Thanks for the laugh Tillie. The rust remover didnt work so when tried to twist wingnuts, they just broke wings off, so now sledgehammer might be a reality. It has a sign on it "Chicago Pottery" no wonder it is so heavy, it is a real pottery toilet. Never saw one before, so now I am sure it is worth lots of money----yeah right--Thanks for saying he labels bins "stuff", love it, thought I was the only one that used perfectly good bins for stuff I will never be able to find!!!!
I found some American League baseballs. My high school played for NY Yankees and Atlanta Braves, He had the whole team sign one ball, one has several, and a couple just him. I will have to look online and see who some of those guys are later, I did recognize some of the names. Brought back so many memories, he really loved me and I took him for granted, then married someone else, broke his heart, by the time I realized my mistake, he was married. Stayed friends for years until his wife said she would burn their house down if we ever talked again. Amazing how baseballs could bring a flood of emotions so intense. Also in that bin were 3 silk Kimonos I bought in Japan in 1981, guess I have been a hoarder for longer than I thought, they were buried under lots of junk.
Today I emptied more bins and they are in yard ready to be washed, amazing how much crap. Organized all painting pads and rollers, have enough to last for the rest of my life, now want to take paint from all of areas and put in that one area where pads and rollers and brushes are, so not looking all over for them. Still want to use most of paint before winter so don't have to give away!! Put more stuff from deck in garage where it belongs. Never thought the day would come where I had more storage bins that stuff, it is happening. Now have to wash another drainer full of dishes, have to talk myself into it.
Sorry to hear about the migraine, and happy to hear you are on the mend. Fun as usual reading all the chit chat between you all! Quite a community it is turning out to be.

Hi Kara,
Congratulations on your progress!
I find that taking time to visualize what I am going to do and how it will look afterwards does help. Then I am psyched up to dive right in. Beginning the first task is sometimes the hardest.
Also I keep a spiral notebook to record 3 things that I want to do today and check them off as they are accomplished. If my emotions get in the way, I can jot down in the notebook what I am feeling and why.
Last week I was able to keep up on the daily maintenance tasks and made some appointments to see the eye doctor and dentist. Those are things I need to do to take care of myself.
Today starts a new week.

Been really good today. And more importantly FEELING really good. I can see the bedroom floor now. Not sure what to do with the clothes on the made bed yet. I can see my vision coming through my work.Haven't dealt with any of the "STUFF" yet. Spent 20 or so mins looking through past sketch books. My vision doesn't mention where these things go. Office maybe? Haven't started there yet. Nearly time of me to move furniture. WWWOOOOOOOOOOOHhhhOOOOOOO! Chat to you tonight.

Good morning :)

This morning I need to go into town and shop.
I need food and some cat stuff and want some other stuff too.

But first I must....
feed the cats their breakfast
scoop litter boxes
fresh water in their bowls
get dressed, brush my hair, wash my face & brush my teeth
need to wash the kittens face, he has allergies and after playing in my hoarder's bedroom his eyes water from being in the dust
fold up my bedding and make the couch ( I sleep on the hide-a-bed sofa) so my bedroom is also the livingroom
I have a little tiny room where I keep all my clothes and stuff but it is too small for a bed

Remember ONLINE SUPPORT GROUP tonight at 5:00pm PST.

Have a great Sunday! :)

Diane,
A sledge hammer sounds like a lot of fun! :D
You could get out a lot of frustration smashing up that old toilet. Just be sure to wear eye protection, long pants, shoes and gloves.

My hoarder has a large collection of plastic storage bins all full of a complete jumble of everything.
He has labeled them all "stuff" so he has no idea what is in them and can't find anything without dumping them all out. HAHA ;)

Better be careful about playing the "firefighter card" -- someone could interpret that as a threat. "Gee, it would be a shame if something were to happen to this store, and all of these firefighters happened to be busy."

Hi all, Sunday is here already!!

Been visualising my bedroom after printing out idealistic imaginery.

Awoke at 7am and lay on my bed til 8.30am visualising. Spent 30mins doing thus:-

a)taking off unwanted pillow and cushion cases
b)actually making my bed
c)picking up clothes and folding them in piles on the bed.

Feeling I am making progress. 9.30am now so I am going to make some breakfast and go and meditate.

