Hoarding - Springing Ahead

pleasedelete

lobbyludd wrote: »

I've got to an age where people buy me many pretty wool scarves for christmas, but I can only realistically wear one (or 2 if it's very cold) at a time, and they don't get dirty like socks so no need to change every day, and they don't wear out. If I needed more blankets/throws (I DON'T- very large ban on buying any more) I'd sew them all together to make one. I gave one away this year but need to do more

My husband who is not a hoarder got 3 scarfs for Christmas. Now he is had just spent 6 months chosing and buying the perfect scarf (that sounds odd but he isn't really like that just likes a few but really good quality clothes).

One he gifted immediately to another relative who commented it was nice (the giver wasn't there it was an under the tree gift). 2 went straight into the charity bag and I took them to the local homeless shelter.

I would have kept them for years thinking that they may be useful, I may need them, they may save me buying a scarf in the future etc etc

This year all of our unwanted gifts went straight to the charity shop or shelter. We also have a no gift pact with most of the family which helps.

nitnurse-not2

Roundtuit. Try to trick Pigpen by doing your posy onto a word doc then copy and paste to reply box. Once there you can add:
:j:beer::mad::p:money:;):o:D:cool::T:A:(:j:EasterBun:easter_ba:icotbaske:female::exclamati:embarasse:cool2::male::bdaycake::laugh::starmod::staradmin:smiley::kisses3::kisses2::kisses::heartsmil:heart2::smileyhea:lovethoug:rudolf::snow_laug:santa2::wave::question:_party_:idea::hello::whistle: as you loke,
xxx

whitewing

nitnurse-not2 wrote: »

Roundtuit. Try to trick Pigpen by doing your posy onto a word doc then copy and paste to reply box. Once there you can add:
:j:beer::mad::p:money:;):o:D:cool::T:A:(:j:EasterBun:easter_ba:icotbaske:female::exclamati:embarasse:cool2::male::bdaycake::laugh::starmod::staradmin:smiley::kisses3::kisses2::kisses::heartsmil:heart2::smileyhea:lovethoug:rudolf::snow_laug:santa2::wave::question:_party_:idea::hello::whistle: as you loke,
xxx

That's such a bright and cheerful start to my morning that I just had to repost!

dktreesea

Byatt wrote: »

There is a huge difference in selling things you have acquired as a business, or are left with from a business, to the actual hoarding behaviour for emotional/psychological reasons, where the good stuff gets lumped in with the carp stuff and your home is unfit for purpose. I used to sell on fleabay as a business in my old life, so know how I felt about that and how I feel about my hoarding now, poles apart.

I didn't have/(don't have the energy most days) to arrange to sell stuff. I was buying/acquiring things to fill the spaces, had plans to renovate, shabby chic stuff, whatever, but once home the item just lay there. The psychological process to remove things from my house often took days, if not weeks with some items, the letting go was like being held down by some force whilst the life in me was sucked out. The distress and anxiety I felt at letting something go was similar to a life or death experience.

I would have loved to have had the "addiction" to sell things rather than the anxiety filled terror I felt.

Thanks Whitewing for the anniversary date, goodness, 9th June! I have come on so much, my life is so much better and I have a home now, rather than a place to exist.

Having " A hoard" that is there for a reason and can be disposed of with some time and energy for money, whether for profit or not, and being a hoarder, is in my humble opnion very different. Everything is considerd of value with a hoarder, down to the cat treats boxes in cat shapes that Wh!skers make or a free DVD player when you don't have dvd's...

While it's true we have a hoard that's there for a reason, - it's even nearly all sorted, crated or boxed, and even has lists on the side saying what is in each crate/box, we used to sell 8 to 10 boxes of the stuff a week. At antique centres and fairs, with the parts of the auction lot we didn't want going to the local car boot. We just have other parts of the business that have taken up more of our time, mainly because we have to make more effort to source decent stock than we used to.

Over time, our personal stuff has declined in volume. Clothes for instance. I used to have a wardrobe, two chests of drawers and a couple of blanket boxes full of them. Now they all go in the wardrobe and one chest of drawers. And that's for two people. We don't have time to go shopping for that kind of thing.

