The Hoarders Anonymous #5

[CherryMargo]

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Is your house/flat in a complete mess? Do you often feel overwhelmed and helpless when it comes to sorting it out? Do you procrastinate a lot? Do you struggle to declutter due to emotional attachment or decision-making fatigue? Are you embarrassed to invite people in?

Then you and us have a lot in common!

Join in for advice, encouragement and support. Here we share our struggles no matter how big, and celebrate our progress no matter how small. Welcome to thread number five! 🤗

P. S. Here are the links to various methods mentioned in previous threads:

The FlyLady Cleaning Method by Marla Cilley
The Organised Mum Method by Gemma Bray
The KonMari Method by Marie Kondo
The Getting Things Done Method by David Allen

I've been at work in the garden this morning. I bought a ladder last week and need to get up the side of the house to trim some over hanging vegetation, it's from next door and it's over our roof. It's not a big deal, I just couldn't get the ladder quite where I needed it. I'll need Dh's help.

I've spent the morning staring at a hopeless pile of muddle in my study (most of it comes from old car, which had turned into a second shed). But not tackling it
But I will now.

All my children are at home this weekend and it feels a bit stressful, but it isn't actually stressful...I think I am reliving feelings of being previously overwhelmed when actually it is all doable and things are going well" hastag happy in my habitat!! "(Just made that up)

So it is all about panicking or not panicking I suspect..

Here is a bit of the muddle

Well done, making the decision to start is a huge part of the battle, isn’t it?

Incidentally, I think you should feel very proud of yourself - there is way more clear floor than clutter in that picture. Good luck

Nothing is 90% done here.

Feeling a bit down about it but it is less bad than it was. And less bad than if I had done nothing. Need to get some stuff done.

I have hung the load of washing I did last night. The stinky washing has gone back in the machine ready to be rewashed.

I have been darning the gaping holes inthe underarms of a woolly jumper that is one of my winter under jumpers which only sees the light of day at home.

Also fed a boy...

Today I'm going to finish a craft project, which I'm keeping. So it won't be gone from my home but it'll be gone from my To-Do pile, transferred to where its going to live and no longer taking up space in my thoughts. Mental decluttering, if you like.

Well, I have tackled more of the washing up.
Put a load of washing on.
Picked up some of the stuff from the kitchen floor,
put the compost veg peelings in a carrier bag to send to ex.
Made a boy lunch
Unblocked the basin
Cleaned basin
Taken washing to DD to put away
Cleaned the kitchen sink
Cleaned the short piece of worksurface next to the draining board.
Put the dry pots away from yesterday
Thrown some bits and bobs away
Put away one bundle of thread
Ripped up one piece of paperwork and added to compost bag.
Put cleaner down the loo.
Darned more of the massive hole in my old jumper.
Taken the packs of ST upstairs and filled the rack in the bathroom cupboard.
Brought ds's breakfast pots down.

Not progress but regaining/maintaining what was done before.

Your lists are always very impressive BlackeyedSusan

I chucked a few OOD things from my kitchen cupboards and did a bit of sorting on my messy desk. I added a make up bag to the donate bag and removed a carrier bag’s worth of recycling from the bathroom.

Hope the craft project turned out well Amber

Not yet at photo opportunity stage in study but

Made son take out both recycling and food compost
Created big pile of recycling from study
Washed lots of bath towels
Made DD hoover landing and son 1's room which she had been sewing in. Bombsite she created, improved upstairs. Her room still remains out of bounds though.

Not done any major decluttering though these last few days...there is a rumbling sound which is the mess threatening to come back, because of this.

Only because I write down every little thing.

I have to, to help me not feel so bad about myself as sometimes I feel like I have done not a lot. Still don't have a clear dining room table though!

I have put a jigsaw in the charity bag. (Progress!)
Two empty loo rolls in the recycling
Kitchen recycling to the chest in the hall
Made up tomato feed and watered tomatoes with it. (They are already turning into triffids)
Tickled tomato flowers
Hung a load of washing and started reloading the machine.
More darning
Picked up the empty packets and put in bin. (It obviously has been a bad week as I normally do that as I go)
Put some of today's pots away. The rest are finishing drying.

Stood on one leg with eyes closed... Dr Michael Mosely made me do it....

Interestingly I can stand on one leg very wobblingly but with less feeling faint than on two legs . It must be the constant movement.
not sure it will go down well at communion mind you

Good luck with holding the mess at bay nettles. I got the flat fairly sorted then got ill and like nature reclaiming the built environment it all came back. Hence being on this thread.

As it’s been so wet where we live I’m having laundry issues. We don’t have space for a dryer - stuff usually goes on the outside line or dries overnight on the airer, but the damp conditions have slowed the process and I have got rather behind. Very disappointing as I had a brilliant routine in place which is now (temporarily) not working.

Those very detailed lists are really motivating, so thanks for posting them BlackeyedSusan.

I’ve got quite a few admin tasks I’m putting off. I’m going write myself a long to do list on paper and try to get a couple of things ticked off next week. I think the problem is that I’m moping about a stressful situation that is sucking up a lot of mental energy. It’s probably not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things but I can’t seem to get it into perspective and it’s affecting my productivity.

Gosh yes. Can't do much if half my energy is taken up with stress/waiting/meltdowns and other such stuff.

