Hoarding - Springing Ahead

Broomstick

Ames wrote: »

I really like the M&S bags for life - they're 89p and they're the big solid square type, they hold loads and they're prettier than from other supermarkets - they've got vintage food on them. If only I could remember to actually take them out with me....

Me too, me too! I love the M&S ones. And I've found a solution to remember to have them with me. All my MrS and M&S bags for life are folded in half and fitted into one smaller bag and they live flat in the boot of the car. They are all ready there to use when I do a bulk shop with the car and if I walk to the shops I pass the car on my way and can collect one from the boot then. It works and I never forget the bags any more.

B x

Patchwork_Quilt

Broomstick, that's what I do!

Had a couple of friends round yesterday decluttering cake (I took the rest to work so it wasn't available when I got home). To my amazement, they started looking at the 0xfam mountain and poking about for useful objects. Nooo! Fortunately, my most cluttery friend restrained herself and they both left unencumbered.

However, we did use the tea set I can't bear or throw away and it seems to have had a stay of execution ...

So nothing to report here yet. I can see it's going to be a lean week.

greenbee

Patchwork_Quilt wrote: »

However, we did use the tea set I can't bear or throw away and it seems to have had a stay of execution ...

The point is, you used it. So you've realised that if you can't throw it out you need to give it a purpose. There's nothing wrong with having stuff if you use it!

Have more tea parties

johanne

Today I threw out 2 HUGE cardboard boxes, one was really tough it was from my valentines flowers last year off my OH who was away with the Navy and DD had decorated it and created it into some kind of "machine" thing when she was learning to write so some of her earliest writing on it and she would be devastated if she knew id binned it..... BUT.... id hidden it since before xmas in a cupboard and she hadn't noticed or asked about it.. so its gone... (kept telling myself it was JUST a box with scribbles, glitter & feathers stuck on)

I also binned some bits out of a cabinet in living room, tidied it up and removed some VHS id forgot I even had.. this freed up LOTS of space.... so I went up to DDs room and brought down all her VHS tapes (we still have 2 players & use them) and put hers in the cabinet.. this freed up 2 under bed storage boxes from her room which were stacked up. it also meant I could move her boxes about with her toys in making the space under her bed bigger - this is important as she has one the beds with a "den" under.. her toy boxes were "stealing" some the space but now it doesn't so shes VERY happy!

I then took the 2 under bed boxes and went into our bedroom and sorted all the bedding & towels that's been in 2 ikea bags blocking the wardrobe for days weeks into the storage boxes and popped them away.. had lots of baby bedding with nowhere to fit it so opened the other box on top of our wardrobe which I knew had baby stuff in and realised most of the box was moses basket bedding - so I removed that and put it in the "spare" aka junk room IN the moses basket IN the box which is waiting to go up in the loft when OH can be bothered or be sold/gifted away... this is gonna be a hard decision as where it goes basically denotes our stance on more children or not .. if it goes that's us saying No more.. if it stays its a "not ruling it out" despite medical advice not to have more due to my kidney disease.

Anyway this meant I could put the current bedding away but I realised we have 4 cellular blankets - 2 white & 2 blue .... and then I remembered the 2 pink ones I found other day left from when DD was a baby. We also have 3 fleece blankets in blue/neutral in the box...... and then theres the 3 pink ones from when DD was a baby that I also found other day ..... think I need to cull all these when I'm feeling stronger over the whole no more babies things


I had to pop to mums so decluttered an unwanted pressure cooker to her & 3 milk bottles for her to return to her milkman & thius made me remember that I had bought her a present of pretty mugs last year and hadn't passed it to her so have just dug that out tonight and its going to hers tomorrow.. which in turn means I can throw out another cardboard box as that's all that was in it!! wooo! lol


There was a moment the other day I felt really sick and realised I NEED to get a grip and get over this hoarding.... it was as I passed my DD the last apricot out the plastic punnet and went to go pop it in the bin and DD went "OOOO ooo mummy can I have that??" and so without thinking I said "yes why? what for " as I handed it to her... for her to reply "I don't know. But it looks REALLY useful and i'll find something to go in it one day".....:eek::eek: I'm horrified shes got the "oooo pretty/useful packaging" bug already at 5! (the punnet is now a cot for a teddy)

lobbyludd

dismantled ds's old wardrobe so it's ready for the tip - didn't get round to it at the weekend, and have dropped off a bag of clothes to cs that have been sat in the boot of the car since ?whenever I posted I'd put it in there!

great going everyone

whitewing

johanne,

What works for me is not to hinge future life decisions on 'stuff'. I know allow myself to believe that I am a resourceful person and will be able to acquire more things as and when I need them. Yes, it may mean giving away a moses basket and blankets to someone who can enjoy using them in the near future, but if and when you need them again, you will be able to acquire some more. You won't have the ones that your lo used, but you will be able to take DD shopping for the next one or make up welcome banners or do something else that links the siblings. It also means that the baby stuff doesn't become a huge no-mention zone between you and your fella, while you grapple with hard decisions. Knowing my husband, I think he would find it extremely difficult to think about another baby if it threatened my life, but he would also acknowledge that for him a baby isn't real until it is visible in the same room as him.

