Hoarders Anonymous. Thread #8. We Are Keeping On Keeping On. Fighting The Cluttered Fight.

[Solo]

We are a group of likeminded householders who 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 is), health issues within the family unit, wider family, or ourselves (me too) that means sorting out our households is challenging to say the least. So...

You are all welcome to join us for support, adding your ideas to help others out, storage ideas, and even tips on actually getting those items out of the house which sounds so simple when you say it, but this part can be so very difficult; we are often attached emotionally to our 'things', afraid of letting things go just in case we need them.

Encouragement and support abound here in our band of clutterbugs. We never ever criticise anyone! We even try not to criticise ourselves as it's not helpful to anyone, but this can be very difficult to achieve.

If you are feeling overwhelmed by clutter, mess, disorganization and generally don't know where to start. If you can't be bothered, but really do want to be bothered. If you think you are a bit lazy, or if you just need to see your highs and lows and everything in between on the screen here, join us, and we will help you. We'll virtually high-five your achievements - small or large, and virtually hug you when the need arises. If you want a hug, just ask because we are here for you, here for one another because we get it. The art of washing up is sometimes our great achievement of the day, but it's still an achievement

Some helpful links. They aren't for everyone, but have a look if you fancy:

• Help For Hoarders by Jasmine Harman (the author/producer of the BBC1 documentaries My Hoarder Mum and Me and Britain's Biggest Hoarders)
• The FlyLady Cleaning Method by Marla Cilley
• The Organised Mum Method by Gemma Bray
• The KonMari Method by Marie Kondo
• A Slob Comes Clean by Dana K. White
• The Getting Things Done Method by David Allen

And a LINK-#7

I'm not sure if The Flylady link is working, but if not, you know what to search for.

Welcome to thread #8 of Hoarders Anonymous. Thread #8. We Are Keeping On Keeping On. Fighting The Cluttered Fight (and winning, one small step at a time).

Well I never did get into rated people on my phone. DD opened it on the computer.

Heating engineer coming Thursday. Need to get cash out.

I have had three meltdowns over this. My resilience is seriously lacking.

I have cleaned the sink, draining board, drainer, washing up bowl. Then having a break for another overwhelm. I am really getting frustrated by this now.

Well done to floor mopping!

Tried to have a purge over Easter and did 4 trips to the tip and had a fire… DH is underwhelmed (he did help, just feels like he didn’t get as far as he’d wanted to). Tried to express the ‘it didn’t get like this in a week’ and ‘all progress is progress’ but not sure I delivered enough visible progress - then was wiped out yesterday so got nothing much done in a whole day.

I feel the overwhelm @BlackeyedSusan and know it took all your spoons to deal with finding and booking a trade 💐

@TalkToTheHand123 - what kind of paint, any chance it is water based? I got damp proof seal paint off laminate by kind of soaking the spot with washing up liquid soaked kitchen roll, then elbow grease and a microfibre cloth 🤞

I have done some washing up (until the water turned murky) and put some of it away. More to do but a start.

@Itsnotwhatitseemslike TBF they don't celebrate Easter so just a bank holiday weekend to them.
Would 'hammock nets' in the garage be an option for the cushions? Might make the garage feel more oppressive, but better oppressive garage than house...
If plastic (and vehicle still in use) I'd snap the number plate and put it in different recycling collections. Old metal ones are saleable tat.
Similar issues with people wanting things but not actually removing them here, let us know how if you solve that one!.
Well done with the clothes recycling bins and teen setting up on Vinted. In time I hope to figure some of the platforms out, but for now it's just another thing I'm behind on and no time for.

@BlackeyedSusan Hoping you've recovered a bit and managed to enjoy a bit of Easter and it hasn't been too much.
Good luck with recovering password and finding an engineer. Hoping the heating doesn't cost too much to sort out.

@Thehillsarealivewithbutterflies I can't find woman's hour or the clip from that link. I'm probably being dumb, any idea what I'm doing wrong?

@TalkToTheHand123 Well done on getting hall floor done regardless of obstacles!
Do you know what kind of paint it is, and is it flat or raised 'drips.' (close up pic could help)

@KittyTalbot Thanks. Ds is much better. He has ASD and struggles with potential burn out at the best of times, and we're currently having a continuous rough ride. Is hopefully having full set of bloods done to rule out anything else, as permanently white, drained and exhausted and has a couple of 'something or nothing' continuous symptoms. Becoming unreasonably angry nearly always turns out to being his precursor to serious illness, and he's currently on constant edge of meltdown, which is worrying, as well as wearing for him and all.

Afraid storage situation went from bad to worse!
Sorry your tiler has been such a nightmare! Glad your Dh has made him go regardless, as sounds like he was settling in for the long haul and it is really demoralizing watching them drag work out badly while finding more ways to charge you so called extras.
Hope you're better soon.

