Hoarding - Springing Ahead

ivyleaf

thriftwizard wrote: »

I have total sympathy with you both - have 5 kids plus one's partner (herself the youngest of 8) all but one still living at home - with all the clutter that goes with them, nowhere near enough space & no prospect of ever having enough, short of moving to the wilder/damper/colder fringes of the continent!

Some pages ago I promised to post a pic of my stair-carpet "solution" when I finally got to that stage. Not quite there yet, one coat of paint & quite a lot of sanding yet to go, but you can now see what it will look like:





Please ignore the still-somewhat-cluttered bookcase in the background... things came to a complete halt when my mother fell ill again, one of the kids had a bit of a crisis, and I had to prepare for one of my biggest events of the year, all at the same time. I'm glad to say Mum's better, the crisis is being addressed (albeit slowly) and the show went well, so I came home with only half the stock I'd gone up there with! And worked out that I don't actually need a camper van after all - I can sleep & cook in our car!

Your stairs look lovely

Got back from holiday on Friday and still trying to catch up with my favourite threads, and still rather tired and discombobulated I have absolutely no idea what we'll have for dinner tonight!

Pooky

Thriftwizard - Can I ask how those carpet pieces stay in place please? I've never seen them before. I've got a runner with stair rods and lovely white painted stairs which seemed like a good idea at the time but with 6 cats who all like to run up the white bits, they need daily hoovering and wiping (note - they need it - they don't get it)

dragonette

Hi all,

I've been battling my ill health and slowly clearing things out, gosh its hard to let go of things kept 'just in case'!! I finally got over my fears and took 2 bags to the CS myself today, I've always been scared they would turn their noses up at it.

Buuuuuut...they were lovely I am hoping I will be able to do a lil more tomorrow. Maybe. Still, everything that goes is progress! I'm really not kondoing properly, but the 'joy spark' is being very helpful to me, kindof partly kondo, partly dehoarding and partly giving away to friends seems to working atm. So I'll keep plodding on.

Hoping everyone else is getting on ok

silvasava

Dragonette - I'm in a similar place to you with part Kondo/dehoard/clear carp. As we're retired I'm thinking of family who will have to deal with it all when we pop our clogs! ATM its going in fits and starts but at least it is going! I too find the 'joy' test helpful and thanking the sentimental items before 'releasing' them also helps me.

pigpen

dragonette wrote: »

I'm really not kondoing properly, but the 'joy spark' is being very helpful to me, kindof partly kondo, partly dehoarding and partly giving away to friends seems to working atm. So I'll keep plodding on.

Hoping everyone else is getting on ok

This is pretty much what I'm doing with a mountain of ebay thrown in.. I've ground to a halt this week with the black dogs feet firmly under the table, things may start looking up after tomorrow but I am to utterly exhausted I feel sick and can't do a thing.. including sleep!

Gingernutty

I've recorded Electric Dreams and found this!!

ROCK ON!!

I'd forgotten I had it.

I've recorded it, it's going on my MP3 player, it's backed it up on the storage hard drive and now the record can go.

:T

dragonette

I've got another 2 carrier bags for the CS to go, and a bag of bags. I've started another ragbag as I realised things I was wearing were too, ah 'loved' to be sold in a charity shop! :eek:

I'm also getting rid of knick knacks and things I've been given as gifts. My new flat simply doesn't have enough surface space to display them without it looking terribly cluttered, and I'm no letting it get like that! :A

Still is an agonisingly slow process. Both physically and emotionally. but I know how I want things eventually - easy to live with and in, even on the worst low energy days. This really is all tied in to my well being now, and though I'm slow in progress, I will get it done :j

mothernerd

DS3 went out unexpectedly last week so I moved round the furniture in the front room - bed into the only available space, then the couch (boys hadn't put the feet back on when we moved in - won't go through doors with them on), a fireplace, a large sideboard and finally the bed on the opposite wall to where it started. This also involved lots of scooping things from the floor, chucking rubbish I hadn't been able to reach and I swept and mopped each stretch of floor (bare asphalt) as I cleared it.

Tried to follow flylady this week (managed 2 1/2 days) but have cleaned off the windowsill and large window (previously cut off by the bed) and have only put back two storm lanterns full of lavender and my toucan money box. When I did the kitchen I cleared that windowsill (mainly drying takeaway boxes which I re-use). It was a foot deep. All boxes and lids paired off (3 slight variations) and all the extras in the recycling bin (picked the worst ones). Cleaned windowsill and as much of the window as I could reach (used to stand on the worktop/ draining board but not fit/ light enough for that yet) and again only one jug on the windowsill (with the washing-up liquid bottle 'hidden' inside.

Misread the flylady instructions and came to a halt. It said 'bathroom' and started with cleaning the floor which I could have done (having done some bathroom bits at weekend and the day before. However I thought it said 'bedroom' and the thought of clearing the floor and flat surfaces in here was too much. I thought my bed was looking much better (have been trying to use up old notebooks and spare felt tip/ fibre pens etc) but things were falling off onto the floor on the side I don't sleep on. In addition to clear the kitchen for cleaning I had brought up the clean laundry and dumped it all on my bed for sorting.

Yesterday I spent several hours at the large (up for sale) house - chopping back shrubs, clearing weeds, potting bedding plants in bare spots, sweeping all the downstairs floors and cleaning as many windows and mirrors as possible, in anticipation of a viewing. The woman saw it at 2pm and went back with her husband at 5pm so fingers crossed. I have bought a weekly bus ticket so will hop back and forth cleaning/ titivating and bringing back some things from the shed.

Even selling for less than I paid for it, the relief of not having any debts would be enormous.

dragonette

That's a massive amount of moving and shifting and gardening well done!

Even being free of some of the visual noise is making things seem lighter. I hope the large house sells soon for you, as much as I love gardens I think two is a bit much for anyone!


I've ground to a halt again, had very little sleep and after a fatigue slate during the week, I'm a bit scared to push myself too much. Ending up bed bound isn't very fun at all

ivyleaf

Take care, dragonette. Listen to your body and always try to stop before you're really tired. I know how frustrating it is to have to stop before the job's finished, but as you say, ending up stuck in bed is no fun

mothernerd What a lot you've done! Best of luck with the house sale