I just need to vent really.

RazWaz

HeadAboveWater wrote: »

Hi

Not anything to add to what has already been said, but another wee suggestion...



Agree 100% with what kalama says, but if you are finding you are struggling with the sentimental stuff, maybe you could take a photograph of the item and keep that, rather than keeping the item itself. Takes up less room!!

Good luck and stay positive

That is a fantastic idea as I do really have trouble letting go of sentimental things. I can turn it into a memory book that I can sit and go through - currently I end up sifting through a box to help me remember things but pictures (digital at least) take no space.

Funky_Bold_Ribena

I'd just give myself 30 mins each day (say from 7 til 7:30) to sort, and have 3 piles. One to bin, one to charity shop/freecycle and one to ebay and then once a week bin/take to charity shop/post on freecycle/ebay and let all the freecyclers come during one hour on a weekend. We just recently had to clear a large community garden of stuff and did that and it worked wonders...

Counting_Pennies_2

I have a similar problem.

I suffer with depression and have good and bad days. The clutter and mess that surround me makes the bad days longer.

What I have started doing is cramming just one room with the clutter and keeping the other rooms looking nice. Then when I have a moment I go into that room and start sorting out.

I have started getting ruthless and on a good day I go in with a black bin sack and fill it. Anything I want to keep I just put in a box and do a charity shop box as well.

I might then have a break of a week or so and then go back into the room again and try to blitz again. I look again in the box for keeping and it is amazing how many things I end up throwing out from that as well as the next lot.

Try as hard as you can to have at least one nice room that you can go into and feel happy and calm. It will help increase your good days for you.

Take care and keep at it

RazWaz

I don't really have a nice room in my own house to go to, but I'm spending my day times at my mothers house (young kittens need looking after while she is at work).

I'm staying at my mothers for the week as she went on holiday, and I'm just trying to get my head straight so I can actually get started for real when I go home. Thank you so much for your suggestions and kind words, they mean more to me than I know how to say.

JimmyTheWig

A big problem with tidying up is that you need space to be able to do it.
You need to put the stuff somewhere while you sort it, and it sounds like you don't have the space to put it.

So my suggestion is, as long as she doesn't mind, that you move a load of stuff into your mum's house for a couple of weeks. Then you'll have the space to sort some stuff out.


In terms of how to do it, as other people have said you need to do it in managable chunks.

The quickest way to make a difference is to throw stuff out. (Consider how quickly you could fill a bin bag of rubbish compared with, for example, how long it would take you to sort out a bin-bag sized pile of paperwork.)
Why not take a bin bag and fill it with anything that is rubbish that you can reach. Keep doing this (maybe one bag a day?) until you can't reach enough rubbish to easily fill a bag.
Put each bag in the car and take it all to the dump when done.

Then pick another category (e.g. stuff to go to the charity shop). Again, get a bin bag and fill it with anything for the charity shop that you can reach. Keep doing this (maybe one bag a day?) until you can't reach enough charity shop stuff to easily fill a bag.
Put each bag in the car and take it all to the charity shop when done.

Then stuff you don't want but is worth selling. Do the same, filling a bag at a time.
Unless you are desperate for cash right now, I'd say don't spend your time listing all this stuff for sale. If you've got enough for a car boot sale then that's worthwhile, but eBay listing is very time consuming for a small return in terms of the amount of stuff that it gets rid of.
So if you're going to eBay it, out each bag out of the way somewhere. Either, as I say above, in your mum's house or you should have some space in your flat now that you've cleared out all that rubbish and charity shop stuff.

And carry on from there. You'll soon get to the point where it is worth starting again - i.e. you'll be able to get to a load of rubbish to fill up more bags, etc.

Birdie85

I've always been a hoarder but this year I've made massive steps towards clearing out the junk. I know what you mean when you say you need to get your head around it, it is so overwhelming when you see that there's just *so much* to go through!

The suggestions that other posters have made are excellent and something to keep in mind. I'll just add that what helped for me was:

- Grabbing a box from the room I'm sorting and taking it somewhere less 'mad' to go though. In my case that was the living room, in your case it could mean taking it over to your mothers.

- Once things have been sorted into a 'keep' pile, I give it a couple of days then go over it again, ore often than not I can trim that pile down again once I've had some time to think about what I *really* want to keep.

- When bagging things up for charity, I made sure that I took the bags to the shop as soon as possible. I fell into a trap at first of having so many bags at one point they were taking up all the free space I'd cleared and there was too much for me to carry in one go! Making more regular journeys helped as I could see the room I was clearing up. Same with rubbish bags.

- Keeping a record of everything I do. Make a note of how many items I've sent to the charity shop, how many bin bags have been filled, how many boxes I've emptied. It's wonderful seeing a figure written down so when you feel like you're getting nowhere you can see that you've actually done loads and it gives you a boost. Also kicks you into action as you want to better your previous day's score!

- Give yourself treats in between jobs.

- Having my DH help me go through things has been a huge help too as it makes me see my junk through his eyes and I actually realise that there's no point in holding onto silly things for the sake of it!

Wishing you luck with this, keep us updated with your progress, we can cheer you on!

SavingPennies_2

• Set aside say an hour a day, or 1 hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. Time yourself if necessary.
• Be ruthless....
• However, get a box, one of those plastic ones will do, and save that as your memory box for photos, sentimental trinkets etc.
• If its not special enough for the memory box or if its not useful - charity shop/chuck it.
• If you really get the house cleared it will be so much easier to deal with and keep on top of.
• I love the feeling after having a good de clutter and tidy up, its really clears the mind and makes the home a more relaxing and enjoyable place to be so that is your motivation - plus having the kitties moving in:j

giantmutantbroccoli

First off, congratulations! It sounds like things are really looking up for you
Pardon the language but have you tried this site on Tumblr?
http://unf*ckyourhabitat.tumblr.com/
(replace the * with the obvious letter )
I found it pretty useful - and very motivating - when I was recovering from depression and living in a pit of my own mess. There's loads of reminders to do daily chores that are easy to forget when you're depressed or coming out of depression, and plenty of before and after pictures of spaces people have cleaned up.
If you're really struggling to get started on your house, which isn't surprising given there's several years worth of mess and I'm sure it feels quite disheartening to see it all piled up, have you considered hiring someone else to do it? There are plenty of cleaning companies out there that do large cleans, such as cleaning up after messy tenants for landlords etc. You could get the initial mess cleaned up, leaving you with just your own stuff to sort through, and then do that one room at a time.
Even if you choose to do it all yourself or with friends, cleaning out one room at a time is a good idea because once you've done one you have the satisfaction of a nice, tidy room that you can use without feeling guilty. Then you can gradually extend the clean area into the rest of your house.

ilovelondontown

I'm a cleaning/tidy freak, what you need to do is my idea of heaven (I know I told you I'm coo-coo!)

If I were you I'd start with the largest things that need doing, either sorting through clothes or clearing furnature. Getting bulk out of the room will help you visually.

Other than that, I can't add much to what others have said since it's such good advice, but you've found the answer yourself, you just need to turn it round

"I want a nice clean tidy house so that I can move on with life and have my wonderfully kitties move in with me". Take one small step and the rest will follow, once you see progress you'll start getting new incentive to carry on.

dancing_star

Good luck with the flat clearing, you've had good advice.

Just wanted to say PLEASE get the kittens neutered when they get to 5-6 months of age!