Hoarding - Springing Ahead

whitewing

I filed away some papers I need to keep this morning.

Put a lot of random things back in their proper place. Got rid of a coffee jar and honey jar into recycling. My family are USELESS at using the tiny last bit of anything up, they always open new stuff.

Ames, I am seized by a d esire to drive a lorry over to yours to pick up your clothes and wash and dry them for you. I wonder why I am never seized by such monumental urges for my own stuff.

I always work hard but today I worked so hard for so long that I can't believe it isn't Thurs night Stelios time.

VJsmum

Ames wrote: »

1. Buy a tumble dryer. The problem with this is space, but in the long run it'll be good - I wont be buying new clothes because I haven't got any clean and dry, which usually happens a lot in winter. And, when the flat's sorted (which will happen a lot quicker with a dryer) there'll be lots of options of where it can go.

2. Do the washing at home then take stuff to the launderette to dry it. The problem with this option is time - I'd have to waste hours just sitting around waiting for the machines to finish, whereas at home I'd be able to do other stuff while it's drying.

Cost wise, given the amount of clothes that need sorting, I reckon it'd probably come out about even (assuming I get a cheapy dryer from Argos).

Hmmm.

I have one of these

http://www.rotaire.com/

It is great - any use for you? I have barely used my tumble dryer since getting one

lobbyludd

I'd be really wary of bringing something new and big into the house to try to deal with a problem of too much stuff. I can see your reasoning (and I wouldn't be without mine), but I can also see that actually, unless you can get rid of a tumble dryer's worth of stuff first, by having the td, you'll have more difficulty getting around the flat, and it'll need to be delivered, with packaging, all of which is much more stuff to deal with.

you could sort 2 large bin bags of dirty clothes and stuff and simply throw them away. I know this is os heresy, but it really is perfectly OK to do in order to get your life back. If doing this made the room available for you to get a tumble dryer in order to keep the clothes you do wear in good order then fab.

I've done nothing today, having been brung low by illness but am cheering you all on.

Saver-upper

I have spent this evening sorting through my magazine storage box.Deciding what to keep and transfer to kitchen drawer,and chucking the rest.I am making abit of a mess:piles of paper at my feet,to go along with already-sorted papers in my room(well,not sensible leaving them in the middle of front room with 4 kids running around the place......)
I need to think about how to store them within kitchen drawer.I was thinking individual foolscap sleeves,but that might get abit untidy,so may go for some sort of folder.I need to short-term file so many different types of bits:notes and permission slips from two different schools,stuff for Scouts,stuff for ballet,random phone numbers that are only used rarely,recipes my 12yo tries at school and brings home to try,clubcard vouchers,instructions for kids toys,tax bits(this should be filed in my filing box(previously described),notes re progress of house extension application and associated phone call notes.......
Have told the kids they are having a big Children's Bedroom tidy-up tomorrow(nobody has questioned the fact that I have single-handedly decluttered one of the 2 bedrooms already :rotfl:),so while they are being kept busy with that,I will file these messy piles of paper :cool:

Ames

Aaargh just wrote a reply and the computer ate it.

Some good points about the clothes and laundry.

VJsmum, I'd love a rotary airer but there's nowhere to put it. I have a tiny yard (about 5ft by 10ft) which is mostly full of a raised bed.

I have been thinking about just binning stuff, especially the cheaper clothes. Or taking them to the CS marked rags. Something to bear in mind.

With the dryer, I was thinking a compact one would fit under the draining board, which is *shock* a clear space. Obviously I'd measure it before ordering one though!

But really it is just getting more 'stuff' in, even if it's one big item rather than a hundred little ones.

Sorting each bag out's a bit difficult just because of space. When I had my deep clean 18 months ago, the cleaners just bagged all of my clothes up and put them in a pile for me to sort out gradually. I'm sure you can all imagine how that went...

The bags are Next online shopping ones, the big ones that are about the size of two binliners. I don't really want to sort them into piles, because based on past experience the piles will become an avalanche and end up creeping all over the flat. Especially if they've been designated 'not clothes I'm going to wear again', because then they wont be important enough to keep clean and tidy... I want to have a conveyor belt type thing - clean, dry, out or away.

So I think I'm going to tackle one bag at a time, maybe one a week. I'll wash everything in it, then take it all to the launderette, even if it means commandeering a couple of dryers. I don't know how long a dry cycle takes, but I'll just sit and read. I've been meaning to get out and have some 'me and a book' time, I'd just imagined it being in a cafe. But there's no reason it can't be a launderette instead.

So I'll put the TD idea to one side. Thanks for helping to talk me out of it!

