Hoarding - Springing Ahead

GreyQueen

roundtuit wrote: »

Thankyou for the welcome Greyqueen. That's the first time someone's made me laugh around the subject of hoarding - defective roundtuits :rotfl:and space-warp cupboards :rotfl:. It's a TARDIS! That's why it holds so much 'stuff'!!!

I understand some of the theories around hoarding having read articles and watched tv programmes - but I never understood why people ( on tv programmes) kept what was to me 'rubbish' (pot - kettle - black ) it never occured to me that they couldn't differentate between trash and treasure. Thankyou for that insight.

In the corner of the living room there's a broken toy cement mixer lorry and a broken toy train. My only son is 20, and just finishing his second year at Uni!

Bear with me ... today is the first day of a new beginning .. I'm going to put them in the dustbin....

Done it.

xx

We still turn up what I class as the Shrapnel of Childhood in the parental home. Brother and I are in our mid and late FORTIES btw and there are no grandchildren to account for it. I'm sure that the lego and other small misc like one plastic shoe from a Barbie doll must be breeding somewhere in the corners.

The thing about one's very on Stuff in one's very own Habitat, is that it becomes invisible. A houseguest might think Why have they got a football sock on the mantlepiece? but you've long since stopped noticing it.

A good trick I heard once from decluttering meister Don Aslett was to photograph it. Seriously. Particularly if you want to draw the attention of another household member to it without being obvious. Take a picture of something else such as a person or a pet and have the clutter in the background. When you see the pic you'll be going ohmigosh, whatever IS all that carp?!

You can also attempt to inventory it; if it's so worthless you can't be bothered to list it on a piece of paper, why are you keeping it? Or to perform the Lost or Stolen Test; as in, if this was lost or stolen, would I bother to replace it?

If the answer is a definate NO! or even a baffled Mmmmmmmmmmm, you can probably manage without it. Lots of things are in our homes just because they're in our homes and inertia has set in and we can't muster the energy to get them out again.

But once you start, it quickly becomes addictive. Good luck!

PS Last week I saw a Round Tuit plate in a charity shop. I guess it hadn't worked out for the former owner, either. Or maybe it was one of a bad batch, just like Mum's one. Or *sinister music* maybe it was Mum's as it was identical. That's a bit woo-woo.

cyclingyorkie

That makes a lot of sense GreyQueen. I was at my mums on Friday/yesterday - she is hoping to move to a flat near my sister from a 3 bedroomed semi. I helped her go through a lot of paperwork before I came home - the house is drowning in little catalogues and fliers with important paperwork inbetween!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can sort really easily at mums - loads of stuff was sorted through and into the paper recycling before I left. She has more space in her main rooms than I do - so why do I find it easier to sort at hers than mine? Answer - because it's not my rubbish!

On a more serious note I discovered that she has 2 separate policies covering heating, plumbing and electrics and an EXTRA one just covering the boiler, 2 lots of house insurance (both buildings and contents) and 2 lots of insurance for her satellite TV!

And my sister has discovered that she's bought loads of stuff from those pesky little catalogues - including a French company selling foodstuffs - the postage costs more than the food - my sister counted up 6 items of food for £95! She could get that at Harrods!

My sister has registered her with the telephone preference service and the same to stop junk mail.... but I am still cross that so many people can take advantage of an 84 year old woman!

pigpen

CY.. it is a disgrace what cold callers think it is ok to get away with!! They should be banned tbh.. I am very rude to them when they ring.. which they rarely do.. I know they are doing a job to pay their bills but if people refused to do the job there wouldn't be this issue!

2 binbags of rubbish and a CS bag from the small girls room
1 binbag rubbish from the larger girls room
1 binbag of rubbish from the boys room
1 box of glass from at least 1983 from the loft.. we moved here in 2005 so it isn't even mine!

We also found a box of tiny baby stuff in the loft which I washed and is all perfect.. saved some quids there!

I have a box of random gubbins from the loft too which is mainly toys but I will sort on a bit.

Off to fling some more from small girls room.. I need to fit a cot and a chest of drawers in there!

Ooh.. I binned a dolls pram too.. one of the dirty grots had put used teabags in it so it has bred a squillion 'baby flies' which I cannot abide and I refuse to clean such filth!

roundtuit

Greyqueen - I feel like I've been walking around with my eyes shut and opened them this morning to see 'stuff' that I don't usually see.....unless someone knocks on the door and I think they might want to come in :eek:. So what you are saying makes a lot of sense.
My first reaction is : :eek: I don't know where to start.... which is when I usually close my eyes to it all again. But I must have a different 'head' on as it seems to me it doesn't matter where I start as long as I do start.

I'll report on today's progress later.

Rxx

MinnieMousesMummy

Hello, Please can I join. I really need to get my house decluttered and organised. I am 7 months pregnant and at the moment I am struggling to see where the little one will fit, as there is no space in any of the rooms and we are just managing at the moment.

I have not done any decluttering as such yet today, as I have been focusing on getting on top of the laundry, however when I got up this morning the kitchen floor could not be seen for dirty washing but it is now tidily in black bags until I can get it all washed.

I think I will need to tackle the project in small steps as every room is packed full of stuff that I need to sort through (not as bad as seen on tv programs though).

Roundtuit - I'm feeling similar to your first reaction where do I start but I am going to take note of what you said it doesn't matter where I start as long as I make a start.

Sorry for my long ramble now I am going to stop procrastinating and make a start. I will be back later to update on my progress.

