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.

Ah thanks also re SN boards I’ll have a look, I’ve never checked them out as by the time they were diagnosed I was on various FB groups. And in our home ed circle TBH it’s the norm. In fact it was only when somebody on a regular unrelated thread mentioned how tricky life must be for us that I actually stopped to think about it. It’s our normal and the normal for most of our friends. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy, I guess.

I am so glad you have a supportive home ed circle. I often used to go to Parks Group when ds2 was home educated, in tears about something to do with the house/my own feeling of being inadequate in that respect, only to have it evaporate just chatting with people who made other things their priority or who had simpler tips or expectations of themselves. And fresh air of course.

Cag I hope you have read White Boots by Noel Streatfield. All set on an ice rink and home educated children. One of my favourites, especially the awful aunt.

Ooh no I haven’t is that a sequel to ballet shoes? Or did he just have a footwear obsession?

No, there are lots by the same author but usually one offs (is that grammatical?)

Usually they are about a child with a gift and how that fits into family life. Lots about families always.

Noel was a "she".

There is..of the top of my head...Ballet Shoes
White Boots
Apple Bough (musical prodigy)
Painted Garden
and the Gemma series
and Tennis Shoes, but that is not very good! at least I have never read it..
Oh and Ballet Shoes for Anna
and Thursday's Child which was serialised when I was a tween, set in a workhouse and on a canal boat!

White Boots is about an impoverished family of four children who come in contact at an ice rink with a rich lonely little girl who is a champion skater. One of the four "poor" children has had measles and to recover the doctor advises her to take up skating to strengthen her muscles; then she meets the rich lonely little girl. It is all set in 1950s 1960s London.

I adored those books, although someone did say to me recently they were "all the same"...

And I think there is also Party Frock (poor as church mice vicar's children get sent a smart dress from America so they put on a pageant), and an autobiographical A Vicarage Family.

Oh lovely. I’ll check that out for sure. Now you mention it I did know Noel was female 🤦‍♀️😳

We will probably have to read Wolves of Willoughby Chase first though for a new book group.

That I love too, although I never read it with the same feverish attention to detail...I loved the fake history in it (The Hanoverians are the pretenders not the stuarts) It is much more Lemony Snicket than the domesticity of Noel Streatfield.

hello!

I like popping onto this thread and having quite a bit to read, two pages for me to read today! I just like to read everyone's updates, even if you are feeling like you've not managed much.

I don't feel I've achieved much since my last update. I know I haven't done anything too much at all. I think I want to get some Christmas decorations out maybe next weekend, so I really should have a clean house before getting them out.

I have really been enjoying my houseplants and succulents though. Having greenery inside really lifts my spirits and going around to have a look at them all every couple of days makes me feel connected to something. I'm rooting quite few cuttings in water and so far these are the easiest things to keep alive (because you can't over or under water them!). It feels very disappointing when a plant starts to look likes it's dying, but when you can revive it is it extremely satisfying. We can't afford to decorate at the moment, I think I had pictured moving in and then painting and changing things, but we just don't have the money, so having the indoor plants really feels like a version of decorating at the moment.

I've toilet trained my youngest this last few weeks so that feels great, it went much better than I had anticipated. I kept on top of all the cleaning and laundry that entailed! I know I have a tipping point where I think 'I don't know where to start' and I try my best to avoid that with some areas of the household tasks. I can seem to keep on top of laundry and then the next thing the pile gets bigger and I start thinking 'I don't know where to start with all of this'.

I still have multiple boxes that have not been unpacked and they are in the way every single day and I am procrastinating over them. My DH pilled some things outside and they have been there for weeks, in the way and I wish he had just put them in the garage where they belong. But I know I can have the same habits but I don't notice some of the things I do!

We've had a letter from the council that we need to clear the area around our water meter so they can gain access for a meter reading, we need to locate it, I think it's covered over by some huge ferns growing and various other plants that I cannot identify. We live on the central coast of NSW, Australia, I'm English so I do not know most of the plants over here and I will take a while to figure out which are weeds etc I think lots are just growing and getting out of control after some rain and hot sunny days. I'm thankful for a mature garden, but I'm sure it will take me years to figure it all out.

I feel great joy in lying down on the grass in the front garden, because it is enclosed with a hedge, and just enjoying a book or an audio book. It's a world away from our last place, which was small and we had no outdoor space.

