Hoarding - Springing Ahead

catshark88

Well done Picklepot, a great start.

I'm in the process of reading this thread from the start. It's packed full of ideas re how to go about things and there's lots of inspiration too.

I find it helps to just get up and make a start when I have the idea that something needs doing. I'm a dreadful putter offer, so if I see something in a wrong place, or if a pile of stuff catches my eye, I have to get straight on to it, before I forget, or feel too off put.

Doing something for a short, set period of time works well too. A radio play like you did is fab, but even during an ad break on TV is something. The US channels are great for that, they seem to have programme breaks around all their ads, lol!

Nix143

Oh dear me. I honestly don't know whether to cry or hug you all.

I think I will settle for hugs.


I tend to hang around the competition board and hardly ever come in OS anymore and so had never seen this thread. Anyway I've just skimmed through it - I'd love to read it all but after the first 10 pages I decided I'd rather be posting and doing than reading. Thank you, thank you to everyone who is sharing their journey - good, bad or winding.

I've started on my life revamp and sometimes I forget how far I have come. You need to step back and this thread was a big step back, in a very positive way, for me. I'm 45 and live alone in a 3 bed semi with too much storage space. And lately I've been thinking if/when I die my 20 YO son will have to deal with all my 'stuff'. Anyone who has said that makes you reassess how important something is to you has been spot on. I don't want my boy to walk into his old home dealing with his grief and then have to deal with that as well. And it might seem a bit previous but you have to start at some point.

All those people who say how calming and wonderful a clean empty suirface is - YES! YES YES YES! I am just about at the stage where I tidy the kitchen every night. It's almost embedded as a habit. The feeling of walking downstairs into that clear space - who knew that being tidy could feel so good? Why did no one ever tell me this?

I have a long way to go. But, like a lot of you, I've realised that teeny tiny nibbles really do add up. 10 minutes doing 'something' - be that folding washing, wiping surfaces, putting stuff in CS bag - it all does add up if you do enough small things over time.


Oh, and in case you're interested, my lightbulb moment happened a couple of years ago when I finally attacked my carrier bags full of mail. I sat and I opened and I shredded for hours - until I found a tax return for FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS :eek::eek::eek: that was out of date. I may have been scared of official letters but that cured me. I've never gotten over that 500 quid. Some lessons are quite hard to learn.

Anyway huge huge thank yous and I can't wait to post my little updates and get back on the wagon again. Lovely to meet you all

silvasava

Afternoon All - been AWOL for a while BUT I'm tackling the Room of Doom :j:j
Got a lovely big waterproof washing bag from T**co reduced in their sale that's big enough to hold all my sailing gear (DH laughed 'cos the slogan on the bag is 'Caution May Smell') & I can just grab it to put in the boot of the car when needed. I put two suitcases back up in the loft & while I was up there I decluttered 2 big roll bags to the CS. I've cleared away some fabric into the underbed drawer where it belongs. Tidied paperwork for sorting later & shredded loads. I've also spent time this mornng on our budget using this year as a yardstick for next year. This year I totalled up all our insurances, car tax etc & got an interest free for purchases credit card & set up a standing order for 1/12th per month. That way we wont have any big bills that leave us on the breadline! Off to make DH his favourite chicken & mushroom pie from Sundays leftovers.

ps: GQ - Just when I thought I was getting to grips someone has to mention duvet covers - slinks away.........:D

catshark88

Silvasava, we do the same with a standing order for bigger bills. It's great, isn't it? No panicking about usual bills and you really get a handle on what is really going in and out.

mcculloch29

I'm looking forward to next week. Companies keep offering me things to review on Amazon, which is lovely, but it's hard to say no... anyway a charity raffle next Tuesday will benefit big style from the goodies that I said yes to and haven't rehomed. There is an official scheme that Amazon run that I'm not allowed to rehome from. I have to be firm with myself and not accept stuff that is less than really necessary with that.
If I dispose of a book that I've been given to review, it has to be in the recycling. Which is very hard to do.

silvasava

catshark88 wrote: »

Silvasava, we do the same with a standing order for bigger bills. It's great, isn't it? No panicking about usual bills and you really get a handle on what is really going in and out.

Do you remember when the banks used to do 'Budget Accounts' - now there's a thing of the past!

