Hoarding - Springing Ahead

anirtak191

hi justaboutthere,

i know exactly what you mean about trying to pretend its not there, for me most of it was in another room, so out of site out of mind. and the cleaning fairy has never visited me either, think she might have been too scared to come here :rotfl:

but i finally admitted when i also read a few threads on here, that i have "collected" too much stuff. i pulled my finger out and went intot he bomb site and started sorting, a lot of people find it easier grabbing a box or a pile and doing it bit by bit, or so many items a day. i found i had a bit of a break down trying to do it slowly, so just put my music on a dived into it.
in a fortnight, i managed to clear the room, i sold enough stuff through local fb selling pages to be able to pay off a couple of bills i had neglected to keep up with properly while my husband was off work on the sick, and also had just about enough left over to buy him a fish tank that had cought his eye while we were listing things to sell.

table top and bootsales are another good way to get rid of things if they are the too good to throw away variety, we are lucky to have a car and have done a local table top sale, but i have also spoken to my neighbour who does bootsales further afield, and we have arranged to go together as she has a bigger vehicle when she manages to do one, so maybe thats an option for you, ask a friend or relative who owns a vehicle to help you out there,
if you need tip runs sometimes on the local fb pages again there is someone who may advertise doing that or you can ask if there is someone near by who might be able to do a tip run for you.

we have lived here over 8 years and thanks to this thread i have cleared out my bomb site of a room and its now getting its first fresh coat of paint :j.
im hoping by the end of next week i can start moving the bedroom furniture into there and i can start on the second room.
im hoping within the next 18 months i will more or less be sorted, might take a little longer with buying furniture we want but as i am feeling better about there being less clutter around waiting doesnt seem as bad as it was.

good luck with all your sorting, and i know you will get plenty of tips and encouragement off the lovely people on this thread :grouphug:


my husband is finding it funny that out of all the stuff i have finally let go off, i have still told him not to throw that out, with some things.
new excuse, im not sorting this room yet :rotfl:
or ill figure that out when i get to it. that one gets me a strange look off hubby who just puts the item aside for if i get round to it :rotfl:

GreyQueen

JustAboutThere wrote: »

Thanks.

I've managed to wean myself off buying books for years now, but its just stuff. Mainly paperwork, that you can't just throw, you have to look at first (and shred).

I'm just so exhausted when I get home, I collapse into a heap and pretend the mess isn't there - or wish the housework fairy was going to come and wave her magic wand

Nice to have you with us and when you see the Housework Fairy, please give it a smack from yours truly and tell it that there is Quite A Bit of undone housework Chez GQ and I'm a busy woman and could use a hand.

I think overwhelm is very hard to counter when you're out all day, you fall through the door tired, you just about get yourself fed and stuff, and then its a bit of chilling and then bed. Rinse and repeat for a few days, half-way catch up at the weekends, but not really ever catch up and on and on it goes...............

Yup. Been there, done that, got the T shirt. Lost the T shirt somewhere in a floordrobe, lol.

Today I was feeling overwhelmed by the nastiness of the cooker top so spent 40 mins (I wish I was kidding about that) just now bringing it up to scratch. It wasn't as if it'd been left for ages but - you know - it had just got so nasty that it wasn't going to be a fast job and it got postponed and nastier and nastier............

One thing I find helpful is to have regular little round-ups of stuff. Y'know, getting a few ofthe pesky little things into the bin/ recycling bag/ back wherever they came from/ into the donation bags. It's de-kippleisation, the tackling of the random little bits of carp which accrue like leaves on the forest floor and slowly s m o t h e r your life.

So, if you have a couple of mins waiting for a kettle to boil, chatting on the phone, on the ad break if you watch TV, look around for the kipple. Almost bound to be some within reach if you try.

Can you get it before it gets away? Can you catch the junk mail before it hits the doormat and get it outta here? Can you head it off at the pass in the shops and in the street? Just because someone wants you to take a flyer or a freebie, it doesn't mean that you have to go for it.

Righty, think my supper must be cooked, and I will be able to face the stove top without shame now - yippee!

anirtak191

well i think ive had a productive evening,
:dance: on a ladder, with a paintbrush in one hand and a bottle of cider in the other
obviously had some music on other wise that would have just looked daft :rotfl:

out of cider and out of paint so just done myself a bolognaise out the freezer and i am considering sitting down with a cuppa and falling asleep watching tv and then try and get up early enough for when hubby finishes work so i can meet him at the bus stop and go get more paint to get the ceiling finished. fingers crossed will be done and dry by thursday when i go and see if they had a delivery of the lemon glow to finish the walls. then the painting will hopefully be finished, and can get every thing else done yay.

whitewing

2 cardboard boxes to aunt for her storage (she is packing up stuff for an auction later in the year).

