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).

Been driving. Lots of driving. DD back at college. 4 days last week. (450 miles in 7 days) Also ds to school.
Lots of shopping. Food just disappears around ds and his hollow legs. He does lots of exercise. Some of it has been put away. Some is still on the stairs.
Been mum's to work on garden. (Keep done what we have done already. ) Picked more fruit. Put some in freezer and quite a bit in my tummy. I wanted to go get more before wind takes it down but I have to deal with what I have first.
Some washing up has been done between me and DD. We have enough to use but it is not finished.
Bathroom cleaning has been done, including plug holes.
Laundry is getting washed and dried. Not put away.

The suitcases are still out. Makes life shit. Need to do but back went and shopping and laundry and driving and fatigue happened.

My thermal base layer got eaten. Been mending big big holes. The mending wool has also been eaten at some point. Everything has just been too difficult. Sleep has been disrupted by boys going out or coming in at stupid hours of the night.

@BlackeyedSusan it sounds like you're a bit overwhelmed right now. I can understand that. The important thing to remember is that it's temporary. The suitcases in the way is just temporary. All that driving won't help your back in my experience. It's too much sitting in the same position. Will you very doing that amount very often?
My laundry is always washed and dried, but never put away. Clean clothes are collected from the 'dining room' daily.

@Elleherd I really don't know how you do everything you do. I take my hat off to you.

Grocery shopping done on Thursday as well as mums. I did some social stuff on Saturday which completely knocked me out for Sunday. On top of that, I have a lung infection, so am on antibiotics. I actually wonder if it's the dusty house that's causing that.
Only 1 load of laundry done on Saturday, all dried and added to the pile! .
Washing up done.
May have done more, but can't remember right now.

Keep on keeping on.

@BlackeyedSusan Oooff! sounds hard going right now.. Solo's right about remembering these things being temporary, even if they're dragging on.
She's also right about the driving. don't know if it would work for you, but I spent some time with a cheap and cheerful plastic back rest on my vehicle seat which arched my back, and stopped me slouching and made a big difference when I was doing serious miles.
Frustrating to go to mend moth holes, and then find they had the wool too!
You've actually got a lot done there especially with how life's being for you right now: feeding cleaning, driving and tribe wrangling..Bloody well done.👏

@Solo Solo. taking the hat tip, as I'm trying to learn to accept praise, so thanks, but a reminder to all that I only do this much because I managed to build a higher mountain to sort out and dismantle than most, in the first place!

Well done on staying on top of stuff at whatever level especially when unwell.
Don't beat yourself up over the dusty house and lung infection. It won't be helping, but anything treatable with antibiotics is unlikely to be caused by just dust.

Yesterday was paid work, and drum roll..... between then and this A.M. all the filthy shelves (many) in the damaged units have been dragged into one, and are now clean! Two are beyond worthwhile salvage, and are going to be broken up and head to the tip, along with a couple of other things earmarked.
It means I can in theory get shelves set up in the original unit (now repaired) and start cleaning affected stuff, moving and consolidating it, and where possible getting shot of some.

Contractors returned this morning, but they're not getting on with much beyond I'm waiting for either stuff to arrive, or them to go home, so I can take boxed up stuff to people. Fingers crossed to get it out.
Have hopefully found garage that can do expensive vehicle repair next week.

Thanks Elle and well done on shelving.

DD has done some of her own admin.

I have sorted a job that was well overdue and cleaned the kitchen floor a bit.

Driven boy to school.

Top.up shop

Put a load of laundry in.

Put some shopping away.

Hi all. My friend has cleaned half the kitchen. Took her a couple of hours. She is coming back another day to do the other half. I'm hoping I cannget it a bit tidier before she comes as I feel so embarrased. I habe been tidying the living room and it looks quite good for my standards.

Well done Talk!

I've managed a nap. (Yay)

Collected the washing I put in earlier, and done another load. Brought it home.

Took kid to club and collected.

Mended a bike lock. Saved £40 or so .

Sorted other kids club money.

Being untidy helps. A pile of socks DD left in the hall just saved my phone when I managed to throw it on the floor.

