Hoarder's Anonymous, Part 6

[Solo]

Well, here we are embarking upon part 6 of our epic journey of sorting out our homes.

We are a varied group of likeminded householders that are leading somewhat challenging lives; be that living with too much 'stuff' that we find difficult to deal with, houses that are falling apart (mine included), health issues within the family unit, wider family, or ourselves that makes sorting out our households challenging, to say the least. So...

Anyone and everyone is welcome to join us for support, adding their own ideas to help others out, storage ideas, even tips on actually getting those items out of the house which sounds so simple when you say it. Encouragement abounds here, and we do not criticise. EVER! We even try not to criticise ourselves as it's not helpful to anyone.
If you are feeling overwhelmed, don't know where to start, can't be bothered but really do want to be bothered...think you are lazy, just need to see it in print here...we'll help. We'll virtually fist bump your achievements - small or large, and virtually hug you when the need arises, and if you want a hug, just ask because we are here for you. Here for one another because we get it - the highs and the lows, the art of washing up is sometimes our great achievement of the day, but it's still an achievement.

Welcome to thread #6 of Hoarders Anonymous - Carrying On Sorting It Out

HERE

not treading water, even, but I have come up for breath...

Cutting a long story short, it got done. Broke myself in the process, but at least it’s done and while it was all a of a bit box ticking exercise, the contractor got on with it and didn’t cause damage, which is what I was really worried about as I’m still not sorted out from the last time we had contractors.
Vehicles started on, and a carrier bags worth of recycling bagged, if not yet out, but tbh I spent most of today trying to recover physically from yesterday. Beyond treading water here, searching for Gillyweed in one of those boxes…

Solo I’m glad you got a nice enough Christmas day and useful/small presents. Dd will use up the art stuff in time. I hope you can get whatever you want done in these few days, finding the energy can’t be easy.
Susan well done getting mobile again. Similar bin issues here.

Well Tidy sounds good. (apart from the cyclical part, which lots suffer from)
Down What is this sunny and drying you refer to? We’re having the mildest New Year on record here but not a hope in hell of putting washing out…
Nordic My fantasy is putting my hard earned storage boxes on Ebay.

My other SIL took a bag of too small DC clothes today, so that’s great. Not enough to make any sort of impact whatsoever, but better out of the house than in.

I am full of good intentions for the new year. I have more time going forward into January than I’ve had for years and years, so I should be able to make serious inroads. Whether I will or not remains to be seen but I am hopeful.

children have had their second covid vaccinations...

I sorted out the compost bin at ex's which means I can continue to send compost to his house... dropped ds off to be taken to play football. I have not looked at the bag of returned clothes yet. yesterdays are in the washing machine waiting to be hung. I have had a bought of fatigue... wondering if it is food related? or just having been out doing difficult things twice recently and got exhausted. still very tired but managed to make some food.

A few things disposed of:

• a pair of holey slipper boots
• two holey tops
• two packets of paper plates
• many receipts (handbag clear out)
• old notebook
• one novel
• old LFT
• more packaging
• a few gu pudding ramekins

I also re-folded my clothes so my tops drawer looks fantastic

Clearing my handbag and rearranging tops are procrastination activities because I can’t figure out where to start on the real mess

