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).

My delicates laundry liquid took a dive off the work surface into the holiday bags. Happens when it is nearly empty and gets top heavy when you put it down. Used for those dreaded hand wraps.

Yesterday:
Helped ex with garden in exchange for his help with my garden later.

Shopped for ds for both houses. (Two supermarkets )Ds carried it in to relevant houses.

Three bags of compost fell in my car by accident. (Oops) Stored in ex's garden. Will plant something next year. (Possibly garlic this year)

Wiped and put away shopping. Wiped some of the holiday stuff.

Three loads of washing, one hung.

Yesterday: holiday booked for next year.

Today:
Emptied another bag. Some stuff put in bowl to clean the spilt coffee off. Put some stuff in the bin. Shook out bag and hoovered up coffee granules. Put some stuff out to go to ex's or car. Chipping away at it gradually.

About to go to ex's to go to fetch washing /help with garden etc.

DD hung yesterday's washing. We both put away dry stuff and I have rearranged drying washing to make room for the next lot incoming soon.

Launderette done, hand washing done, both hung, and dried. Still haven't found missing bottle of liquid, but remembered I'd chucked just enough into travel bottle to get this lot done.
Vehicle mirror replaced (other side got it this time)
Plants watered.
Accounts brought up to date.
Most of today spent at customers doing paid work. Shattered.

Hi. How much of people's properties are full of hoard? I'd been making a little progress for a few months but last few months not really. Hoping now to start again as house getting really cluttered again.

Interesting question talktothehand.

In most rooms you can't see three quarters of the walls. I'm an organised hoarder so I don't have too much in the way of floor creep and no piles of detritus any more. I tend to go upwards instead.

Having said that, everywhere is divided up into sections. Think of the IKEA catalogue where they're giving ideas for fitting a family of 5 into a studio flat, using various ways to create different segments within each room. My entire home is basically like that, completely unnecessarily, to accommodate the hoard and still be useable. I wouldn't need half this furniture if I wasn't having to store the hoard. In the past when young and poor, and prior to settling down, I've moved home entirely with less boxes than I now own to contain the hoard.

I have two huge collections that both spill throughout the place into almost every room. One is being kept for practical reasons (although anyone sensible and without really the necessary room to store would make their peace with selling off and repurchasing in future if necessary (and it may not even be necessary, depending on how life pans out!)). The other is a result of excessive shopping combined with hoarding tendencies. These collections take up a lot of space. They have in honesty gone beyond a collection into a hoard.

I can't really put a figure on a percentage of unnecessary stuff because weirdly I have a minimalistic side. I can go camping for a week with survival rations, three changes of clothes, wash my underwear in a river and dry it on a tree, shower gel, eczema cream, lip balm, a torch, a book and a blanket and be happy as anything. So technically I don't need much to survive or be happy and all the rest is surplus.

I'm not really sure what a normal amount of stuff is or looks like. It's why I like looking at "ordinary family life" videos on YouTube, their homes give me an idea of what to aim for because I like how they look. The formula seems to be: 50% furniture and 50% space in most rooms, decluttering the entire house at least once per season minimum, deciding/admitting what season of life you're in then being ruthless and keeping only the things which fits in with that, having only one or two hobbies and exercise is probably one of those with keeping the home nice being almost like a sort of third hobby. I have a very long way to go before I can say I've achieved any of this!

Today's mainly been the completion of the re-wiring job, ready for an electrician to inspect and certify. Trying to take daily steps forwards, big or small.

@TalkToTheHand123 In my home, very little but that's only because we've had to strip back to bare bones into more storage for the major works going on.
But the storage situation is horrendous in both amounts, and being forced into splitting it across multiple sites in different locations.

We've gone from being allowed almost nothing in the place so they could get at any part any time, to them only needing some access and with warning, and it's notable how quickly we find things coming back either from storage or new items sneaking in.
It is one of those things you need to keep on top off to ensure more is leaving than coming in I'm afraid.
Doing ok in keeping on top of the house, but also struggling to get back in the groove of sorting storage units every day, and actually getting shot of stuff.

I'm another one with floor space but who's who's gone upwards on walls, and has excess shelving that's only needed because of the amount of stuff requiring a place to live when not being used. It nearly all used to be hidden by huge hiding sliding doors everywhere,which minimized the effects and made things look quite normal, but post ending up in a wheelchair they've had to be dismantled. (by then more household stuff than I was aware of,was creeping into business storage space) It was amazing what a difference it made seeing everything all at the same time, all the time.
No idea at this point what the percentage is, just that there is way more than is sensible or realistic.

Scrubbed the bath and surrounds.
Cleaned the basin, pedestal tiles underneath, bin,storage box.
Washed two sets of hand wraps. Spun and rinsed one.
Cleaned top of cooker.
Rearranged a bit of the cupboards, wiped and put the shopping away.

@BlackeyedSusan Well done! Good work.
Overdid things on Sunday trying to get things sorted for electrical certification, and lost half the day and all of yesterday, trying to get swollen limbs back down to some sort of functionality as a result. Got there other than limbs still feel on fire.
Today so far has seen a bit of hoovering pre electrical inspection, and a bit of quick garden pick up.

Trying to not aggravate swelling so working much more cautiously, as can't afford to keep losing days to trying to recover. Yesterday eventually resulted in two sacks of greenery, a bit of clearing up, and watering.
Lots of financial info gathering, and one electrical certificate, which is a big relief.

Yay to the certificate.