Tomorrow is driving day. (College run, there and back twice, 85 ish miles, with roadworks. )

Solo I have lung issues and I'd say dust is a problem. Long term dust (as opposed to the stuff that collects in a week or so) harbours mould spores. If I start getting sniffles that's my sign it's been way too long since I cleaned out the inside of my car. All that dust sitting there is fine, until it isn't and I'm ill. If I ignored it I'd have a chest infection too. Even if you don't have time to properly clean I'd try to damp dust the top layer of everything and push the vacuum round the visible bits of floor on a regular basis.

I've been decorating and doing some repairs. I liked the declutter course I did, I haven't put anything into action yet. Although I suppose I did the decorating I'd been procrastinating on, so maybe that's not 💯 true. It was a bit overwhelming so I'm glad I paid to have the permanent access. There's still lots I haven't watched yet. If anyone does it next year and doesn't get the permanent access part, make sure you do the initial "party" (which isn't). I almost skipped it because I'm not a party person but it's not a party and it's where all the panicked last minute questions you have at the beginning before you start get answered. As I have permanent access I could have watched it on replay, but I didn't know this at the time and the link to watch it came through literally 15mins before it started. So it felt stressful at first until I got all the information about how everything works. On the Facebook group for it lots of others were saying the same. So keep hitting refresh on your emails.

I found another one now, a slow living one rather than specifically decluttering, although I think that's part of it. It's free and it's on FieldOfBoaz YouTube in the latest video. Apparently it's going to rewire my brain in 15 mins a day for a week, which I'm sceptical about, but if it helps a bit I'll be happy. I guess autumn is the season of decluttering and getting your life in order, everyone seems to be at it, at least on the channels I follow.

In case anyone's bothered about giving out email address, I can say my spam folder is no busier than usual, so I don't think anyone is selling my email.
There's still the usual amount of sexy foreign ladies apparently desperate to meet me, presumably after I've purchased the penis enhancer and Viagra a few people keeps trying to sell (female) me, and paid the "fee" so the scammers people who are apparently watching me through the webcam (that I don't possess) and know exactly what I'm (not!) doing at my computer all day won't send the videos (that don't exist) to all my friends (that I don't have) 🤣 . Gotta love the spam folder haven't you!

I did take a couple more bags of donations to the charity shop last week too.

@Solo please listen to @BlueSummerBaby not me!
I was thinking of 'just' dust not causing anything treatable with antibiotics, not dust with mold spores.(which I'd perhaps wrongly categorize as Mold floating around, rather than dust)

Driving day:took longer due to traffic being bad today. (Approx 3 hours)

Top up shop and petrol. (30 minutes)

Took washing to ex's and set it off. He is getting it out and drying. (Dd's boilersuit)

Put shopping away. Wiped more shopping from the stairs pantry and put away.

Had a nap!

Washed up some pots, some away, some still drying. Sorted out some plums to cut up, washed them, cut up a mixing bowl full and got nearly a casserole dish full, cooked, bagged up, they are now cooling.

Eaten a lot of plums as I was working. Going to eat some eggs to counteract the inevitable result!

Dd hung yesterday's washing.
Sorted out clothes for ds
Took ds to school,

Washed/rinsed/squashed some recycling ready to go down.

Really pleased with what I've got done today.

18th: two hours+ driving to.mum's and back.
Two top shopping trips.
Fruit picking.
Some gardening, composting weeds.(Re did patio weeding, some brambles cut back. )
Washing up. Put away. Wiped shelf.
Hoovered part of living room at mum's
Putting shopping away. Twice.
Also took kid to school. Got clothes out.
Petrol
Took bin bag out and sent down with ex.

Today (19th)
Driving to college. (2.5 hours.)
Top up Asda shop. Put some away.
Top up Aldi shop. Put some away.

