Hoarding - Springing Ahead

silvasava

I bit the bullet on Saturday and listed an item of DH's on Fleabay. Fingers crossed as it will free up lots of space! I'd also had a shoe cull. 2 pairs went last week and one pair this week - at least it's something else gone. A few other pairs hav'n't gone so I will relist them in a couple of weeks. I've curbed my shoe habit drastically!
Still working on the paper mountain though

libbyrice

I had a nightmare last night when my DD tried to tidy her room. I am already starting to get anxious and stressed about my house, the clutter and the opinion of my new BF. My self esteem is pretty low at the moment and Im always comparing myself to his ex wife whos house was "immaculate" (his words)

I work full time, long hours, i know thats not an excuse but i have been so busy at work recently that i havent had time to concentrate on tidying up. So last night I got back earlyish from work and as it has been the first dry day for ages decided to mow the lawn. I was quite pleased with that progress but then got cooking tea and didnt have time to tidy.

My DD then went looking for an old board game that she hasn't played with for over 12 months. unfortunately its one that I took to the charity shop last week! It was one that was for 5-7 year olds so she is way too old for it but she was hanging onto it for sentimental reasons. She got really upset when I told her that I'd given it away, so I had to deal with tears and try and reason with her.

Then later, she went upstairs while we were watching a film downstairs. I didnt pay attention to what she ws doing but I could hear crashing and bangng and coathangers being moved etc. I thought she might be tidying her room. OOOOOOH no. What she'd actually decided to do at 8pm at night was to pull everything out of her wardrobe, chest of drawers, bookshelves and cupboards and start piling them up around her room. It was even spilling out onto the landing. She has a shoe organiser hanging over her door and whilst its not "pretty" it does keep pairs of shoes together and in one place. She'd taken all the pairs of shoes out and thrown the fabric bit in the bin and she said she didnt want it anymore.

I dont think she was doing it to be naughty, but it was a complete shock when i went upstairs. I did lose my rag and shouted at her quite badly.......All this in front of my BF. So that made me feel embarrased too.

Its just so soul destroying. She managed to clear enough space to get into bed to sleep (by chucking everything on the floor that she'd pilied on her bed!) because I just said to get herself to bed and we would discuss in the morning, but I've told her we must deal with it tonight and at the weekend.

Gingernutty

Bin bags, libbyrice. Lots of bin bags. Take this as an opportunity to get rid of stuff.

In my Lent quest

Another pair of stripy socks

Another scarf. I found it in a gutter outside Beatties in Birmingham (shows you how old since Beatties has been gone since 2006), took it home, washed it and it's done a good few years service.

However, I haven't worn it this year at all. As it's been freezing lately and I've got a nicer scarf, it can go.

A peacock blue/teal loose T-shirt. I bought it to go under a new shirt from M&S but as that shirt buttons up without looking to stretched across my belly, the 'undershirt' isn't needed and it doesn't 'go' with anything else.

That takes me up to tomorrow.

mothernerd

Took a sack and an extra bag of my things to Oxfam yesterday and have contacted an organisation today that takes furniture and refurbishes it (good trainee scheme for young people) about a few small items.

I saw a wardrobe and two sets of drawers in the hospice shop two weeks ago (whilst I was working on reducing the endless pile of stuff produced by downsizing mum and her partner from the hovel to the bungalow).

They were very well made and I was considering buying them. To make the purchase 'space neutral' I went round and identified 8 things that could go. All the time I have been in debt I have been holding on to these things that I neither chose nor like because I didn't have money to buy anything else. Now I've decided not to buy the wardrobe but am still donating the items (+ an electric fire and a tumble dryer, if they take them).

Tumble dryer was very useful after I had an operation 12 years ago as I couldn't peg out (well could do 1 T shirt at a time but with 3 sons). Since then, it's only been used when DS2 was renting this house from me as I use the line as much as possible). So I thought a mum with one or more babies in nappies (been there, done that) or someone with a bed- wetting teenager might appreciate it - it's not beautiful but it works).

