Hoarding - A New Start

cyclingyorkie

I'm in - thanks Jojo!

I should be decluttering my house, but as is often the way of things tomorow i a heading to my mums in stockport to start decluttering her house. She is 84, and has announced that she intends to sell up and move nearer my sister in Oxford. Mum has a large 3 bedroom semi - she is looking at 2 bed retirement flats!

According to my sister my mums garage is 'FULL'- ie you can walk down the middle of it! So a skip is booked and we descend on her tomorrow!

So - well wish me luck - I'll be back on Saturday....

pollys

Last night I lit lots of lovely candles for our New Years Eve get-together including a very expensive one I received for Christmas from my sister. The old me would have kept the expensive candle for a special occasion, what's more special than a get together with close friends?

I'm also the same with special toiletries, perfumes etc but no more will I hoard these for them to lose their fragrance or colour. Everyday should be treated as special and these things should be enjoyed at their best.


The candle will be lit again tonight and we'll enjoy the fragrance and the light.


Pollys

[Deleted User]

I am the age when stuff that I have is more of a sentimental value to me than anyone else,but I am lucky in that my oldest friend is very minimalist and does descend on my house at intervals and helps me get rid of junk.At the moment all the upstairs bedroonms have been decluttered and the sitting room is the next to be sorted in January.Mostly books(but I have got into the habit now of once read they go into a bag to go to the charity shop) This afternoon I have actually being decluttering some craft stuff(I do have around 6 large crates of the stuff built up over a few years) and as my eldest Dd was here having coffee I asked her if her school wanted some craft bits She said yes sort out what you want to donate and I'll take it next week when they go back to school So Thats a job to be done tomorrow and I will definitely make some room in my computer room by doing that.I have already decluttered my huge collection of photo's built up over the years and sent several batches of them off to relevant folk that I know who have been please to get them.
I know at some point I will have to declutter my kitchen cupboards as I have a lot of stiuff in there thats not used anymore,but there is a charity called the Blythswood Trust that are always happy to take excess stuff like that so that too is a job to be done in a few weeks.2013 will be the year I get a bit more room and a bit less junk I think
Happy New year to you all
JackieO xxx

whitewing

Used 3 expensive candles that we've had for 14 years, over Christmas.

71 xmas cards off the wall. 40 gift tags made for next Xmas. (This includes ones I made for a relative; I am doing a xmas hamper for her winter birthday to give her a head start as money is tight for her this year).

The remaining cards will be potentially used for a xmas album, when DH has printed off the xmas photos. This year (For the first time) I will bin the cards if the album isn't made by the end of Jan. If anyone stumbles across this thread later in the month, please do feel free to check up on me!

lostinrates

I love the candle usuage a, I too tend to keep the nicest for 'best" by which time they smell less good or look a bit aged and ropey.

We always buy some smellies for bath with together over christmas. Usually we eek these out into the year (we also buy other stuff through the year, but we consider our annual lush purchase as something different, no idea why.) we do things like break the things in half to save for another bath.

This year we have been using whole things and enjoying them more. (the down side is our bath is too small to share and the bathroom far from luxurious, and hot water has been a big problem this year. . But at least is smells great!

ChopinonaBudget

Thank you all for your answers to my question. I'm completely convinced now that the ex is (was) a hoarder, and combining that with her other mental health problems and her severe emotional abuse over the years, I'm not really surprised anymore that my house ended up in such a state.

GreyQueen

nearlyrich wrote: »

I think many of us ( I am very early 50's) are products of parents, particularly mothers who were brought up in the war and consequently hanging onto stuff was a way of life because you couldn't buy things even if you had money. My mum was a real hoarder and some of the stuff she kept was worthless but might come in handy ( 120 Flora tubs anyone?) The problem is when the junk gets in the way of living a peaceful life, when you can't sit down without moving something, can't make a brew without climbing over washing baskets etc. I have areas that need decluttering and I am on it but I have inherited the tendancy to collect junk although my home is nowhere near as bad as mum's was.

Oh those margarine tubs! Mum's under Dr's orders to use a low cholesterol marg not butter so there's a constant supply of marg tubs going into her 3 person household which is a terrible thing for a hoarder.

But there was a spark of hope this Crimble when I walked her over to the recycling banks at her nearest supermarket to see if they'd take TetraPaks (nope) but they will take marg and ice cream tubs unlike the council recycling collection. Yaay! She hates waste (wartime childhood) but she's on side with recycling.

I've come back to the flat after a week away and before I did anything else I collared the 2 fancy jamjars I'd been dithering about before Xmas and toted them out to the bottle bank. No time to change my mind again. Once I was separated from the problem, I though how absurd it was to waste my precious life fretting about glass containers. Heck, I could have been reading a trashy novel in that time.

Earlier today, Mum was fidgetting about a part of her present from a relative; a large calendar. Because of how her house is, the only realistic place to put a calendar is in the kitchen alongside a doorframe and it needs to be a skinny one. A skinny one is already purchased and hooked under the 2012 one. She didn't need it but it was A Present (and therefore a Sacred Object).

I pointed out she didn't need it, want it, have any place to put it and the giver never comes to her house anyway, so can't call her on it's absence. So, it's with me and will be in the donation bag of stuff I take to the c.s. tomorrow. I imagine it'll sell quickly and raise money for a good cause.

It's a great time to scout around for date-sensitive stuff like excess and unwanted diaries and calendars and to get them out via the c.s. or Freecycle or whatever. They're going off by the day, people.:rotfl:

Patchwork_Quilt

"She didn't need it but it was A Present (and therefore a Sacred Object)."

I do so enjoy your posts, GreyQueen! This is so true.

Have taken down the cards and snipped them up for various purposes today. Was going to save the backs to burn in the stove but no, they are in the bin. Two presents are already waiting to go to the cs (one of which I gave to DH but heigh ho, I can't be right all the time). Odd bendy veg have gone into soup and tonight's meal. It's all small stuff but every little helps.

Happy decluttering, physical and mental, to all in 2013.

ginnyknit

Thoroughly enjoyed emptying the contents of the car boot into the tip - its such a lovely feeling, empowering! Bins all full and out for the dustbin men. Not going to do any more today so I dont fall over all of it over night, I get very angry with myself when things trip me up in the night. I think the Christmas tree may be getting packed up and chucked in the tidy loft as the box keeps sliding across the bedroom and making me jump
OH has 'kippled' (love it!) the dining table so he can do a jigsaw but is actually using the jigsaw roll I bought him so the air isnt blue when the cat disturbs the pieces in the night. Long may the table stay clear :T:T.

have 5 parcels ready to post as soon as I have the funds. Just not quite seeing much clear space yet but I think I may get there by next week.

Hope you are all feeling motivated and looking forward not back xxx

vikki_louise

Thanks for explaining the terms, I hadn't seen richarding before but my dad calls me mr trebus sometimes (does anyone remember him from the program life of grime?)