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).

3.5 hours driving.
Petrol
2 loads washing
Asda top up shop.

One of us has got to wash up at some point.

Hi all. House current rating is 'very messy', but quite happy as has been very hoarderesque last few years. Had done a few purges, but recenty haven't had much motivation. Doing little bits at the moment hoping for a lot more motivation.

Trying to do a bit tidying now as I'll be out a few hours soon and find it very nice to come home to a tidier house.

Yesterday:
Drive 2.5 hours
Wash up and put pots away.
Hoover some of mum's house. (Part of three rooms)
Hoover an abandoned Christmas tree and put away.
Hoover sofa, put some of the covers back on.
Put away Christmas decorations.
Take compost bin to mums.(Wrestling that out of ex's house and into a car was tricky)
Wash up a few pots at home and put away.
Get out some washing.

Wow @BlackeyedSusan that was some day!! Well done.

I also managed to watch 4 episodes of Tipping Point while waiting for a tradesman that didn't come. I was sort of limited in what I could get done due to needing to listen for the front door.

Hoovered stairs, landing, bathroom, more of the hall, finished the living room
Emailed and rung school after an "incident."
Drove 1.5 hours so far (got more to do)
Talked to tradesman. arranged further visit.

@TalkToTheHand123 Good step up from hoarderesque! Well done. As you know, motivation generally follows action, but in so much agreement about coming home to already tidy, rather than coming home to tidy.

@BlackeyedSusan That sounds like a lot of things caught up on. Well done!
Sympathies over the dreaded 'I' word! It's still around despite adulthood.
Sorry to hear you're suffering the curse of unreliable contractors too.
Hope it goes smoother next time, though catching up on something you wanted to watch, sounds earned.

As predicted, Easter's knock on effects slowed up Sunday and Monday, but launderette happened, a load of shelves affected by storage unit builders muck got emptied, gathered and moved to one storage unit, to be cleaned later.
Also more cleaning up of house contractors abandoned detritus, and better sorting of where water got in thanks to them breaking window, and guttering removal.
A contractor's been round following my complaints. Has added a tarpaulin across the whole (!) of the inside wall of the boarded up window. Doesn't look great but he said I should have less concern about the effectiveness of the emergency guttering I cobbled together. They've no plans to fix it soon.🙄

Most of the last two and a half days, roped into helping neighbor being evicted to box up what really mattered, to take to a storage unit (theirs, not mine!) then drag as much as possible onto the street to reduce landlord billing them, give away what they could, and walk away from the rest knowing it will be trashed.
It's been horrible trying to prompt them to make the best decisions they could while clearly paralyzed by it all.
But, I have to remind myself: they were one of the nominated as contractors access flats for the building work, who didn't co-operate despite warnings.
They didn't believe they would/could be evicted for not doing as told.
Then didn't go when their notice was up.
Then didn't believe enforcement of possession would go ahead after building work faltered.
Up to a couple of hours before deadline, they believed they'd have to be given an extension if they weren't ready. They weren't.

15 boxes of possessions still in communal hall when bailiffs arrived.
I stupidly ended up agreeing to take ownership of them, sort out specific stuff and dispose of the rest, to stop the bailiffs just seizing them towards costs.
I've had to say I can do nothing more for them than that, and what I'd already done helping them. It's been horrible refusing further help.
I feel awful for them but it's all made a mess of me too. Physically and psychologically.
Rest of today's been paperwork, trying to sort my head out, and resting swollen bits.

Hi all. I'm off tomorrow so hopefully I can do a bit houde tidying then. I've been planning to make a list of tasks, so hopefully I can do this and it helps to reduce clutter levels.

Go for it! Am looking forward to hearing how it goes, and hoping to borrow some energy to catch up on last 'wasted' two and half days here.

Sadly, Elle, it was not the flat we live in getting hoovered. But it still needed doing.

I have driven 85 miles already today. Filled up with petrol, top up shop. Put some washing in. (Two loads in bin bags waiting to be taken home and hung. ) sorted out rest of the dirty washing. It is going to be hidden in my car while ex's landlord comes round.

I am collapsing as soon as I am home and resting for a few days hours.

Just catching up and want to echo what @Elleherd says about celebrating all progress! Every bit of progress is a win, however small it may seem. Whatever is done or out will never have to be dealt with again, and that’s huge.

Resting is not wasted time either.

Taken three big baskets of washing upstairs for DD to tackle. (Got out of breath, which is a bit worrying)
Folded some of Ds's washing
Did some washing up.

Hi all. No list made yet, but I did do some gardening. Trying to keep on top of this. Filled three bucket fulls of weeds.

I didn't realise how much sweeping is required outside on drive and out back in garden patio area. I should have taken a photo of before and after as I haven't noticed much difference, but took me nearly 2 hours and was shattered after.

I need a decent sleep routine and reduce distractions to be productive so will focus on these over the next few days.

Well done talk!

DD hung three loads of washing.
I did another load of washing up and put it away.
Sent down recycling

Just going to say Well Done! and catch all up properly later; need to get this down before I do more, so I can measure progress later.

