Hoarding - Springing Ahead

roundtuit

It's amazing the number of times I read things on this thread that make me think ' oh that's me too':


'the thought is always there but doesn't always get translated into reality.' whitewing
'I know he hates the fact that he hasn't been able to bring anyone home for years' noelphobic
Maybe I'm more normal than I've ever been led to believe.:D.


NEWSFLASH: we have lightbulbs at the top and the bottom of the stairs chez roundtuit. :T:j:T


I think this deserves a coffee


Rxx

GreyQueen

:T Progress! Well done us.

I'm in the middle of something but just wanted to stop and share, as I'm so excited as have made a breakthrough.

I have used my pinking shears to cut cardboard. Cutting gift tags at the moment. Why, you may ask, is this a breakthrough? Because I have had these pinking shears since the 1980s. They were a gift from Mum, given with the exhortation NOT TO USE THEM TO CUT CARD OR IT'LL RUIN THEM. For fabric only.

Only my sewing has not, in the past 25 years, caused need for pinking shears more than about twice. And even then, I was stretching the point in order to use them. So I have these shears taking up space and am too awed by the Rule of Mum to use them for what I want to use them for; cutting cardboard.

OK, I could donate them to the c.s. but then I'd have no control over how they were used and they might be used on card. And if anyone is going to cut card, it might as well be me, hey? So I have spent a happy few minutes chopping hoarded pretty card with my pinking shears and I thoroughly enjoyed it, too, big kid that I am.

Some of these crimped cards will be seen at Mum's at Christmas 2014. She will certainly remark on it but I will point out the above and we'll just pass over it. Pinking shears aren't ornaments, they are tools, and as their owner, it's up to me how I use them!

I will go back in a minute and punch holes through the corners, and be-ribbon a few of them. Not all of them, just enough for the next 12 months' worth of gifting. And I have told myself sternly that I cannot save any of the Xmas cards of 2014 for gift-tag making. Or for 2015, 2016, 2017 and quite possibly into the 2020s..........:rotfl: Even if they have puppies in santa hats on them.

I have also culled a lot of little decorative things like silver bows (saved from the luxe crackers at a workplace do in my prevous job) and a lot of little red loopy bows, repurposed from Xmas crackers. In fact, I have a lot of fancy bits of card salvaged from dismantled crackers, which is a but tragic. I need to acquire a pre-schooler to play with this stuff. I've tried to get rid of this before and failed. They could be used to gussy-up wrapped gifts, but they aren't, and it's time I faced the fact that they won't be, either.

Have also culled 90% of the salvaged wrapping paper, inc bits of gold and silver card from non-fishy packaging materials. Which are now in the bin/ recyling. By the time I'm finished, the gift-wrap stash should all fit neatly into one of those A4 plastic pockets and be findable in seconds.

It may be (probably is) deeply tragic but it's making me smile and I thought if anyone would understand, it'd be you lot.:o

noelphobic

I've now got 1 plastic drawer with greeting cards in, 1 with bits of Xmas stuff (which really should have gone in the loft when the tree did but hopefully next time I can persuade my son to go up there). Also one with gift bags, tags, tissue and wrapping paper. The other drawer in the set is now filled with stationery.

The 4 bottom drawers already had my make up and toiletries in (think there are a few fellow reprobates from the 'no buying unnecessary toiletries' thread, who will understand why I need 4 drawers and more besides for those items!) I've put my Marc Jacobs Daisy gift sets on top of the drawers. They're still in their boxes so hopefully will be Ok for a while. They 'lived' on one of my sofas for months, which is ridiculous.

I've also gotten rid of a couple of cardboard boxes and put my son's megadrive games and videos in another one ready for him to go through when he comes.

Just spied some other Xmas stuff in a plastic box on the sofa so that is also going upstairs in a minute, one step nearer to going in the loft.
The house doesn't really look any better for any of this but it has taken very little time and made me feel like I am getting somewhere.

Ames

GQ, thanks for being worried about me, it's really sweet of you.

I can't see any other way of getting clothes dry though. If I put them out to dry in any other room in Winter they're still damp after a week and smell awful. Plus since windows don't open it's bad for the damp and mould.

The shower room isn't used as a shower room as the shower doesn't work, so there isn't a high level of humidity. Obviously there's water in the toilet, and when I was my hands, but it's probably drier than the kitchen. The electric heater's an oil filled radiator, so it's all enclosed, and the plug will be outside the bathroom.

All of my options are dodgy, but I think that on balance drying clothes in the shower room is the least dodgy way.

