Hoarding - A New Start

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

It's a question of perception.

And one of the problems with hoarding is someone's perception is askew. For example, the hundreds of pairs of scissors and sharp knives, tools, plastic containers, clingfilm, kitchen foil, garden implements, vacuum cleaners, mops, buckets, soap powder, cleaning sprays, soft toys, videos, dvds, cds, books, plastic bags, kitchen gadgets, baking tins, saucepans, frying pans, tinned food, dried food, frozen food, out of date food, refrigerators, freezers, mini ovens, cutlery, crockery, trays, soy sauce bottles, serviettes, paper tablecloths, cards, magazines, letters, boxes, and, yes, jars, in someone with hoarding issues are mistakenly seen as a reasonable amount of things to have, when to anybody else, it is a completely disproportionate quantity and method of storage.

In an essentially clear and ordered home, five jars with a daub of paint on the lids can be a harmless method of storing a few bitty items.

In a hoarded home, 74 jars,
some with lids,
some without because they've been lost under the stuff on one of the surfaces,
where none can be thrown away because one day, they'll be matched up and then painted and be used to justify keeping stuff that won't be used because it's in a jar and looks pretty (and therefore necessitating the purchase of more stuff that won't be in the jar),

isn't necessarily an appropriate response to old food packaging.

whitewing

When I first joined the old thread, I did want to keep some jam jars, to organise the itty bitty bits. But we never use itty bitty bits anyway - even if we have a jar of aa batteries, we'd buy new because we wouldn't know how much juice is in them. Then we get to a point that we chuck out most of the stuff that needs batteries anyway! No torches and few candles here. If we have a power cut it's the glow of a mobile or an early night. Can't remember the last time we had a significant power cut.

rosieben

Delurking to say thank you for all the great posts here. As I’ve been reading through I’m nodding in agreement so hard that my head is about to fall off! So many lbm’s, and things to set me thinking.

I’m on my 3rd major declutter; its more difficult this time as all the obvious things have gone. But in the last week I’ve freecycled/recycled/charity shop-ped:

65+ craft magazines
1 tv
3 VCR’s
45 Video tapes
1 small shelf unit
An office chair
Various Christmas decorations
5 items of clothing that I hated and have never worn!

… and I found 26 jam jars in the kitchen cupboards. I’ve kept 2 fancy coffee jars with plastic seals and the rest have been recycled. Now I knew the jam jars were there but didn’t even consider throwing them out despite the fact that I haven’t made jam/chutney for years. I’m finding that reading posts here make me think about what I’m keeping and why, so thanks for all the truths!

eta I posted this before, either on the old thread or the decluttering thread but will put the link again in case its useful for any newbies Decluttering your Fantasy Self - I'm still working on this one as the drawers stuffed full of craft supplies will testify, but I will get there!

<goes back to lurking>

nightsong

Thanks rosieben, for the link to Decluttering your Fantasy Self. Good stuff!

I've been sorting out more of my massive yarn stash, taking pics for ebay. Today it's been quite painful. (That's slightly ironic since my thumb has been hurting and that's why I'm giving up knitting, though I meant emotionally painful).

I guess my attitude to the wool is Fantasy Self stuff - I have masses of baby wool, even though my youngest is now twenty and there are no grandkids on the horizon. But it was all A Bargain of course, so fitted my image as a thrifty, crafty grandmother-in-waiting I suppose. Then there's all the aran wool for the complex aran knitting I was going to do. Yeah right. And the very fine wool for all the lace knitting I was intending to get around to ...

In reality I mostly knitted socks (and have enough sock yarn to clothe the feet of everyone in the family for about 200 years).

My mother knitted too, though she gave up long ago - in fact, about the age I am now, and probably for the same reason.

Ah well, I may be losing a stash but at least I will regain a) some dosh and b) a shower room

Jo_anne_2

Thanks to Ostrichnomore for reminding me of the Life Laundry series. I found my copy of the book - there is a lot of good advice in there including a questionnaire which helps identify where the main problem areas and blockages are (e.g. for me it's the kitchen, wardrobe, paperwork, etc.) and it showed me that some areas of the house are really not a problem. It seems like this ought to be obvious, but it was a bit of a light bulb moment for me. She also talks about the scarey places like lofts and garages - I can identify with that!