Two loads laundry (sat in ex's garden and had ice-cream as it was warm today) also had coffee and sat in garden after college run until the light started going. Surprised to hear how hot London got today (28c)
DD hung washing.
Chopped up a lot of plums. (Big mixing bowl into casserole dish. ) These are now in the freezer.
Put bin bag in.
Bought chips for dd and heated up tea. (Chips and beans!)
Washed some fruit ready to put in fridge. It's drying on the drainer. Ate some!
Just hand washed Ds's hand wraps. He will rinse in the morning.
Folded some washing.

Tomorrow. More fruit washing/ chopping. Need to be careful as some of it is not vegetarian. 🐛

Being as i can't sleep...
Thanks for the support, everyone. 😊
Elleherd I must've missed quite a lot some kind of issue you had with storage. What happened? As if you don't have enough to deal with.
BlueSummerBaby yes, I'm pretty sure you're right about mold spores floating around. It's definitely not healthy. I must address it, and thank you for your input.
Talktothehand I think your kitchen sounds like mine. You're very brave letting your friend help. Can I ask. How did that transpire?
BlackeyedSusan you've been very busy. The additional driving is so time consuming. It is nice that your Dd hung the washing up to dry. Mine wouldn't do that. I think I've made her very selfish in that regard as she never does anything around the house.
I hope you all have a good weekend, whatever you do. Dd is out tomorrow, so I'll try to at least dust thd bedroom.

Keep on keeping on.

This week: Discovered not posting here, didn't make things better and I failed to notice what was going well, and only focused on what wasn't!

In total have managed to get rid of a total of 12 boxes and two sacks of stuff, plus one rubbish, one recycling. (Good, but tip of an iceberg.)
Charity collection didn't turn up which was disappointing and has left too much stuff here that shouldn't be. Their online system doesn't work and not answering phone, or returning calls. Will see about trying again with them, but a bit put off.

Cleared up garden yet again, still growing faster than I can control it.
Constant waiting on and cleaning up behind builders is wearing and slows and stops other things happening. Friday cleaned up all communal areas, as could no longer stand the state of it all.
Contractors progress is very slow and the actual amount being shaved off the footprint of our home, is clearly going to bigger than what we where told.
Launderette has happened, and managed to fit in some much overdue study.

Today, Just finished up a piece of paid work. Quick break and I'm hoping to pick up two large bookshelves from a unit, and take them to someone, then see what else can get done.

@TalkToTheHand123 Well done both getting, and letting, your friend help.
I get the embarrassment, but tbh your friend might actually prefer you used most of your time on another part of the house.
Doing similar previously for others, it's quietly frustrating when someone identified what I could do that would help, then did it themselves, as it was back to the drawing board in anything I could do that might change things. Might be worth thinking about.
@BlackeyedSusan As always, well done keeping at multiple stuff, and in getting others to do some of their share. Mine are always way 'too busy' alledgedly.
@BlueSummerBaby While I'm not in a situation to do what you're doing currently, hearing about it is really useful, and confirms some things for me about the problems I'd have currently.

@Solo Hope you've managed to sort dust in bedroom and whatever else you've got planned for the weekend.

Good luck following this if you want to catch up on the ridiculous saga!
It's fine not to, but as good as I can manage to try and precis.

Long complicated saga trying to accommodate building works through taking out temporary additional storage on top of what already existed and things going wrong all over the place.

Was working on consolidating the two out of town units (A &A1) into one, (A) with plans to move the two units taken out because near where I used to work a lot (B&B1) over to space created in A, and work on spending less time working to pay for it, and use savings to spend time disposing of stuff and getting out of storage as per 'the big plan' started earlier this year, supposed to be under control by now, and very downsized by Christmas.😰

One unit (B1) developed serious issues as a result of their building works going on, and I had to temporally move and split everything up into several different units all over the building. Time and energy taken from plan.

