Hoarding - A New Start

whitewing

yes, I think it's the word 'charity' that makes one think that it would be doubly evil to not use them for something.

I have been tidying the living room, and had an impromptu declutter of my notebook. That does make me feel REALLY good.

dktreesea

blossomhill wrote: »

I got quotes for storage units yesterday, to convince myself to speeeeeed up ... hmmm, quite cheap actually ... hum hum ... 1p a week ...

... managed to halve the space some hoarding was taking up today, by visualising moving it into a 15' unit

Storage units can start off cheap, and month by month may always seem cheap, but by the time we had had ours for 4 years, it had cost me well over £2,000. I've reasoned the time we had it as saving us from moving to a bigger house, not to mention cheaper than therapy sessions for saving my sanity and restoring some space. But I am also aware it has added £2,000 to the cost of those items.

The stuff didn't just sit there; it came and went. Well, again, I tell myself this, but truth be told, the front 3rd came and went. When we finally bit the bullet and emptied it , far from finding things I had been needing and looking for for years (what I had expected to happen) instead I came across stuff I didn't know I had.

There was a lawn mower. Among other long forgotten items. It looked nice enough. But we don't have a garden.

Me: Where did this come from? I don't remember this.
OH: An auction. You bid for it.
Me: Why did I bid for a lawnmower? I don't have a garden.
OH: You wanted the stuff that came with it.
Me: Why haven't we sold this?
OH: (Just stared. Implication: how does one sell what one buys then immediately forgets one owns?)

Sometimes I wish this hoard was his instead of mine!!!:mad:

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Evening/Morning all,

On the subject of fridges, coincidentally, I took a picture of mine this evening (it's a long story but basically, I moaned about having Tesco vouchers for stooooopid stuff and got teased about fibbing about what was in the fridge, so I took a photo)




It could do with a pull out and clean when I can be bothered, but nothing is out of date, mouldy or otherwise scary.


Anyone else ready to post a picture of theirs - or is there unnecessary, aspirational foodstuffs in there that will never get eaten, aren't particularly liked, out of date or already gone off? And could you actually fit a week's food in there?

Molly41

We have the same fridge JoJo. I chose mine because Im disabled and for ease of access. However mine is not so healthy as yours x

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Yup. Same reason I chose it, Molly. And isn't it convenient when something spills that you only have the one tray to clean, instead of everything inside it?

Catriona_P

Ooh I like the fridge photo idea! I'll do mine later - not that our fridge is ever really that full. But we do have some items that have been there a while, a bottle of water from last July for example. But the fridge is clean, it had to be completely emptied and cleaned in December due to a blocked vent.

Jojo your healthy food puts me to shame!

I'm still doing the 40 bags in 40 days challenge (day 30 today!) and I've found that the 'need' to do a bag a day has kept me going through periods of laziness. I even started on the built-in wardrobe last night which I've been dreading for ages! I wouldn't say the house is tidier but it will be once I get rid of all the baby clothes I'm sending to a sale next month

I like OCD cleaners - wish one would come to help me out!

I've been thinking about getting a storage unit as I want to put our house on the market in a year or so. That way I can move things out of the way while we try to sell it (there's a storage depot only 5 mins away from us). But I'm afraid of the cost.

SilverBird_2

We also have this type of fridge - wouldn't want to go back to using a static shelf fridge.

sjprmc01

My fridge is rarely full, but mostly it houses cheese, yogurts and sliced meat!

Feeling unnecessarily agitated about the state of the house this morning

Have tidied unit at back of kitchen and compacted some of the stuff on it (not actually got rid of much bar some scrap paper and a pile of worn out kids pens and broken ends of crayons) which has meant that 2 of the (rubbish but blooming expensive) plastic boxes for the shelves could be binned (read chucked in back garden till OH can go to the tip) it has meant that I can put all the plastic containers and dishcloths on the shelves negating the need for silly plastic drawers that were getting in the road so these are now out in the back garden too, and I've bagged up bits that have to go to cash for clothes when all clothes in house have been sorted

I'm on my second washing of the day but due to lack of ability to dry, I will only prob be able to do, max one more wash!

