Hoarding - Springing Ahead

greenbee

Well done Ames! :T:T

Remember, if you're having a wobble you can always come on here and discuss it. You can spend as long as you like justifying keeping things, but there will always be someone who will tell you to just get it out.

Even if you can't get to the CS each day, get the bags out of the house and into the car, ready for your next trip. And don't be picky about the CS you donate to - spread the benefits around . If you have stuff in the car and you spot one you can park outside, hand it over!

You may find in time that you feel you can ask the CS staff whether they can help.

In the meantime, focus on the easy stuff - books and DVDs you don't want, and rubbish (including mouldy clothes) that you can fill the bin up with.

Earlier in this thread (or maybe the last one) people talked about having a '9th square', like those puzzles with 8 tiles and an empty square where you move the tiles round to make a picture. Try to create your 9th square, a space you can use to give yourself room to declutter.

Then focus on getting a safe exit from the building cleared, and move on to be able to create a clear space in which you can relax and get away from the clutter.

GreyQueen

Good going, Ames. And it's such a good idea to try having a bag/ bags pre-loaded in the car. I don't have a car but my version is putting them by the front door. I have a tiny hall, 75cm wide and about 6 steps long, and there are 7 doors opening into it, 8 if you count the door to the flat.

You can bet your last yoghurt carton that stuff which makes it into the hall doesn't get to loiter there for long, it's too much in the blimming way.

Have had supper and washed and dried the dishes. Told myself I'd clean the hob and do my few bits of ironing before having a cuppa and curling up with a book.

Which I have done now. Will let the ironing cool off before putting away and will have my cuppa and then do a last wash-up before bedtime to catch the last bits, there wasn't enough clean water last time and I thought if I did a late night wash-up, I'd catch the last stuff and start tomorrow afresh.

It's amazing how much difference to morale a clean kitchen with all your stuff ready to use can make. I know I have let myself go in the past, in terms of not cooking a proper meal, because I couldn't face the dishwashing necessary first before I could use those pans. And that I snacked and ended up with less energy as a result.

It can be a vicious circle, can't it? Particularly for those of us with chronic illnesses who feel pretty rubbish a lot of the time.

Another little tip, which can really smooth the day, is to have decided what you are going to wear and to have assembled it in one place ready to be donned in a hurry. I'd classify myself as a lark rather than an owl, but I still am not at my most alert in the mornings and one fewer thing to have to think about is a blessing.

Righty, time to put stuff away and put my nice clean kettle on my nice clean hob. Have a good evening folks.

Onward, upwards, outwards - forward!

Ames

I forgot to say, it was soooo good this morning getting up to an obstacle free hallway. I didn't have to think ahead and take everything I'd need for the day with me to the other end of the flat, because I could just go and get things as I needed them instead of clambering over stuff. It's so stupid letting it get like that because it just makes all the pain and fatigue worse.

Ummm the car's as bad as the house. It's my camping stuff storage place. There's just a bit of space on the passenger seat.

One of my goals though is to get out of the flat more, so making a plan to go out every couple of days to the cs helps that too.

I've just got a My Waitrose card (when I find it...) which gives free tea or coffee every day. There's a Waitrose just up the road with a charity shop across the street, and it's closeish to a few streets with about half a dozen cs's.

GQ, I totally agree about washing up and cooking. It hurts my back to stand hunched over, and there's no room for a perching stool (that's the OT's opinion, not an excuse). When I move I'm going to get a dishwasher - there isn't room for one here. I use disposable cutlery and crockery, and eat far too many ready meals because they don't lead to dirty pans. Every so often I'll have a fit of activity, get all the dishes clean, have a couple of good days then it slides back.

I really like the idea of a ninth square - I'll have a look around for the best place.

A really dumb question - what do you use to take stuff to the CS? I'm worried that if I keep using bin bags I'll get confused and take the wrong bag to the shop and the wrong one in the bin! I've got some sturdy bags for life but don't really want to hand them over to the shops, and I don't know if they'd be happy to unpack there and then. See the stupid reasons I can come up with for not doing anything about the clutter?

Kayester, wow! Just, wow.

ginnyknit

Well Im amazed kayster, that room looks beautiful, I bet you feel great now?

Metal swan good to de-lurk and have a success to report.

Whitewing you too are feeling the benefits now.

