Hoarding - Springing Ahead

maddiemay

Catriona_P wrote: »

Well I can safely report that I've completed the 40 bags in 40 days challenge :j Not entirely sure it's made a dent in the clutter but it feels good. I have bags and bags of baby clothes to go to a sale next week, so looking forward to clearing space and making money at the same time.

With my relationship with my husband having taken a big turn for the worst, I'm planning on putting our home on the market at the end of the year if not shortly afterwards, which means I now need to start tidying the house properly in preparation for selling. I've been looking at hiring a storage facility for a few months but they're not cheap. I'm a bit worried that having one will encourage me to keep clutter and I don't really have the money anyway. Has anyone used a storage facility before? Is it worth the money?

Well done with the 40 bags, putting house on market is a good incentive to sorting clutter, we moved 16 months ago after 30 years in the same house, although I buy from *bay I don't sell, so the charity shops did very well from us. Most of the stuff was in the loft, garage and spare room, but there was no point in paying to have masses of stuff removed to new house. I am not going back to having all that stuff, it was mainly because of long working hours and illness, fortunately I had no trouble in letting it all go, just kept reviewing, culling, reviewing etc until I just had left what I wanted to have in my new home, and have let go of a lot more ornaments since as I accepted I had enjoyed them, but don't need them anymore.

Think carefully about the storage unit, friends of mine moved a lot of stuff into one to decorate and put house on market, they have not moved yet and have paid out around £2,000 so far.
Perhaps you might just keep on with the bags, not necessarily 1 per day, but set a target for a certain numer each week. I hope that the sale goes well.:)

Life is tough for you atm, but hopefully you and your little one will be able to move forward and you will find that all the possessions are not what really matters to you. Now off to do a few more minutes on the paperwork cupboard of doom:o

pigpen

Nothing to show for my efforts as we are mid-decorating spree but I haven't gone anywhere.. I am filling a CS bag today and will get DS2 to drop it off for me..

I threw out the broken guest bed from DD2's room... I swear she has had it out to jump on it! I am getting her some storage boxes for under her bed.. it should fit 8 under in the size I have in mind so I shall get those today hopefully.

whitewing

A work day today, but I have decluttered the obvious rubbish from the bedside drawers.

pavlovs_dog

NewStartGoneWrong wrote: »

:eek:Ever had that moment when you see the state of your house:eek:

Yes, I can relate to this and we moved in two and a half years ago. I think part of the problem is that the house was a compromise. I wanted a fixy upper, OH wanted to move into something that was done. OH won in theory, although we have since discovered that it is a 'fur coat, no knickers' kind of house.... finish looks lovely from a distance, but when you start looking more closely there are a myriad of things which haven't been done properly.

Looking back, I can now realise that the compromise knocked the wind out of my sails on the DIY and decorating front. We don't have a single lightshade in the house for example, and have yet to put a single picture up on the walls.

We bought a house we could grow into, and the two spare rooms are just dumping grounds for junk we haven't bothered to sort through.

I keep promising myself that I'm going to do a big declutter, a thorough deep clean and then join Flylady to help keep on top of it all, and I keep finding or making excuses and it never quite happens. I did begin decluttering last summer holidays, and took a fair few bags to the local CS. I cannot let the fact that the easy stuff has been done deter me.

I'm a bit flighty when it comes to this kind of thing and find it hard to concentrate on just one project at a time. So I'm throwing my energies this week into the upstairs rooms, which are in a worse state of affairs than the downstairs rooms. I've got a week and a half off from school, so should be able to make good headway. Inspired by Sarah, I should probably take some before and after photos.

sjprmc01

Well, I found the swimsuits by the time we had to leave!

No decluttering today and I'm off to work soon so can't see me getting much/anything done!

I have taken to doing a washing every morning though to help keep on top of it a little (I still have 2 overflowing laundry baskets though!)