It has helped me make some definite progress today. A car full of old electricals and cardboard have gone to the tip for recycling and 3 bags of stuff to the CS today. :j

This_Year

Brighton_belle wrote: »

Whitewing - you reminded me, in my childhood memory box, I've still got the boxed kit I got for my 8th birthday for make a whole range of wool pompom animals (plastic rings of various sizes rather than cardboard).

I had one of those. My brother stole the wool for his action man's parachute strings and I never even made a pompom!

Jo_anne_2

nightsong wrote: »

What a lot of high-class intellectual discussion there is here! Great stuff. Is there a survey or study linking hoarding with brilliant minds? Only half-joking - I'm often struck with TV programmes like the US hoarding ones at how articlate the hoarders are.

I think you could be right there. There is research linking the genes involved in intelligence with mental illness (such as this article on the Wellcome Trust website http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/2012/News/WTP040894.htm) I'm not sure if hoading is on the same spectrum as mental illness, but I guess it's possible.

This_Year

Barely anything decluttered this week as have felt really unwell, but with the snow forecast for the weekend, I have it in mind to blitz a room. I'm not sure yet whether it will be the lounge or the bedroom. Especially as it's free listing on ebay this weekend, and I will have no inclination to go out!

Re: jam jars. We have boxes in the shed of clean, washed jars with lids. Those with no lid, we freecycled last year. We kept them in the hope of great things coming from the allotment - that didn't happen!

We also have coffee jars which I keep my lentils/split peas etc in in the cupboard as I detest open packs with a laccy band around to keep the contents from spilling. Makes me smile to see the same shape jar for everything.

One day, when I have enough, I will let my OH buy the coffee he actually likes the taste of, rather than the one I want for the jar! :rotfl:

I accused my OH of being a hoarder. I think I am too. While looking for some thicker socks to wear in my boots, I found 8 pairs of bed socks. And 40 pairs of knickers still on the shop hanger, with tags.
Handy if I'm going away for 40 days I suppose, but that's not going to happen, is it? I mean, I have 2 feet and only 1 bum (although after xmas I think it was edging towards the size of 2! )

Time for a glorious good old declutter. Maybe I'll then find some more clothes I like, to avoid wearing the same old, same old every day!

Broomstick

This_Year wrote: »

While looking for some thicker socks to wear in my boots, I found 8 pairs of bed socks. And 40 pairs of knickers still on the shop hanger, with tags.
Handy if I'm going away for 40 days I suppose, but that's not going to happen, is it? I mean, I have 2 feet and only 1 bum

This is so true! I find it really useful to ask myself how many of anything can I actually use. It helped me get the kitchen clutter down to something very sensible. How many mugs can you drink from at once? How many pans can you fit on the stove if every ring is used? etc.

I have no aspirations towards catering for the five thousand so that made it much easier to declutter the surplus in the kitchen. I do have aspirations towards increasingly healthy eating which is why I'm still storing a couple of gadgets that haven't seen the light of day for rather a long while (eg. the juicer) and why it is so hard to think of letting them go.

B x

Goldiegirl

rosieben wrote: »

I’m on my 3rd major declutter; its more difficult this time as all the obvious things have gone.

I've been doing decluttering on a regular basis for the last three years, and even before that, I gave things to charity on a regular basis,

I'm still not completely clutter free, but some of the things left are bigger things like furniture in the loft. I am still decluttering, but it is at a slower pace now. There are not so many quick hits to do, and it takes time to get things down from the loft. Also, I don't want too many things out of the loft all at once as they'd clutter the house up again! So it's slower and steadier for me, but I'm still moving forward.

On the de-cluttering thread I've started listing items de-cluttered. I've a target for 365 for the year which I think is achievable.

Yesterday at work I decluttered my working space. Today was an even quieter day, so I de-cluttered again, and got rid of even more useless files and bits of paper.

Maybe that's a strategy to try at home. Declutter a cupboard for example, and then revisit a day or two later, and you might find even more things that can go.

Broomstick, you've made me think about mugs ..... I have far too many. I only ever entertain on a small scale, so I just don't need so many mugs I have eBayed a few, but there is definate potential for more to go.