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.

Is there any way the weekly and weekend tasks be brought back to life, or does it depend on Cory? Such a great idea with his input as well. I haven't read the whole thing yet to see if there is a reason it was stopped. The last thing I got to was:

[quote=Cory]OK, so we got a small response from last weeks task, but it will catch on :)

This weekend, we are tackling the refrigerator! Let's get into the stockpile of refrigerated goods and thin it out. If you are like me, there are probably a few condiments at minimum you could get rid of...you know the half empty pizza sauce jar from 6 months ago when you made homemade mini pizzas, the cocktail sause from 2009's New Years Eve Party. Am I close? Lets all do our part and remove what we are not eating regularly. This will also reduce energy as your refrigerator is not struggling to keep these items cold! And while you are there, might as well get the Windex, 409, or your favorite cleaner and scrub it clean. Don't forget the freezer. Make like an archeologist and dig out those ancient TV dinners and frost bitten packages of who knows what. Your task has been delivered, so get to it :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Cory Chalmers
1-800-HOARDERS &
HoardingCleanup.com[/quote]

Thank you Roxie, very good suggestions.

I have a routine that includes every time I get up I do something, whether it is a whole box of stuff, a bag, a counter... anything at all, something small and doable... I am always surprised at the results.

Hello Anne, so nice to see you and thank you for that post, I found it reassuring and inspiring.

I know how hard it is to start with a new therapist, and have been through that myself more then once.

One time, with one facility in particular I was handed off about 4 times. When they would ask about myself I said - just read my chart and notes to find out - then I would sit back, cross my arms, laugh and wait for them to do so. Hahaha. It gets so old having to repeat yourself with an entire history!

I think you are making great progress, do keep us posted.

Mare

Hi everybody! :D

WAY TO GO AnneW! :)
It sounds like you have a lot of great plans that you want to accomplish this month. THAT'S AWESOME! You can totally do it! Sorry to hear that your therapist will be retiring soon. I hope you will like your new one. :)

Hi Mare,
I had no idea that there is such a thing as "Clutterers Annonymous". That's awesome. :)

Me, too... and I have some experience with CA (Clutterers Anonymous) which is a great program but since moving to a very rural area... no meetings.

I used to have a lot more pets before I moved, now I have one small dog, Gizmo, he is a great companion. He sure does shed, though! He is a chihuahua/Terrier mix and totally loyal. I am living alone for the first time in my life so it is comforting to have him.

I think one of my biggest draw backs is trying to do things alone, I prefer to have someone sitting with me or helping put things in their various designated boxes. Its been a tough transition but I can do it!

Hey Mare,

Yeah I have 3 dogs. I have 2 German Shepherds and one bulldog. My 2 German shepherds are named after Cory and Matt Paxton. And my bulldog is named Snuggles. :)

I remember when I first posted about my 2 German shepherds, Matt and Cory, almost a year ago, Cory posted back and was like, "your dogs are named Cory and Matt? Lol. Love it!" Lol. :)

Yeah most of what I've learned about hoarding, I have learned from the show. :)

Hellohello.

I have admired Cory for some time now, his attitude and non-judgmental approach with his extreme cleaning services, his kindness and low stress way of doing things.

Yes that's funny that you named your dog after him, I bet he would be honoured hahaha.

I look forward to seeing him post, he always has good ideas and really is an expert. I have learned a great deal just by watching the show.

Hey Mare,
Yeah Cory's the best! He's actually been my number one crush for 2 years now. I love so much that I even named one of my dogs after him. LOL. I love these message boards too. I've been a regular poster on here for a little over a year now. :)