Hoarding - Springing Ahead

drusilla

Hi Ladies

Very long time lurker here. LOVE reading all about your lives and trials and tribulations of stuff! You have taught me loads about getting organised but also about myself.

Anyway, I had to delurk to tell you some of my news. Like VJ's mum I am decluttering one daughter to uni and as she is great at getting rid of stuff (well trained), I have managed to clear her room. This is great news as we have been wanting to rewire for the last 7 years.

I have also decluttered my eldest daughter who had taken up residence in my dining room. She left then came back - I am sure you have all been there. So not only has she gone to a new flat but so has her stuff plus loads of my surplus stuff.

I know some people here and on fly ladies talk about a 9th square to put stuff in prior to getting rid of it. I feel like I have just gained two squares at once. What a great feeling!

I am hoping that my OH will now do all the jobs that he said he would when the kids moved out.

Just got to declutter my son's room of teddies. Tell me do those of you with 10 year old boys have a room full of teddies and skylanders?

And I also found my passport in a box of carp in eldest daughter's room!!!! My house is a madhouse!

pigpen

Stuffed things.. mine have a box in the loft of the ones they want to keep and a couple on their beds.. I think my lot were about 13 when I culled theirs.

elona

What is called a ninth square is what I think of as the missionary and the cannibals problem - now politically correctly known as the fox, the chickens and the grain problem.

Basically fox cannot be left with chickens, chickens cannot be left with grain yet need to cross river with only you and one category at a time. Until you realise the only way it can work is for what seems like a wasted journey the problem cannot be solved.

While tidying, moving, decluttering - whatever you want to call it - there will come a point where everything looks even worse. You either give up or press on past the pain barrier and eventually it is so worth it!

savingqueen

drusilla wrote: »

Just got to declutter my son's room of teddies. Tell me do those of you with 10 year old boys have a room full of teddies and skylanders?

re above - oh yes!

Got rid of a bag of clothes in charity bin today. 3 more bags of books and odds and ends for charity shop when I get the chance to go - ready in the car. Another bag of clothes for a friend's little one to be given next week. DH did a tip run the other day - most of it was for the various recycling thingies like wood, electricals etc. Still a long old way to go and some areas of the house actually look worse as mentioned before but still Progress - with a capital P!

whitewing

I ought to sort out the recycling this morning and then DH will take it when he goes and gets his paper.

I also have a present to wrap.

There is a pile of cards to recycle when I have sorted them.

Other jobs that may not get done today - sort through the food cupboards. Some tins etc have been used up so we could do with getting it all out and then restacking the shelves in a slightly differet arrangement.

Move some wrapped presents to the now-empty chest. This will free up a kitchen cupboard so I can start to gather food items for a hamper I am making for Christmas.

Make a list of Xmas presents that I still need to get.

Go through my stationery cupboard and try to free up a shelf.

GreyQueen

Hi Drusilla, when I was about 10 or 11, I decided I was done with teddies and dolls and I can still recall the resistance Mum had to this, the repeated Are you sures? I was perfectly sure and didn't look back and didn't give it another moment's thought. I was ready to transition away from my transitional objects.

A quarter of a century later, I was searching for something for her in her loft when I found the pram bag (pram long since gone) and hidden inside it was.......wait for it..........my Tiny Tears doll. Yup, she'd parted with the others but kept that, all unbeknownst to me.

After a considerable discussion, she allowed that this was irrational and that it was denying another little girl the chance of a doll. I was always careful with stuff and the doll was immaculate. I bathed the doll, washed its hair and then its outfits and it was all donated together (by me, to make sure that it went this time). It would have been great to have a mum to initiate the discussion rather than dig her heels in.

Have nearly finished processing the stuff brought up to the city from Mum's place; last bit of wood will be taken to the allotment today. I only have a pushbike so have to piece these errands according to what I can carry. There are some small bags of misc which will be added to the next c.s. bag, they are tiny things which were sorted out of drawers of mixed carp, the fiddly time consuming type of job which I do at a table or sitting down with a tray on my lap.

Flat isn't looking too bad and the shed is orderly. I like to perform the mental exercise of being moving-ready. As in, if I had to move, is the stuff I have fit to come with me, or is it fit only to be discarded.

Can you imagine how much money, time and energy is spent packing up, vanning up and transporting Stuff which is only decluttered at the other end? Everyone I know does this, drives me crazy.

whitewing

GQ, I am the same as you in desiring to be moving-ready. I don't get as close to it as you seem to do!

GreyQueen

whitewing wrote: »

GQ, I am the same as you in desiring to be moving-ready. I don't get as close to it as you seem to do!

But I have a tiny one-bedroom flat, a small bike shed and an allotment shed, and that's a lot less than 'normal' people have to deal with.

My last move was nearly a decade ago when I suddenly got an offer from the council after nearly 10 years on the list. Wasn't going to turn that down, but it did mean that I had to move without much time to plan anything. As in 5 days notice. Plus go to work and on a big training course as well. I don't recall much from that autumn, I think I was so busy I was in danger of meeting myself coming the other way!

Fortunately, I wasn't overly hoarded, which was a blessing as I was going from a slightly-bigger one bedroom flat into a miniscule one.

I've seen a lot of people suffer mucho inconvenience and even financial losses because of clutter. Such as people turning down free loft insulation because it'd mean they'd have to clear out the loft and the Carp of Ages is up there, just waiting to leap out at them.

Life can throw any of us some absolute doozies at a moment's notice but one thing is for sure; the less clutter you have, the more able you are to deal with them.

MyHappinessProject

GreyQueen wrote: »

Life can throw any of us some absolute doozies at a moment's notice but one thing is for sure; the less clutter you have, the more able you are to deal with them.

Thanks GreyQueen, that makes a lot of sense.

drusilla

GQ you talked about being move ready. That is such a great idea. However, it did make me chuckle and remember my move about 18 years ago.

I had done a pretty impressive job of de cluttering and organising everything for my new home - only to find that my mum had carted two very full black bags full of rubbish to my new home.

What made it even more frustrating was the fact that the vendors had filled the bin and left a pile of carp when they moved out. :mad: