Hoarding - Springing Ahead

Gingernutty

Another pair of trousers. An odd pair of Damart from a CS with strange metal buckles on the inside of the waistband which could slide back and forth along two strips allowing the waistband to get smaller or larger.

A clockwork egg timer in the shape of a teapot.

A pile of CDs.

thriftwizard

Well, the van's packed up & ready to roll for the car boot tomorrow. The only problem is that half of it is stuff I've picked up this week, knowing I could make a big profit on it... that kind of subverts what I'm trying to do here, but the trader in me just couldn't resist. :undecided

But a fair bit of it has come from one room or another in the house; the trouble with that is that none of them look very much better!

I had a big job lot come in from the local charity shop, too, which I wasn't expecting, as it's not that long since the last lot. But I'm glad to say that I managed to shift the bulk of it straight onwards, keeping just one box of fabric that will sell quite quickly & more than double my money, and a small bag of lace & ribbon that I will use up pretty fast.

RadioHorse

Has anyone on here ever had any success with getting in professionals to deal with this stuff?

My mother is a hoarder by circumstance and it's driving me to the nth degree of insanity. I can't stay over because her house physically makes me upset to be in.

I want to invite in professionals to get it gone (she wants it gone too, no resistance on that front) but I have no idea what to expect. Any experienced voices?

Gingernutty

The danger of paying professionals is that your Mum might be making the right noises now but when it comes down to it, she might create mayhem when it comes to seeing her stuff go to charity shops/in the bin/on Eb*y.

Professionals are not paid to get into fights over hoarded cleaning products/old paperwork or anything else for that matter.

Has she started trying to get rid of the hoard and needs help getting to the bottom of it, or has everything remained untouched?

Happygreen

I don't recommend using professionals - just for the plain reason that I would not EVER want someone else clear out MY stuff. The only people who might have a sensitive approach are the Space Clearing folk (one of my friends does it). Hoarding is a condition that has a cause and maybe counselling or trauma therapy might be more appropriate to help the person than just employ someone to clear out her "stuff" and so cause additional trauma and a sense of loss.

Yesterday I read in the local paper that our old primary school had their coffee morning today - so off I drove and took down 3 boxes of my girls' books which I had stacked behind the sofa for months since we did up DD2's room! It feels good! On a sad note - our lovely old kitty had to be put to sleep last week. I managed to pass on all the leftover cat food to favourite stepson who came to visit for a few days but I will try to sell the unopened bags of litter on gumtree. Wish me luck.

RadioHorse

My mother isn't a conventional hoarder - we already have one of those in the family who thankfully does not live with us - her stuff has simply ballooned in quantity thanks to her clearing out the hoarder (who promptly reacquires more stuff *angry face*) and then a combination of ill health and IDEK. Every room is turning into a storage room.

She wants it gone but has no idea how to see it gone. I'd love to be the one to fix it, but I live over five hours away, and can't be here every day for a week to get it gone. Hence why I was thinking professionals.

thriftwizard

Oh dear, RadioHorse, that's a bit of a predicament. Is there anyone closer who could help - friends, rather than family, perhaps? It needs to be someone sympathetic & helpful, not someone bossy & impatient.

House clearance springs to mind; I know a few of these bods, and whilst do they charge to take stuff away, a number of them go to quite some lengths to rehome stuff afterwards, by selling on stuff that does have value or Freegling stuff that doesn't; very little actually gets dumped. Your mother might prefer to know that at least some of it will be going on to people who will appreciate it, even if you have to pay for the privilege.

Did OK at the boot sale this morning - not a vast amount, but respectable; it's very early in the season and there was a bitterly cold wind, so there weren't a huge number of buyers. But the ones who were there were not afraid to buy, so that was good. A few items will be taken to the Tip on Monday morning (I'm busy tomorrow) as they didn't sell & are of no further interest to me; they've stayed in the van ready to roll.

But - first jumble sale of the season this afternoon, too... £5 spent, some lovely stock acquired, none of it in need of refurb. so not entering the house for anything except pricing up.

Gingernutty

A pair of CS K shoes.

They were almost brand new with no wear on the soles at all. At £4.99, I thought they were a true bargain.

After wearing them around the house, I thought they were fine.

Until I wore them out to work. They almost crippled me! :eek:

I have a number of things wrong with my feet and somehow the shoes affected them all; Morton's neuroma, plantar fasciitis, bunions, callouses, hammer toes..you name it.

Life's too short to have shoes that hurt, so they're going.

dragonette

Gingernutty, that sounds very painful so I'm glad it is easy to get rid quickly

I'm considering getting rid of the coffee table in the living room, have replaced it with a storage unit which can lie on its side as a long (and somewhat sleek) 'coffee table'. I've put it in place and will wait a few days before deciding for sure. The storage items came out neatly and went back in neatly - the miracle of kondoing!!

Gingernutty

Sleek. Yup, that sounds like show home material.

Hope the experiment goes well, dragonette.