GQ - I got rid of some of my shoe stash & had some lovely boxes that were too nice to CS. I found that they are very useful for storing CD's & computer 'stuff' & they fitted very neatly in my shelf unit. I do love it when something is 'repurposed'

GreyQueen

I have just come in from archery where I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had an item (not related to archery in any way) that I wanted to sell, and have sold it. That's £25 in my pocket and, more importantly, space of my shelf.

Such a joyful feeling. I swear I get more fun from getting rid than acquiring stuff, these days.......:rotfl:

Nix143, did you try contacting the tax office to see if they could re-issue this refund? I once knew I was due one and that it would have gone to my former address where I was a lodger and that my ex-landlady, based on the non-forwarded post from previous lodgers, was unlikely to forward mine.

So I wrote to the Revenue and asked for it to be re-issued and it was. Worth a try, if you haven't done it yet? After all, if it was meant to be yours and you didn't have it, what the heck have they done with it, put it in the beer kitty?

Righty, going to have a belated supper and chill before bedtime. Archery is to be commended as a pastime which improves your posture but all the good form is a wee bit tiring sometimes.

Keep up the good work, one and all, GQ xx

littlegreenparrot

Picklepot - having told you to get on with your shredding, I came home and did some more of mine!
I have finally decided that I definitely don't need 4 lever arch files of handwritten notes created for the degree I completed 15 years ago. Only half a lever arch to go....


I've also managed to come up with a plan for the textbooks from then. Have tried amazon but didn't get anywhere. There's no point giving them to a charity shop as they aren't general reading. Local university town has a big bookshop with a section that buys second hand books, they can go there first, anything left over can go immediately to the Oxfam bookshop down the road, they'll have the sort of clientele that might be interested. I'm glad I've thought of a home for them, it is beyond me to throw books away.


If something is hard to get rid off I try and just leave it be, eventually I get to the point where its really easy and obvious what should happen.

thriftwizard

Back when I volunteered there, a few years back now, Oxfam didn't dump or shred ANY books; anything unsaleable went out to the 3rd world to help people learn English, even dull & out-of-date old textbooks. I don't know if that's still the case but they are my charity of choice for unwanted books.

No further progress with DS1's room, sadly. I tried to get DD2 to empty the large chest of drawers of hers that's been sitting untouched in there for months, under the fabric. She took out everything she wanted, then had a complete meltdown when I suggested we could take the rubbish out, pop it in a bag & Freecycle the drawers. Before you think I'm an overly laid-back parent, she is "somewhere on the Autism Spectrum" most probably with a condition known as Pathological Demand Avoidance, and her meltdowns are spectacular and absolutely debilitating, for her as much as for me. And it's not just typical teenage behaviour; she's been this way all her life, although she's doing very well at trying to contain it. Sometimes I simply have to tread softly to get anywhere at all. Anyway, we're out all day tomorrow, and have agreed to try again on Thursday. She doesn't even like the drawers, and the stuff inside is literally waste paper; it was just too much change, too quickly, and with too many "demands"!

Nix143

Morning everyone. It was a good morning this morning - came down to a tidy kitchen, I'd made my lunch the night before and I wasn't late for work.

Wins last night - see above plus 2 loads of washing done, recycling in the recycling boxes, not left in the kitchen.
Fails last night - mountain of clean washing to be sorted and then ironed grows ever bigger. I may try the tumble dryer trick even though ironing is the one chore I actually don't mind doing. I'm gearing up for christmas comping at the moment so housework is pretty much on the back burner - that's the excuse I am using this month

I have a really small kitchen with a garage attached next door to it so I'm on the lookout for some old kitchen cabinets to fit in the garage. I figure they'd be the cheapest, most effective storage solution. But I'm going to need to clear the garage first and so that is buzzing around my head a bit. Paperwork I can shred, clothes I can fling - solid pine coffee tables that COULD be sold, old fireplace that only needs a spot of work - this I struggle with a bit more. The stuff in the garage has genuine worth - to someone. That's why I've held onto it. Isn't that one of the justifications - you know you COULD do something with it, you know you SHOULD do something with it - but you never do and it builds and builds. I've been hoarding pallets for building......something in the garden.

Baby steps. Pat yourself on the back more than you berate yourself. Look at it through cupped hands because the bigger picture can scare the bejesus out of you and paralyse you into inaction again.

Have a great day everyone. Knowing I'd found this thread was the thing that got me up off my erse and into the kitchen to empty the dishwasher last night so thank you for that