The only other option I can think of is blocking off part of the hallway, but there'd be nowhere for the moisture to go other than into the walls. I've tried using the kitchen with a heater, but as the window doesn't open I don't think it's good for the damp and mould, and a mouldy kitchen can't be good. Plus there's no door so the heat escapes into the living room and it still takes a couple of days with the heat on full to dry anything. I tried hanging clothes on the back of the living room door using a thing I got from Wilkinsons that stuck out to be able to hang them in rows with space in between, and a convector heater nearby but again it took days, and the mould is really bad in that corner as it's where the single glazed window that's rotting in it's frame is.

I'll keep pondering though and try and come up with a safe alternative.

whitewing

Our cooked breakfast was shuffled into cooked brunch, and has now been delayed to cooked lunch - pretty soon it will reach the realms of All Day Breakfast. (DH is in charge).

I am now thinking again about just getting rid of the carry case rather than attempting to store it temporarily. This really is the best solution.

I have spent a happy morning getting rid of more hoarded memory album souvenirs. I have shredded the diary I wrote when on a french exchange trip. It hardly had anything about me or the French family in it, just loads of notes and facts about the places we visited. It was mildly interesting but not enough to keep.

I also shredded some of the stuff from my very first boyfriend. Not all of it yet, just the pages of A4 that said 'I love you' in every inch of it.
It was funny actually as he'd cut out my initials in paper and posted it to me (we went to different uni's). I haven't been married that long really but long enough now not to immediately recognise my old initials as me!
I remember going with his parents to drop him off at uni and crying in the car on my way back (so was him mum, especially when I gave her the letter that he'd written specifically for them on the way back, thanking them for being great parents). At the time, I felt that his mum disapproved of our relationship, although she did like me and we are still friends. Today I have been able to acknowledge that she wanted her son to go out in the world and not to be restricted by his old life. Not that she wanted him to go and sleep around but she did want him to be able to make new friends and visit other places without having the complications of a home town girlfriend. It is painful even now to admit that she didn't think I was good enough to be worth hanging on to; however, I can now see that my upbringing was not normal and that I had issues that couldn't simply be loved better. And now that I've brought that feeling out of the shadows, it isn't hurting that much any more. Certainly nothing that is going to hurt past today.

I am intending to do some more with my cupboard this afternoon, but had to clear the table for food. So I got DS on board and in 10 minutes we have tidied up a horrible mess, and given the room a quick once over with the vacuum. I am astonished that it is worth vacuuming mid-tidy, and also that tidying up still takes much less time than I expect. We can go to visitor-ready in minutes, that amazes me. (Much of that is down to stemming the flow of things coming in to the house, getting rid of the old straight away when new comes in, and then bigger decluttering).

I also was thinking about my dad and his hoarding. I don't think he ever finishes anything he starts (which unfortunately includes building his own house, which never got wallpapered before he moved out, years after he moved in). I pride myself in not being like him, and also in being decisive because I have seen what hurt and rejection there is in not making decisions. I realise though that in some areas, I am like him in not finishing things; I just get further along the project.

I am going to tackle those outstanding projects in 15 minute bursts. (These are not necessarily unfinished to other people - include a scrapbook on my grandparents that I want to add a couple of pages to. I have the stuff I want to add, but at some point I will add it or I will bin the stuff - I am not going to let it lurk).

I have washing to do this afternoon but will wait until after lunch so it doesn't pick up the smells.

I am looking forward to Call the Midwife tonight - does anyone else watch that?

GreyQueen

By gum, whitewing, but you've achieved some powerful insights into your own life and those around you.

I had a wobble just now when I was turfing the bag of pre-loved Xmas bows out. There were some little things in there from off crackers which I'd forgotten but, having seen them again, immediately understood why I'd saved them. They were soft little red pom-poms, cute to the power 10. Oh dearie dearie me......

Gawdelpme, I'm a nutjob at times. They're in the bin. In fact, I've just come back from the communal bins where I deposited 4 bags, half recycling and half proper rubbish. Which means that the box and bag of wrapping and stuff is now reduced to one A4 plastic pouch of carefully-selected gift-wrap, some of which will be used in a couple of months, and another A4 envelope of beautifully pinked gift-tags with ribbon on the lot of them. The tags are sorted into non-Xmas, Xmas and neutral (silver holographic effect, more re-purposed crackers).

I've set it up so that the biggest tags are separate and the intention is that I'll grab that sub-section and take to my folks' place for when I wrap the 2014 Xmas pressies over there. After discussion, decided it was easier for me to bring the gifts (books) to the family when I visit throughout the year, and leave my roll of Xmas paper at theirs, and wrap on Xmas eve. This way, I'll just pocket the tags and be good to go.

