The Hoarders Anonymous Thread Part Three...Still Sorting It Out ~ Together!

[Solo]

Are you are any of the following? Can you be described as a clutterbug? Are you a hoarder, in a mess, untidy, disorganised, lazy with housework that has lead to something that you now feel unable to deal with. If you are ill and not coping with the housework. If you are emotionally attached to items for whatever reason. If you cannot just ask someone in for a cuppa at a moments notice or dread the meter reader asking for access.

Are you nodding whilst reading any of these words? If you have a combination of any or all of these things or something completely different, please join us. No one here will judge you. We have something in common and we have a common goal. We share our ideas and we share our disappointments no matter how big and our celebrations no matter how small. We cheer one another along and drag the drowners from the depths of despair.

Join us; we don't bite :) Welcome to thread number 3.

Wow! You are all doing well; even you Cag doing the home ed. I've not done anything. And yes! I hate putting the clean laundry away so, it sits wherever - usually in the dining room but, anywhere will do! Half my problem is clothing and linen.

I sent a green cardigan with holes in it, and a very nice blue shirt which was too tight to be comfortable to the recycling lorry today. pleased with myself for letting go, agonised over blue shirt for ages, a b*ger to iron too.

More sorting today. Now it is just a lot of churning, but some things get thrown out along the way, and at least I dust when I churn. Made an entire filing cabinet free for my new office space, by moving photos and memorablilia to a box, and putting shoes from the box in the shoe cupboard, and throwing away some old flip flips. found a pair of very useful summer shoes in the process..the clutter means I can never find anything normally, again it reminds me how useless it is to keep things when you cannot find them or remember you have them. I was planning on buying new shoes because i didn't know I even had those...

Hi Guys! Mind if I join you? I'm stressed at the moment and writing here is a way of delaying what I need to do! I have a room full of kids stuff. My kids are teenagers now so it is all outgrown stuff. I have agreed to do a secondhand sale on Saturday so I really need to go in there and sort. I've been meaning to do it all week but have allowed other things to take priority. Today I really need to tackle it or I wont have time before the sale, but the whole thought of going in there stresses me out. I'm normally a completely rational, practical person but this is my achilles heel.

tumpy you can do it! gosh, the emotional energy needed to sort kids' old stuff, I know how hard it is.

My advice is, keep one tenth, you won't regret it and the kids will regret it if you entirely expunge their childhood. I know I appreciated even small reminders that I had been a child in my parents' house, even when my mum happily decluttered. We have passed on so many things like the Brio, the Barbies and jigsaws, baby toys, baby clothes, almost every item of children's clothing, but I kept things which had a memorabilia value, like some halloween costumes and iconic toys (rupert bear treehouse springs to mind) Lego has stayed because dh refuses to part iwth it, but I would like to have a lot less than we do. Books ditto, I think we could have made some other child very happy with 50 per cent of our children's books, but dh is adamant we keep them because he is a bookseller/book collector.

But there is no need to keep the entire playmobil collection or the dolls house etc scaletrix, someone will enjoy it if you declutter. And there will always be more on ebay over the next fifty years, nowadays there is no shortage of new places to acquire old stuff.

today I have almost pegged out tackling the garden garden rubbish that is...felt more than once I wanted to give up. But managed to move 4 sacks of rubbish to the front (binned up ages ago) sweep up some brambles and rose cuttings cut down ages ago, break a glss jar in the process, move lawn mower in and out of shed to get past (not any real gardening you understand or lawn mowing nothing as easy as that!!!) uncoil the hose which was all mixed up with a rake and broom, feel desperate, keep going, several cups of tea later..Could possibly pressure wash some small portion of the paving this sat if dd wanted [smile[ it is now CLEAR.