Several hours at the end of the week went to dealing with storage companies and landlords. All feel like wasted time and energy!
Landlords agent had clearance team clear most of neighbors stuff from the street. What was in the front gardens has been broken up and left.
They will be billed for clearance, but much lower rate for what was outside than what had to be cleared from their flat.

Agent demanded neighbors boxes removed from hall. They collapsed when lifted! Dragged into mine disintegrating.
Sorted actual possessions out from a lot rubbish and re-boxed into ones that aren't collapsing and took them to storage unit. (So didn't want to do that!) .

15 turned into 6 minus once rubbish sifted out! (They did say they'd panicked and tipped drawers and swept surfaces into boxes) Broken boxes in vehicle.
Photographed everything so they can see it's only rubbish been thrown.

Cleaned hall behind it all but the clearance lot filthied it right up again!

Half of the dirtied shelves in storage unit, now cleaned and moved and set up in the repaired one. Load of boxes cleaned down, and moved over as well.

Plants in garden watered. Broken chest of drawers repaired. Just finished scrubbing dried cement from 4 large plastic containers that I brought back with me and about to go to storage unit to move and do more.

Sack of recycling from storage has made it as far as vehicle, along with rubbish from neighbors boxes, and a re packed box of stuff from home ready to go to storage today.

Elleherd, that sounds amazingly productive!

I’ve been following my energy and doing gardening, lots to the tip including weeds

@Itsnotwhatitseemslike Resting is an essential! I'm not together enough in what feels like a boom or bust life, to get that one right yet, but am hoping to.

@BlackeyedSusan Well done! IME when someone else's house is part of what you have to do in a day, it all counts, as you can later see where you're time has gone, when you're wondering how the heck things are the way they are.

@TalkToTheHand123 Well done to you too! I think we all underestimate how long things take. Or is it that once we start we do more than we intended?

@Thehillsarealivewithbutterflies well done on gardening and tip runs. It's amazing how it mounts up! I like the 'following my energy' it sounds positive.

Lots more cleaned up and moved into repaired unit yesterday and just off to do more. Wishing all a productive, or restful, bank holiday Monday, whichever suits best. 🌻

Yesterday - Lots more boxes cleaned and shifted into repaired unit.
Paying for it all physically though, and there is so much more still.
Am only very surface sifting as I clean and move stuff, as there isn't enough time to go through it yet, but slightly disappointed with only a carrier bags worth chucked.
Sent (ex) neighbor message about picking up boxes soon please. (trying to learn from previous mistakes allowing other peoples stuff into my storage) Launderette also happened.

This morning: Brought accounts up to date.
One of today's jobs is to go through some boxes of books and try and get rid of some of them.
This lot are just the top of the iceberg of so so many books, but need to start somewhere on them, and also to pace myself and physically recover after doing so much over the BHW.

Unreliable contractor strikes again. However, front garden at mum's weeded compost bin installed over the hole ds dug years ago and good progress on clearing a safe route out of the garden for the tree surgeons.

Cleaned the basin at mum's. Need to make it look lived in for contractors for security reasons.

You are doing well Elle!

Good park on setting boundaries with the neighbour!

Finally remembered to take 3 bags of clothes to clothes bank. Living room getting messy again. Hopefully can get tidying again soon. Making plenty soup to help stop eating heavy meals as this contributes to having little motivation to clean and tidy.

@BlackeyedSusan thanks. Trying to push forward psychologically with the hold things have, as well as the physical mountain. Talking myself forward!
Sorry contractors have let you down again. (enjoying the peace from them currently, even if it is on an abandoned building site) Well done clearing path through and weeding, and the compost bin siting is genius!
Agree with the 'keep it looking lived in.' Sadly lots of dodgy individuals out there.

@Itsnotwhatitseemslike Thanks. Trying to learn from mistakes. Lots of other cf's stuff already lurking in storage I'm paying for, that I don't yet have the time and energy to face evicting!
Intention was only to take 'ownership' of neighbors boxes for a few hours to prevent bailiffs seizure at the time, and leave them in communal hall for her to grab later, but no intended good deed goes unpunished!
She responded to initial message in a way that's resulted in me having to say I really sympathize and am sad for her situation, but she has exactly a week from today to salvage, after which I will have to dispose of them. Feels brutal, but can see I could easily get had for the fool I can be.

@TalkToTheHand123 Well done, the more that's gone, the easier keeping everything else tidier, is going to be.
Soup sounds like a good compromise. I can only eat after I've done everything, partly because joys of Chrons, but also because of what Dc's call 'food coma.' No one wants to move much after a good meal.

Yesterday out of ten boxes of books, managed to re select four boxes of them 'to be disposed of' immediately, and another four for keep to hand to 'revise and look at hard' again soon, with an eye to outing. (harder as mainly 1800's but not valuable and unwanted by charity shops) Not really enough, but a good start for a first pass. Bonus was found a book of stamps being used as a book mark.
Everything's been moved into repaired unit in cleaned up boxes, with everything ready to go or (inc neighbors boxes) or be re inspected, where it's easy to get at.

So far's mainly been dealing with phone calls re aunts flat, off now to see what else can be achieved today.