Ames well done hunny, thats good work and sounds like you are getting your head round things and planning already. So your family are not much help, well you show yourself girl, you are acheiving so much and all on your own. When you are all done and ready to move it will be so much easier and you will have a lovely new home to start fresh with out all those weights on your shoulders. Acknowledging you have a problem and working out why as you have done are major steps.

Another bag to the Cs as I promised myself - well,a bag on wheels full and I didnt buy anything again. 4 shelves on bookshelf done now only one left on that bookcase :j

kayester

ginnyknit wrote: »

Well Im amazed kayster, that room looks beautiful, I bet you feel great now?

Thankyou. And to everyone else too.
I feel fantastic. And the fact the big bags got taken away the same day it was a huge weight off my shoulder. My dd 3rs birthday tomorrow so just preparing for that now

Knit_Witch

Ames wrote: »

A really dumb question - what do you use to take stuff to the CS? I'm worried that if I keep using bin bags I'll get confused and take the wrong bag to the shop and the wrong one in the bin! I've got some sturdy bags for life but don't really want to hand them over to the shops, and I don't know if they'd be happy to unpack there and then. See the stupid reasons I can come up with for not doing anything about the clutter?

Could you get something like the heavy duty garden green bin liners for taking stuff to the CS?

MrsAtobe

Knit_Witch wrote: »

Could you get something like the heavy duty garden green bin liners for taking stuff to the CS?

Or even decent quality kitchen bin liners? Or perhaps buy some white sticky labels and write CS on them, and stick them at the top of the bag near the knot?

Ames

After glancing around I've found a solution to the CS stuff transportation problem. I'm going to use the carrier bags that have run away into the corners where they're either breeding or trying to settle into a happy retirement in the hope I'll forget about them.

I've taken three more half bags (they're thin and I daren't fill them too much) of rubbish to the bin, and a big bit of polystyrene that's been lurking for over a year since I set up my surround sound system, which itself in its box had been in use as a hallway barricade for a year. I'm going to empty the bathroom bin before I take it out just before bed.

I've also sorted through one shelf of dvds. I didn't find as many for the CS as I'd hoped. About ten years ago I went through a phase of buying fake dvds, so obviously those need throwing away, and the rest on the shelf were films that aren't available on netflix. I'm hoping that once I can get to the dvd player I can actualy watch them (even better if the sofa's cleared and I can spread out). Once watched, they'll go. Even so I've got a carrier bag full to donate.

I've also taken some photos of this part of the room, the bit I'm working on first, so that I can post up some 'during' and 'after' pix.

I just need to keep this momentum going now, and not give up after a few days like I usually do.

mcculloch29

Hello Ames, I caught up with your story and was very moved by it.
So many good ideas, thank you for sharing.

Re the DVDs, schedule yourself a 'treat time' to watch one as a reward, before getting rid of it, otherwise they will never be watched and never go as you haven't watched them.

To motivate myself to do stuff that needs doing, I schedule a treat - an hour in the kitchen equals twenty minutes entering competitions online or doing surveys.
Looking forward to seeing your pics, if you feel you want to share them here.

GreyQueen

Wow, great stuff happening all around.

Ames, I use not-special carrier bags to take stuff to the chazzers. I hoard strong poly-bags (so useful!) so understand about the bag-for-life thing. I don't tend to fill them more than half way, either. That way I can manage a bag in hand for the quartermile down to my designated c.s.

If I have heavier things, which isn't common, I use the trolley to hold the bags.

I was laughing at myself yesterday about my Tesco bag for life. First off, have you noticed that what they're giving out as bags-for-life these days (all stores) aren't a patch on the older ones? As in much thinner and less strong. So this caused me to hang on to the older ones because the newer ones wouldn't be nearly as good.

This mean I'm harbouring a Tesco bag-for-life with one broken handle. Because it's stronger than the newer ones. Even though it doesn't effectively function as a bag any more.......this is lunacy.

Now that I'm thinking more clearly, I clearly need to take that with me and trade it in for a new one. It needs to be recycled, rather than lurk on my premises. Heck, it's just Stuff, it doens't have emotions. And what if it did? Wouldn't it be feeling sad and unloved and stir-crazy because it doesn't get to go out any more? :rotfl:

I'd even contemplated repairing the handle - this is crazy.