Hoarding - Springing Ahead

dragonette

mothernerd it sounds like you achieved a huge amount

I'd be seriously tempted to tell the next relly who want to put stuff in the spare room pi** off, actually no. I'd tell them I could store one box of vital paperwork or one box of sentimental items. Then they can sort through it before and there might be less to deal with on your side? Ofc I could be completely misunderstanding the set up so feel free to ignore!


I'm not doing brilliantly at getting rid of stuff, but am managing to not bring much in so its a partial victory here atm. I'll take that (for now!)

GreyQueen

:T Wow, mothernerd, all I can say is WOW! You've done so much.

Re-reading my posts from yesterday reveals lots of mis-spellings and I was exhausted all day and actually went to bef at 9.30 pm and woke just before my alarm went off at 06.30 am. Clearly having a bit of an ME moment, still tired today, but will have to do what needs done and leave the rest for later.

Will be at my parents' place this weekend, won't get there until Fri evening and most of Saturday will be taken in visiting my Nan, but have ambitions to do a wee bit of decluttering at the parental home, the area alongside Mum's armchair to be specific, which impacts most on her quality of life.

I am also slightly happy that I didn't succumb to buying a replacement for my missing fleece hat in the chazzer last weekend as the existing one which was missing for a couple of weeks came out and surrendered last night - simple joys, simple joys.

libbyrice

Hi, I have realised that I have a real problem with hoarding and im so scared about sorting it all out. Its too long to go into here but Ive ended up with a three bedroom house crammed with stuff plus stuff inb storage too which is actually COSTING me money to store and Im always too busy to sort it out. im on my own with my daughter (13yrs) and she is ust as bad as me for hoarding. My mum passed away last year and I stil have a load of her stuff that I still havent had time or energy to sort out.

Ive just met a new partner and he has started to try and help me but I sense he is getting a bit frustrated with my lack of progress.

How do you get out of the psychological state that makes you cling onto stuff.

Gingernutty

Hi libbyrice!

You start with just one thing. Or type of thing. Something you have no earthly use for and decide what you're going to do with it.

Pizza flyers, table cloths, napkins, toy or decorative dolls, decorative thimbles, chinaware you've never seen used....take your pick.

If it is complete rubbish, bin it.

If it can be recycled, put it in or bring it to the right bin.

If it is of value, try to get a price and either car boot it, pass it on to a dealer or put it on Eb*y.

If you don't think you have the patience, bring it to a charity shop.

Try to group similar items together so that you don't keep finding, say, china thimbles long after you've got rid of a boatload of them.

Your priority is the stuff in storage first, of course but think long and hard before bringing any of it home.

You're clearly managing to live without anything that's in storage, so unless it's absolutely important (birth, death, exam certificates etc), you could probably get rid of the entire lot without missing any of it.

If you're paying for storage for the absolutely vital bits to keep them safe from the rest of the hoard, then the priority is, of course, the hoard.

In which case, start with just one thing....

My forty days of Lent challenge has gone on to 9 pairs of jeans which are now too big for me now I'm shrinking with my Fitbit.

I did think about 9 pairs of jeans = 9 days (one a day) but felt that was cheating!

Today, I'm going through my scarves to work out which ones can go.

libbyrice

My bathroom is cluttered so I tried to make a start with that. I used to hoard toiletries (a massive amount, I darent say how much)

I just cant bear to throw away stuff that is still useful.

I counted my t towels the other day- I had 22!

My kitchen drawers are stuffed with things and the floor is covered in tinned food Im hoarding. I cant even use my kithcen table as its covered in stuff.

Kitchen surfaces arent too bad and i keep the place clean...living room isnt too bad but my spare bedroom is stuffed with boxes floor to ceiling. I had to clear it out for a guest to stay in for one night and ended up just moving the stuff around the house and piling it in my little girls room. Its now all back in the spare room and depresses me every time I open the door.

pigpen

I had so many bottles of shampoo and bubble bath I didnt buy any at all.. for 11 years! .. thats a hoard.. it is used up eventually.

I have about that many tea towels and 20 I havent used yet..

Boxes.. I have a sort of one box a day.. if I cannot find a home for it I release it to the charity shop so while it is still useful someone else will use it.. or sell it, or donate to a worthy cause.. usually DS1 haha..

you have to decide on one area and do it all.. rather than trying to do everywhere at once and seeing no progress.

seven-day-weekend

You could donate some of the tinned food to your local foodbank.

Do you know what is in the boxes?

Slinky

pigpen wrote: »

I had so many bottles of shampoo and bubble bath I didnt buy any at all.. for 11 years! .. thats a hoard.. it is used up eventually.

Wow, that's a seriously impressive hoard!

My OH was living away from home in a flat and kept seeing toothbrushes on special offer, so he'd stock up. But only with blue ones. Goodness knows why! So we had a drawer full of blue ones and I was having to buy a different coloured one when I needed a new one. Madness. I think he's finally down to a couple of spares, but it's taken 6 years.

I've got some teatowels I haven't used yet that I bought back from Australia 22 years ago..... We have a dishwasher so don't do a lot of drying. I have at least folded my current ones in use Kon Marie style.

pigpen

Slinky wrote: »

Wow, that's a seriously impressive hoard!

My OH was living away from home in a flat and kept seeing toothbrushes on special offer, so he'd stock up. But only with blue ones. Goodness knows why! So we had a drawer full of blue ones and I was having to buy a different coloured one when I needed a new one. Madness. I think he's finally down to a couple of spares, but it's taken 6 years.

I've got some teatowels I haven't used yet that I bought back from Australia 22 years ago..... We have a dishwasher so don't do a lot of drying. I have at least folded my current ones in use Kon Marie style.

I did Avon for 3 years.. bought all their new ones and huge bundles of shampoo's .. I felt a bit stupid moving house with bottles and bottles of toiletries..

Gingernutty

Yesterday I found four scarves that can go and today a black and white patterned, Per Una cardigan which has an odd frilly ruff around a heart shaped neckline.

Bought it from a charity shop but it suits nothing else I wear and certainly doesn't suit me.