Hoarding - Springing Ahead

MyHappinessProject

pigpen wrote: »

I can practically hear it growling in the cupboard waiting to jump out and bite me. I class that as 'mind clutter' .. it's not out of sight out of mind it is out of sight growing into a major monster, crazy thing is once you open that door to deal with it you find it isn't a big scary monster after all it is like a wet cat.. all teeth and claws to start with and calmed to a purring kitten once done.

My whole upstairs is a monster.

Thankyou Pigpen and GreyQueen! -I have a day off work today and am going to tackle my bedroom... Envisaging it as a monster to be tamed has helped me make a start. I will continue to use this image today to clear it out the cupboards and wardrobes and pick it off the floor ,stop it hiding under the bed sniggering at me...plan is to get it OUT, kicked down the stirs ,out the door and IN THE BIN, OUT, never to return(bins are collected tomorrow morning). Right , that's me off to tame the evil B******d, wish me luck....

roundtuit

Hello

Well let that be a lesson learned - I left the forum on 5th May saying I was going to 'get organised'; unfortunately there would seem to be a universal law against Roundtuit's being organised and that 'law' saw my statement as a direct challenge!! (also for some reason I now cannot insert emoticons at all :0( )
I did indeed write out a 'to do' list - but it has barely been implemented as life turned in to a nightmare / soap opera. Long story made short(ish) - family friend's 15 year old grand daughter was hit by a car and died three days later, and on the day that C passed away my 77 year old (very stubborn) mother lost all mobility and (after we finally got her to accept medical treatment) she's been in hospital ever since and is recovering from an operation which lasted over 7 hours!! Turned out she had been walking on a broken leg for five weeks and had then fractured and put a hole in her pelvis!!!
Immense sadness for C's family combined with my working through my somewhat ambiguous feelings for my mother plus an agency job where if you don't work you don't get paid plus if I don't pay the rent no-one else will equals a stressed Roundtuit. And stressed RTs don't function very well at all (if at all!)
However.... I survived. I'm here.( A bit like Weebles us RTs you know). Mum will be transferred to a hospital 7 miles away any day now- she's been in one 70 miles away - which will ease the situation.
And I guess the first thing I need to do is attack a bowl full of pots - heyho, back to Square One. (But as DS pointed out last night - I do still have floor, so it's not really Square One I guess).
Going to put the WM on too.
It's good to be back
RTxx

GreyQueen

:T Good luck, MHP!

I am just running a washload which I hadn't expected to be doing today as a rather clumsy manoever in the kitchen 5 mins ago caused hot tea to go all over the floor inc drenching the oven mitt on the way down. The kitchen floor I washed on Fri btw, what is the fatal attraction that clean surfaces exert over spills and grot? :mad:

Cussed and slung the stuff in the washer, inc a few hastily-gathered things to make up the load. Ach well, better than years of looking at tea stains on the oven thingy. At least there's a machine to do the hard work.

I've taken a break halfway thru the ironing to drink some tea and interwebulate, as am feeling a bit weary. I am a woman of a certain age, certainly old enough to feel it some days, lol.

I may venture into the shopping bag I slung some clutter into a few weeks ago to clear surfaces ahead of a visitor. Dunno what's in there except it could charitably be described as Misc. Anyone else do this? If you're hardcore you sling the bags or linen baskets into the loft and find them years later...........:rotfl:

whitewing

RT, I am sorry to hear that you have been through such a horrendous few weeks, and I guess it will continue to have an effect on your life for a long while yet.

Glad to have you back and anything that you manage to do will help. For me, no matter how busy life is, we try and keep the kitchen clear, the washing done regularly and the beds made. Clear kitchen helps ensure washing gets done as there is space to put it . Washing means that there are clean clothes ready for the next interruption, beds made takes very little time but makes it look so much better. It all sounds very obvious to a non-hoarding person but has taken me years to establish. These are all things that I seem to drop when there's a lot going on, feel really stressed and then realise that I must do them to stay sane.

ModestyB

Roundtuit, I'm so sorry to hear of your friends loss and your mothers pain. I've found that anger at life's unfairness helps to get rid of stuff that you realise doesn't mean anything. (((Hugs)))

GreyQueen

(((((((roundtuit)))))))) that poor young girl and her family and friends. And you with your Mum. We have my Nan is hospital right now and it totally takes over your life, very hard to get anything else done, or even think about getting stuff done. You take care of yourself, my lovely, the deep de-cluttering can take a running jump right now.

I'm continuing to potter around the homestead. Just took my binbag down the row to the communal bins. We have several corrals of these bins around the flats, mixture of general waste bins, recycling bins, glass, food waste etc. In this particular area, there are two general waste skip-bins standing side by side. Yesterday one of them was overflowing, lid forced open by the bags piled up inside.

So I looked in the bin right beside it. Same category of bin and completely empty. The amount of times I have seen this, the beggars are too lazy to look in the second bin and keep ramming stuff into the first bin. And don't even get me started on the fact they're too idle to separate out the recyclable stuff; most of them can't even be arrissed to tie a knot in the bin bag or carrier bag they've put their rubbish into.

Anyroad, I decided to pick up the least-nasty looking ones off the top of the overfull bin and sling them in the empty bin beside it, so the lid would go down and we wouldn't get flies. This was late yesterday afternoon. Shan't bother with that again because more bin bags have joined the heaping bin and the lid is up again (the other bin is still nearly empty), and some feelthy burger has left a seeping, stinking carrier bag writhing with maggots on the ground in front of them. That wasn't there yesterday evening, so presumably it was in someone's flat until a very short while ago - eww! Bluebottles, here we come.:wall:

Have turfed out the shopping bag of Misc; some correspondence, some notes-to-me and shopping lists, an unimportant receipt, a bungee clip for using with the pushbike, a pkt of photo negative strips and some other bits and bobs. All now put back where they should be/ recycled/ shredded/ turned into scratch pads for notes. I use a lot of these at work so it's a genuine need, not advanced hoarding.