MMM x

pigpen

Minnie.. we are pretty much the same.. I am flinging frantically in an attempt to make room for the baby too.. I'm almost 26 weeks and have nowhere to put the basket upstairs or down and in my flinging I appear to have made 10 times more mess than there was to start with!!!

GreyQueen

roundtuit wrote: »

Greyqueen - I feel like I've been walking around with my eyes shut and opened them this morning to see 'stuff' that I don't usually see.....unless someone knocks on the door and I think they might want to come in :eek:. So what you are saying makes a lot of sense.
My first reaction is : :eek: I don't know where to start.... which is when I usually close my eyes to it all again. But I must have a different 'head' on as it seems to me it doesn't matter where I start as long as I do start.

I'll report on today's progress later.

Rxx

The starting is the thing. You don't need to wait until the stars are in a certain alignment/ until you have assembled lots of fancy gear and cleaning products/ you're about to move house/ houseguests are incoming in 5............ you'll never find a perfect time so you have to use the bits of time you have.

Here's a few tricks I play on myself;

Unshopping Version 1; you're going shopping anyway. There are charity shops on most high streets. You could take a bag or two of Stuff out with you - unshopping in practice.

Unshopping Version 2; if you don't have doorstep recycling, put the recycling in the car. Sooner or later the car will be in a supermarket carpark and most of them have recycling bins. Don't drive right up to them as you could pick up a puncture, tho!

Let people steal it: Put it out at the foot of your garden with a Free sign on it. If that doesn't work, put a price ticket on and look away....the wombles will have it off ya. I was in an office and a 3 piece suite was taken from the skip outside our window in ten mins flat and we never saw it go. Gobsmackingly fast work and if I hadn't've been there I wouldn't have believed it possible.

If it's really ugly, try giftwrapping it before leaving it outside.

Have a giveaway box: If you have people in, have a large but shallowish box somewhere conspicious where they can see it. Put in usable but unwanted stuff like books etc. Invite visitors to have a rummage and take away anything which takes their fancy. People tend to be happy little bunnies when offered the opportunity to choose their own freebies.

Use halfwit time: I have ME and often feel bleugh, with my brain running at half-speed and not capable of advanced mentation. Hence half-wit time. You can sit on the floor in such a frame of mind and do something like test biros to see if they work, match up your socks, sort thru the catalogues to make sure that you haven't left your passport in there.......

Invite a trusted friend around to help: Emphasis on the trusted and only with such things as you feel comfortable with. Can be a great laugh and they may even take some stuff away with them.

Give unwanted photos away to the people in them: I had a turf out and decided to mail some pix to an old pal who I'd drifted apart from. They were of her and of her other friends and I thought she'd get more from them than I would. Boy, was that the right thing to do; she came back to me to say that two of the women in the photos had recently passed away and she realised that she had no pix of one and hardly any of the other. So my decluttering meant the world to her, and I got the warm & fuzzies. You don't have to dust the warm & fuzzies.

Imagine you've fallen under a bus and your nearest and dearest have to root through your toot: If it's bad enough to cause you to want to die of embarrassment at the mere thought, you need to get the worst stuff out of there.

There's a million and one ways to trick yourself into decluttering, just find whatever works for you and go for it. Good luck!

pigpen

2 more binbags of rubbish and 1 for CS from the girls room.. I swear I have nothing but rubbish in my house!

I need to do an epic vacuum through upstairs tomorrow and boss OH to build the first bookcase which will empty 4 very large boxes/Tesco crates ('borrowed' 8 years ago when we moved house!) so I can return said crates I'm thinking PS/Wii/PC games on top 2 shelves and books on lower ones.. these will be 7th and 8th bookcases we have.. it is a library in here!

I am very much looking forward to having no clutter and tut strewn about the house. In some areas I can now see a difference, but we are a long long way from reasonable!

DundeeDoll

Getting back into good habits
Sorted through all drawers in my bedroom and turfed out 2 pairs of jeans (one to cs one to recycle) and 2 bags to cs
Did Some more weeding
Threw out A broken slate and a broken glass (the slate was on the worksurface and not sure if glass got dropped on it but both now in bin)
Opened all my post, recycling as i went
Sorted recycling stuff and put out in relevant boxes

penguin83

Morning everyone. I haven't posted on this instalment of the thread yet but have been reading. Last time I posted I had tackled my hall, which involved clearing everything out of it (actually clearing rather than just churning!), cleaning everywhere - a novelty for me and then just putting back what was supposed to be there. A couple of month on and it is still pretty much clear although a few pairs of shoes and coats have managed to find their way in so they will have to be put back (decided to just have 1 pair of shoes and 1 coat per person in the hall, rest in bedrooms). I was 38 weeks pregnant then with my third and he is now 7 weeks old so have been slowly getting back to it in the past couple of weeks.

Have been making slow progress so have bitten the bullet and decided to start with the worst room which is a double bedroom that is so crammed with stuff you couldn't get into it. Have so far removed 18 binbags to the tip and 8 to the charity shop. I have found once I started it hasn't been so bad it just seemed so overwhelming.

I have however found all of my sons baby clothes (he is now 8) so I have washed them to use for the baby which will save me a fortune. There is everything I ever bought for my son as I never threw anything out. I have struggled getting rid of baby things but have found someone who makes memory bunnies out of their own clothes so will send her enough to make a bunny for each of the children with their name and dates of birth on and they will then be displayed in my bedroom and the rest can go.

Hope everyone is well. Aiming for another 10 bin bags for the tip today. x