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Hoarding Help Message Boards : The Daily Chat : What Are You Doing Today?
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What Are You Doing Today?
   

Diane
Posted: 01 February 2016 - 09:34 PM
So this week we are clearing out the big bedroom which has been full of stuff for many years, it is becoming my rock room. I have started tumbling rocks and will make jewelry and some will give or sell. As I told you last year, I spent hours digging up rocks, well, turns out much of it is petrified wood. Hampton Butte green petrified wood is rare and valuable, to my surprise and joy. I have been told I have more than any rock shop or collector has. It was buried on my property by previous owners who were life long rock hounds. I have put a bunch of it in my "rock room" to encourage me to believe it is more impt than my hoard. Well past few days I have been going through stuff in that room, some of it is in my "clean" living room as a staging area, the big bedroom is so cold and so stuffed. Then I see the suggestion to visualize living room the way I want it. Tomorrow I need to get all this junk out of here and if I can decide what to get rid of, just stick it back in bedroom and let the women get rid of it. December I got dining room/living room emptied out and just the way I wanted it, now full of junk, familiar old junky look, well it has to go tonight/tomorrow.
Tillie your "maintenance" suggestions must be followed if I am ever to have the life I want. So happy to see familiar names on here.
Tat nice seeing you keep on trucking along.
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Diane
Posted: 01 February 2016 - 09:19 PM
Hi Tillie and Tat, thanks for the welcome back.
A few months ago my a friend dropped by and I made her pee in the yard because house was a hoard. The next week I house/dog sat for a guy that had a perfect house. Coming back home after 10 days in a clean house and seeing my crap pile with new eyes, plus making people pee in my yard, I was ready. That was the middle of November, since then my last nurse boss has come once a week for 2 hours to help me make decisions and filled our cars, and gave me a list of homework for the next week. I was terrified not to do homework, afraid she would give up on me, and she has been so helpful and decisive, kind, gentle, encouraging. She is coming Wednesday along with my last boss, who helped me the week the other one was in Hawaii. First 2 against one-----they think it will be so much fun filling bags with my old stuff as I beg to keep stuff-----we do have such a good time, I tell them why I really need to keep my old out of style stuff, and they tell me how great it will feel to have an empty room to be creative in. After being on this site for 1&1\2 years, made progress then made it a hoard again, I gave up. I am very aware this is my one real chance to let go of stuff instead of churning and hiding. I really am unable to make decisions on some things, believe I need to keep too much, so helpful having women I trust help me make decisions. Did not want to come back on here until I could feel safe I will continue.
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Tatoulia
Posted: 01 February 2016 - 08:03 PM
Checking in. Am pleased with my progress. Need your help in keeping it going! Shredding papers, putting things away, getting tax docs together, etc. absolutely getting this done.

Going to make dinner then head to bed (9 PM here in the East Coast)

Hope you are all well and safe tonight.
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Tatoulia
Posted: 01 February 2016 - 06:52 PM
Diane! Diane! Yay! Let's get this done!

Tillie, thank you for your ideas. My vision is to get the stuff off my coffee table and keep it off. To keep the stuff from piling up by my coat closet. To put the vacuum cleaner away.

Right now the desk is and has been cleared for some time now and it is decorated really nicely. the end table is similarly all cleared and decorated. It's the rest of the room. Floor, coffee table (which I have mentioned several times and still have done nothing to fix it). Tonight I am playing music on pandora and getting all the Christmas odds and ends into bins. I can see I'll need to get rid of more stuff and I'm tnking about that right now. In the meantime, I am full steam ahead for gathering and packing up all holiday items. It's going well and I am happy.

I'm also happy to hear from Diane. I've missed you! And I think about you more often than you would believe.
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Tillie
Posted: 01 February 2016 - 10:41 AM
Good Morning Everybody :)

Diane! :D
Together we can make this a FANTASTIC year! :D

Snowed ALL weekend!
Finally stopped about 4am this morning.
Watching hundreds of videos, making popcorn and cocoa, and doing nothing else was very tiring.
Today I am ready to clean the bathroom, wash floors and vacuum carpet.
Really needs doing after being trapped indoors for so long and today he's back at work.
It was so cute to watch the covey of Quail hopping & jumping through the snow yesterday evening as they came home to roost for the night.
The eaves have grown some very impressive ice cycles.
The driveway gate is stuck half open because the snow is too deep to open it fully or close it.
But it's open enough to squeeze vehicles out.
Our road is a single lane dirt road that belongs to us people who live out here and none of us own snow ploughs, so it's easy but slow going on the road.
One really fun thing about fresh snow is that you can see all the different animal tracks.
See where they go in the yard and up on the porch and follow them out to see where they are sleeping/nesting.

