Hoarding - A New Start

lostinrates

A bit of ninth squaring going on right now.

Dh moving boxes of CDs and books and his videos from box room into the study. We will sort later in the year (study is still undecortaed etc so want to do that once the build is signed off, which looks like might be as late as February now. .

I have decided to reclaim a piece of furniture the cats use and paint it for our bedroom. It's inherited by dh and I have never liked it much but dh is happy for me to paint it. If I don't like it then it will at least appeal to shabby chic buyers on eBay, I hope!

FatVonD

I've managed to declutter at home but the one thing I can't throw out is boxes, not plain old brown boxes (though that is a bit of a wrench) but pretty ones. The trouble is that all my boxes are at work (most having been sent in by PRs and then while everyone else is poring over the goodies I like to snaffle the box.) I have 2 lovely Farrow and Ball ones at home, one with takeaway menus in and one with greetings cards but I have a mountain of other boxes under my desk that I either have to throw or bring home and find a use for (on account of my colleague losing her connection to the server as my box mountain had made its way under my desk to hers and knocked out the cable )

In my head I have a lovely occasional table with a display of beautiful boxes all containing something useful but the reality is very different :eek:

whitewing

I was very good buying some posh 'sale' xmas cards, I chose the cards I adored rather than the lovely cards that had a beautiful hoardable box.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

FatVonD wrote: »

I've managed to declutter at home but the one thing I can't throw out is boxes, not plain old brown boxes (though that is a bit of a wrench) but pretty ones. The trouble is that all my boxes are at work (most having been sent in by PRs and then while everyone else is poring over the goodies I like to snaffle the box.) I have 2 lovely Farrow and Ball ones at home, one with takeaway menus in and one with greetings cards but I have a mountain of other boxes under my desk that I either have to throw or bring home and find a use for (on account of my colleague losing her connection to the server as my box mountain had made its way under my desk to hers and knocked out the cable )

In my head I have a lovely occasional table with a display of beautiful boxes all containing something useful but the reality is very different :eek:

How many takeaways do you have in a week? And do you really need the menu each time, or do you tend to order the same three things when you call?

I look up the menu on my phone or laptop if I need to - but usually, I know what I prefer from each place, so really only need the number, although that can often be bypassed by using one of the takeaway websites like Just Eat.

Patchwork_Quilt

Enjoyed reading everyone's posts today - thank you.

Am just sitting and wondering why I keep my teddy. He's been in a wardrobe or box for 40 years. Likewise my Mum's porcelain doll. I'm not necessarily ready to get rid of them but it does make me wonder what they are for. After two children of my own, I think I've grown out of them by now.

Does anyone else have a mental 'that might have to go' list?

In other news, DD is taking the electric blankets up to Uni. Both of them. Hurrah! I did use one on our bed until we got a (free from a friend) memory foam mattress, which keeps us very warm indeed. They were within a week of going in the bin. She is also taking a very nice tin, with instructions to bin it if she can't find an immediate use for it. Don't want to hoard by proxy!

GreyQueen

FatVonD wrote: »

I've managed to declutter at home but the one thing I can't throw out is boxes, not plain old brown boxes (though that is a bit of a wrench) but pretty ones. The trouble is that all my boxes are at work (most having been sent in by PRs and then while everyone else is poring over the goodies I like to snaffle the box.) I have 2 lovely Farrow and Ball ones at home, one with takeaway menus in and one with greetings cards but I have a mountain of other boxes under my desk that I either have to throw or bring home and find a use for (on account of my colleague losing her connection to the server as my box mountain had made its way under my desk to hers and knocked out the cable )

In my head I have a lovely occasional table with a display of beautiful boxes all containing something useful but the reality is very different :eek:

Oh, I can so see that incident in my head..........not laughing at you, hun, just wincing with recognition. Boxes are very very attractive to me, so much so that I was poring over a small empty box in the c.s. yesterday, a very tactile suedette finish and imagining bringing it home to store...........what?