Spice cupboard and coffee cupboard still not done. I've washed all dh's ties (all 50 of them dating back 30 years he loves them all) hung them in the sun, he's admired them and inspected for moth, they still need ironing - I don't think it was very good move for me to even take them out of their bin liner of procrastination, just more work to deal with that too!!! And there is nowhere for them to go. Perhaps Ikea has a special tie cupboard I can purchase.

And there is the woodshed. Full of manky old bits of tree. Mixed up with useful things. I despair of ever tackling it. Maybe tomorrow. Still have to drive to the tip. Maybe tomorrow for that too. Need to make supper for five now as tutor comign to teach the twins for gsce 6-8.

tumpy sorry you are probably hoping to sell all of it, and have already selected stuff to go, it is probably just the sorting and preparing which is the sweat, in which case good luck and it will be well worth it and think of lovely warm glow when it has gone and you have the pounds to show for it.

Good going Nettle :) And that's so good getting those items gone.

I got a flooded kitchen today. The plumber seems to be my nemesis recently. Blocked drain outside too. All kinds of plumbing issues!

Dishwasher emptied, cleaned and filled and run. Flooding occurred due to blocked drain and water coming up into the sink from the dw and the pea trap not seated properly - never has been in 23 years but, it's never leaked before! Oh dear! So fed up with my lot.

Welcome tumpy :) I understand too...all those emotional memoried with each game and toy and book...I'm the same, can you tell. I'm actually crap at everything.

Thankyou! I've made a start on sorting for the sale. Really need to crack on today, but it's hard. I have a box where I am keeping favourite toys and the playmobil, sylvanian families and brio are already in the roof. But there's so much other stuff, especially girls clothes. I dont know why it's so hard, and I know I shall be so pleased when we get a room back, and I'll be pleased if others can use the stuff. But I sooo dont want to make a start this morning....

good luck with this morning tumpy brilliant that you have already sorted the sheep from the goats, you can do it now, this is the easiest bit . Or keep just a few of the clothes if it is too hard to do it all in one go? Perhaps just sell the ones that don't really matter to you rather than try and do such a big perfectionist sort? I think they recommend that one builds up confidence decluttering rather than try and get rid of the most important things all at once. I know that I work best on that principle I slowly gnaw away at the problem rather than attempting to swallow it "bravely". Being brave doesn't work for me!

Solo oh no. Our drain blogged due to a fatberg (from the dishwasher and I think dd's conditioner) and a partially collapsed rainwater drain silting it up with rubble. Once the fatberg was dealt with I didn't worry too much about the rubble and it has been fine for a bit longer

Speaking of gnawing away, there are now 5 disgusting bags of rubbish to attract rats in the front from the garden clearout (except it is general rubbish not nice weeds/plant clippings) And I need to go to the tip with it, but not feeling the joy at the moment soggy horrible bags in my car, back ache, sore legs from yesterday's exertions...I am having one more cup of tea then I am going, definitely. At least they are moved from the back to the front, slowly slowly nearer my goal of leaving the premises..

Thanks nettle that's really good advice. Today was hard. Felt anxious for a lot of it, although I couldn't tell you why. Have managed to bag up lots for sale tomorrow. Trouble is that the room it all came from still looks a mess, as it was so full. But on yr advice I need to remind myself that I can't do everything all at once.

well the rubbish is still out the front, but I've managed another bit of paperwork decluttering in a cupboard and sorted out the tea and coffee cupboard, so much space in there nowand I can find everything!

so wet the rubbish is less and less appealing to cart to the car..

emptied recycling and a bin liner though in household bins

kept up with laundry

Towels washed, no fabric conditioner jeans washed, whites are in. One more load of darks to do. DW emptied, cleaned out (again!!) and refilled. Cooker top washed down. Some clothing bits added to the C4C bags. Asked Dd to sort out the side of the bed and she's half-heartedly done it. Still crap down there though. I'm tired of her attitude towards me and helping out.

poor dd she must be tired, it's the weekend!