@BlackeyedSusan Every start is a bit less middle later!

@FiniteSagacity It is really important to recognize that lots of progress made isn't instantly visible. I know I blab on, but these things really matter.You say you 'tried' to have a purge.
Four tips to the tip and a fire later, says No, you did have a purge! It's a lot whether the end results of doing it are currently visible or not.
If DH is insisting on measuring progress in what hasn't yet happened, you may have to override him until he either gets the message or frankly, shuts up.
I've had to be quite single minded and strident about this here, because it doesn't matter who's fault anything or parts of it are, the situation is overwhelming enough without anyone adding to the idea we (I!) can't do it or enough hasn't been achieved when we've cracked at it.
You've clearly done a lot. Please celebrate the win! (and accept the rest )

I have found my tribe! 😍

Easter 'break' update: Went to storage units to move contents, to discover everything (and I mean everything) covered in their builders muck! Moving is officially now on hold. Time allocated to moving instead spent cleaning stuff and the repaired unit for use. Only the tip of the ice berg done and a few cleaned boxes moved over.
The company are at least deeply apologetic, lowering rent, and will back any insurance claim. So trying to be sanguine, but so didn't need this as well.

Also managed to get to 'out of town' storage unit and identified several medium to large items that can go. Aiming to reduce as much as possible across all storage to lower storage, costs and insanity, after being forced into spreading out across several units. Plan is then amalgamate the units and go through the rest to shed a good 90%, which is going to be hard but must happen.

Nasty shock here. When it rained, discovered not only been left with badly boarded windows, but they'd also left buildings stripped of guttering and rain pipes and left everyone with nothing! Everything came down the roof and walls of everyone above, washing away render and all of it straight into my bedroom. Ended up rigging up a working platform, raiding the contractors pile for bits and managed to put some temporary guttering and drainpipes up! (Thank you 'internet for dummies'!) It's all a bit shonky, but doing the job for now.
Left annoyed messages - no response yet.
Most of that mess, and some of the contractors detritus, has been cleared up and working platform stripped back down.

Have reset us up as a home to live in, but with as much staying in boxes as possible.

In between all that; Launderette happened, vehicle mirror replaced, vehicle fueled. One carrier bag of stuff donated. A big basket and three of its smaller companions also earmarked for someone interested.
Another carrier bag of stuff chucked, some bits to recycling, and a small bathroom unit and baskets made it to the dump.
Yesterday was paid work, and I've had to ask to spread today's over two half days as supposed 'break' has broken me! The extra journeys and costs negate a lot, but I'm unable to hide what a mess I am.

Hello and welcome @Horses7 🙂I'm literally getting ready to go to work, but will be back later to respond better.
(I really want to know if you have seven horses... but answer nothing that you don't want to)

Thank you Elleherd - I’d love to have seven horses but sadly I don’t …which is good for horses because they would have died from neglect by now.
I’d like a really witty name but couldn’t be bothered to spend more time on it 🙈
I’m so happy to see I’m not the only one who is like this.
’Public’ parts of my house look great but my bedroom has been a work in progress for years. Husband is so patient.
I have far too many clothes, shoes, bags, products etc etc. despite having loads of wardrobe space. I have also a spare bedroom that’s a tip full of gym equipment and candles.
I have 30 large plastic storage boxes in the loft and I need to swap summer clothes etc out and winter stuff back up there. I started yesterday morning and have done two boxes so far. I’d rather do anything else …. like now 🤣
Grown up daughter who lives nearby tells me I have ADHD, however she’s not a specialist so I’ve decided not to believe her.
Back to the boxes after I’ve had another cup of tea!

I searched for woman’s hour decluttering
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002b6ng
that appears to be a whole programme
And this a clip on how visual clutter can affect us https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0l4xxf7

@KittyTalbot Thanks. Ds is much better. He has ASD and struggles with potential burn out at the best of times, and we're currently having a continuous rough ride. Is hopefully having full set of bloods done to rule out anything else, as permanently white, drained and exhausted and has a couple of 'something or nothing' continuous symptoms. Becoming unreasonably angry nearly always turns out to being his precursor to serious illness, and he's currently on constant edge of meltdown, which is worrying, as well as wearing for him and all.

Bless him. Hope it's nothing serious.

I'm with him on the edge of meltdown, though stress induced. And illness is fairly likely as just got a couple of new ones.

Something very odd happening here, I swear there are earlier posts that weren't here before and I've just lost the post I was writing twice. Going to go to bed and try again in the morning.

Ha!

I wasn't going mad then!

Same happened here.