I'm happy to get through each week with clean and healthy kids, managing to remember sport kits, library bags and doing news etc..cooking dinner and keeping up with grocery shopping and most of the time keeping up with laundry. But I know I should tackle some of the tidying and cleaning a bit more head on.

I went online two nights ago and started up the kids Christmas present shopping.

I daren't state anything that I know I need to focus on, because I know I probably won't get it it done!

downudder that sounds so positive. I too love plants, but I must do more with my indoor ones and my greenhouse (which is empty) I planted a fantastic Amaryllis two days ago which should be happy indoors over Christmas.
One of my best memories of childhood is lying inside an enclosed seaside front garden which had New Zealand Flax (aka Phormium) in a big thicket protecting us from the sea wind, and my relation reading us cliffhanger stories. I suppose you have lots of Phormiums everywhere!

We've just been to a family film and that was good.

I've just googled the Phormium, I don't think we have any, but I am sure I will see loads this week now it's on my mind! We have this huge Amerilys out the front, and it flowered last week, it was amazing, it has since been battered by rain. I have only previously seen them as a Christmas present to be kept indoors in the UK! When my mum and dad visit us over here they know so many of the plants and are amazed at what grows outside here, I must admit I also am amazed at huge bushes growing out side of Poinsettia, when I had only seen small indoor versions previously.

Today I have potted up two tiny pots of mint cuttings that I had rooted in water. They are satisfying because they root so easily! I hope they survive now they're into some potting soil. I re-potted a succulent and potted some other cuttings. I pulled up some green wandering jew from the garden that grows as a weed and potted it. I like to try and find frugal solutions to the need to have houseplants.

I sorted out a huge hump under the carpet that my DH has caused, he was putting a tv power cable under some carpeting and he tangled some underlay up and it left a huge hump. I sorted that out this morning, and I went into the spare room and it had a huge net curtain which is not to my taste at all, a roller blind and curtains! It's too much for my tastes, so I am sure I will get rid of everything apart from the blind. Perhaps the curtains will do another room instead. This room should be my sewing room, I just need to get in there and set it up. I have been procrastinating about it.

I'm pleased with myself today: I abandoned all the other housework hanging over me and tidying etc, and just concentrated on clearing the front garden of leaves and detritus. Also planted up the window boxes, cleared out summer bedding and planted all the white and pink tulips bulbs out front. (orange ones are going out back, it's a colour scheme )

now my back aches but I cooked a delicious supper feeling less groundhog dayish. And managed to get to the doctor for a prescription.

The clean laundry is staring at me though.

Oh and shower screen at front is fixed at last! 8 months it took. And I've ordered some curtains for dd's room from Dunhelm, she just has freezing blackout blinds at the moment, so I bought some grey thermal curtains for her. That has taken forever to organise too. Before that she had parrot curtains for 12 years, and they are in the loft but considered too thin and too "cluttery" in design for her liking. Only we never got round to putting new ones up - except reusing some that were much much too long.

3 dustbin bags of autumn leaves I've collected to rot down
And I used up some the sour milk to make scones.

Nettleskeins, good work!

We're not used to having a garden, so we are having to accumulate some garden tools, a rake is on our list and a hedge trimmer. DH bought a strimmer and lawn mower over the weekend.

Today I went and bought some fabric to make Roman blinds for our front room. We cannot afford blinds and I have been feeling a bit annoyed about it, the net curtain that is up at the moment is just awful! But then I started googling Roman blinds and I am sure I can make some. I got $40 off my$100 purchase today so I am happy with the price I paid for the fabric. I bought some dowls and will need DH to look at the tutorial I am planning on following so that he can help with the actual hanging of the blinds. The window is wide so I'm going to make two blinds to sit adjacent to each other.

The reason I popped on this evening is that I have just watched 3 episodes of a show called 'Comsumed' it's an American or Canadian show about hoarders. It's hard to watch! I keep thinking about my piles of things and thinking I really must focus on that, and that, and that.

