do.

I didn't mean to cause aggravation about the lists earlier in the week, they do freak me out though - having given it some thought, it's not just the feeling that I haven't done enough, I think it's the point JoJo made that for me seeing lists of items gives each item a presence and a life of its own and makes it all seem so huge and overwhelming. Whilst people are just talking about "stuff" generally or the contents of their cupboards or whatever, it doesn't have a huge life of its own!

GreyQueen

Granny28 wrote: »

GreyQueen, I am the same in not starting something unless I think I can finish it. It amazes me sometimes how little time some things take and I have been putting them off because I don't have x amount of time. That goes back to the perfectionism, doesn't it?

That was the LBM I had yesterday- perfectionism.

MrsAtobe wrote: »

GQ, I had the all or nothing conversation with SIL2B today, and her reaction was 'good enough is good enough'. Wise words, when my mum drummed into me (along with other things) that if a things worth doing, it's worth doing perfectly.

HTH

Yup, I had that message, too. Mum will unravel half a garment to rectify a mis-stitch that no one else would ever notice. I was raised to the belief that you had to aim for perfect. The irony is, as she's got older, she's a lot more chilled. And I'm learning to be chilled, too.

VJsMum; I have stopped ironing pillowcases. In fact, I haven't had the iron out for about a fortnight. I tell myself it's lowering a standard (i.e. the ironed pillowcase) which matters very little to me and not a jot to anyone else in the whole wide world. And energy-saving, both mine own and the leccy, is a good think.

The Housework Police haven't come to get me yet.......:rotfl:

Goldiegirl

Piglet Best wishes to your OH, I've heard the kidney stones are very painful, I hope the drugs give him some pain relief. Don't worry about clearing up, take it easy for the rest of the day if you can. Sometimes you have to be kind to yourself.

Blossomhill Regarding selling gold. I raised the thought a couple of weeks ago about selling some gold jewellery that I no longer wear. I was looking at them as 'things' rather than a commodity. As I don't need ready cash at the present time, I've put them a drawer. If a need arises in future where I need cash, I'll investigate how much I might get for them at that point.

I probobly won't ever pick the RIGHT time, when gold is at it's optimum price, but the gold is there for if I need it.

My experience with shares hasn't been too good. I worked for a high street bank for many years. We were given some free shares, encouraged to take our bonus in shares, and there were share save schemes where we could buy shares at reduced price. I thought it was a good idea to invest in my employer, so I ended up with a holding that was worth a five figure sum.

Anyway, the price dipped a bit, but I thought it was a blip, so I held on to the shares, then they fell like a stone and I thought theres no way I'm going to sell at a loss, so I've still got these bloomin' shares from my (ex)employer, now worth a couple of hundred quid. It's still a paper loss as I've never sold up. I hope to live long enough to get back my original investment!

I keep everything in cash now, it seems safer. Fortunately, I don't feel the loss of the share money too badly. We had some other savings, and since then we've both had redundanies where we were able to take early retirement, so we both got lump sums and a pension

VJSmum On another financial note, I rememer the days of the 15.4% mortgage. Even though I worked for a bank, we had to wait for three years to get a staff mortgage, so I still had to pay that massive rate in the early 1980's. Our endowment policies were a mixed bag. The early 1980's one paid out a surplus, and the late 80's ones had a shortfall, but the overall result was a small surplus when it was time to repay our mortgage.

We are currently working part time, me 2 days a week and DH 4 days a week. With our pensions that we currently get, we are saving quite a lot for retirement probably 3 - 4 years time.

Which actually does bring me back to hoarding and decluttering !!

I've worked our another reason why I want to clear the decks of surplus belongings. I really enjoy the eBay experience, and alongside my personal eBaying, I've got a small business eBay account. I'm using the business account to sell on behalf of a friend, but have also bought a few things with the intent to sell on.

After retirement I'd want to expand my eBay business, and I'm want to clear my personal surplus so I can have room for 'stock'.

I don't think this is just an aspirational thing. Out of the things I've so far bought for resale, I've only hung on to one thing, so I'm not going to build up another hoard !

The_Dragon

Thrown out a pair of boots today - I had bought them for my late sister (when I was in a very well paid job!), I hoped to be able to get my calves slim enough to get into them but when I tried them on today I noticed they were perishing AND one of the heels came off when Dr Dragon was helping me take them off! So out they went

mcculloch29

GreyQueen wrote: »

That was the LBM I had yesterday- perfectionism.