@BlackeyedSusan Your post has literally just appeared. It definitely wasn't there at 6.35.

And it's eating posts before they can be sent

Re paint drips on the floor. The latest series of clean it fix it showed using rubbing alcohol to clean a splattered floor.

Got contractors coming and I am still in bed 50 miles away.

Trying again.
@Horses7 In my childish dreams I was rather hoping to hear of a neglected home owing to spending a life in the saddle... 😀Ah well.
Your loft situation sounds really organized, if a lot of hard work when the seasons change.
Quite a few of us here with ADHD or a lot of reasons to suspect it, it seems to rather go with the territory along with executive function issues.
I guess the old if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and fly's like a duck, the question isn't so much if it is or isn't a duck,a duck, but more would it benefit from duck food?
Hoping you have a few more boxes done. It very much feels like playing The Grand Old Duke of York with boxes moving here there and everywhere at the moment.

@Thehillsarealivewithbutterflies Thank you so much. I feel stupid saying it didn't occur to me that the answer was to search for Woman's hour, but that's the truth. But I've learnt a bit more about internet navigation, something I'm in need of, so thank you for that too. Hopefully get to listen to it later today before work.

@Talltreesbythelake Hi. That's a good piece of info, thank you. I tend to reach for isopropyl (main ingredient of rubbing alcohol) for a lot of things as a go to. Possibly gentle scraping with a store card edge if the paint is emulsion.
I've got solidified drips of gloss off laminate before, by very gently heating it with a hairdryer and putting a sharp knife into the drip and wriggling it upwards. (Not scraping it)

@BlackeyedSusan Apologies for an earlier response that looks like I'm dumbly ignoring what you'd said on 22/04/2025 16:25. It wasn't there when I posted.
I actually only noticed it later appearing because the
caught my eye.
Hopefully you've made it out of the door to meet the contractors by now.

This morning here is mainly going to getting accounts up to date, paperwork and planning how to deal with all the different bits of trying to sort out the situations here. It's the best i can do.
Trying to physically rest enough to be fit enough to not show myself up this afternoon at paid work. I really struggled yesterday and no way to cover it up.

Yay it posted!

Finally managed to pack up the Easter stuff. If it was me I’d not bother but I do it for the kids and my DH who love it… can’t be bothered to put it away in the home though as it’s a bit awkward to access. That’s always the problem! So now it will sit in the hallway probably… gah!!!

It’s taking ages to recover from Easter Hols - just so much peopling and cooking and just… stuff esp now the garden is in use. And the paddling pool …

Thanks for the advice all. I used a scraper and did the trick. Flooring not damaged. It needs changing at somepoint as old, although may put carpet over sometime.

I feel some progress has been made last few weeks to combat the house clutter levels.

@Itsnotwhatitseemslike Well done getting Easter stuff all packed up at least, it's a good start.
Could Dh be persuaded it's in everyone's interests that he does the grunt work of getting it back into the difficult to access space? I realize this can be more complex than it might be worth! 😎
Can totally relate to struggling to recover from what's seen as having been a break, but in reality isn't for many.

@TalkToTheHand123 Well done for improving the flooring. 🙂
Depending how much it matters to you, if it's looking dull and tired, you could try white vinegar and a soft cloth for buffing, which can help bring up a shine.
If it doesn't, the surface protection may well have worn down and there are laminate surface restoration products that can reduce replacement costs and work and add several years.
If it's originally good quality laminate that you'd have to downgrade to afford replacement; it's possible to gently sand and remove the original surface and apply a new one. I've done this. Stupid amounts of work, but had some quality flooring that I'd never be ale to get anything that good again, so it felt worth it.

Really good to hear you're winning against rising clutter levels. Well done!

Unplanned resting here! Having to work another half day only, later today, as a result of several joints remaining stupidly swollen from unexpected Easter work.
Also now going to have to do an additional full day tomorrow to bring in what I contracted for, on time, reducing any profit. 🙄

It's thrown all the weekend plans including cleaning up at storage unit, and means being in poor shape for having to now physically work even harder on Sunday, which is likely to result in more knock on physical issues next week.
Really annoyed at how others random stupidity can have such far reaching effects, but also recognizing further the urgent need to de complicate life and make it more compatible with disability.

I'm also swiftly losing the battle to keep things boxed up for moving again, whenever the major building work restarts. (The handful of remaining contractors reckon it's now it's mid to late summer.)
But, it is nice to have most of a basic home environment to be in again, and have things to hand for use, instead of camping out in the middle of a building site. As well as not having to navigate traffic and opening hours to get needed items in and out of storage almost daily! That's been unsurprisingly wearing.

3.5 hrs driving
Aldi
Shopping away.
2 loads of washing put on.
2 hours chivvying a boy to school.