As its recycling day today and the recycling box will be emptied, I will get youngest dd to take my stash of empty plastic bottles down to the recycling box in the morning. I'm hoping I can get the paint pod machine to work tomorrow so I can finish at least the first half of eldests room, if it doesn't work then I don't know what I'm going to do

idristhedragon

I had to tell DH off this morning cos kipple has started creeping into (his side of) the bedroom. I did it in such a way that he didnt feel he was being told off but it can't happen again. I am also cleaner- less this week as it's the school holidays ( I gave six kids here 1,3,4,8,9,15) and she could only come if she bought hers (9&10) and I decided it will be easier to do my own cleaning than have 8 kids here!!
I need to make a start on the playroom but I am torn between starting and waiting for Jenny to come back. Husband and I both have week off next week so am hoping it brightens up enough to clear the garden.
I am so cheesed off with eBay BUT I have loads of good sellers to put on (perfume, high end high street jeans, shoes, etc) but I am also a month behind in my college work so need to prioritise non work hours. I did however notice that my feedback is back up to 100% today

Oh and I must confess I bought a Tefal Fresh Express this morning- after nearly losing half my digits making a carrot cake I decided an electric grater was the way forward. I solemnly promise I will fish out another redundant kitchen electrical to justify this.....

lobbyludd

SJ - - edited because I didn't notice you've solved it!

Cat - sorry you're going through this, my keeping hold of stuff ramped up intensly when separating and divorcing, partly because I didn't know if I'd be left with anything, so didn't want to throw anything away. I am now dealing with all of this slowly (including ex refusing to pick up the "stuff" that he fought for, 4 years after we separated).

I'm looking at storage now for ex's things, paid for a limited time, and giving him instructions that if he doesn't retrieve them from the storage unit by the end of that time, I'm disposing of the lot. This is to force an issue and is time-limited, and whatever the outcome, that stuff is gone permanently.

I'd advise thinking very carefully about putting things into storage to get a house ready for sale: this would still require you to go through them, make decisions, box them up properly/wrap for storage and transport them, pay for the storage, only to postpone having to do the same in reverse, It's a lot of effort only to be exactly where you started. Whilst dressing a house for sale is different to living in a well ordered house, both are much, much easier with less stuff.

with 3/4 of a year to go you could slowly and steadily get rid of a lot of clutter and if needed use the money you've not spent on storage on a deep clean or some decorating to spruce the place up.

D&DD

oh my god my house is kaboom :eek:
I do have an excuse as I couldn't actually see the mess til now but really???? are men so incapable????

*rolls up sleeves and opens a new pack of black sacks*

Hope everyone is well,had to have a sabbatical while my eye was sorted but godfathers I dunno even where to start...again!

lobbyludd

Pavlov -

I keep promising myself that I'm going to do a big declutter, a thorough deep clean and then join Flylady to help keep on top of it all, and I keep finding or making excuses and it never quite happens. I did begin decluttering last summer holidays, and took a fair few bags to the local CS. I cannot let the fact that the easy stuff has been done deter me.

can I suggest something? - just join flylady now - that is how I started dealing with all of this. I'm not lazy or greedy, but I was overwhelmed and didn't know where to start.

but I'd suggest to start: don't join the flylady thread here (I've been doing flylady for years, and whilst I am sure that thread obviously works for the people who post on it, even though I'm used to the system, that thread is far too overwhelming for me)

- go to the site, read the how to start instructions, especially the bit that says "you don't need to catch up, just jump in where-ever we are" and start small, keep on level 1 to begin with.

I am able to follow instructions and do 15 mins of the task I am told to do today, and I found that over a surprisingly small length of time it made a big difference to my home.

Once you are ready (and it all goes at your own pace - it's very gentle) - I like the daily tasks that come through - these sometimes involve a declutter, just grabbing 27 things from wherever and getting rid of them: no agonising, no mental effort, just easy things. and they don't all have to be from the same project, which works great for me.

this boosted my self-esteem in a way that I can't describe, and really helped me recapture the lost time I had spent procrastinating because I didn't know how to start, or what to do next.

Catriona_P

Thanks for the kind words Maddie and Lobby , I'm feeling surprisingly calm at the moment, although like you Lobby my urge to hoard goes up massively when I'm stressed or upset (due to past childhood issues involving my Dad throwing away my things whenever he chose). I'm keeping a close eye on that one - trying to focus on the overall end point rather than clutter that will make me feel good short term.

I like the Flylady idea - now that I'm done with the 40 bags challenge I might sign myself up and dip in and out when I can using the email newsletters. Not too much pressure then.

I have a question - does anyone here hoard artwork and writing? About ten years ago I was prolific at both, and do occasionally write when I can. So far I've found it almost impossible to part with any old drawings, drawing materials or writing (ideas or solid pieces). While I don't have a huge amount of stuff, I do have two large boxes for both, and still look at them on occasion, usually when feeling down. Is this something I should be striving to part with, or is this 'acceptable' clutter? Any other writers/artists out there with this problem?