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Hoarding - Springing Ahead

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  • Hello everyone,


    Can I join your wonderful and inspiring thread? I am such a hoarder and a bad one at that :o


    I watch those programmes on the TV and think oh thank goodness I am not that bad...but I can tell if I don't start sorting my act out I could end up like it.


    I can never finish a job I started. For example I have a box of things at the end of my bed for Ebay...have I done anything with it? No. It has ended up being an excuse for me to put my clothes over and now I cant see it but I know its there. I am also sitting surrounded by boxes which DH and I have been putting things in for a car boot sale. But what car boot sale? They are still surrounding me and it was supposed to happen over the summer hols but didn't materialise. :o I now can't sit properly at the table due to the amount of stuff..it actually makes me feel quite stressed.


    I worry myself at times and I know I need a swift kick up the behind to sort all my stuff out. I do have an 8 year old and an 18 month old and their stuff just gathers and collects around me. I find it hard to tell them to tidy up as quite rightly - I don't. I also work 4 days a week and have a stressful job so the last thing I feel like doing when I have sorted everyone out is tidy, clean, sort etc last thing at night. I even find it hard to invite people round due to the mess and I can tell I have a bigger problem than a lot of people realise. Most of my friends seem to love the 'minimalist' approach - I call my approach...homely but I am starting to think its more like 'pig sty' :rotfl:


    So I am all out for a happy home is a happy mind and I so want to feel clear in my head and clear in my home. I also know that I can make some money from all this stuff - one mans junk is another mans treasure and this will help pay off some of these debts which is what made me come to this forum in the first place - the LBM!


    I find this thread inspiring and I need to stop being so lazy and just get with it but I feel so drained with stuff, debt and life in general that I hope this thread will give me the boost I need to kick start me to get going again...I do have a goal - to get clear and make a few quid extra for/by Christmas :) The sunny day today is also making me feel positive and perhaps slightly by offloading a little (which I have never done about this) a little bit of therapy has taken place too :o


    Thank you for reading and I could swamp this thread as I have soooooooo much to do and sort, sell, tidy, clear etc etc but by reading some of this thread I feel I am not alone.


    Thank you for listening and watch this space ;)


    FG xx
    :eek: 07/14 - LBM.....£38,151k joint debt :eek: now £32,417k
    Loan 1 - £20k - Now £18400, Loan 2 - £12k - Now £9470, CC1 - £795 - Now £720, CC2 - £3k - Now £2778, CC3 £361 - Now £209, CC4 - £100 - Now £70.99. DH OD - £1895 - Now £770
    1% challenge 08/14 #337; £2 challenge 01/15 #199;


  • silvasava
    silvasava Posts: 4,433 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    GQ - another one to add is 'how do you eat an elephant - A teaspoonful at a time'
    That always seems to work for me as whatever little I do is a small piece less to do in future. I try to break the big jobs down into smaller jobs that can be done over days/weeks depending on time available, then at least I have achieved something. some days we are more motivated than others & its very easy for that little voice in your head to point out what you havn't done rather than what you have done dont listen to it
    Small victories - sometimes they are all you can hope for but sometimes they are all you need - be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle
  • I'd like to add another suggestion about how to get started on sorting things out.


    For me, happiness is about achievable goals. I work full time and there is no way I'm going to achieve everything I think I should.


    So I break it down into a couple of things I must achieve every day, and a couple I could over the week.


    For me that translates into all washing up being done, lunch made, and all rubbish in bin (flippin' DH apparently not knowing where it is!)


    Everything else is optional, and depends on variables like, what's on tv, what sort of day was it, and can I be bovvered anyway? Mostly not, but I have already done the quota so that's ok : )
  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    silvasava wrote: »
    GQ - another one to add is 'how do you eat an elephant - A teaspoonful at a time'
    That always seems to work for me as whatever little I do is a small piece less to do in future. I try to break the big jobs down into smaller jobs that can be done over days/weeks depending on time available, then at least I have achieved something. some days we are more motivated than others & its very easy for that little voice in your head to point out what you havn't done rather than what you have done dont listen to it
    :) I'd forgotten the elephant analogy, good to be reminded of that.

    After work today I biked up to my allotment to chisel another square meter of tussocky grass out of what was an area about one-fifth of the allotment which had got away from me in summer 2013 and hasn't been got back until now. Several weeks ago I gave the waist high grass a radical haircut, biked several IKEA bagfuls of grass down to the tip, and have been chiselling away at it on and off ever since, as well as doing other gardening tasks and living my life, as you do.

    I set the spade alongside the path and went across, as well as doing other things on the allotment. It was scary but there is now only a little islet left, about the size of a large area rug. Another 1-2 hours and it will be gone-gone-gone.:)

    Gardening is an excellent opportunity for meditation on Stuff as it slows you down to the speed of life. I was thinking about clutter this evening, about how it seldom comes into the home a tipper-truck at a time.

    Clutter mostly arrives one boxful or carrier-bagful at a time. It slips past in the kiddies' schoolbags and in the holiday suitcases (those dratted souvenirs), it comes in for special occasion birthdays or anniversaries and then it just............sits...........and becomes invisible. Until you break a toe falling over it, see a pic shot indoors with it all in the background, or watch a hoarding programme and think ohmigodthat'smeinacouplemoreHELP !! years and have a major LBM.