Ds and I have been sifting through Wallye like piles of crapola in the study room (tv room by night) 9 Gsce boxes competing with all the books we have in there and Dvds and diy equipment and laundry and I Want to scream!!! However 12 hours later, by dint of plodding away and him helping me for the last hour, things have improved. Ds couldn't find something which prompted his desire to help sort, that and feeling delighted by clear surfaces. Like me he is incredibly untidy but loves sorting things into piles...and hates working in clutter.

So, cleaned behind main fridge in study room, made space to put away some suitcases, put tent with sleeping bag etc, hung up various knapsacks together, cleaned under utility sink made more space for bucket, put away, put all vases in one place, cleaned out a cupboard to make space for them, cleared a whole worktop phew.

That's two bags of rubbish that created space for all sorts of things which I could then put away. I'm feeling happy!!

Also cleaned out the spice cupboard, not as bad as usually I only found one jar of tumeric and one of cumin, usually dozens of old duplicates..
cleaned out bottom of fridge too.

solo we don't have fabric conditioner here, all our towels are hard and crunchy I suppose we have got used to it. I am also becoming more slipshod with the laundry and the cooking (it helps me find time to declutter) I've taken to just bundling in loads without even sorting them just to GET THEM OUT OF THE WAY and upstairs again.

Well, that was a complete waste of time! Went to second-hand sale. Lots of sellers but hardly any buyers. Made the grand profit if £4.50. So very annoyingly I had to bring back in to the house a car load of stuff. Mostly clothes but some toys and books.

is there a carboot anywhere you can go to next week? the traffic is probably greater. It was so rainy and cold this weekend I can imagine less interest. I think with a big batch of stuff it can be easier to freecycle/charity shop or accept you are going to have to chip away on ebay (which personally does not work for me, as it creates a terrible bottleneck)

Ug. Unmotivated today. Weekends are rough here.

Sitting on the bed sorting laundry (not too much of an issue here but it does build up a bit, especially mine and DH’s as I get the Caglets to put their own away and the baby clothes are quick and easy). Chucked a few bits that are stained/holey/ etc.

Chosen something for the charity shop too. I have a few bits scattered around that need gathering... ridiculous as they could’ve gone a couple of weeks ago but I put them down among the clutter and they’re now goodness knows where.

Tired.

I'm throwing away a broken teapot today don't know why I've hung onto it for so long.
It is gold lustre, but cracked and horrid and doesn't look nice anywhere.

next door the tenant is playing a mazurka (or something like that) on the piano. So nice, I imagine that is what is like in your house Cag. she has two very noisy little boys most of the time, I think music calms her nerves. She has gone from a beginner to much better in the space of 3 years here.

I've wiped worktops in utility, and threwn away some more paper clutter, and sweetpapers. Dh is annoying me by cooking elaborate meals when all I want to do is keep going with the house sorting.

Sorry it is rough Cag I used to hate weekends, so terribly stressful not having a place to be or go and the arguments...I used to love Dr Who and Merlin and swimming lessons because then at least we knew what we were doing.

No, I use fabric conditioner on everything except my jeans with lycra which are specifically no conditioner. Our towels aren't particularly soft but, I don't like them to be hard like my Mum does but, that's a personal preference isn't it.

Put DW on last night and put the last wash load on timer for this morning. I do need to wash the sheets and pillowcases but, I can't get them dry so they'll have to wait.

Dd is lazy, not tired! She doesn't want to help me. Ever!

I'm going to go and do some of the living room shortly and get Dd to clear up the stairs.

tumpy I did that years ago with my Ds's baby clothes. I took 7 massive bags of clothing out to take to the C4C place and they'd gone! So, I couldn't face taking them back home as I knew they'd never leave so, I dropped them into the charity shop instead. It broke my heart but, they were gone.

Actually, they were Dd's baby clothes, not Ds's which I freecycled and boot saled (when I was first pg with Dd and didn't know!!). I also sold all my equipment and toys :( . That was an expense!!