I've had a mass-cull of the hoarded habersdashery and have gone from two containers of ribbons, all neatly wound around card, to one. And have ironed the ribbons I'm using with my laundry bag project, and they have joined the fabric pile on the back of the sofa. It ain't going away until it's done, is my motto.

Am going to stretch my legs by going to the chazzer with the donation bag and may swing by a shop on the way home and buy some celebratory chocolate, the decluttering of, as a reward for good behaviour. And I shall sling a small cardboard box (which held the bags which held the wrapping materials, into the recycling on my way out.
Bin day tomorrow, yippee!

I'm using the injured bag-for-life to hold the c.s donations. It's a good cause.

Onward, outwards and ever upwards, fellow hoarders. GQ xx

roundtuit

ANOTHER NEWSFLASH


The last two glass jars for recycling are soaking as I type :T:j
That's all the cans, plastic and glass gone


'Just' 'stuff' to sort now:eek:


Rxx

lobbyludd

what a wonderful realisation WW, I hope that has lifted some under the radar feelings.

Ds's room is now finished as well as it can be for now, all his christmas presents put away and he loves it.

I've put the christmas decs in the loft - woohoo! and brought down an empty box and an empty broken plastic storage tub to be recycled/binned (drop in a very large ocean, but the loft is scheduled for summer sorting so anything now is an extra). The scalextric are up there now as well - this is temporary, I can't see them being used again, but if his paternal grandparents respond to my email perhaps they can go there.

old dismantled wardrobe is in the car ready to go to recycling tomorrow (break in the rain didn't come until after it shut today) along with a dismantled shelf unit which has been lurking around in the kitchen in bits half painted to be used as wall-shelves in DS's room. But now his room is done I can see he doesn't need them so they are being let out into the world.

the tin of paint is finished and binned. I've touched up the walls in the lounge and bathroom which have lifted those rooms.

GreyQueen

We're going great guns, aren't we? It's good to have a like-minded online community to share these moments with.

I mended the bag-for-life's handle with two staples and a twist of sellotape over them to stop any cuts then hied me off to the chazzer. It's gone. And I didn't buy anything whilst I was in there, which is good going for me.

I did think about hanging on for a day or so, as I'm coming towards the end of one of the 3 for £1 books I bought during the week, and will probably finish it tonight. Then I thought that was perfectionism speaking, I always have a charity shop bag on the go, it can be the foundation of the next mini-pile.

And, I was able to get my outdoor slippers (flipflops, for going out to the communal bins or my bike shed) off the hall floor and into the bottom of the airing cupboard, which is where the box-which-held-the-bags was. And this means my hall, which a fabulous 75cm wide, now has nothing on its floor other than the mat.

I'm finishing off a big tube of handcream and have finished up several products. I'd tried some Princes salmon paste, a staple of childhood sarnies, but discovered it wasn't really my thing as an adult. I was still tempted to hold onto the wee jars as 'vases' for very tiny flowers, but thought I probably wouldn't be picking daisies as am no longer 8 years old and have acquired a bit of style since then......:rotfl:

Can't quite credit I have disciplined the gift-wrap stash; I may have to go and peep at the space thus liberated. And that flattened cardboard box went into the recycling smooth as silk.

Am now rewarding my efforts with tea and chocolate. And came away from the store with a couple of other things which could have travelled in a carrier bag, which I didn't have with me, but I declined a fresh one as want to make inroads not additions to the carrier bag stash.

Onward!

noelphobic

Well the good news is that I went up in the spare room and got all the Xmas stuff that didn't make it up in the lot with the tree. It's all in a resealable plastic box now but is very full so might put it in 2 boxes, making it lighter and easier to get up into the loft. I also went through some of the other boxes, threw a few random bits of tat away and put some other stuff in a box ready for the cs. It's in one of my good plastic boxes though so need to declutter an empty cardboard one to take.


The bad news? The fact that my stuff is here, there and everywhere means that I randomly come across things such as letters, photos etc of sentimental value. Some of it is good memories, particularly anything to do with my son. Some of it isn't so good. My first baby was stillborn and I still have some letters etc from that time. Also my parents are both now dead and I have found letters, postcards and things. I think I need to find a box to put any of my 'trigger' items in so that I will only look at it if I really need/want to and won't come across anything when I'm least expecting it.


Feeling quite upset now and can't face going back in the spare room for a while. It will either be later on today or maybe tomorrow.