Hoarding - Springing Ahead

whitewing

I am pleased as we cleared a tabletop this morning from some leftover weekend decluttering. Table has now gone away. Washing was put away and got a small load done and hung up this morning. (DD still wets the bed occasionally).

I am still very happy with the clothes we passed on a few days ago. I wouldn't have thought we would have been able to get rid of so much, in fact, I wouldn't have thought we could have got rid of anything. Just goes to show that regular reviews as a routine chore can still reap the benefits. All DD's clothes are totally reorganised into her new-to-her drawers, and there is space in each drawer to actually flick through the pile. It does free up outfits and so she wears more different things. It is lovely to go to a drawer, know that it all fits and is seasonal. We can also clearly identify things that she is lacking eg shorts and can list prospective colours as we can easily see the colour range of T shirts that she already has.

I have a tall cupboard in the dining room that has accumulated two or three boxes in the top. I think it's craft stuff. I will sort them out at one point and maybe donate some of it to nursery.

Bins went out this week so that was good, but recycling hasn't gone yet and it is now at the stage of falling out when the cupboard door is open.

atypicalblonde

Good evening everyone


I haven't posted on this thread for quite some time, though I read everyday. I can honestly say that if it weren't for this thread life would be quite different - not in a stuffed-to-the-rafters way, but simply by allowing the day to day detritus to build and build before it becomes a real mental block to attempt to clear it.


I have two small children (almost 2 and 3 months old) and I find that unless I regularly review their clothes/toys/shoes/books/general gubbins then it mounts up so quickly and requires at least a dedicated day to sort and declutter. Pigpen - your energy amazes me, I am exhausted by the demands of just two smallies! Whitewing - how old is your DD?


Both DH and I are self-employed running our own separate small businesses, therefore our office also needs to be gutted on a weekly basis to ensure order is maintained, otherwise it generally turns into the room from hell very quickly. Today's positives are:


- Three carrier bags of outgrown toys and clothes waiting by the door for a friend to collect tomorrow
- Black bin out ready for collection (near to overflowing, hardly surprising with two in nappies and fortnightly collection!)
- Three loads of washing dried on the line and put away
- Unsubscribed from three email newsletters


I love reading everyones posts - you inspire me daily to keep my house in order xx

parsniphead

Oh dear I was at work today and ended up tidying out my filing cabinet draws. What's happening? I wish I could have been at home though.

Whitewing, there would be no chance of getting under the bed yet. One day soon.

Pigpen, your right the sunshine does help. When it's cold and rainy the only thing I declutter are tea and biscuits.;)

pigpen

2 boxes from my landing sifted through, a binbag off to charity shop and a few bits up for sale.. need to pop them on ebay too as well as FB groups.. I WILL get rid!


I managed a whole 3 hours sleep last night so not achieved anything much.. decluttered a DLA renewal into the post and a few bits of junk mail ~ return to sender!


I'm hoping for some shop returns in the next couple of days.. ordered excess for choice..


I shall endeavour to get this Tesco freezer filling order done when I can find my list!! And then list 6 items on ebay.. I will then have 15 items on..

MrsAtobe

Oh dear ladies, I am going to need your support in the coming days. 😢 When we moved in, lots of 'stuff' got put in the room designated as the 'dressing room'. Tomorrow, the new wardrobes arrive, and by Saturday I have to have all the 'stuff either put away or flung. Wish me luck...

anirtak191

evening/morning all,
well been in a real cba mood today, well thats yesterday now i spose.
went to friends to babysit/house sit/dog sit, left at 6.30 thursday morning. done lots of cleaning and what felt like a months worth of ironing for her while looking after the munchkin.
and as no one else was available, i went on his school trip with him on tuesday to noahs ark. have to say was quite a nice day, just would have been better if he would have been just as interested in the animals as much as he was in the different play areas that seemed to be dotted around. unfortunately tho i ended up catching the sun, forehead is rather red witch seems to be lightening to a less red as you go down my face how that happened i dont know, and as usual when i spend any time at all in the sun the top of my back that was exposed is doing a good impression of a lobster.
gotta be honest im quite proud of myself, i got on a bus, i cant stand buses, or public transport, it makes me feel so ill just the thought of getting on one. but i focused on making sure the munchkin was happy and safe and managed to curb that icky panicky feeling i get in my gut when i do something i dont like or im not comfortable doing or dont feel strong enough to do, usually i can make an excuse to not so it, but i didnt want the kid to miss out on his school trip, and i think thats what helped me through it aswell.
when we got back and i had realised i had cought the sun, i took a cool shower to see if it would help calm my skin down a little, but then instead of getting ready to come home tuesday afternoon like originally planned, i fell asleep, but then being out usually take it out of me, trying to keep focused on what needs to be done feels like it takes so much energy i am always drained when i get back home. and i ended up sleeping till well past the time i was due home.
decided to have some food and wait a while as my friend mentioned heatstroke, so i wanted to make sure i wasnt showing any signs and ended up leaving around 2 am, went and got some shopping in the 24 hours t3sco on the way past then made my way home, got back just after 4, would have been a bit quicker if i hadnt have been cought behind a truck doing 35 on the 60 roads lol.

