Hoarding - A New Start

whitewing

What a total sweetheart! He's in the 'forever keeps' pile. He may have to become our mascot.

sjprmc01

Aww, that's lovely, LIR!

I have nothing from childhood that I can think of OH has 2 rangy things a 'golly' and an elephant that is barely recognisable as one. H will not get rid of his swim trunks from when he was about 10 under the excuse that they have his swimming badges on them, despite them also previously having belonged to his older cousin and having his name labelled into them!

Today he moved overflowing wash pile into empty wash basket that until this morning had been full of part of monster ironing pile before I almost emptied it in a frenzy trying to find a black top to wear under my dress for work this morning. So now he has created more dirty clothes . He thinks its ok to empty the basket remove the previously clean ones and add them back to monster pile, err...NO!!! I know he was only trying to help but he has created more washing now. . I think clothes are my big thing I hold a lot of memories in clothing, I think I've said tht before a lot of the kids clothes I've found hard to part with although other than one baby outfit each, one hat and mitts set each and one cute top each (which are all in their baby boxes) I have finally given away/sold/cs all of their baby and too small bits

I may have jut moaned at OH for his 'help' grr! In my defence I have just come out of a 12 hr shift with 2hrs travel time added on top!

blossomhill_2

What a thoughtful man lir! My exes must have swapped my clothes for ever smaller sizes!

Re swimming badges we took a pic of the swimsuits and leotards and kept the badges disposed of the garments - thankfully
DD could probably swim the Channel so will not forget that she learnt to swim anyway as she swims daily

blossomhill_2

Next download from my head ...
Emotional clothes – Keep your wardrobe current and your memories in a special place so you find choosing what to wear far easier. Clothes that evoke particular memories can be kept but should be consigned to a “treasure box” – where you keep mementos of occasions and people. Don’t keep them hanging in the wardrobe or clogging up essential drawerspace, as they will create distraction and probably sadness each time you look for something to wear that is appropriate for your current life, especially if they relate to a time when you were happier, healthier, fitter, in love etc. When you sift through your treasure box, in time you may decide not to keep the whole garment, just a photo of it or a swatch of the material, or decide that you don’t need your wedding dress to remind you of your wedding day
Keep it random – your hoard arrived by random means (bootsale, CS, gifted, found, sales, inherited) so don’t expect to devise the perfect method of disposing of it, use an equally random method. What is important is to devise a more structured way of acquiring things, eg keep to shopping lists, so that once the hoard is reduced you can acquire and dispose in a planned way. If you are stumped where to start in a room, spin a bottle,and start where it points; it’s that random. If you wait to find the perfect starting point, you are unlikely to do so

Don’t rely on designers for your storage“solution” – the word“solution” should ring an alarm bell. No-one else created your problem so they can’t hand you a solution. The perfect storage rarely delivers – and actually time-honoured storage such as a wardrobe and chest of drawers is perfect if you have a reasonable amount of clothes, or don’t store a stock of gifts in yourrobe. The solution is to reduce your belongings; acquiring storage items is just adding to the clutter

Pippin12

Hi all, long time lurker here. I'm a terrible hoarder - food, clothes and toiletries mainly. When I was a child my family was very poor and I oiften went without these things. Lots of painful memories but won't bore anyone. Suffice it to say I know why I do it, but that knowledge doesn't make me stop. Thankyou everyone for posting - it helps just to know I'm not alone.

cyclingyorkie

Goldiegirl wrote: »

Regarding keeping old toys ..... I've got a doll and two monkeys which I have kept since childhood.

David(the doll) was 45 on Christmas Day.

Most children had teddies, but I preferred monkeys. In total, I had three monkeys, Bimbo, Bimbo II and Bimbo III. I don't know what happen to the original Bimbo, but Bimbo II must be 50 years old and is in a very sorry state. BimboIII is slightly younger, but not in much better condition. If asked, I couldn't really explain WHY I keep them, I don't need them but it would be difficult to throw them out.