I am supposed to be doing tea. Need to find the freezer...behind the gathering stuff which is slightly less gathered in front of the freezer as I have been unpacking shopping, still.

Been too busy buggering about balancing on one leg...

Miaowse it was a fail. I procrastinated due to being stressed by something which happened this morning, then watched a short DVD whilst eating a late dinner, after that someone dropped by and I went out for a few hours. So now it's 10.45pm and I'm just about to start! I probably won't get it finished today but I'm determined to do something to progress this project. If I keep doing something, no matter how small, then it will eventually be finished.

I don't know if it's any use to you but I've heard of three strategies for the To-Do list. I find them all helpful to varying degrees.

#1 Only put 7 things on the list because that's all the brain can cope with at one time. So after you've listed the first 7 things you start doing them.

List another 7 once you've finished this original list. Or write another list of 7 for the following day, with today's undone tasks on it plus some new ones.

#2 Do the worst one first because the rest seems easy by comparison and also you won't keep procrastinating about it by adding more things to the list.

#3 Apply the 4D rule.

Do It if you can do it right now and it'll only take 5min.

Delegate It if someone else can do it better than you, or if the thing is actually their responsibility and not yours.

Delay It if it can wait until another day.

Dump It if it's a pointless faff that doesn't really need doing at all.

Susan I do the list of tasks achieved thing too if I've had a bad day of feeling useless.

Nettle skeins I feel you with the constant struggle to keep on top of things. I have found the only way that works for me is to tidy up as I go along, literally after every task I'll clean up any resulting mess.

Also have a constant pile at the top of the stairs for things that need to go down and another pile at the bottom for things that need to go up, so I never do a stairs trip empty handed.

I cleared up more floor to get to the freezer.
Cooked tea

Had lunch with Dd for the first time in a long time.
Put a deposit on a car.

Most washing up done.

Washing hung to dry.

Cooked dinner (late).

Reading paperwork for new (to me) car and wondering if I can get a better one at a different sales place. Might have to go and look tomorrow.

Oh yes. Bought new (to me) laptop, and one for Dd which her father paid for.

I've been chopping things down in the garden, so satisfying! I got DH to help with the ladder. I will enjoy cutting everything up into smaller bits. A mindless job is what you want sometimes! We had an overgrown section up the side of the house. And out the back I've been cutting down ivy.

My bedroom got sorted out small section by section, it took me a long time and I ignored it for a long time. I think my message is that even though I did small amounts of sorting it did eventually get better and better.

I’ve been more focused on cleaning the last few days so haven’t really been decluttering although I did get rid of the odd thing. But tidying and cleaning (to get ready for my parents’ visit today) has really shown up just how much clutter we still have :( the trofast units on the landing are basically all full of random crap, we still have a couple of boxes in the living room with goodness knows what in, and the Kallax units have heaps of stuff that shouldn’t be on there - and they have loads of stuff on top of them too. Not to mention the two built in cupboards that are chock full (although not entirely with unsorted stuff thankfully). Aaargh. Such a bloody long way to go.

I’m feeling a bit more ready to tackle it now but I’m also worrying because I have a potential new piano pupil and due to their location they’d need to come here and I feel so embarrassed about the state of the living room. So that needs to be my next target (except we also need to deep clean and decorate the bathroom, and move stuff around between DS’ and our bedrooms in order to accommodate the new family computer...)

Aaaargh

But anyway. Today I will try and clean a bit more in the kitchen, but after that I just want to relax and enjoy seeing my parents for the first time all year!

Pet run done. Contractors picked up their stuff yesterday afternoon which will make things a bit easier but am in trouble here, despite an awful lot of work, it still isn’t enough and am running out of time.

Dc got back last night and I’ve dragged poor thing out of bed to help do one last drop to storage before he goes to work, and then I have rest of today (and a few hours in the morning) to have everything ready for second lot of contractors differing access requirements, but not sure we're going to get there.

That happens to me too Miaowse,

I do have a drier though which I am grateful for now that I am drying a duvet and seven bath towels! Ds1(21)'suddenly declared his duvet smelt of cat (probably true alas) and so I had to wash it, he is only home for two days so I was prepared to be nice. Usually I m a fan of washing line and bannisters, bathroom radiator.

Hope stressful situation reduces, sometimes time is only solution. Ive been in so many of those mentally draining "pickles" and luckily most just faded into bad or sad memory.

We are all enjoying eurovision here but im taking a break. Last year I enjoyed it tremendously esp the medley of shine a light.

Thank you all - limiting the to do list seems like a good idea, plus doing the most stressful thing first (eat that frog!).

I took a break from moping and ruminating and did a bit more desk sorting and have nearly filled another carrier bag of papers/cardboard for the recycling.

Though I watched a Joshua Becker video recently about the 10 things not to declutter first and paper was high on the list, along with photos and kids toys.

I’m a fan of the Power of Three technique when overwhelmed. Just choosing three things (on a bad day they can be as simple as “eat breakfast”) really helps me not to take on too much.

I’m struggling to work out what clutter to work on next. Everything is too mixed up to do categories really - we just have so many boxes of random crap and there’s also lots of stuff shoved on the Kallax units in front of the books. And some more in cupboards. Gaaah