I suppose I have started to feel like a hoarder, because there is so many things and they take up so much space. It's pretty much all reasonably good quality items, but due to certain events, we have become restricted as to where we can get rid of them. For example, the Royal Mail increasing their postage rates at a way above inflation rate has meant it's not viable to sell some of these items online.

We used to sell 8 to 10 crates of stuff a week, but now it's still going, but more like 8 to 10 crates every couple of months. I've approached a couple of the auctioneers around about this week to see if they would consider taking 50 or 100 lots rather than their typical two to four lots. But they both said this wouldn't be the way to maximise the price they can get for the items. Though a dealer who knows one of the auctioneers quite well reckoned it wasn't so much that but rather they are awash will people wanting to sell off their stock, and want to be fair to everybody so are just taking a few items at a time from everyone.

Having a hoard for this length of time does make me feel like a hoarder though. Here's my test for how much is space worth to me: could I go upstairs, grab a crate (keeping in mind it's all itemised on the side of the crate), and take it, sight unseen, to a CS, without so much as a thought or care what was in the crate? Not a chance. I can justify this by saying it's stock for the business / it's too valuable / given we still have business debt that would be irresponsible, etc etc.

I like your definition of it, as a hoard, rather than hoarded. But imho, for it to keep its characteristic of just being "a hoard", it would need to be going out of the house at a speed similar to when it came in. And alas, that isn't happening just now.

dktreesea

lobbyludd wrote: »

bear in mind that if tableware or china search won't buy them there's probably not much of a market for them.....or if they will the price is probably very near the market value that you would realise when your costs are taken into account: their overheads are minimal so you have to weigh that against what it would cost you to sell in an alternative manner.

I don't know if your things are newish or very old but for example second hand clothes (unless vintage balanciaga, and even then in a very few specialist london shops) sell for very little - I had a friend who went into trading vintage clothes, and things he sold for 50 quid he'd pick up for a few pounds, even designer vintage clothing was sold very cheaply to the final seller.

similarly china, like cars, plummet as soon as the first owner buys them, it takes a LONG time for them to reach close to their original value, and even then only if they are a) popular/fashionable now and b) rare.

I'm not trying to make you despondant, just saying that, much of the stuff probably has no where near as much immediate resale value as you think and especially when dealing with debt it is often better to take a small amount of cash now rather than gamble on slightly more later, given the difference in interest accrual that could make.

I did sell soem things on ebay (and made a couple of 100) but they were cherry picked things that I had researched had sold well on there (I looked at the sold for prices), but much more has been given away (or binned) because the space was more valuable to me than the diminishing returns for my time would have been. This has also saved me money as in the process I have discovered things that I have bought multiple of (not being able to find the ones I already had), and I'm working through using them up.

good luck with china search!

Unfortunately chinasearch didn't fancy the bowls. Sad! But it was a good idea!

I'm not so concerned with the resale value; they'll go okay at auction. Just that the auctioneers I approached don't want the stuff in quite the quantity I wanted them to sell it. They are great at selling you enough to fill the car, but don't want that much stuff from you when you come back :-) They are suggesting selling it off three or four pieces at a time. I'll have grown whiskers by the time it's all gone!

I do feel like I want to press on to get rid of it all though. The recession is bothering me. We keep hearing about all the job creation going on, and yet, week in week out, I read plenty about job losses too. 800 at Honda, 1300 at Lloyds, 2000 at HSBC, 45 at Cummins in Stamford, 520 at Zynga and that's all within the space of a week. Even Morrisons are getting in on the act. A couple of weeks ago Scottish Coal announced 600 job losses. It makes me wonder just what kind of jobs are being created. And if banks, in spite of being profitable, are laying off staff over a thousand at a time, I wonder what they know about the coming months/years that we don't. Even though I am self employed so don't have a job to lose as such, I feel a need to make space, in case things get so tight we have to give up our warehouse and somehow squirrel the stuff back into the flat. Or even have to go and live in a smaller, cheaper place just to stay in the black.

whitewing

I don't know if it will make you feel better dktreesea, but I looks like I am getting the opportunity to expand my business with the backing of the bank. I am sure that having survived the recession has been a factor in that. The recession has definitely made me more adaptable and more appreciative. Of course the sunny weather is giving a feel good factor as well.