In the meantime had to clear home into another company (C) to allow building works. Supposed to be for 4 weeks max. Works ran late, discovered a water leak going on in unit, came to end of affordable 8 week offer, brought it all home; just in time for works to finally start. Had to find another place (D) and move all over again. (insurance being argued over)

Meantime place I'd had to move across different units (B&B1) - bad building work practice caused serious dust storm covering everything. Most customers moved out. I didn't have my eye on the ball and know it had happened.
They then compounded it by misusing a machine trying to remove it and added high pressure sprayed water, which went under and over every door causing a solidified dust plus dust, disaster in every unit. (I've twitched horribly with my need for clean and ordered)
Company folded, brought out under us and new terms and conditions imposed. In the process of cleaning/disposing of things and moving back into now repaired original unit, (as work on A &A1 not fast enough) but struggling to manage it. Now massively overrun agreed time, and waiting for speed to become a problem. (Insurance turns out not to be worth paper written on.)#
Need help, but managing what I supposedly have isn't working.

In the meantime ordered to strip minimal stuff in home out to absolute bones - (no floor coverings etc) so delayed works could happen swiftly, and you've guessed it only way of complying was another company, & another unit. (E)
The swiftly turned out to be another joke.

I'm holding onto 'the plan' by my fingertips, running out of savings, and having to take on badly paid time and energy consuming work to try and keep paying for the situation, while I try and resolve it. I got my timing terribly, terribly wrong.

Everything is now mixed up as to what is in what unit, where. Building work on the flat is running massively behind schedule and as incompetent as it can get.
People who are supposed to be helping aren't really while using up time, energy and resources. Physically struggling a lot, body's not taking it and I'm being shat on constantly. Vehicle is now in trouble too. Keeping head above water is increasingly hard.
Tbh am on the verge of drowning and potential bankruptcy, and a bit done in.
Hoping if I can manage keeping on keeping on treading water just that little bit longer I might just survive it all, but there's no good alternative way out at this point. Well done if you made it to here!

I'm continuing putting like with like, consuming declutter content on YouTube and trying to get my basic routines back on track so I can be more productive. Separating each category of stuff into more detailed specifics is really helping with seeing how much I've got of each thing, I can feel my reactions changing regarding wanting to buy things now I'm more aware of just how much of whatever-it-is I already have.

Next week I plan to actually do something with these courses I've signed up for. I'm going to start with the newest 15mins a day one because that sounds less daunting and I think it's the one most tackling the mindset of too-much-stuff lifestyle, which is what I need before being able to tackle the practical stuff. There's still way too much stuff here but I've reached the point where moving stuff for DIY and putting it back again is fairly easy. So I'm calling this a massive success, second time around. First massive success was when I could look around at it all and visibly see a difference to how it used to be. It took a lot of decluttering to get to that first stage and lots more again to get to the second stage. I'm feeling quite positive at the moment.

@BlueSummerBaby It's great to hear you moving through stages, feeling positive about it, and planning next stages. It gives hope.

Sunday got the two bookshelves from storage, and delivered them along with some hangers and a couple of towels. Pain and exhaustion from that prevented more annoyingly, but it's still some progress.

But yesterday spent mainly flat recovering from damage done Sunday.
Have hospital this morning, and having to leave contractors babysat. See where that leaves everything.

Suitcases are under the stairs. Totally wiped out now:

Things pulled out from cupboard.
Floor hoovered. Plus half of hall.
Things gathered from around flat and hung under stairs.
Last holiday stuff put in suitcases ready for next year.
Suitcases manhandled into cupboard.
Tetris cupboard with remaining stuff.
Wipe down all paintwork and furniture in hall.

There is still a bag of odds and ends from holiday remaining on the kitchen floor and lots of crap that fell onto the floor behind the suitcases. Plus stuff that has come into the flat since August. <Sigh>
5 fucking pillows

I managed to wipe/relocate some of the odds and ends from the remaining crap.

Also today:
Drive ds to school and DD to college. (85+ miles)
Drive ds to his dad's.
Sorted out ds's clothes to change into.
Collected jam pan from shop. (Going to be too fucking knackered to make jam, I can see it coming)
Different shop buy instant coffee. (1.50 cheaper than Asda)
Sorted out boot of car to fit in massive jam pan box. (Where the fuck will that live? )
Brought the jam jars into the flat. (Wrong direction)
Petrol and milk.
Put recycling in bag.
Hoovered fruit flies. (Wield the hoover nozzle like a light saber chasing the bastards round the kitchen.)
Rewashing the fruit that the bastards had walked all over.