I've got lots of things I do want to get rid of, so I can leave the difficult questions for another time, but one day I will have to seriously think about David and the Bimbos future.

I was talking about packaging earlier.

I've just remembered I've got boxes that TV's and computers were delivered in, all stored in the loft. We haven't got the Tv's and computers anymore, but the boxes are still up there! That's more stuff for recycling.

I'm loving this thread. It's giving me a chance to think about my belongings, and the analyse my behaviour. It's also interesting to read about everyone else's experiences.

I went to school with a girl who ADORED monkeys!

Re the boxes - my mother's loft produced boxes that could probably have been carbon dated - the box from my 18th birthday present ( a Toshiba music centre) - I'm 50! But the really amazing ones were ones delivered from Kendals and Marshall and Snelgrove! now I can remember visiting Kendals, but not Marshall and Snelgrove - I've just googled the latter to discover that it merged with Debenhams - in 1919!

i can confirm that they made a very good box!

GreyQueen

Hello and welcome Pippin12 and thank you for de-lurking.

I guess the first step to changing anything is recognising you have a problem and the second step is moving towards seeking help. Your Baby Steps have caused you to read a hoarding thread and to acknowledge that you have a problem and that's all good.

Just hang in there and read and think and maybe sneak up on a pile once in a while, without stressing it too much, and wrinkle something out and away. You don't ever get to perfect anyway, life is constantly changing and you need to change with it.

I think of myself as having a decluttering muscle somethere; the more I exercise it, the stronger it gets and the easier to use and the less sore I am about it afterwards.

Weeeel, after recognising myself as the JamJar Problem Lady, I went immediately into the kitchen. The stash of empty jars was down to 2 coffee, two small and one Bonne Maman.

I had a LBM and consoilidated 2 regular jars holding the same stuff in the food cupboard into one of the coffee jars and decided that the jar inventory shall be; 1 coffee, 1 small, 1 medium and the Bonne Maman one. This should satisfy my jar-ish needs for housing fluctuating stuff in the food cupboard. And to think that I was sooo proud of myself last year getting the jars down to just 10 (with lids!)

On the subject of lids, I would urge that a wee rainy day job (get your kids to do it for you perhaps?) is to reconcile the lids and jars and recyc what is lidless immediately.

LiR, your DH is a peach of a man. Such sensitivity. Deffo a keeper.

blossomhill_2

cyclingyorkie wrote: »

Re the boxes - my mother's loft produced boxes that could probably have been carbon dated - the box from my 18th birthday present ( a Toshiba music centre) - I'm 50! But the really amazing ones were ones delivered from Kendals and Marshall and Snelgrove! now I can remember visiting Kendals, but not Marshall and Snelgrove - I've just googled the latter to discover that it merged with Debenhams - in 1919!

i can confirm that they made a very good box!

Marshall & Snellgrove is such a name from my past, I can remember my mum & nan mentioning it, which makes me wonder if they perhaps kept some of the branding going as my mum was born way after 1919. My nan was an outworker for London dept stores so it may have been in connection with her work
The box is an amazing find!
I threw out a Pampers box the other day , now my DD is 30!

cyclingyorkie

my mother has just confirmed that the brand remained after the merger - she got married in 1959! So I'm not quite as excited!

But the boxes were very recognisable - and as they came down out of the loft we kept on commenting - about how they made a very good and recognisable box!

My brother-in-law was amazed that we'd skipped so many boxes - but 25+ years in the garage meant that they were slightly damp...

lostinrates

I just read the box post to dh who was at that moment trying to get me to keep a perfume box from christmas.

I always say the key to our riches lies in cloning dh. He is as you all say, a darliNg. Kind, generous, loving, enthusiastic. He talks art, history, music and culture not sport or video games. He likes beautiful things and tacky tv ( take me out is current favourite).
Downsides, he eats astounding amounts of food and he hoards.