Bar there being ever so slightly more room in the kitchen, nothing looks much different

And why, oh, WHY can't I bring myself to get rid of my plastic bag stash???

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

What can I say - I like fruit & veg a lot.

Doesn't stop me being obese, but I'm not often lured in by the pretty packaging, bogofs (I don't want two for the price of one, I want one at half price) or the things that look good in the trolley that in reality, will never be eaten before they go off.


Just in comparison, when I dared to look in one of the three refrigerators my mother has, they contained vast amounts of bacon, eggs, milk, butter, cheeses, hams, cooked meats, sausages, breaded fish and chicken products. All a minimum of 2 and up to 64 weeks out of date. The vegetables and fruit were scattered about the living room in packets that were turning into brown puddles. The freezers were full of bread that had been there for four years, I can't begin to imagine how old anything was underneath the four year old bread. I know of two chest freezers - there may have been more upstairs.

The top of the fridges were piled high with the packaged goods. Things in decorative jars, different colour lids, brightly coloured packets and plastic containers. The living room had stacks of packets and cans.

Behind a six foot high mountain of stuff, there is a ceiling height larder door. Inside will be food. Tins, packets. Jars, boxes. There could e things from the 1970s in there.

There's flour, sugar, oils, hundreds of unused and stale herbs, flavourings and colourings next to the cooker in another cupboard. The most combustible products right next to the ovens and tabletop oven from QVC. Along with plastic. There's all those storage solutions, all empty.

And then there the various boxes of various teas. All on the one two foot long piece of work top vying for space with the kettle, unused kenwood and the overspill from the draining board/dusty plate jenga display area. She doesn't drink anything but Tetley tea.

Somewhere will be a bunch of boxes of chocolates, tins and packets of biscuits and crisps.


Yes, it's a dysfunctional attitude to food along with everything else. Especially as I can clearly remember being hungry when surrounded by food everywhere. Nowhere near as bad as now, but the larder, fridge and freezer were always full. But I wasn't allowed to eat any of it.


Anyhow, I digress. Point is, she's fixated upon multi buy offers, stocking up with things that won't ever get eaten and things that look pretty in the trolley, rather than stuff she will actually eat. She actually prefers basics sausages, white bread and a handful of biscuits with a cup of tea. She's got gallbladder issues, so isn't supposed to have fatty food, diabetes, so is supposed to lay off the biccies and what she doesn't know about, is non alcoholic fatty liver.


My fridge will be more or less empty at the weekend, other than the things like tomato puree, mustard and things that are at the back behind the lettuce. Stuff won't be going off in there. Because it's things I like and will eat in that time, not a fantasy me who only eats foods that you would find in Nigella's fridge freezers.

lostinrates

I keep most of our fruit in a fruit bowl. Not least because I cannot eat things straight from the fridge.

We have a door compartment for cheese (most in a Tupperware, some wrapped outside the Tupperware, ) and the butter fits in there too. Top shelf is other dairy stuff (yoghurt, is popular here)

Next two shelves are jars. We have lots and lots of jars on the go. It's not aspirational because it gets used (but I have put unofficial limits on how many types of jam etc are open at one time because it was ridiculous ). Lots of these are pickles and stuff too, but also jars of things like olives. Eg, I know ATM I have a tub of green olives, a rub of black olives, and a jar of artichokes, and a jar of peppers.

Next shelf is meat...ATM we have a leg of ham from Italy (seriously, this is a very rare occurrence!) some of this has been sliced and is on a covered plate two different types of smoked fish and.....that's it. The crisper a are veg.

I don't shop weekly. I pick fresh veg up as I need too from a green grocer, as infrequently as possible but tends to be closer to needing to be rated than supermarket stuff. Because I go as infrequently as possible to shops it really can be a squash in there after just shopping, and the jars etc mean its never empty, but it is easily kept on top of.



Now my chest freezer otoh is a disgrace.....