I haven’t gone back to the attic but got my much delayed blood tests done today although I’m so hard to draw from that the GP nurse sent me to the hospital this time where thankfully they did it on the first go .
Also DH and DS applied for his provisional licence today , we checked up on insurance and narrowed down some used small car options nearby since what we want to buy for him to learn on has a very long waiting list for new cars with this chip shortage . Can’t believe my baby will soon be on the road , it’s just shocking !!! I’ve got him the theory books and roadsign flash cards for his 17 th birthday which is in jan then we’ll give him lessons as his present and although the car will initially be in our name he can have it when he leaves home provided he has somewhere to park it .
They also managed to do his new bank account online so some admin getting done . Have a few more outstanding jobs in mind I’ll hopefully cross off later . After being upstairs the other day I now have a good idea of what’s is in this house where and I have to say besides the box piles I’ll have to organise and some look through in the attic ( a lot of them are already organised and labelled so just need moving ) and sorting out our garage ( more storage cupboards needed and the bike/ garden shed needs building ) we are doing really well . We have most of the furniture we were getting just need the formal dining room table ( I have one option of chairs in mind ) and maybe a sideboard etc there plus a side table to tv- room and the top floor guest room will need a new bed / beds since DD broke one of the slats of the metal one in there now . Most rooms are neat and completely clutter free , kids rooms especially DD I need to stay on top off her bookshelf and drawers and wardrobes will easily get messy so just need to keep on cleaning them up regularly . I’m still having to constantly tidy up after everyone else I have to do it daily and nag and ask them if I leave it for a day they dump things here and there always. DH study is so nice and clean now after he really tidied for his mom’s Christmas visit but I’ve taken all his paperwork and put it in one pile on his desk and asked him to do it during these holidays he only now has 3 d left it’s a one evening job so maybe he’ll make it . He also has one little cardboard box to unpack in his cupboard there I have to get him to do .the goal is zero cardboard moving boxes in this house . I want things in other storage boxes that are neat and labelled or gone !
Need to get him to take the 3 large storage boxes that are full to charity shop and the foodbank load this weekend and I’m looking forward to my more plastic boxes arriving next week so I can continue in the attic . He has been tidying in the garage and is then making us dinner . I want to toast to a better new year tonight !

Vehicle repair has dominated today. Probably tomorrow too.
Am paying for pushing myself too hard and to add to the fun I now have to inject myself and got it wrong, resulting in accidentally decluttering a tiny vein. So now decluttering some Baileys!

Trying to come up with any meaningful resolutions for 2022 that are actually achievable. There’s a lot of things I hope to achieve, but for me new years resolutions are about trying to practice new habits for long enough that some of it sinks in.

Susan There’s a lot of people getting sudden fatigue currently, I think we’ve all taken a battering and a half one way or another recently.

Well Tidy Individual items /bags make little impact on their own, but it’s like drops in the ocean, add enough and there’s a flood, take enough away and there’s a drought. Having time is always an excellent start!

Miaowse same applies. Do enough equivalents of your handbag and tops drawer, and the next thing you know all sorts of things will look fantastic!

Nordic You sound very on top of things.

Elleherd thank you for the very motivating advice you gave to WellTidy & to me. Reading stuff like that really helps. Enjoy the Baileys.

Great news about the children’s second vaccinations BlackeyedSusan Hope the fatigue passes quickly.

nordicmum you’re zooming through the decluttering and organising - your new place sounds incredible.

Once I start a reply I can only see the posts on the latest page. Happy new year to everyone, here’s hoping 2022 will be the year of clear surfaces.

Happy New Year to All!

Hello! Happy new year everyone. I can’t believe how long it is since I’ve posted. I’m MNing a lot less now but I want to stick with the few threads I do find supportive and lovely! I have come back here time and time again since the first thread (name changed a lot!) 🥰💐

We still have too much clutter. But we managed to get the living room decorated in time for our new sofa and although it’s still messy it’s a lot better. The same cannot be said for the rest of the house 😳

I’m coming up to three months in my job now, I absolutely love it and it’s very family friendly (term time, mostly flexible hours from home) - it’s giving me more structure too and this makes me want to actually use my days off to do more house stuff.

Unfortunately the Christmas holidays haven’t been as productive as I’d hoped - DH still struggling after knee surgery, DD1 broke her wrist on the 18th and needed surgery, I had labyrinthitis!

Here’s to a clutter free 2022. Or at least… less clutter?!

Happy New Year!

Very tired. Fireworks stopped at 3.30 am. Full of adrenaline as one exploded onto the window with bits of flaming firework hitting the window about a foot from my head.

Yesterday, I did lots of washing and made improvements to the state of the kitchen floor. Put more shopping away. (Been out since weds) folded up used carrier bags to go back to Morrisons. Put wood waste into a bag to be composted. Ripped up half an Amazon pack to go in the compost. And put some recycling into a bag to go down later.
Washed up a lot.
Cooked a chicken

Today: sorted out the airer and redistributed drying washing. Put up the wet load that was in the machine.