Enjoy the day.

WAY TO GO diane! :D

Hi Mare,

That's AWESOME that you got to drive one of the trucks once. That's one thing that the guys won't let me do. They've taught me all about the fire trucks and they've also let me ride in them, but they won't let me drive any of them. They don't want to risk me accidentally crashing one of the trucks. LOL. :)

No, I don't have any children. I just have 3 dogs. :)

washed some dishes, still have backlog
washed several storage bins and other junk in yard today
I realized I have enough storage bins to open a store
I got rid of so much stuff, have to decide which bins look best, use them and get rid of the rest
Guess I had planned to get organized several times, bought the bins then just filled them with all kinds of junk
having empty bins all over the place, looked really trashy, finally dawned on me to clean and stack them then decide which I will donate
Every day I plan to work inside and do maintenance, then end up in garage.
I had an old toilet in the walk way room, drug it out, it is olive green and weighs a ton, very ugly. the bolts were rusted so couldn't take apart, sprayed with rust remover, hopefully can take apart, too heavy to lift into car. How about a sledge hammer?

Hahahahaha that is priceless!

We have so much in common its spooky. I served as a firefighter for a few years in a very small town (no traffic lights, no grocery stores a convenience store) in Georgia. I am physically unable to gear up and actually fight fires so I served as the safety officer.

The town was so small that everyone knew all of us anyway but taking the trucks in for gas was the highlight of the week (usually haha)! They even let me drive it ONCE!

Do you have any children if you don't mind my asking?

Hi Mare,

Yeah when the manager of the store came up to talk to us, we played the "firefighter card". LOL. ;)

When he came up to us, I asked him if there has ever been a fire at the store. After I asked him that, he said no. And after he said that, I was like, "well that's good. But you wanna know something?... If there ever is a fire at this wonderful wonderful store, all of these guys standing behind me are the firefighters that would be putting out the fire. Manager dude, say hello to "Company 36"". And then after I said that, he just stood there speechless for about a minute; and then suddenly ran away. LOL. :)

That is hilarious I know what you mean, too. When my 5 children were all teenagers we got into a lot of trouble in grocery stores, then nobody said anything because I got a job there and they were chicken except for the manager who would just give me a look and we would trrryyyyyyyyyyy to settle down hahaha. Memories!

If I had decent transportation I would go at night, late like that we have a 24 hour one... but at the moment I have to depend on someone to take me and they are not night owls like me. I would risk it even if I had a cell but without that too I am just a fraidykat!

Its hard, the people anxiety and the agorophobia. I am practicing some exposure therapy but still can't get past my front stoop quite yet, but one of these days I will.

Hi everybody! :D

I hope everyone is having a good day today. :)

I also hate going to the grocery store. What I always like to do is wait until it's really late at night, and then go grocery shopping. Because then there's barely anyone around. I only like going to the grocery store during the day if the guys are with me; because they make grocery shopping fun. We actually almost got kicked out of a grocery store once because we were having so much fun. LOL. ;D

Ditto for me! I am needing to go to the grocery store but I, too, have a problem with going anywhere and being around people so I am trying not to stress over it and concentrate on the big 2 loads of laundry I have going (at daughter's house). Seeing my grandbabies is always nice though!

Good morning :)

So, what is everybody up to today?

I fed the cats their canned food breakfast.
Have been reading here trying to catch up on all the posts. :D

Today I need to wash up a few dishes, wipe the counter off.
Sweep the floor and should vacuum the carpet.
Scoop the litter boxes.
About half an hour of To-Dos total.

Then the rest of the day is free for me to do whatever I want. :)
Now I just need to figure out what I want to do. lol :)
Won't be going anywhere since I hate leaving the house and being surrounded by people.
Might go grocery shopping tomorrow.
The county fair is going on right now but I don't want to go to it.
Maybe I will just play with that dollhouse and watch spooky movies on Netflix.

Whatever you all decide to do today make it fun! :D

Hello Roxie so nice to see you again and thank you.

Yes we all had a late night but it was so worth it. So far I am staying motivated and inspired, doing tasks in between, and really enjoying the company here.

I'm sorry to hear you lost that post I know how that can be...its frustrating and demoralizing at times but I am glad to see you here today.