Drive ds to school.
Top up shop.
Put shopping away, collect laundry.
Two loads of washing at ex's.
Bring laundry home.
Clean bath and tiles/shower above.
Clean sink and bowl.

Hope all went well at hospital, Elle, and you have recovered from Sunday.

@BlackeyedSusan Not brilliant tbh but could be worse, thanks.
You've been really busy. Had to laugh at the jam pan resulting in potentially ending up too knackered to make jam. Feels very familiar.

Here survived another week of contractors comings and mainly goings, and lots of clearing up behind them.
Got through gas safety check, cutting back garden and lots of random small jobs done but little actual decluttering. There just hasn't been big enough blocks of time. One large bag of recycling and one small bag of rubbish gone though.
Paid work tomorrow and Saturday

Well done Elle. You do so much.

Driving 85 miles +
Top up shop.
Laundry. (Collect from ex's)
DD hung washing.
Put shopping away.
Fed myself.

Shattered. Ds came home at 1.30. am last night.
Tried to nap but was woken up by phone call.

Well done Susan.
I'm getting too old for this game. Just finished work and I'm back in seven and half hours or thereabouts. Joining you on the shattered list.

Hello!
@Elleherd no. Dust still lying around my house. I'll try to do it tomorrow (Sunday). I have thought about it several times.
Last night (Friday), I didn't wash up. Went downstairs this morning and no! I didn't like the sight of the washing up in the bowl. However, I've done the same tonight.
You are a bit of a machine quietly! I read your post. I think I'd have had a breakdown.
@BlackeyedSusan I don't envy all that driving you're having to do. You did well dealing with the holiday stuff. I tend to leave all mine in the large holdall year after year. I should just take it out because that's the stuff I didn't use!
@BlueSummerBaby love that you're mindset is changing. We probably all need to do more of that.
In no particular order ovefthe last week I have sorted several cardigans to charity shop. One's been washed, and once dry will go into cs bag with the other one.
Im going to start listing on vinted some of the lovely, but too small clothing of Dds' and mine.
I brought more books home . I need to get rid of some paperbacks that I've read.
Laundry done. One load to do, but not enough yet.
Cleaned bath, basin, loo and tiles, grout and window ledge (tiled) and silicone which needs replacing.
Cooked dinner.

Well done Solo.

Done very little over the weekend as I had run out of spoons. We have literal spoons as DD washed them up. Just no metaphorical spoons. I've tested a bit and perked up a little.

This weekend between DD and myself/I/me: (grammar has failed due to fatigue)

We have:
Washed up three times between us. Two small lots and one massive load by DD.

Put most of those away. (Some still wet!)

Wiped some shopping and put where it goes. (Not conventional because I can't use kitchen cupboards properly. Food goes in there to expire as I can't see it. Autism and Hypermobility and bad kitchen design.)

Cleaned the grout on the tiles closest to the shower and wiped the edge of the bath.

Picked up bathmats 4 X (they are an absolute sod to wash by hand in the bath as the machine just says nope, picking them up makes them last longer)

Hung two loads ads of washing.

Put the shrunk out of trousers away (ds) as emergency uniform)

Taken down dry washing and folded.

Dd's curtains are failing at the curtain hook tape level. They have been rehung precariously. Was tricky and required a bit of balancing. And lots of sneezing. Lots and lots of sneezing.

Wiped cooker top.

Fielded phone calls to mediate between ex and ds. Refused on grounds of feeling quite shit.

Peeled the tape off a big box and flattened. Save for moving ex.

Rinsed and flattened recycling.

Found a bin bag for the upstairs bin but not yet finished that task.

Fed myself. (Washed/chopped veg and microwaved) No where near recipe cooking. Cooking less than once a month.

Boy to school (drive)
Asda top up shop (ex and mine to feed the bottomless pit boy)
Petrol
Drop shopping home/collect washing.
Drive to ex's put washing on, drop off shopping.
Drive home, carry more shopping up stairs
Unload shopping, put away.
Report issue to flats' management.

Currently having coffees and waiting in for the girl.