Hoarding - Springing Ahead

GreyQueen

pigpen wrote: »

Stayed brown but all the speckles disappeared

Kinda the reverse of me today with my new short haircut; lotsa brown disappeared but rather more speckles (white bits) appeared.

As always, am in awe of pigpen's whirlwind life. I've gone to work, visited a friend in their shop, had my haircut and decluttered a fish supper. I could be doing the ironing, wash the dishes or excavate the floor.

Well, I could. Theoretically. But I'm skiving tonight.;)

pigpen

I could be doing all manner of things yet here I am.. doing nothing.. well, reading, typing, chatting, feeding the baby etc... all those I do while doing 'nothing'

The dust has given me a sore throat

Those are hairs of wisdom.. the more you have the wiser you are.. I have about 5.. I'm an idiot!

GreyQueen

My hair is going white at a rate of knots. It's a family trait, we get dazzlingly white hair quite young and as most of the gang have thick, strong hair, it tends to look very striking. Certainly not going to waste my time and energy dyeing it back to reddish-brown.

I'm already middle-aged and one day will be Old. Anyone who can't cope with it can take a long walk off a short pier.:rotfl:

thegladsatsuma

I'm sorry if this is in the wrong thread, I've just spent ages trying to figure out my old username, but had to make a new one.

My OH's sister and two teenage nephews have just been round, unannounced, to drop off a birthday present for OH. I was MORTIFIED as they stepped into the living room, as I haven't "tidied up" for weeks. We never, ever have any visitors and if someone is invited round I spend the week beforehand going over the place to make it look almost normal. To think they've just seen the state in which we live, I feel sick thinking about it actually. I even shed a few silent tears after they'd gone.
Has anyone else had to go through this?

pigpen

GreyQueen wrote: »

My hair is going white at a rate of knots. It's a family trait, we get dazzlingly white hair quite young and as most of the gang have thick, strong hair, it tends to look very striking. Certainly not going to waste my time and energy dyeing it back to reddish-brown.

I'm already middle-aged and one day will be Old. Anyone who can't cope with it can take a long walk off a short pier.:rotfl:

Does it go white or a lovely silvery grey?? I love white hair.. my mother always wears black and she look like half a pint of guiness lol

I'm middle aged too apparently but old is appealing!

thegladsatsuma wrote: »

I'm sorry if this is in the wrong thread, I've just spent ages trying to figure out my old username, but had to make a new one.

My OH's sister and two teenage nephews have just been round, unannounced, to drop off a birthday present for OH. I was MORTIFIED as they stepped into the living room, as I haven't "tidied up" for weeks. We never, ever have any visitors and if someone is invited round I spend the week beforehand going over the place to make it look almost normal. To think they've just seen the state in which we live, I feel sick thinking about it actually. I even shed a few silent tears after they'd gone.
Has anyone else had to go through this?

yes, we have all been there.. and it is awful.. do you want it to be different? Finding a starting place is the hardest thing.. I never know where to start.. I need to have a reason to do things, a reason to look in that box and empty it..

I'm on a fling at the moment which means as much as possible must leave the house in as short a time as possible.. I can't look at it or think about it it just goes in a bag and out of the door.


We are here to encourage and cheer you on.. xx

GreyQueen

thegladsatsuma wrote: »

I'm sorry if this is in the wrong thread, I've just spent ages trying to figure out my old username, but had to make a new one.

My OH's sister and two teenage nephews have just been round, unannounced, to drop off a birthday present for OH. I was MORTIFIED as they stepped into the living room, as I haven't "tidied up" for weeks. We never, ever have any visitors and if someone is invited round I spend the week beforehand going over the place to make it look almost normal. To think they've just seen the state in which we live, I feel sick thinking about it actually. I even shed a few silent tears after they'd gone.
Has anyone else had to go through this?

Most people have been there, done that, got the tee-shirt. You're among friends here, let it all hang out.

Sometimes, we don't realise that things have gone beyond the pale until an incident like this. What was it that Flylady called it - CHAOS - Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome.

If you decline to invite anyone over without a week's prep time, answer the door with your coat on to pretend to be about to leave to stop anyone coming in, or die a little inside, like last night, you're suffering from CHAOS.

The trick is not to go back into your shell and huddle but to say to yourself OK, that was baaaaad. Didn't like how that made me feel, am going to start making a few changes around here so I don't get to revist that emotion again.

Baby steps is the way to go, or eating the elephant one teaspoon at a time. You could play head-games with yourself, such as keeping a five-bar gate tally on a piece of paper on the fridge for every item you get rid of, big or small. Or you could say 5-aday, just like the fruit, or make several passes across the top.

Most of us have things which are obvious carp floating about, have just lacked the motivation to get to grips with them. These are the low-hanging fruit of your 5-a-day. Get them out first, and then tunnel your way down through the layers.

If you start spinning your wheels with some decisions, don't get stuck there, move along to another area. You can try mental exercises such as Would I buy this item again if it was lost or stolen? If I had 10 minutes to evacuate this house never to return, would I take this item? If I lost it, would I even notice it was gone?

There are lots of resources on the web, excellent bloggers about decluttering. And us, of course. Good luck!

silvasava

GQ - your sun cream should have an expiry date on it somwhere - when the sun protection is no longer effective. Even so, I decant all my end of bottle suncreams into an old pump bottle & use as a moisturiser - works perfectly well & to be honest I've found that a lot of the sunscreens have some protection in them long after the end date so they're good for everyday

whitewing

Have destroyed some of my old business records as soon as they have hit the expiry time of the time I am legally obliged to keep them. That's a first!

Washing is on the line. Yesterday's dry clothes have not been put away yet. Actually, maybe they have as I don't remember seeing them when I went back home so maybe DH did it.

Bins are out for the bin men.

GreyQueen

silvasava wrote: »

GQ - your sun cream should have an expiry date on it somwhere - when the sun protection is no longer effective. Even so, I decant all my end of bottle suncreams into an old pump bottle & use as a moisturiser - works perfectly well & to be honest I've found that a lot of the sunscreens have some protection in them long after the end date so they're good for everyday

Thanks for that. It was an after-sun balm (still is, I expect ) so not actually about protection, rather about soothing the ravages.

Hell, I didn't expect 2 weeks of blazing hot sunshine without a cloud in the sky, I was holidaying in England, goshdarnit!

thegladsatsuma

Pigpen and GreyQueen - Thank you. I still feel awful about it, I know something is going to have to change and soon. OH has finally admitted that he needs to sort out his books (the dining room has two huge bookcases which are full of books and other crap from before I moved in (nearly 7 years ago). We just never seem to get round to doing any of it.
I go to other people's houses and wonder how they keep it so tidy and minimalistic looking. We just have too many 'things', like mementos from our travels. We could maybe do with an ornament cabinet or something.