Then I can get the spare kitchen cabinet out from under the stairs. In my defence (before said operation) I was doing my father's house up after he had died and doing the work my house needed. (The real fun week was when I left the cats at dad's house as work on a full damp proof course was starting at mine - boys had already been farmed out. then the plumber phoned to say he could start work on installing the CH at dad's - cue cats popping up through the floorboards). My brother and I went to the diy store with my rough plans for 2 kitchens and got everything off the shelf. My kitchen plumbing was done whilst I was in hospital - I'd put together the units one by one after finishing work each evening. At the end of my sick leave me and my mother put together the units for dad's kitchen and a slight change of layout meant one unit over.

I have also promised myself to declutter all the left over door handles this month - I put the base unit ones on whilst on sick leave - sat on a stool and drilled then rested then put on a handle but the top cupboards never got done (looked for extra work after I went back and then got very busy). And plinths, never had plinths. The house has been empty/ rented out for 8 years out of the 12 since then and I had a hip replacement a week after we moved back in so jobs up ladders are only just coming back on the agenda. have been doing shelves under the stairs for February (but spent most of the time dealing with the hovel).

Hoping getting rid of some of my excess furniture will make space for the jobs that need doing. DS3's mattress needs replacing but hoping i can persuade him to visit the gf again around Easter, get the council to collect the old one and only replace it after the work on the skylight funnel in his room has been done.

March is definitely the month for this house.

thriftwizard

Two more items sold & posted off, and another two listed. I also went through my stash of vintage knitting patterns & weeded out the unsalable and uninteresting; these will be put on Freegle in a mo. The rest have been sorted & put back away, ready to roll when needed. Onwards & upwards!

pigpen

I've just shifted some knitting patterns too.. £9.68 in my paypal

I have a squillion pairs of needles to go too.

Gingernutty

A long sleeved, long bodied T-shirt that I can't tuck into my jeans/trousers without it rolling up at the bottom and creating weird lumps and creases.

A black shirt with fake collar and cuffs and a fake ribbon at the side that does nothing except keep coming undone.

Another scarf - lovely navy blue with silvery sparkles but huge. Too big to wrap around my neck without creating lumps under my coat.

A daft impulse purchase from a charity shop. A yellow cardigan with a snakeskin pattern in gold. Yeah, like I'd wear that in public!

thriftwizard

Oh dear oh dear oh dear...:eek:

The word panic springs to mind... I was down at the Tip earlier offloading some old feather cushions that were too far gone for recovering (for sale - as I don't seem to be able to find proper feather-proof ticking anywhere) when a guy drove a trailer-load of random stuff in. I could see knitting patterns in a couple of the boxes, and they are one of my steady money-spinners - they sell to cardmakers as well as vintage knitting types - but I was in a rush, so I snaffled up both large boxes, to sort out when I got back from a trip into town, intending to dump the rubbish, which I assumed would be most of it, straight back down there. I paid the manager a sum which nearly made me think twice, but I'd already seen that there was enough in there to at least double my money, which is my Golden Rule.

Well, blow me down with a feather, there are quite literally hundreds, possibly a thousand or more, of well-kept patterns from the 1930s through to the 1970s, as well as a number of 1940s needlecraft magazines, complete with their transfers. I've sorted out the dross - later patterns, torn or creased ones - and given them straight away to a Freegler who was stopping by this afternoon for the last lot. I've also got a box of torn-out magazine patterns & recipes listed up there now; they're not saleable but some of them go back to the 1930s, so hopefully someone working with dementia patients will spot that & take them on. If I don't get any replies, I will take them back whence they came tomorrow, but that'd be a heck of a shame.

But I still have two suitcases full of lovely vintage patterns to store! They are going to go for sale, and I do have a market for them, and although individually they're inexpensive, a whole suitcase of them equates to quite a lot of money.

And to think I was just beginning to get on top of the mess...

ETA: - first Freegle response already in, sounds like a real enthusiast!

pigpen

oooh Thrift... is a neighbours house empty? I'd love a rummage in your patterns!! I love them too!!

Gingernutty

A grey 'tailored' waistcoat which looks fine on the hanger, but looks lumpy and gapes at the armpits when I put it on.

A cream and brown, horizontally striped polo neck which fits okay, but makes me look like a humbug.

A black polo neck with a neckline so loose, it can't decide whether it's a polo or a cowl neck but fails to be either and isn't flattering.

A lovely black and white scarf with a rose and skull pattern. I love it, but it's so prone to static that the folds repel each other and climb up my neck to my face. It's unwearable and it's too flimsy to do anything else with it.