Washed quite a lot up.

Threw out some out of date food from the fridge.
Put a bit more away from the kitchen floor
Cut up and baked the last tin of croissants.
Got ds's breakfast.

Put a v large blanket into wash in the bath while kids won't need it until tomorrow evening.

Morning everyone :)

Oh no wait. Afternoon. 🙈

I couldn’t sleep last night so I caught up on the thread. I’m sorry for the difficulties people have faced - elle that all sounds incredibly hard with the contractors etc 😭

Yikes at the fireworks susan! 😱

So I have now seen that until yesterday I hadn’t actually posted since early September!!! A lot has changed since then as I alluded to in my post yesterday. Mainly the job. I now work 8-12 hours a week for a wonderful charity (SN related), I’ve been really lucky as everyone is lovely and it’s very flexible, I’m doing well at it and it’s really improving my mental health and confidence!

October was a hectic month, as we finally bought a huge sofa (my mum gave us the money 💜 so we could for the first time buy something we really wanted rather than going for the cheapest) so we decorated the living room for the first time. It was such a massive task, and wore us out thoroughly, but it has inspired us to do more in the future!

Also starting my OU degree in February so all the more reason to try and ditch more clutter in the meantime. I’m back in a “where the hell do I start” phase right now, as all the easy clutter has already gone and I don’t know what to do with what’s left.

Example: I have turned my PC round on the desk so the webcam faces the wall, as the bookcase/floor behind me is a total mess and I’ve given up trying to clear it enough for meetings and tutoring 😳🤣

SingToTheSky I always have to chose my spot very carefully when doing video calls. Lovely to hear about the positive stuff going on and the progress you’ve made!

After wasting practically the whole day I set my timer for just 5 mins and tackled a pile of papers on my desk, then set another 5 minute timer, then another, then another... I filled a carrier bag with papers to be recycled, put aside a small stack of documents to be shredded on Tuesday when the schools are back (noisy shredder) and added a small collection of rubbish to a bin bag.

I put another novel to the charity shop box. I didn’t even re-read it first. It was a thriller that I quite enjoyed 15+ years ago and have lugged with me through multiple house moves but actually I have no plans to ever red it again and it’s not my type of book.

More working on vehicle yesterday as expected, but more needed today as well. Even if it gets through this time (fingers very crossed) it’s probably it’s last, the bodywork is just gone, but right now life will come to a grinding halt without it, and the money’s not there to replace it.

Sing to the Sky Sorry to hear so many with broken bits and unwell, but well done with the decorating, new job, and OU! (I’m currently trying to write an essay that won’t write, but I’m wretchedly un-academic.)
Once you get past the ‘easy’ clutter, I guess you need to start evaluating what the rest of it all really is, and brings to your life, both positive and negative.

Susan Arghhh to the firework alarm call! That must have given you a moment. They stopped just before 4am here, but someone let off a whole barrage at six in the morning! Ds coat is currently occupying our bath as I try and remove a years’ worth of filtered grime.

Miaowse Well done on grabbing the time and making it count! I need to do the same with so many books that I’ve been lugging and dusting a lifetime. You’ve also reminded me I have a paper shredder waiting to be emptied and contents disposed of.

This thread keeps disappearing from my TIO/TIW for some reason!
I've had a lull, after waiting so long for my hand surgery that I had in May, I was just about healed and fully functioning when I tripped up and broke the plate.
I'm back in for surgery tomorrow, and kicking myself that I didn't finish my sorting out beforehand whilst procrastinating on MN
Anyways, my OH has made a dresser from one of my empty chest of drawers and an old book case, it looks lovely and at last we have storage for our hat/glove/snood collection that previously got dumped on the dining room table. We're in and out a lot and it's not practical to be going upstairs all the time to put stuff away.
If the system isn't simple I can't stay tidy.
I've still got my kitchen to sort.
My spare bed is covered by a mountain of clothes to go, I'm still waivering between sending it all to charity or selling what I can, I could do with the money but seeing it affects my mental health.
Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and best wishes for the new year.