I am doing laundry at my daughter's at the moment which is a little stressful but it is one of my safe places and some of my little darlings are which is always wonderful!

I am hoping to have some company here off and on, and I am busily reading all of Cory's Weekly Tasks wheres and thinking about starting that up again if everyone wants to.

Forward march!

Today I will be on the go a bit, which is difficult and very rare for me. I struggle with agorophobia and social anxiety, as well as depression and some physical problems (CFIDS, FM, arthritis, a minor heart condition) and I know I am not alone with that.

I am at my daughter's house doing laundry which will take me about 3 hours, then to the store for food and a few essentials. Not looking forward to the store... *fretfretfret*

I am so grateful to these boards for support and understanding, encouragement and celebrations!

Hello again MayMay!

You are a sweetheart. I slept some, thank you...

Footprints in the snow.

Message for Mare.

GO TO BED darling. You need your beauty sleep. Stop messaging all the boards. lol

I am not dong the August challenge. Just the weekly tasks.
thanks for the nightly chats Mare and Karl. Support each other and sets small tasks and together we will go forwards leaving footprints in the snow.

Hi Mare,
Yeah it's really late where I live. It's 3 in the morning right now and I still haven't posted in the August challenge yet. Lol. :)

Hello again Karl and MayMay, so nice to have posts to answer.

Sounds like a good plan, Karl, you can do it.

Its been a good day MayMay... of course its late for me now but after midnight hahaha.

Hi everybody! :D

It sounds like everyone has gotten a lot of stuff done today. WAY TO GO! :D

Today has been pretty uneventful. Nothing to crazy happened today. :)

Thanks Roxie,
We will definitely have a lot of photos in the book. And because we plan on having so many photos and so many stories in the book, we might even end up writing 2 books. :)

Hi Dianne,
Sorry to hear about your washer situation. I'm glad to hear that you got your AC fixed though. :)

I'm going to try to partially make up for the lack of cleaning earlier this week by doing at least one more 15m session before bed; it shouldn't take long to vacuum the closet floors so that I can reload them. (A little longer if I want to do the hallway between them in the same session, as it still has some magazine stacks to deal with.)

Karl and I must have been posting at the same time hahaha. What he and Kara said!

One step and one day at a time is right and when you have a no de-cluttering week that is alright, just pick up where you left off and WOOHOO for what you -did- do!

See you soon!

Forward ho!

Good evening ladies - Tillie, Dianne, Roxie, Kara lovely to see you again, MayMay, diane!

I slept too late today, not up until after 4 in the afternoon. I take some medications that make me tired but this is unacceptable to me. Seeing the doctor on the 9th so will ask him about it.

I was in the chat earlier and we did a 15 minute challenge and we all met our goals, then got back together for a victory celebration it was nice.

So today I have thrown out more electronic useless cords and such, took out the trash, cleaned up and discarded trash near my chair outside, cleaned the kitchen counter. Still need to do dishes (just a couple).

Looking forward to catching up here and reading more, posting again.

This has been a real blessing for me, finding these forums and chat. At the same time I am fighting let it take up all my time but I imagine that's normal for now.

Tally-ho!

Four of us met for the "unofficial" Friday chat, and towards the end, I mentioned the "everybody take a cleaning break" idea; the three of us who were still there were all OK with it, so we went to our tasks and came back after 15 minutes.

I chose to clean out the hall closet, since the linen closet is still in a waiting state. I cleared off the top shelf, dusted it (and cleared the cobwebs near the ceiling), and put stuff back more organized. Hats on one side, umbrellas on the other.

Then onto the closet floor space. Vacuum cleaner and accessories, cloth shopping bags, and a couple of cloth briefcases. I discovered a pair of shoes that I hadn't realized was in there. I'll be using the vacuum before I put it back. I moved the shopping bags to the hook in the back of the closet.