I am enjoying the posts a lot on our dehoarding anniversary weekend. I haven't had a huge amount to get rid of but some of the smallest things were the most emotional drains. The fact that I feel confident to make a significant career step is because I have been able to face some of the issues behind the stash.

Well done to you all, be you frenzied chucking outers, discerning destashers, tentative triers or those lurkers who haven't quite dipped a toe in the water yet!

lobbyludd

well, the dhouse has degenerated into a nightmare. every.single.room. 2 days of poorly littlies whilst I tried to work from home has added a layer of general living debris and untidiness that would probably only take an hour to clear if the kids weren't now getting much better. better enough to go through the things I've removed from DD's room to mine, and spread it everywhere, but still ill enough to be fractious and need cuddles and argument intervention every 10 flipping minutes.

I come down and intercede in a fight, get juice and clear throws/swords etc away, get back up to trying to take shelves off walls and 10 bloomin mins later another bicker/stubbed toe/spilled drink. I come down and all the throws have been used as capes, the all toys are back out and the cushions are a den - ordinarily I love this, but it's in every room, there isn't a single room that is in anyway ok and i'm fed up.

I'd chuck them in the garden but it's too hot for them (gasp!) right now (both still have temps, so they'll go out later on) I can't put clothes away in mine or dd's room, so they're all on the kitchen table .

rant over. taking a break, going to give up on the tidying up until they've gone to bed, having a coffee and relaxing for a bit, it will get better.

beautiful day! and I've worked out how I put the bed together and therefore how I can take it apart - slide/encourage it towards the door, I can then unscrew the legs from one side through the door way, flip it on it's side, slide the bed through the door a foot, wriggle through and unscrew the other side legs. I can then get to the walls to paint and do it in reverse to put the extender legs on: I'd be amazing on the krypton factor.

just got to take the clothes off her rail (no room for wardrobe) and then it's the BED.

I have chosen my language of swearing to protect the children (school french, so fairly tame/comical) apologies to any french-speaking neighbours in advance.

ah, the sweet sound of a toybox being overturned in my bedroom upstairs. Not going to think about that

MinnieMousesMummy

I have not done much in terms of sorting clutter the last couple of days however I have listed some items for sale, therefore hopefully I can get them sold or at the end of the week they will be going on freecycle for a few days then off to cs.

Apart from listing items for sale I have just been focusing on sorting paperwork and catching up with the laundry (I still have about 10 loads to do where does it all come from).

GreyQueen

Evening all.

Well, been a busy but satisfying day. Been on the allotment repairing the fencing with a mixture of hoarded and recycled materials so room now in the shed and one of the two rolls of chickenwire lurking in "the rough" is now a fence.

:T I have also detected and decluttered several dozen snails into the great snail heaven.

Back home, and a box of china and a stack of books went off with my family and a bag of c.s. donations which they brought so that I could take them to the chazzer where I'm gift-aid registered. Tis is to maximise the value as they're not tax payers anymore (retired).

By the time they were 10 mins up the road, that bag was stickered and into the c.s.

I had incoming, too, party booze leftovers; carton of pineapple juice, bottle of apple juice, bottle white wine and 4 small bottles of beer.

In the interests of tidiness I have already decluttered a small beer into me and am about to nip out and hurl the bottle into the recycling bin. Heck, everyone else is..........:rotfl:

Hokay, heading off the interwebs as I realised I need to read a book by Mon night and I only got it at 4 pm. Good job I'm a very fast reader.

roundtuit, I saw one of your namesake platters today in the c.s. It was obviously one of the defective batch as it wasn't finding any takers at a mere £1. I smiled wryly and walked away.

lobbyludd

well if you're counting snails, I've decluttered 10-20 slugs each evening this week. won't make a dent in their population in my garden but makes me feel I'm doing something to protect the plants from their ravaging.