Hoarding - Springing Ahead

Florenceem

Mr F came home from walking the dog with some clothes that had been dumped. Cleaned and sent to charity shop - he took 2 bags full down there. Decluttered some dust and dirt - did cleaning.

Patchwork_Quilt

Congratulations on everyone's decluttering successes, especially Roundtuit.
And I can see how you feel about The Rough, GreyQueen. I definitely think of weeding as decluttering, which may be why I quite enjoy it. Mowing the lawn, however, is just like vacuuming, and I really can't be bothered unless it makes the rest of the garden look tidy.


Chez nous, Mr PQ went through his sportswear drawer at the weekend! This was in the hope of decluttering but most of it survived. I am pleased he doesn't want to buy a whole new set of day-glo jackets etc and the drawer does actually shut so that is a result.

Not that my jumper drawer actually shuts. Ho hum.

We are almost thinking about redecorating the kitchen, so that could be stressful. I did have one tiny empty cupboard but people do keep giving me jam jars ...

Even worse, though, my brother has just bought a house. Now he really is a hoarder. Until recently, he had stuff at Mum's house, stuff at his flat and stuff in his girlfriend's garage.

Interesting times ahead. Keep going people. It's good to share both the highs and the lows- it helps everybody.

GreyQueen

Your brother's move should be interesting, to say the least, PQ!

Yesterday, I had an unexpected time fragment when my arrival at my pal's was put back by 30 mins by her text. It's no biggie, it's only a 5 min stroll over there anyway.

I could have just carried on reading my book but decided to treat that 'extra' 30 mins as a chance to do something. So, I cleaned down the outside of all of my kitchen cupboards. They're white melamine, old seventies jobs, and tend to go grubby imperceptably, so that you don't realise it.

And then they were all bright and shiny new. And I skipped off to my pal's place with a happy smile. It's never ceasing to amaze me how much you can get done by just focussing on the little jobs.

Baby steps, lovely peeps, baby steps. Keep on at it and eventually it'll shrink. GQ xx.

ginnyknit

Had a burst of energy today, probably aided by the mild weather and sunshine. Moved the little chest of drawers in the loo, vaccuumed all upstairs and mopped the bathroom and toilet floors. Took a small bag to the Cs but am still looking round for more to move on. Tidied the cupboard I keep all my flour in and decanted some into tubs and got rid of 4 half empty bags. Hoping for more energy tomorrow too.

Well done all on beating back the mountains of clutter. Sound like some really good baby steps being taken - 1 drawer or cupboard tackled at a time :j

Historybuff

Hi,
I've been reading through this thread and identify so much with an awful lot of what people are saying. I've lived with clutter all my life...my mother had a hoarding problem and, though not as bad as her, I seem to have the same tendencies. I try really hard to get rid of stuff and get organised because it drives my OH nuts, but even though I try to de clutter, more stuff seems to seep out and take the place of what I've taken away. I try to do one small thing at a time. At the moment I'm trying to sell off my pottery collection. No point having the lovely pots if they are just stacked up in boxes in the garage and no one can admire them. So I'm trying, but it's so hard to stay focused especially when you work full time as well.
Thinking about it, the hoarding/ cluttering and muddled organisation and finances are all linked. I'm hoping that by beginning to get focused on the finance side of things, organisation in other areas of life will follow. I think I need a life coach, but hopefully, following some of the forums on here will be a support to keep going. Have a good day!

GreyQueen

Hello and welcome aboard, historybuff.

The decluttering writer Don Aslett (screamingly funny and wincingly perceptive as well as compassionate, his several books are a recommended read) remarks about the idea of 'carry over'. As in, what you do/ how you behave in one aspect of your life carries over into other aspects of your life.

Thus problems with excess and/ or disordered belongings wouldn't be discrete from problems with muddlied finances etc. Your spice drawer and your bank account do have something in common - they're yours!

