Hoarding - Springing Ahead

whitewing

pigpen wrote: »

I can do those 2 things, but you cannot sleep in any bedroom, take your life into your hands on the landing and clutter everywhere!

I was really pleased the other day when I could walk from the back to the front of the house without stepping on or over anything

Then yes, I would say that it is beginning to be a hoarding problem.

pigpen

whitewing wrote: »

Then yes, I would say that it is beginning to be a hoarding problem.

Most is just down to no storage. I have a pile of crates to go in the loft which I can't do..

I just need less stuff!!!

pavlovs_dog

we just hung a set of prints we bought at least 8 months ago. Took all of an hour and looks fab, don't know why we put it off for so long. A bit more space reclaimed from the junk room :j

whitewing

We;ve still got bedroom blinds sitting in a packet. We don't even see them now.

thriftwizard

Oh yes, bathroom clear & tidy, kitchen clear & tidy - apart from what's necessary to clean & feed (currently) 8 people, with some sensible stores in case of illness /flooding etc. Living room clear, apart from 2 cats on sofas (should say, with the pets, currently 4 cats, 2 of whom have been here for 17 years, one for 10 and one lived feral in the garden for over a year before creeping indoors last Christmas. Two cockatiels, both rescues, and 9 chickens, who eat scraps & lay about 5-6 eggs a day between them; our little flock has been in existence & pretty stable for over 10 years. All (currently) healthy & we can afford to feed them & cope with the odd vet visit. Not quite sure how this constitutes a hoard, although I willingly admit it's more than most people have - but we had more kids than most people, too, and have a bigger house & reasonable-sized garden.)

DS1's room is currently problematic, as it currently contains two sets of furniture, the outgoing & the incoming, as well as my fabric, sewing station and most of OH's 30 boxes of football programmes. (These, of course, are not a hoard but an investment.) However DS1 has been living upcountry for 4 years now; the bed is clear for him to sleep on, and the sewing station can double up as a desk when he comes home for the weekend, but I wouldn't want to sleep unwitting guests in there! I was in the middle of tackling the room when DS2 announced he needed to move back home again for a while, complete with girlfriend & furniture to save up for a deposit on a place of their own. Hence everything had to be compressed somewhat, in a hurry, and there isn't currently room to sort it out.

So, apart from DS1's room & some inevitable work-related clutter in the conservatory, which is where DD1 & I tend to work, because of the light, the house is actually pretty clear & all bits are usable. It doesn't look like other people's, because it isn't; it's an all-day, everyday working household, not a show-home or somewhere where people only go to to sleep.

PS - Pigpen, thank you for the suggestion but that's exactly what I do, and have done for the last 5 years or so! OR, I make bags "to die for" (not my own description!) from them... small pieces get made into lavender bags.

pigpen

Then you need to be more picky.. don't keep them all, just keep the ones you like.. if you have to pause over a fabric let it go!!! Don't go back through it just set it free, it has a purpose beyond your expectations of it!

I went through my fabric stash in that way, I rehomed many bags and boxes of fabric... I then filled the space with yarn of all pretty colours and textures... then I sit in my squalor and knit!!

Today however, I am absolutely exhausted, I'm thinking possibly in part to the huge insect bite on my leg and the 2 youngest being nocturnal!

flossyann

Lucy5781; re hoarding of old greetings cards ''Take digital photos of them?? Still be able to see them/read the messages without them taking up space x''

Thanks Lucy, you are a genius.

i have just spent a lovely hour photographing all the remaining greeting cards and transferred the photos to a disc and the originals to the recycling.

amazing tip :beer:
x

pigpen

whitewing wrote: »

We;ve still got bedroom blinds sitting in a packet. We don't even see them now.

I know that one!

I just sent a blind to DS1's which took up residency in the bathroom 8 years ago.

GreyQueen

thriftwizard, your home sounds as good as it can be, given the return of a DS accompanied by a TDIL and furniture. No greater love has a Mum than to allow more furniture into her home.............

It's not going to be Everyhome because you are not Everywoman, you are Vintage Crafting Woman and that takes space and stuff, and what you described sounds very reasonable to me. I'd be in those fabric piles like a terrier down a rat hole, given half a chance.

I have 4 rooms in my wee flat (kitchen opens off living room) and all can be used for their intended purposes, although I will have to wash the dishes before I start cooking again, as the tiny amount of space is spoken for already.

You can walk around here without stepping on things, although if you want to get to the bedroom window, you will have to climb across the bed. That's not caused by Stuff, just that my bedroom is only just a bit bigger than the standard double bed I have in there.........my flat's smallness is the source of running gags among those who know me IRL.

I think hoarding can be a tendancy as well as an actuality; I do know that I constantly struggle with an unreasonable attachment to Things. Particularly things like packaging materials and other random bits & bobs which could be crafted with etc etc. And books, and pretty stones, and baskets and......and......and........

I fight this tendancy tooth and nail because I can see a short and steep slippery slope into hoarderism and I really don't want to be going there. The amount of stern talkings-to which I give myself is shocking, and of course, your lovely mutual support and understanding is a gift in a harried world. You're a fantastic bunch, you know that?

Today I have been at the h'office which is where I use up some of my scratch paper and old pens and pencils. I will aim to spend a little time this evening on my travel diary project, to get the bulky notebook down into typing and print it out (I'm really enjoying re-reading it) and then the notebook can be shedded and there will be a slim, spiral bound book in the cabinet which will take up a lot less space.

Righty, I shall now type up a travel day and then get the tea on. Onwards and upwards, my lovelies. GQ xx

thriftwizard

I think hoarding can be a tendancy as well as an actuality; I do know that I constantly struggle with an unreasonable attachment to Things. Particularly things like packaging materials and other random bits & bobs which could be crafted with etc etc. And books, and pretty stones, and baskets and......and......and........

I fight this tendancy tooth and nail because I can see a short and steep slippery slope into hoarderism and I really don't want to be going there.

Thank you, GQ, that's it in a nutshell! I know I have this tendency too, and fight it all the way, hence giving stuff away (or indeed, setting it free, Pigpen!) when I feel it's just too much. Just looked, and we are currently talking about just 4 boxes of fabric in my own stash. Not that much, really.

Been thinking further on this whilst preparing supper for 8; OH will inevitably have a massive (verbal) go at me whenever the place isn't too bad & we've worked hard to get it & keep it like that. Almost as if, whatever he says, he doesn't actually want our home to look acceptable/me to change my ways; I can't think of a quicker way of making me feel rebellious & totally disinclined to make an effort. It often gets out of control when things happen like one of the elderlies being rushed into hospital, meaning I have to drop everything & go & look after the other one for the duration. Then it's a hard struggle to sort it all out when I get back, as well as keeping the business balls in the air (so to speak - that looks very odd & possibly indecent!) but that's usually when it all gets on top of him and he blows his top or throws some of my stuff out. The classic example being when he recycled all my Le Parfait jars in May, just before the jam season really starts, because, "You hadn't used them for weeks!"

Enough bitterness! Onwards & upwards; can't change his behaviour (slightly autistic, according to more than one Ed Psych) but I can change my reactions to it & not get stupidly rebellious.