Hoarding - A New Start

blossomhill_2

A rare and strange thing happened in my house this morning; I wanted to get the curtain to hang a bit straighter so I slid the sofa forward about 1.5m and walked behind it to reach the curtain

If you don't know why this is strange, then you have never been a hoarder!

whitewing

I love reading the posts. Good afternoon to you all (actually, I haven't had lunch yet so I shall bend time and say Good Morning as that will give the day extra promise).

I'm feeling a bit physically bleurgh. So I am going to do a tidy up of the house, and see if that makes me feel better.

If I put some effort in this weekend, I could get rid of my filing cabinet and move and reorganise another cupboard and have our living space look even better. DS would probably help me. It would give us both a big sense of achievement. But it could easily turn into a half-complete nightmare. I think I had better tidy up, then I will feel that I have space to do it. Then I could probably arrange it so that I could do it in stages. It's all stuff I need on a fairly regular basis so it the contents have to be accessible but also out of reach of DD. Normally, I would be able to visualise the steps to complete the task and stick with it until it's done and know that I could complete it in the weekend. I can't seem to think that way at the moment.

Right, off to housework. Tremble in fear, dust on books.

This_Year

Whenever I've dusted books, I've ended up curled up reading one that caught my eye and I had forgotten about

lostinrates

Later I have to de Richard the car...I have had to leave it in a carpark near where it broke down. (lip wobble). Think it's dead and not sure what we will do if it is.

Meanwhile, I think next week I am going to start decorating the cupboard I am going to put in the bathroom and if I don't like it by the time it's decorated it can go on eBay.

cyclingyorkie

Mistral001 wrote: »

Naughty, naughty, nuaghty Are they yours to give away?

Oh true! But I am trying to make space in our home where we are so cluttered we can barely breathe!

He finished 3 years of post grad work but hated it - he never wrote up his PhD and we moved to York when he finished - a job with no link to his degree. We movd here in 1988 - he hasn't looked at them since. His degree and 6th form notes were skipped 10 years ago - they'd gone damp in the loft.

It's not as though he hasn't bought a book since! Vast tomes on Physics and space now fill our shelves....

I belong to a book group - I operate on a 1 in and 1 out policy!

There are 5 of us in a 3 bedroomed semi which DH refuses to extend! He has thousands of CDs too. He moans about the clutter but feels he isn't responsible because his stuff is shelved or boxed. But the amount of his stuff is the reason why the rest of us have stuff that isn't homed.....

tibawo

Hi all not been on for a few days.

Just built a house, a Lego one! I can now throw the huge box in the bin creating space and put it in it's new place. A play corner I created when I cleared clutter from a room. This is for DD2 whose bedroom fits a bed and wardrobe in so not a new place to hoard things as she keeps playing in her sis room and driving her mad.

eBay bits collected. So more space still. Will list non sellers and other bits today as free listing.

Off now to general tidy and finish declutter my room from holidays.

The worst bit is when tidying out the fridge I noted that my family have inadvertently opened three bottles of wine and I will have to declutter some of that to fit the milk in!

whitewing

cycling yorkie, I'm the one with hoarderish tendencies, but still find the most effective way of decluttering husband's stuff is to get him involved with decluttering ours. He gets used to the decision making process that way. Continual nagging never works with DH. What can work is to have a tasklist

eg living room
review bookcases (whitewing)
sort behind chairs (whitewing)
declutter coffee table (whitewing)
review shelf (DH/whitewing)

If I wrote chuck out stuff on shelf, he would feel hassled, even in a review things may not go but then at some point he will get rid by himself.

The list works because he actually sees that we are doing our bit too. Also once the process gets going, the space gained is seductive. We don't have a magazine rack anymore. We used to get Sunday papers and keep them until Wed in some twisted get our money's worth. They only got read on Sunday. Now as soon as we get home from buying it the sections we don't read go straight for recycling (even straight to recycling centre if we're organised enough to combine trips, which now we do tend to be). Then we read what we want, maybe clip out an occasional article, then that goes for recycling too. I would cancel the paper completely and read online but DH doesn't want to. But he does want a tablet, hmm...........

This_Year

tibawo wrote: »

The worst bit is when tidying out the fridge I noted that my family have inadvertently opened three bottles of wine and I will have to declutter some of that to fit the milk in!

That can be a devil of a job, need another pair of hands with that?

Remember my archway to the dining room? It's virtually cleared now I was going to hoover the room first but decided the decluttery process would create dust so am going to hoover once I've got rid of the last bits. Really feel chuffed I've made a tidy corner!

eandjsmum

cyclingyorkie wrote: »

DH refuses to get rid of his text books from Uni - he is 48 and doesn't use them in his career. I have slipped one or two into charity bags but he refuses to get rid of the rest! They are in a drawerunder our bed.:mad::mad::mad:

DD1 is a book hoarder but has seen the light. As woman of very little income (£20 a week DLA - she has ME) she has been saving loose change for the last year. She counted it a week ago and has enough to buy a kindle! This is because she realises she has no more space for books!

Hooray - a convert to my way of thinking...

Mine were boxed up an dumped in the middle of my living room, (by my parents):rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Two bags decamped to the charity shop thias AM.
Went shopping this AM and cameback with only what was on the shopping list.
Have spent the rest of the time tidying up and baking . Hope to take up a pair of OH trousers this PM as can now move workbox without dumping everything else on the floor

Goldiegirl

JayneC wrote: »

Even threw out the baby wristbands from when they were born...
.

I really enjoy this thread, it gives me so many ideas to consider what is required at what is not.

I don't have any children, but I do have my own wristbands from when I was born.

My mum kept them, and now I keep them in the 'parents boxes'. Until I read Jayne's posting, I never even considered the possibility of throwing them out. They were just there, and would always be there.

I have no recollection of wearing these wristbands, it's just a memory of someone elses memory.

When the 'parent boxes' come down from the loft again the wristbands will be up for consideration.

I grinned when I read about cyclingyorkie's DH's text books. Its only in the last year that my DH has got rid of his college text books. They had no real value, I think the world of reinforced concrete has moved on since the late 1960's !

Although I have a feeling they didn't all go.... another area to revisit.

Ebay has been quite productive this week, so there'll be more stuff out the door on Monday.