1 pile of papers for shredding.

New curtains bought for the bedroom. Slightly pricier than I would have liked. Wish I had you people's curtain-adapting skills.

JustAboutThere

Thanks for the friendly welcome, all.

One of the many things lurking in the house is many, many VHS tapes and box sets, which you can't even give away these days. Since I've always been reluctant to put them in the rubbish, I did a little Google today about recycling and found a company, based in Bristol, that will recycle many items - the user just has to pay postage, which I know, can add up.

"We handle a variation of recordable media, these are

• VHS
• Betamax
• Audio Cassettes
• Floppy Discs
• Mini DV
• CD
• DVD
• Games
• Mini Disc
• Any old computers, hard drives etc.

We can recommend https://www.interlinkdirect.co.uk as a courier where you can price up and pay for your parcels before shipping. Interlink will come to your home and collect."

http://www.ems-europe.co.uk/services/domestic-tape-disc

If I find out more, I'll post here.

softpad

Why domt you just advertise your videos on freecycle I am certain they will get snapped up immediately

JustAboutThere

softpad wrote: »

Why domt you just advertise your videos on freecycle I am certain they will get snapped up immediately

Er . . . yes . . . except that means people might have to see the insides of my house.

I will look at Freecycle, except that I've not got broadband, only mobile and can't load up photos (computer kaput) and phone charger is lost. OK, 2nd charger is lost and I'm damned if I'm buying a 3rd!

I looked at eBay and some of the box sets I paid £90 for haven't even got bids for at £10 or less.

So, assuming Freecycle doesn't work for getting rid of them, if I'm paying a 'man and a van' to get rid of things, I may as well, depending on cost, pay to post them to Bristol.

That's in the distance. Bit by bit I've got to start moving paper from the floor. I believe there's carpet there . . . somewhere.

I know the next few weeks are manic at work, but hopefully early to mid June is a possibility for some actual results.

softpad

Hi

You dont need broadband or photos just say offer videos etc dont even have to list, say must go as job lot. When they come have them in boxes outside the fromt door I never let anyone in, I tell them to come get them and take them without knocking. Also in dry weather put a box at end of drive with a note saying free and things go really quickly. Dont pay someone to take things away! Even when you go anywhere, take a small bag of vids for the charity shop. Its easy to make a start, we all make excuses to ourselves why we cant do things, we are all experts at that.

hollieinbloom

Hello! new to this thread and have been hoarding stuff for years! I've finally had that lightbulb moment to get rid of stuff. It's not severe hoarding, it just silly things that I never use but keep for "just incase".

I have gone through boxes of my DD's old clothes and put some on ebay. Some of it isn't fit to be sold so i'll either donate it or put them in the recycling in. Also, I cleared out DD's room and found about 5/6 magazines and some haven't even been read.

She's read them now and we are taking them down to the Local Doctors surgery for other children to read whilst they're in the waiting room. There always seems to be a lack of them in there!.

We are trying to downsize on everything we have and stop the clutter. Going to organise some boxes of things to take to a carboot in a few weeks. I want my house back! xx

anirtak191

hi JustAboutThere,
i had about 15 vhs tapes hidden in the back of a cupboard until the day i could replace them onto dvd and decided mine had to go if i was doing this clearout properly, i advertised mine free to any one that wanted to collect on local fb pages just listed the ones i had, and they were asked for the next day and picked up couple of days later, no need to invite in just hand em over in a carrier at the door, thats what i did, they took all the childrens ones i had, the adult ones only 2 of them and i know i should have probably found somewhere to recycle them but i thought it was only 2 so put them in the black bag.

at table top sale the other day i had a cassette tape on the table and me and my husband (dont know why we were but) we were surprised to get a funny look off a kid when he asked what it was, we said it was a cassette tape with stories on, it was one of mine when i was a kid. was actually a slight shock that he had obviously never seen one before lol :shocked:.

managed to get the paint for my ceiling this morning, and i was naughty , there is a shop thats opened temporarily that was selling off cheap material, i brought home 2 carrier bags full. cost less than a fiver and that amount would have normally cost well over £20.
that should keep me busy for a while i think.

well im going to go do something productive like have a cuppa tea before hubby finishes work again and then maybe crack on with a bit more painting.