Righty, early luncheon, wash the dishes, then go and play in the dirt for a while. At least there aren't any maggots on my allotment!

roundtuit

Thank you whitewing, ModestyB and GreyQueen

I make the bed every morning: it's the first thing I do when I get out of bed; then turn back the duvet to allow air and light in to the depths. Not because I'm super neat (as you know): I find getting out of bed in the morning difficult - mentally not physically - and making the bed is a 'copable-with' first step in to the day. It's all in the starting isn't it?, as with a lot of things.
I now have a draining board full of clean pots and a WM about to finish the first load.
I've also fed the birds, filled the birdbath, put out the rubbish - absolutely NO MAGGOTS here I can assure you GQ! - and recycled a few cans, plastic bottles and some cardboard. Wiped down the worktop that appeared too.
I'll get the pots dried and put away - amazing what a difference that makes!
Dull here - didn't forecast rain though hmmmm what to do with washing? Hang out or not???
Rxx

GreyQueen

I've just decluttered a cat.

I'm not owned by a cat, personally, I can't provide the environment my cat-masters would require, but one of their number has me in her sights and is in the habit of hurling herself at the threshold whenever I open the door. Think of a large cat barrelling at you with no warning at a dead run and you get the picture.

Just startled as my kitchen venetion blind rattled as said large cat hurled herself 4 feet up from ground level and flung herself through the window. Had to shoo her out with some vim and vigour as she didn't want to leave.

All right, me hearties, prepare to repel boarders!

pigpen

RT.. what dreadful news!! No wonder you didn't feel up to flinging.. Tragic, sudden loss of a young life My nephew was knocked off his motorbike by a lorry when he was 21, it is a horrendous thing to live with. My mother did the same.. walked around with a fractured tibia after a dog ran into her.. 4 YEARS later she had to have surgery on the leg so they xrayed it and asked when she had broken it.. she didn't even bother getting it checked! We told her at the time it was broken.. stupid pig-headed woman! .. So you may tell her off from me too!

Children fed, washing all caught up on and recycling out. I made a start on my pit too, so far I have 3 fathers day presents for OH, 2 gone to DD1 for her OH as they are penniless and 2 binbags of excess packaging/rubbish... and my toe nail has been decluttered from my foot from when I broke my toe a few months ago.

I put up my new shower curtain and put out the bathroom recycling too. Getting in there clean and tidy is on my to-do list this month.

anirtak191

afternoon everyone,
rt sorry to here about the family friends gd, so young aswell, hope they are coping ok. and osrry to hear about your mum, sounds as stubborn as my nan, she wont go drs either cos she doesnt want to bother them over little things.

i have a few of them monsters in my cupboards, wondered what that snarling was thought it was my cat getting pestered again lol.
but at least its not as load as it used to be.
my one cluttering cupboard i use to do that hiding thing when i know there are visitors coming isnt so bad now, the other one now has my wm in since the kitchen was redone with a newly decluttered washing basket at the side, (wonder how long that will stay decluttered). with mop and brush hidden behind that. but the shelf above needs decluttering yet again, some tools that had been brought up from the shed last few days has been hidden out of the way up there, and some candles and a few puzzles.
the other one witht he monster in it has my ladders, with a hole cut in the shelf so that they fit. the top shelf has my painting stuff, canvasses bucket for shaking the brush and general things like that.
the bookcase gramps made me got rid of the other bookcase that was hidden in there.when i get round to it, i will put the blanket box thats in there at the bottom of the bed, with the spare duvet in that will be used when nan stays. once i figure out what to do with whats hidden in there while its hiding in the cupboard.
theres a picture my mum bought me a few years ago for christmas, not sure if i am going to find somewhere to put it or get rid of that yet. (one or 2 of those regular excuses keep popping up when i think of it.)
the fan thats now in the wall in the dining room, my husband bought me about 7 years ago. and now was the first opportunity i had to be able to put it up, didnt really have anywhere before i had sorted everything out.
there is also a wicker basket in there with some of gramps clothes that i am going to use to make a quilt with when i feel i can do it.
theres also a record player my husband bought me, want to keep it, but not sure where i am going to put it yet.

got another 1 or 2 stereos up the attic i am planning on getting rid of at some point.

i have a pile of paper work to shred once i get my shredder back, hubby lent it to someone from work.
and i probably got the kitchen to re do as hubby got a habbit of not wiping the sides over after himself.

and mentioning bottles that belong in the bathroom, im slowly getting through mine, nan buys a shoebox full every year for christmas, but i already had a small collection from when i done the 4von, i have probably got about 6 months worth of body wash, left, but im on my last shampoo bottle, will probably get a couple of bottles when i get to h0m3 b4rg4ins at the end of the month, as i dont see the point in paying full price from t3sc0 when i can get it form there, but as we dont have one all that close i have to wait till i go visiting or in this case will be helping my friend out again looking after the kids while she does an even with the burger van again. help out about 4 weekends a year. the other 2 are at the end of next month. so will be saving what c gives me for helping out towards my decorating for the living room. and i been asked to take the little one on his school trip before i come home this time as theres no one available to take him and he would miss out otherwise. so i agreed to go with him.
well better find something to do. not found anywhere to put my stacker draws yet with my craft things in.
not sold the drop leaf table yet from in the cupboard otherwise they would be going in there.