It must be very uncomfortable for you and your husband to share space with the clutter. I have parents with the same dynamic, married over 50 years, Mum's a hoarder and Dad is almost a minimalist. The house reflects her habits, not his, and I've inherited tendancies to cling onto things past all need and reason. Not to mention the ever-present allure of packaging materials.

Pal gave me some spare eggs on Sunday in a dinky 9 egg eggbox. It's very cute. And it'll have to hit the recycling bin as soon as it's empty or I will struggle to part from it.

Could you perhaps look at making some big fast gains, to give yourself a boost and perhaps encourage your OH that things are changing? Is there some white elephant in the room such as a large unused piece of exercise equipment or unloved piece of furniture which could be sold/ donated to charity/ freecycled? Is there something blocking a doorway or hall, which people injure themselves on in passing? And never underestimate the pulling power of a few flat surfaces to soothe the eye.

These things would take time, yes, but they would give an immediate sense of improvement whereas the collection in the boxes in the garage are going to be a less-obvious annoyance than the kipple in the kitchen, living room and bathroom.

Anyway, please post your issues and let us share and encourage you as you get to grips with it.Onwards and outwards, as we often say here!

ETA, just used the last eggs in the aforementioned egg box and stamped it flat on the floor. It's in the recycling bag which I shall empty on my way to work today. Yayy!

Historybuff

Thank you Greyqueen!
I do have an exercise bike languishing in the bedroom draped in clothes...how perceptive of you! I will get it sold. Also in my hallway I have an old cupboard that is blocking the door to the downstairs loo and serving no proper purpose. I shall get rid of that too and clear up that space.
Good...I will let you know how I get on.
Things just stay there and you get use to walking round them.

GreyQueen

LOL, you'll now think I have uncanny psychic powers and can see all the way across the interwebs..............:rotfl:

Of course, this is the truth. But most people who have exercise equipment have unused exercise equipment, and it's a rare home which couldn't lose a piece of furniture or two and be the better for it.

I'm just checking in with the forum before heading off to my archery class. At the moment the equipment involved can be held easily in the palm of one hand; a finger-sling (think oversized ponytail band) and fingertab to stop the bowstring bruising my fingers. Just never let me loose in the archery store, it's a very tempting place indeed.

I will swing by the only place in town which recycles tetra-packs afterwards. There's only one on the premises, but the new improved me wants that single item outta here.

I was having A Thought earlier today. About maybe taking a pledge of absence from the charity shops. It's a hard thing to do, but I tend to buy nearly every non-food item from chazzers and that's where the excess comes from in my life.

I really need to read and dispose of the books I have, wear more of the clothes I already have, and sort out what I'm not using, and rehome it or bring it into use. All of these things would be undermined by more charity shopping, so it would be good to break the habit.

But hard. I've been a charity shopper for a quarter of a century. I'm on friendly chatty terms with lots of the asssistants, could I really take the pledge, say for the whole of March, and stay away?

What do you think? Doable, or not doable? I may be back later this evening after archery to see what we're all up to,

GQ xx

Knit_Witch

no need to stay away - just don't buy! drop off only

noelphobic

I seem to have lost my mojo lately and am not getting much done at all. I have managed to fill 2 bags for the charity collection tomorrow though. I also have a bag of books in the car and am also going to bag some of my old uni books up. I think the supermarket I am going to tomorrow may have a book bank so should be able to offload them there.

I found out that DS threw the very useful big red container out 'because you said to'. I really don't think I did so it was obviously a misunderstanding. It was really useful for taking stuff to the tip, not that I've been much lately.

I don't like knowing that something was being thrown out that was perfectly useable. Someone somewhere was probably shopping for one when that got thrown away!

I went for a job interview yesterday, the first since leaving my job last year. They said I would hear today or tomorrow but not heard anything yet. I don't think I got it. The interview was so so. I'm hoping I will be OK if they turn me down. It would have been a really interesting job and valuable experience but it was only for 6 months to cover maternity leave, relatively long hours and not very good pay. I know that there may be a job coming up somewhere else soon which I am much keener on.