Good luck with the blinds. I think projects that you actually finish and need (like blinds), and look beautiful, are very heartening and the opposite of the whole hoarding vibe, which is when one just has things for reasons which are more profound but not necessarily helpful...(I say that as I continue to hoard my sour milk in the back garden, I really must accept I am not going to use the rest of it )

Today my task is to cancel next week's fruit and vegetables as we are overflowing with leftovers in the fridge/freezer at the moment and it is not really helping me focus. The thought of Christmas presents is also very stressful, more stuff!

today dd needed a hat and gloves and scarf, and despite all the clutter there isn't one that is the right colour for her Sixth Form. A lot of stuff we keep doesn't actually deliver on usefulness does it? And I still don't have a pair of boots I can walk in and keep warm, as opposed to wear around the garden..or slippers for that matter. Dh doesn't seem to have any socks despite my feeling that we are drowning in laundry,

We'll see how long it takes me to make these blinds. Sometimes I just buy fabric and then it gets stashed away!

you can do it! -I need to put a whole flatpack wardrobe together that has been stashed away in the corner for ages

today I am going to buy some bulbs for particular fittings that need a particular attention to detail...and I have been meaning to buy them for several years/months. Also two bulbs for a standard lamps that arrived yesterday from Dunhelm, which I am determined not to wait forever to turn on..

yay, have forced myself to buy the right bulbs. So long ago that the replacements don't exist in the same format..

tidied and cleaned ds1's new boxroom (he is a student elsewhere)

found the winter socks in the airing cupboard
threw away some rubbish from the airing cupboard
matched up some cushion covers with random cushions that had been floating around without covers
did some washing
dusted tops of picture frames on landing
cleaned loo and basin for ds1 to return to in good order
put shower curtain kit and summer fan in loft
noted where christmas decs were
found some winter boots up there for ds1

cleaned dd's room, and sorted out all her makeup and toiletries into categories. Noted her room was a hoarder's paradise. Far too much of everything and attempts at putting things endlessly into little boxes but no rationale or decluttering, ever. And no room for anything that she is currently busy with, like A levels. Hence her overflowing into another room to work. Note to self. Warning that she is copying me.

I managed to find a home for several gsce revision workbooks today. It was somethign I found very difficult to give to a charity shop in case they were "wasted" and I might "need them" or my children might "need them" again reference wise. So it is great to have given them to someone who really does "need them". These decisions seem to take so long.

I cleaned my en suite today, that felt good. It was a job that had needed doing for ages.

I watched all of the episodes of Consumed on Netflix. It was pretty interesting. It was interesting how quickly a dumping-ground type room could be cleared out and then sorted out. I am such a procrastinator, I should try and remember how much can get done in ten minutes.

I washed up on Monday. The end.

Solo that's more than I've done in the last 3 days, don't be so hard on yourself

I washed the inside of the kitchen windows, and stripped ds2's bed and brought all his dirty clothes downstairs today. He works hard at his school work but the "ordering" of his clothes still falls to me. If you don't take away the dirty clothes, he will take them out of his laundry pile after about a week and start rewearing them..I did say I would help him with his room so it is my responsibility, we agreed that at the beginning of term. It feels easier when you agree the boundaries, and this case I need to remind myself what boundary I set. He is meant to hang up his wet towels though and bring the sheets down, so I'll try again with that next week.

So, today I managed groceries, cooking and dw, and beginning of son room clean. And the windows. A lot of Christmas panic at the back of my mind. which I am trying not to think too hard about.

The landing is my next goal. find cushion covers for the cushions which are lying around, put them somewhere they can be appreciated. and deal with dd's laundry basket which is full of not just laundry but actual rubbish and crockery. From the room clearout I did last week.

After that the shed/studio in garden is my next goal. Hoover, sort, make it somewhere we can sit and work. then move my paperwork in there.

I tackled ds2's room today. Not so bad underneath the dust, as I had already deep cleaned and tidied it a while ago, so it just took 2 hours to dust and change the bed sheets, sort out the clothes, take the dirty ones away, put some summer ones in the right drawer. I'd like to throw away a lot of his pencils but haven't go to that stage.

I'm looking at the kitchen piles (catalogues, books, stationery, paperwork, food sundries like giant cans) with new detachment. Now if I just moved everything and I mean everything into a large cardboard box in the telly room under the desk, and then s"allowable" stockpiling worksurfaces in the kitchen so things stop piling up everywhere. Ditto hall. Those surfaces are meant for me to use not to store things. Supper today was a complete muddle when I ran out of workspace and started using the table which I had already laid, and covering it with breadcrumbs and egg etc.