Meter reader came yesterday so cleared out the under stairs cupboard. (Suitcases are not yet back in but nearly ready)
Cleaned out one suitcase. Repacked.
DD took some of her stuff away.
Hand washed some trousers.
DD washed up and I put some of it away as it dried.
Finally got the flasks away. (Early for me)
Emptied cupboard of bottles no longer wanted. (Going to photograph an end of an era)
Spun hand wraps.

Congratulations on the certificate elleherd.

I've signed up for another YouTube declutter thing with a different channel, since the last one was helpful. This one is massive so should be even more so. I need to change my mindset so I can let go of more. Several areas are very useable despite the clutter but some, whilst functional, are less useable than they should be. I want to fix that. If anyone wants to know what it is I can say more but I don't want to spam the thread about these things if nobody cares!

Well done @BlackeyedSusan! Ends of era's are something I failed to properly recognize for a long time. Possibly because of potential of need to return to some things, possibly just plain old sub conscious denial.
@BlueSummerBaby I'm interested in every single thing that might help any of us! Other than MN I don't spend much time online so miss out on a lot of this stuff.
About to head to big storage unit and have another go at it all, but have to prep some stuff for paid work tomorrow.

Yesterday I did three loads of washing and brought a lawnmower in.
And bloody hand wraps.
And spun trousers.

Today: spun hand wraps. Damp dusted half the landing while they spun. Saving the second half for tomorrow and Saturday. Wiped the top half of a door in the bathroom.

You keep your lawnmower indoors?

Ok elleherd. Here goes.

So the one I found the other day, you get it by going on Becky Moss's YouTube. She's not a hoarder but her house is inspiring and I want it, so she makes me declutter. I expect she has the link in the description box of the videos but if not, scroll back a few videos and she advertised it there. There's a free declutter checklist that's theoretically good, unless you're a hoarder because it doesn't deal with the emotional side of things, only the overwhelm side of it and not knowing where to start.

I paid $27 for the toolkit too, which is aimed at the hoarder types. It's short and sweet but useful, a gentle start to thinking about it all and starting to alter your mindset. I was able to get unstuck and let go of some things I'd had for ages, so well worth it for me. It's less in £ than $ and the bank charged less than £1 for currency conversion. I might have got an early bird offer, I'm unsure, but you can see the price before you pay.

The one I found yesterday is on Hoarder's Heart's YouTube (and I suspect a pile of others, but she's the one I follow). Her videos are excellent and always make me go get rid of something. I went back to the beginning and watched the lot, a while back. She's a full scale hoarder in recovery and she's documented the entire de-hoarding process from the beginning and shares the things she's learned in therapy. If you go to her latest video she's advertising it. You have to email her to ask for the free link.

It's a kind of online course. I haven't looked into it yet. There's a free part, which starts in September. I think that's probably going to require a week's annual leave and being available for YouTube 24/7, so you don't miss anything.

So I paid for the extras, which is giving me lifetime access to the course at my own convenience. Additionally, I get various free printables that sounds good and maybe some other stuff (I really haven't done anything more than pay at this point).

I got an early bird discount and paid $29, says the usual price is $275 if I understood correctly. That's not a typo, either of them. I figured it was worth a shot, I can afford to lose less than £30 if it turns out rubbish. I've no reason to suspect it's rubbish though. Hoarder's Heart is into charity projects and helping others, not just selling her stuff and keeping all the cash for herself, so I can't see her being involved with anything shady or pointless.

If you're an impulsive shopper I recommend having someone with you when you pay for this one. Whoever organised this is clearly running a business and pretty determined to sell you other things, some expensive, some cheaper. If you just want to pay for the course, you have to scroll down the second page and NoThanks to the additional $100 digital thing just so you can pay, which initially confused me. Then you get hit with a bunch of other things to buy. So if you're easily led, you could totally end up maxing out your credit card by mistake. You've been warned! 😅

I'm looking forward to it. I had Simple Happy Zen on in the background (she's a Dutch lifestyle minimalist, talks a lot of sense with the occasional bit of woo thrown in) whilst I did some home improvements today and she's got something going on too, so I'll be investigating that next! It all might seem a bit mad, but I figured it's cheaper than therapy and I'm determined to do something.

Ex keeps his lawnmower indoors. No secure shed.

Ah. Aparantly I have one. I need to clear the shed first though. 🤔😮

Its quite small for a lawnmower. Human powered.

Yesterday most of the day was spent on waiting for a phone call from the dr's.

I did to bits and bobs and cleaned out and repacked(storage) another suitcase.

Today:
Scrubbed bath/shower and surrounds, plus basin. Sprayed the toilet with antibac. Needed to get it out the way.

Just getting breakfast coffee.

Finished the loo and adjacent tiles.
Small wash up
Rinsed and spun hand wraps
Hand washed t shirt to get out stain. Rinsed. Need to spin.
Rinsed/squashed recycling. Sent down with ex.
Wiped top of cooker.
Fed myself.

Bloody knackered.

Oh wow. That'll be a canny workout.

Ended up not getting back from paid work until 2am and most of today's plans had to be abandoned to recover in order to be fit to do more tomorrow.
Today's just been launderette.

@BlueSummerBaby Thank you very much. As you know I'm in this for the long haul, and even if I don't get to use a thing instantly, understanding what's out there and how to access it, is really appreciated, and your warnings for any who are impulsive shoppers or easily confused by how things are presented, are very helpful to all.
It all might seem a bit mad, but I figured it's cheaper than therapy and I'm determined to do something.
Nothing mad about trying to figure it out especially as no one's come up with any one size even vaguely fits all therapy. The determination to do something, is a huge positive.

@BlackeyedSusan Well done!
Hope the call was productive, and not too stressful. Am also 'bloody knackered!'

He's only got a small lawn out back which is the perfect work out size for me. I need to practise walking and this does the job.