    Sooo, because it snuck home in dribs and drabs, it can be snuck out in dribs and drabs, too. And the wonderful thing about decluttering is that it's like having a set of muscles which become stronger the more you use them. Your decision-making becomes clearer, you get excited about the potential of seeing the floor (mine is MIA at the mo ;)) and you pick up speed and it actually gets easier over time.

    Welcome aboard to all new posters and more power to your elbow. I shall now practise what I preach and wash some dishes whilst waiting for my supper to cook and also multi-task some personal admin.
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • parsniphead
    parsniphead Posts: 2,897 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    I attacked the shelf in the kitchen yesterday and now have a bag of unused cookbooks in the boot of the car to go to the charity shop. I have been ruthless and just kept the ones I use. I tend to look things up online if I need them.

    The kitchen, siting room and my bedroom now look like normal, neat but lived in rooms. The rest of the house needs some attending to.:o I'm not going to be negative though as one more room sorted andd I will be more than half way there.
    1 debt v's 100 days chapter 34: T3sco bank CC £250/£525.24 47.59%

    [STRIKE]MBNA - [/STRIKE]GONE, [STRIKE]CAP ONE[/STRIKE] GONE, [STRIKE]YORKS BANK [/STRIKE]GONE, [STRIKE]VANQUIS[/STRIKE] GONE [STRIKE] TESCO - [/STRIKE], GONE
    TSB CARD, TSB LOAN, LLOYDS. FIVE DOWN, THREE TO GO.
  • drusilla
    drusilla Posts: 294 Forumite
    My daughter left for uni on Sunday:( . Before she left she cleared her room of childhood clutter. I now have 15 bags to charity shop and tip.

    I sneaked to the tip this morning to get rid of the huge - we are talking Great Dane sized- stuffed pink horse that her dad bought for her when she was 8.

    There is just so much stuff in this house!
    De cluttering Konvert.
    Getting there

    Finding a new home under all the STUFF!
  • pigpen
    pigpen Posts: 41,152 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    drusilla wrote: »
    I sneaked to the tip this morning to get rid of the huge - we are talking Great Dane sized- stuffed pink horse that her dad bought for her when she was 8.!

    I have a wolf on my landing.. I feel your pain.. alas wolfy has been shot and is bleeding polystyrene beads about my house.. excuse to tip him.. oh yeah!!


    2 binbags of rubbish flung from girly room..

    today we (read I) started dealing with this...

    10672411_10152677319773518_7376248343082855608_n.jpg?oh=ef0314a91e418d7ec0bfd76ff648fb4e&oe=54930D66


    tomorrow I need to deal with the remainder which is this..

    1926141_10152677405668518_7629734342802367530_o.jpg


    but that is a miniscule job compared to todays mountains... at leat 3/4 of the room !s clear now, this morning you couldn't get through the door..

    10636910_10152677405243518_3353016544703459656_o.jpg
    LB moment 10/06 Debt Free date 6/6/14
    Hope to be debt free until the day I die
    Mortgage-free Wannabee (05/08/30)
    6/6/14 £72,454.65 (5.65% int.)
    08/12/2023 £33602.00 (4.81% int.)
  • Well Done Pigpen!!!!
    :T
  • drusilla
    drusilla Posts: 294 Forumite
    edited 10 September 2014 at 8:20PM
    Wow Pigpen. That is an amazing job.

    It makes me think of the photo I took of my room when we decorated half of it. It looked lovely... until I turned around to see the pile of engineered wood flooring ( donated by OH parents too good to throw!) :eek: It is still there 18 months later. I just climb over it now and use it as a place to store more carp.

    I hope for your sake that you don't have the same problem.:)

    Ooh just had a thought! Maybe OH can put it down in DD2's room when he finishes the refurb - not just a bit of decorating sadly. More like rewire, replaster, build new fitted wardrobes and then decorate. Ho hum! I do like DIY! I do! ( And repeat until convinced...)
    De cluttering Konvert.
    Getting there

    Finding a new home under all the STUFF!
  • pigpen
    pigpen Posts: 41,152 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    616612_10152678841048518_2744808904723270066_o.jpg


    5 of those boxes are to be sorted through when I have space and time, the red box is dressing up stuff and there is a box for CS.. I was going to sell it but tbh I just want the space back! I need to clear the fire surround too.

    I have a binbag full listed on ebeast and half a binbag for CS and 1 large plastic tub flung and 3 small cardboard boxes. It is a lot emptier.. sadly my landing is dangerous.. you take your life into your hands out there.. I am sorting my room this weekend and attacking the landing next week with a view to a cheap loft conversion/boarded space so I can use it for storage.. it is a vast space up there I cannot currently use!


    10551691_10152678841043518_6823486110534033913_o.jpg


    cleared tops of cupboards..

    10636751_10152678841053518_4523624848199525543_o.jpg


    toys all neatly away..
    LB moment 10/06 Debt Free date 6/6/14
    Hope to be debt free until the day I die
    Mortgage-free Wannabee (05/08/30)
    6/6/14 £72,454.65 (5.65% int.)
    08/12/2023 £33602.00 (4.81% int.)
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