Ames

Saver upper, I noticed in the Works last week (I went in and bought nothing, yay!) an A5 plastic expanding folder that was less than a fiver. That might be the right size for your bits of paper?

dianasnan

VJsmum wrote: »

I have one of these

http://www.rotaire.com/

It is great - any use for you? I have barely used my tumble dryer since getting one

I have one of these as well and would highly recommend it. Had the basic one which lasted 2 years and now have the deluxe version which looks like heavy duty tent material so should last a long time.

GreyQueen

:T Wow, Ames, sounds like you're doing well. I'm boggling slightly at the amount of clothing you have to deal with. As a flat dweller with no outside space, I know the phenomenon of struggling to dry clothes.

You mention you have a tiny back yard with a raised bed; would it be possible to fit a standing clothes airer (if you have one) in there? So that these warmer days can help dry the stuff. I was reading your earlier post and thinking the TD probably wasn't the way to go, as the others have articulated.

I guess that we're all tempted to buy our way out of problems, because the whole weight of a consumer society is directed to shaping our minds that this is the way which makes sense.

And sometimes it does. I could wash my clothes in the bath but I'm glad I have a washing machine and wouldn't want to be without it.

I have to work today and am already very tired, but I have quite a few un-done sewing projects cluttering up the living room. One is to re-zip a pair of trousers and I bought the zip last week and really need them in use so I think I will devote some time today to getting that done, and some other sewing which is pinned and prepped ready to go.

I'm forcing myself to be ruthless with packaging materials, although it goes against the grain. I've just binned an oblong ice-cream tub, just a flimsy one, because I'd washed it up and then could hear my mother's voice in my head saying You could put it in the shed, it'll be handy to keep stuff in.

Noooooo!!!!!!!!! I love Mum dearly, and she has many admirable qualities but she is a hoarder and presently can't get into her own very large workshop shed for clutter. And I don't want to go there in my own life, and that's how it happens, one decision (or lack-of-decision) at a time.

Last night my tiny kitchen had somehow turned into a bomb site and filth pit. Anyone else have a kitchen which does this?! Y'know, its bumbling along quite nicely in there, and then whooop, it all goes to hell of a sudden. Just because you don't wash up everything on the side every time and they build up then you can't access the counters to wipe and then some beggar gets out an oil gun and coats the hob........

Anyway, I did 3 bowlfuls of washing up back to back and caught up and by golly does it look better in there today. Shame about the rest of the flat.

In fact, I think I'll decide to quickly iron a couple of things before work and then that'll be a job out of the way. Plus have just realised that I do need to wear one of those blouses..............doh!

caitybabes

I am at my parents' house. I'm on Easter holidays from school for two weeks so I decided now would be a good time to volunteer my services as a decluttering and sorting helper.

I'm only here for two days, I spent all of yesterday (5-6hrs) sorting mum's baking cupboards. When I was growing up, she was the one who taught me how to be organised, but the cupboard had descended into a disorganised mess.

I think it was a good one to start with because getting rid of out of date food was much easier for mum than making decisions about giving away actual 'things' to the charity shop. Mum was disappointed at all the food and money that had been wasted so it might've been a bit of a wake up call. I found lots of out of date duplicates of things like lemon juice, glycerine and cream of tartar (3 unopened tubs - mum couldn't believe it).

Anyway, we also found at the back of the cupboard some very useful pots so I decanted all the flours and sugars into pots and labeled them all with pretty labels. It looks amazing in there now, you can see how much of everything you've got and everything in there is stuff mum will actually want to use.

I was shattered at the end of it but am rejuvenated by sleep so will start working on a different room today. Mum wants to clear my brother's old room (who is married and lives about 500 miles away) as she's getting a lodger in that room in May. It doesn't look too bad in there so I reckon it's doable.

Also need to see if I can get them to get rid of the sofa that lives in the garden today! It has been for about 3 weeks and is no longer in a reusable state so today it must go to the dump!

Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it.

lobbyludd

fab stuff ames, perhaps if there is a cafe near you could sit there with book whilst it dries once you get the hang of the timing? after all - if anyone steals your cs clothes, they'll just be saving you a trip and I understand the conveyor belt thing, once I've made a decision I need the stuff sorted and out now, otherwise it becomes invisible again somehow.

GQ - my entire house can go from chugging along nicely to the black hole of Calcutta in the time it takes me to blink 3 times. I have always blamed the chaos fairies, 2 of which are now manifest in human form in my house and go by the monikers "Destructo-grrl and the Chaos Kid". However, even when they are not here, their brethren are weaving their merry dances.

Used to drive one of my cats crazy, every so often he'd go bonkers chasing invisible things around the house in a state of severe agitation.

faeries: it's the only rational explanation

WW - maybe that's what we need to do - a sort of exchange programme for hoarders, where we go over to each other's houses and sort the logistical problems that are holding us up from progress once we've made decisions.

go you Caitybabes glad your mum is happy with the progress.