emptied shopping out of the car when i got back put away the stuff i needed to, then ended up going to bed for a bit, witch i thought was a little strange as usually if i am tired enough that i doze off for a bit i usually sleep better than i do if i get 8+ hours.
i remember at one time even if i dozed off for 5 minutes it was like i had a full nights sleep, cos i spoke to the dr about it, and even tho i was sleeping between 6 and 10 hours a week the dr said that was fine as i was at least getting some sleep.

any way, i visited my nan while i was down thatw ay and decluttered some flowers from her garden for my planter outside the front door, my snow on the mountain disapeared and i wanted some more and others similar to replace it that hangs over the front of my planter.
will try and get them in later.

i keep looking around my place, knowing it is not as cluttered as it was, and its been kept tidier for longer than normal due to this, and im feeling i still need to sort stuff out. but everything i look at is stuff that has been used at some point in the last few months, and will more than likely be used again.
if i could i feel that i would honestly just get rid of everything, have extreme minimalist stuff and just start again, but the funds for doing that would prove difficult. especially on the furniture side of things.

fingers crossed i can find some mojo at some point,
ive watched more tv tonight i think trying to declutter some programmes off the planner than i have in the last month. ok one programme got a full season of 2 different programmes to get through.

right going to make a plan now, and try and keep to it, on the weekend i think i will go over the the garage and look through bootsale stuff take pictures of about 10 items bring them back over to the flat and eb4ay them.
unless i find some stuff around the flat im going to get rid fo first and then do that. going to work on the 10 items as a min, as when i am in this mood, i know from experience you cant get me to do much more than the basics that need to be done to keep on top of things, hope i dont feel worse over next few days tho as i know even the basics can suffer then.
once this episode has finished i think im going to go get some sleep as i am starting to feel rather tired usually i only feel this drained after i have been out and apart from answering the door this afternoon ive not been outside.

but im glad everyone else seems to be doing well with their sorting.
now just gotta try and get myself into gear lol.
night all

Happygreen

Nothing to report from myself but OH has started clearing his desk as a new PC is awaiting ANY space to sit on...I am delighted, he has sorted out 2 boxes of papers, one to burn and 1 to recycle and so far he is down 6 (!!!!!) years! You know, he had gone to that stage where he just laughed when I said "couldn't you tidy up your desk before you die of dust inhalation?" Can't wait to see the new pc up on there!

whitewing

I have a day off and everyone else is out. Two loads of washing are on the line (I stripped the beds) and another one doing its cycle.

I have sorted all the recycling into piles in the kitchen so hopefully DH will take the hint later when he is back with the car. I found a couple of things that he had sneaked into recycling that I was peeved about so I have had a good talk to myself. I cheered up greatly when I saw he has thrown out his suit. I always hated it, partly because he only just fitted into it, but it had sentimental value.

Collated all the lying about receipts and paperwork and have filed them away.

I am going to sunbathe this afternoon but will peg out the last clothes before I go and sit in the park. So I decided to sort through my purse while I was waiting. Now I could have sworn that I'd done that not too long ago and that I'd kept on top of it but I still managed to bin 13 loyalty card, expired debit cards etc.

teaandcakeaddict

Hiya, Whitewing pointed me in the direction of this thread from my own:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5008467

(if you want to read!)

I'm having some problems with my daughters hoarding behaviors and well.....the apple didn't fall far from the tree. I understand things have to change and have been slowly decluttering for months (years?).

Well my daughter hasn't quite had her lightbulb moment yet shall we say, and with twins on the way that will need to share her room I'm trying to sensitively declutter for her, and with her help hopefully.

Today I have worked on her wardrobe and drawers and cleared two bin bags out, one for the charity shop and one of rags. I actually had to fight my own hoarding demons because I was putting things to one side thinking "I paid good money for this, I should eBay it", knowing full well it would just sit on the side in my bedroom for months (or until my daughter rediscovered it and took it back). I have suitcases in the loft full of clothes that I intend to ebay, going back 10 years!

Hope everyone is having a good day. I will read back on the thread later, right now I'm just finishing a tea break before I wash the dishes and sort the washing before the kids get home.

anirtak191

some good tips there, maybe i can use them for my 5 yr old niece.
then again her mum could do with some help, she says she wants the help but im not sure, its like a clothessplosion thats gone off in the house and a toysplosion in my nieces room and play area, theres no floor visible in the play area at all, and its like she has to climb over a hill whenever she goes in there to get something she wants to play with.
im doing painting for her at the moment, and i had a hard time getting at the wall to draw when i visited on wkend (got cartoon characters on the wall i been doing for her, so far we have the 7 dwarfs, snow white, belle, arial, jasmin, cinderella, sebastian and sylvester and tweety, painting the princesses in on next visit others have been done, before any more drawing, thats if i can get to the wall)