All finished with cleaning for today. :D
Washed the front of the house, porch and sidewalk too.
Windows all clean inside & out.
Washed all my sun catchers and other decorations.
Did a wash load of rags.
Sort of washed the back porch. Can't hose it all off due to his creeping hoard that comes right up to that area.
Hosed down only one half of the other outside wall and washed my window over there.
He has managed to clutter up the whole other half of that side of the house.
I do NOT climb around and clean where he has cluttered. :(
So two and a half outside walls are covered in clutter and spider webs and home to all sorts of creatures. :(
Can't do his bedroom windows, the outside of the bathroom window or the outside of one livingroom window.
I also do not wash his bedroom windows inside because they are impossible to reach. :(

Been sitting down, ate lunch.
Soon I will take a shower.
Frustrating to not be able to completely do a task due to his hoarding.

Oh well, I will be content that I did a GREAT job on what I did do. :)

Good morning everybody! :)

So wonderful to hear about your days, accomplishments, plans and how you are all doing.

My twenty four hour internet disconnect was hoard related.
The cables and doo-dads are connected together in my hoarder's bedroom. Buried under a ton of clutter in a huge tangle of wires & cables around his computer desk.
Anyways, he ended up digging through all that, crawled under his desk and by laying on his stomach managed to fixed the problem. :)
I put the kitten in there to "help" him. lol

It is only 62 degrees here this morning.
When it warms up some my plan for today is to hose down the outside walls, wash the windows & screens. Then wash the inside windows.
This is sort of easy since I can only access two exterior walls because the other two are inaccessable due to his hoard.

But first I need to do all the cat related tasks.
Guess I should get dressed too.

WAY TO GO! everyone! :D

Hi everybody! :)

Thanks for the encouragement Dianne and Roxie. :)

Today I told the guys about my book idea; and they said that they would love to co-write the book with me. So now we are all going to start writing in journals to keep track of all the things that we do together, and individually. So that when we write the book, we will remember all of the stuff that we want to put into it. It will probably be a good 10 to 15 years before we actually write the book though. :)

Roxie,
Everything is going good in the apartment; and I'm still keeping my room and closet clean. :)

Diane,
OMG! It's so sad to hear about what happened to that firefighter. It makes me want to go down to the fire station right now and give all of the firefighters huge hugs. I'm glad to hear that Molly is better. :)

wow, took some time to read all the posts, nice to catch up on your thoughts and what you are doing.
My living room got messy from sorting stuff, so took empty bins out to garage, had tent in here to see if I could remember how to put it up, so it is now airing on the line on the deck, have to find the pieces that make it stand up, saw them out in the garage last week, so where are they now? No idea where their home is, put them where I could find them, guess have to leave myself notes, and big labels. I put some stuff away in garage, worked on big bedroom, then made a big pot of soup, first cool day in weeks, so nice to have soup in refrigerator, on hot days either eat cold or microwave it, nice to have healthy meal with very little clean up. I was so appreciative of my friends help for 2 hours on Tuesday that she said she will come for an hour or 2 on next Tuesday. I get so much more done when someone is watching me and writing down what I get rid of. Easier to make quick decisions, knowing she is just sitting there waiting to write, don't want to inconvenience her so make a decision. Tried to do that this morning by myself, and wasn't as successful. By myself, I can think, I need item. Plan to dishes soon. Did do 4 loads of laundry today. Molly is better and stopped peeing on things, so washed all the towels, blankets etc. that she peed on. Checked her urine this morning, it is now yellow, was clear, ph acidic, no cells, so think kidneys working again, not sure if it was temporary or if it will happen on and off. I am just so grateful she is able to walk and pee outside now, and is eating and drinking. When she was sick, she drank huge amounts of water all day, but no sugar in urine, not diabetic. thanks for all the concern through last weeks tear jerker.
Today she appears to be her normal self Also found what looked like, a spider bite on her stomach. Thought it was a lipoma, then noticed the sting, and swelling is less, wonder if that could have made her that sick.
Nice to see all the communication on here and new people joining.
We are having lots of lightening strikes here, 1200 strikes since last night, one fire in Sisters killed a local firefighter, tree fell on him, so sad. A little scarey, happy I was able to stay home and work all day.

My thoughts exactly, drats haha! I will be more careful, then :\

No
Once you hit "post reply" there is no turning back.

By the by is there any way to edit or review our posts here?

Alright I will give starting a new task where some serious thought and perhaps post it soon. I am so new here and still a little... shy hahaha.

Thank you to all of you who keep posting I am reading them all for sure.

WOW! :D

I have a lot of posts to read here.
Haven't had internet since last night and really missed you all.