I'm pretty sure that acquiring receptacles and then acquiring contents to justify the receptacles is the wrong order of things. :rotfl:

Cylingyorkie, that is an awesome amount of work in your mother's garage. She's not unique in having moved completely-unnecessary things years before. I guess it would have been a miracle if any of those wines or preserves were edible and good job no one tried it or you could have ended up quite ill.

I wonder if it would be possible to quantify the % of stuff in an average housemove which shouldn't've been moved in the first place? Everyone I know who has moved has ended up discarding stuff after they've moved. In some cases, it was unexpected such as things not quite fitting the new home etc, but in most cases what was being discarded was easily-identifiable carp and kipple.

I feel quite ill about the prospect of paying good money for removers to move my carp.

Today I have been wildly-excitable and binned several jamjars (well, binned into the bottle bank), plus a pair of raggedy jeans for textile recycling, plus some items back to a friend's place. I have the next c.s. bag on the go for consumables like books and any stray carp I find which is identified as unnecessary.

F'rinstance, I had a second set of mini screwdrivers because I thought they'd be handy to tighten the screws on my glasses. Went to do that very thing and found that all 3 of them were too big, so went back to the better mini-set where I know there is the exact correct size screwdriver. Into the c.s. bag with them. I have also replaced one c.s. handbag with another as the style wasn't working for me. I shall clean and re-donate the other bag. Keep the stuff on the move and hope that when the music stops, I won't be left holding a pile of carp.

Plus, I have resisted buying 3 mini tins at one c.s. even though they were only 20p each and resisted some lovely square tea tins at another at only 50p each. One time I wouldn't have been strong enough to admire...and release the emotion.

Keep on keeping on, people, we're THINKING about our stuff, which is the first, hardest step of decluttering. Once we've had our thoughts, the rest is just logistics.

Newly_retired

Any hints as to how to get DH to start decluttering?
I musn't nag, or he will do the opposite of what I suggest.
I am setting a good example.
He has loads of DIY stuff but haven't seen him do any DIY for years apart from the odd little repair.
He has about 3000 books and uses many of them.
He has massive of electronic gadgets and cables, clips etc.... and does use some of them.
The rest is, in my opinion, but not his, just junk.

blossomhill_2

Newly_retired wrote: »

Any hints as to how to get DH to start decluttering?
I musn't nag, or he will do the opposite of what I suggest.
I am setting a good example.
He has loads of DIY stuff but haven't seen him do any DIY for years apart from the odd little repair.
He has about 3000 books and uses many of them.
He has massive of electronic gadgets and cables, clips etc.... and does use some of them.
The rest is, in my opinion, but not his, just junk.

Tough one, as you've got a combi of items being both used and not used
Make him jealous by making eyes at another man who doesn't hoard?:rotfl:
Suggest he goes on a DIY refresher course so he can regain his skills and get back into DIY/make good use of his aspirational clutter?

GreyQueen

There's the photographic trick, which is to take a picture of someone (or some pet) indoors which just happens to co-incidentally show a cluttered area in the background. Sometimes, we edit the clutter out in real vision but it suddenly leaps into view when photographed.

It may sound mental, but it does actually work.

Or you could extend a social invitation to someone he admires and would want the home to look at it's best for, to see if that might motivate. Sometimes pride can kick in.

It's a hard one, that's for sure. Best of luck.

whitewing

My DH isn't a hoarder but does like to tidy away (and therefore keep) stuff that should have just been decided to be thrown. My decluttering made it easier for him to keep things tidy.

I now get cupboards to be reviewed on a semi-regular basis. By the 6th ask of do we need this? he is generally ready to throw out some stuff. He just found a stack of PS2 games. He knew they were valueless (so WHY were they in the bottom of his wardrobe). I did doublecheck on musicmagpie when he wasn't looking.

I found an unopened DVD that will go into a mother's day hamper, along with a very nice bottle of wine (that was from an offer) into a basket that I found, along with some found tissue paper. (I say 'found', I did know I had the tissue paper).

DH's wardrobe review failed miserably though - from an overstuffed collection he got rid of one shirt (and countless empty bags/rubbish from the bottom of it). He has got far more stuff than he can wear. It's a mystery to me why he needs it all.