Regarding dd's 'artwork' and bits to play with. What is currently working well with my DD is to give her the box or plastic container, but as you give it to her say, 'You can play with this for a bit, but then we will put it in recycling because we have to make way new things to come into our lives.' She knows that if she puts old stickers on printer paper, it will get gathered up at some point. But she also knows that a home made birthday card will be kept longer, and toys will be kept until they are grown out of or broken, and extra special ones will be kept.

(I just remembered that I recently threw out my old childhood teddy. It didn't even look like a teddy, and for the last 5 years was stuffed in a ply bag in DS's wardrobe. See, I didn't even remember chucking it).

Yesterday, I put an umbrella in for recycling. A screw had come out and the frame was bent. I did feel pangs about it as it matches DD's pushchair. (Same pattern, but not actually designed with the pushchair!) But actually, the pushchair could probably go anyway. I sort of think we may need it over the summer but realistically we won't.

Broomstick

Another thought about getting rid of children's artwork... Before binning them, photograph or scan the best few pieces, keep them in an artwork file on your computer and use them to ring the changes for your desktop background.

It would work for all kinds of things that needed to go (it was the valentine's bouquet box that made me think of it). It might also help make the decision as to whether to keep something 'would I want a photo of this as my desktop picture?' :eek::rotfl: If the answer is no maybe it's not precious enough. Maybe the box the flowers came in would not be worth keeping or photographing but a photo of a bouquet itself might be lovely.

The moses basket thing is an interesting one. My mum re-covered in beautiful lawn, the basket that was used by me and my siblings ready for my first child. I never used it, chosing to co-sleep with both my children until they moved into their own beds. I decided to give the basket which was pristine and beautiful to the local refugee project. They told me they had someone who was in real need and I mentally filled that basket with all the love I could muster for the new mum and baby. Giving things away with love to an individual, even if you don't know who they are makes it so much easier I think.

Now, about those videos.... those two huge drawers full of them are a problem. :eek: Think I might delegate the job to the DSs in the near future.

B x

johanne

The Moses basket isn't a HUGE issue between me and OH as he wants another one.. its me who is undecided, and we actually hardly used it this time with DS as he's 10 months and co-sleeps with us/in a cot at the side now... he hated the basket. Its just that symbolic thing of going "yes this is going" whereas after DD there was no "debate" at all.. it WAS going in the loft for the next one...


Artwork that's "amazing" does get saved/photographed its just the issue that this box had been made into something "else" and it was HUGE I mean about nearly 3ft high x 1 foot square much easier for pictures on A4 paper to disappear without being noticed after being photographed she so arty there is no way I could keep all her creations! :eek:


The present of mugs has been given to my mum! So box they were hiding in has gone!!! Ebay sales going well so more stuff going today! My mum had been CS hunting again and has bought DS yet another toy... it is to stay at her house though apparently.... *phew*

Catriona_P

I still have my DD's moses basket - it's a 'family' one my mum and aunt redecorated for me when I was pregnant. I used it for ages as DD was a very small baby. I keep it for the next family member who needs it so holding onto it doesn't bother me.

My OH wants another baby too johanne and I don't, one is enough! I understand the 'elephant in the room' that is old baby things.

Feeling melancholy as DD was 3 last week and I've been sorting through her old baby clothes to send to a DV charity. Struggling to remember her being that small but like Broomstick says, they're going to somebody in need so I really don't mind parting with them.

ginnyknit

Parcel posted at last so thats another carrier bag full gone :j Was so worried I wouldnt get my a** into gear and do it and it would be too late. Off to do a bit more if this pulled muscle in my lets me. Finally its D day, ds is moving the rest of his stuff out from tonight into his new apartment so by Sunday I can turn his old room into my craft room/spare room. The children are now banned from moving back. Last time I managed to keep it as a craft room for 12 months and stocked it up for my enforced retirement when I became hubbys carer. Since then both children have moved back in turns due to no fault of their own. Dd even brought her partner and produced Dgs whilst with us and I wouldnt swop the time I shared her pregnancy with her for all the minimalist homes on the planet. Now its time to sort out all my stuff and have a place to relax and I can hear Hubby in his room if he needs me instead of running up and down stairs....aaah bliss.