Yup, I had that message, too. Mum will unravel half a garment to rectify a mis-stitch that no one else would ever notice. I was raised to the belief that you had to aim for perfect. The irony is, as she's got older, she's a lot more chilled. And I'm learning to be chilled, too.

VJsMum; I have stopped ironing pillowcases. In fact, I haven't had the iron out for about a fortnight. I tell myself it's lowering a standard (i.e. the ironed pillowcase) which matters very little to me and not a jot to anyone else in the whole wide world. And energy-saving, both mine own and the leccy, is a good think.

The Housework Police haven't come to get me yet.......:rotfl:

I don't mind the job of ironing too much as I can listen to music as I do it, but unfortunately my hip objects to long periods of standing. I've never mastered sitting and ironing. So reducing ironing is a Good Thing for me.

Several things help to reduce the ironing .

Hanging items carefully to dry, on a drying rack if you have one, really helps.

Creases often drop out and if you take a proper look at something, it can often go in the wardrobe as it stands. Most synthetics won't crease if carefully handled.

Another is using a steam-generator iron. I got my first one as a freebie from Amazon. They are marvellous.
I once saw on a TV programme that it should take 15 minutes to iron a shirt properly using an ordinary steam iron. :eek:
With the steam generator, I can do a deeply creased cotton blouse in around three-four minutes, this timed by the time it takes to play one song on the radio.:p

Speaking of cotton, I've limited my wear of items that I know are a beggar to iron.

I now never iron pillowcases, sheets, underwear, towels, throws, nightwear or anything that won't be visible when I take my coat/jacket off.

I always wear long vest -style tops under clothing to keep my midriff unexposed - I'm tall, and muffin tops on a 50+ are not a pretty sight.
Making the decision not to iron them has cut down the ironing pile significantly too.

This_Year

GreyQueen wrote: »

VJsMum; I have stopped ironing pillowcases. In fact, I haven't had the iron out for about a fortnight. I tell myself it's lowering a standard (i.e. the ironed pillowcase) which matters very little to me and not a jot to anyone else in the whole wide world. And energy-saving, both mine own and the leccy, is a good think.

The Housework Police haven't come to get me yet.......:rotfl:

The last time I had the iron out was on Christmas Day to iron the tablecloth. We have a steam generator iron (such fun! ) but I don't need to iron much as all tops and trousers get hung up from damp as they come out the washing machine and creases drop out.
Possibly the next time will be on Thursday for the tablecloth again. :rotfl: I've never had an ironing pile, I have always ironed as I need things. I am such an un-necessary housework-phobe!

Piglet, hope your OH recovers soon, that is an incredibly painful thing - hope the drugs kick in soon for him. Take care of yourself too.

Goldiegirl - I've put aside my gold too that I want to sell (ms Rockefeller here, lol) am tossing it over in my mind if I should sell now or not. Part of me wants to, the hoarder in me screams put it away again...

I did the first module of my course, have done 90% of the first assignment and will finish and proof-read it tomorrow before sending it off for marking. I found some more ebayable stuff and it's going on now. I also made the treacle tart and dinner (which I ate all of, even though it was a very small childsize portion ) and I regard that as a good day's work

Especially as it's been a rotten rainy day! My library book which I had been waiting for ages to come back in was a disappointment and I just can't get into it, so that's going back tomorrow. Need to find myself 3 things to achieve tomorrow. Maybe look at the shoes I have never worn but just stacked up in their boxes :eek:

VJsmum

GreyQueen wrote: »

VJsMum; I have stopped ironing pillowcases. In fact, I haven't had the iron out for about a fortnight. I tell myself it's lowering a standard (i.e. the ironed pillowcase) which matters very little to me and not a jot to anyone else in the whole wide world. And energy-saving, both mine own and the leccy, is a good think.

The Housework Police haven't come to get me yet.......:rotfl:

:T

I, on the other hand, have a massive ironing pile some of which must be done tonight. No pillowcases though. With 2 kids and an OH it is inevitable. DS and OH need ironed shirts for school / work. To be fair the whole lot will probably take around an hour.

I have filled my charity bag and sneaked in 3 cuddly toys of the kids <<shhhh don't tell them>> I only hope it gets collected tomorrow as we are forecast snow and ice.