Not sure if you can change it in settings cherry but for me threads disappear after I’ve not posted for ten days!

Elle I’m a bit nervous about essay writing again tbh. Unfortunately the first course isn’t particularly interesting to me (I’m doing a psychology degree, but the first module is a general social science one) although I’ve had a look through the assessment titles and some do look good. What’s your essay about if it’s not too outing? :)

I’m not expecting much decluttering in the next few days, DH has medical appts with long commutes, and I’ve finally got my covid booster this afternoon which I’m nervous about as I felt like death after the others.

Good luck with the medical appointments and booster.

Today I slept in as Ds is out of routine and awake til late. Still awake now. Phone has been taken to charge. Persuaded him to stop terrorising me with a toy plane and take a new book up to bed....I have done about an hour of emotional regulation with him... Got to rescue the plane from behind furniture. Persuaded him to not eat all his sweets. And reclean his teeth.

Washed up
Made ds and myself tea.

Took DD on a walk through town to counteract the 4/5 of a tin of Pringles I ate yesterday.

Darned a jumper. It is more darn than jumper on the sleeves but is only the under layer in my many winter layers.

Also sent the recycling down. The bins are full and not due to be emptied for another three weeks.

Not much progress but stopping it getting worse as quickly.

I heard a bin lorry this morning but had eyes tight shut so not sure if they emptied our bins or neighbouring sheltered housing bins.

Not achieved a lot. Hoovered a tiny patch of floor.
Put some flannels away
Put some dishcloths away
Returned washed and dried oven glove to kitchen drawer.
Put a couple of items in the bin and one in a carrier bag for recycling.
Put some of the dry pots away.
Put a couple of blankets and cushions and enchanted diamond sword back onto the sofa

How odd, I thought I posted last night but see no trace of it on the thread.

Hope there were no ill effects after the booster SingToTheSky

A teensy bit of progress: a few duplicate books in the charity shop box along with a Christmas present

I also found some more papers to discard and a few pairs of holey trousers belonging to family members were added to the rag bag.

And a mug painted by a friend has finally been discarded this week after some deliberations earlier in the thread (or possibly a previous thread). I took a picture of it first.

There may have been other things but if so I’ve forgotten them.

I can’t wait until our bin day BlackeyedSusan , hope the lorry you heard emptied your bins.

cherrytree 63 If it were me I’d put it all in a bag for the charity shop and then the bag would sit for months (or maybe years)…

Well done miaowse. Anything out is an achievement. I have tins everywhere. Sorting out, and restashing in date order and using up any that need it.

I think we were on RTB’s Brexit threads together - I had a large stock of tins/dried goods that I’ve been trying to use up too!

H everyone, and happy new year to you all!!!

I'm afraid I did not get anything done in my time off except the laundry (most of), changed the bedding (still to be washed), and I washed up most of it several days running but still didn't get everything washed up! This evening I cleaned the bath and put a shower curtain and the (in)bath mat (non-slip) into the washing machine because they were rank.
I really have to do stuff and think I'm also going to try for 10 or 15 minute runs at things to try to get started, or I'm never going to do anything.
I hurt my back and shoulder again on the evening of new years day, and could hardly move. It's a little better, but not great. I think I need to lose weight which will likely mean less pain and being able to wear some of my too small to wear clothes which I'd love to get into.

As usual, I can't remember who said what so...
Good luck with the studying, and fab news re the job/s. Great going with the new house. Bad luck with the damage to your body. Bad luck with the cars. Awful about the fireworks - noise and the scare! I hate them.
I hope to come back with some progress soon! :)

I had great success with 5 minute timers the other day, for me it’s always the getting started that is the hardest bit. Hope your shoulder feels better soon. Catching up with laundry & keeping on top of washing up definitely counts as progress

Managed a little decluttering yesterday. Not really through choice - DS was looking for something among all the boxes of random crap so I searched a few for things that were easy decisions. Would have loved to do more but felt like crap after my covid booster on Monday. Worse today so far so not expecting any progress!