OK, 8:30am, time for me to get cleaning.
TTYS :D

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Diane
Posted: 31 January 2016 - 10:38 PM
Great challenge Tillie, I am ready to start a new year with you.
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Tillie
Posted: 31 January 2016 - 06:42 PM
Hi Tatoulia :)

A February challenge sounds really good to me.

What about your living room bugs you the most?
Too much stuff?
I have found that by just decluttering and cleaning even the smallest section very rewarding.
Back when I had this whole house to declutter and clean I started with his end table, the area under it and all around it.
I just bagged up all his stuff and put all the bags in his bedroom.
Amazing how doing just that one small table made me feel so much better and happier. :D
As I slowly moved around the room clearing and cleaning, it was so much fun to decorate finished areas with a few things like doilies, flower vases or candy dishes.
Eventually the whole living room area was completely done and I repaired the ceiling where the rain had done damage before we put on a new roof.
Then I painted the ceiling white and the walls pale green.
I then hung some lovely drapes at the windows and only one picture on the wall.

So, what is your vision for what you want to see? :D


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Tatoulia
Posted: 31 January 2016 - 06:16 PM
Hello Everyone!

LR, I am in awe of you and your perspective. I read your post yesterday and I have thought of it several times today. I am so sorry about the destruction and mess and everything else. Sending you much love.

Tillie, my dear, you are so wonderful. Thank you for all that you do for me. we are having a very mild winter where I live--in contrast to the snow we had last winter--although if I recall, our big snows started in late January.

Roxie! I need to work on papers tonight. I need to pay bills and sort and shred and everything else. Would love torques a cup of coffee to you but I am going in to office tomorrow instead of working from home. So I will need an early bedtime.


Is anyone up for a February challenge? Any ideas or suggestions? I'd like to focus on living room. Make it livable. And roomy🙂
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Tillie
Posted: 31 January 2016 - 11:59 AM
Good Morning Everybody :)

Hi Roxie :)
(((hugs)))
"tea toast!"


Still snowing.
Yesterday Marty and Twinkles (the cats) insisted on going outside.
It did not take long for them to insist that they wanted back in. :D
This morning they are content to hibernate in their beds till Spring.
Brought in a snow ball for Scooter (the cat) and he said it was interesting but possibly dangerous.
My plans for today are to just enjoy watching it snow. :)
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Roxie
Posted: 30 January 2016 - 01:56 PM
(((LR2014))) My friend, that is sad to hear, but also wonderful that people (including you) help one another. As Starman said in the movie: "the thing I like most about humans is that they are at their best when things are at their worst."

(((Tillie))) I didn't realize how physically taxing things were on you, since I really don't know a lot about agoraphobia. I can relate, however, because a couple of my illnesses leave me very fatigued if I make myself go out in public. So that bit I can truly empathize with. Meanwhile, I am enjoying your stories. Would love to grow some lavender, myself.

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Tillie
Posted: 30 January 2016 - 10:10 AM
Hi LR2014 :)
(((HUGS)))
So glad you are alright.
Yes, life goes on even after terrifying natural events.
I have found these times put things in perspective.
What is truly precious is not the stuff lost.
(((HUGS)))




Been snowing here all night and is still snowing.
It is very deep, wet, heavy snow. The kind that breaks tree branches.
This is so great to help compensate for the years long drought we have been having. :D
Soon, I will venture out and build a snowman!
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LR2014
Posted: 30 January 2016 - 12:44 AM
Hi, all.

Those of you who have interacted with me during the Sunday night online meetings in the past know that I live in Texas. I don't mind putting that here in print. And those of you who have been here on the message board for a long time know that I used to speak often about going out to a "rural area" to work. I had chosen not to mention it on the message board until now, but two of those end-of-December tornadoes you all probably heard about on the news hit those rural areas of which I speak. I lost a few (very, very few) small items, but nothing significant. I have "new" items now: items that once belonged to other people that the tornadic winds blew my way. Some of these thing are personal items. Others are just pieces of buildings (shingles, pieces of metal roofing, insulation, and other such things) that now need to be gathered up and disposed of. (I plan to work this weekend on gathering more of that up.) I know people who lost a lot in those storms, including one lady who lost more than one house! (Fortunately, she herself was unharmed.)

I had been out in that rural area working on the day that the tornadoes hit. (I had left to go home about two hours before the storms hit, fortunately, so I myself was not in the path of the storms.) That day when I was working out there, all was fine. Life was normal. Two hours later, many people's lives had changed drastically because of the tornadoes that went through numerous towns. A few people even lost their lives.

People are slowly cleaning up and will rebuild. People are helping one another. And life goes on.

I drive through these storm-damaged areas several times a week. Several times a week, I see the aftermath.

*******

What if a tornado had blown all of my "stuff" away? Would life go on?

Yes, I daresay it would. Hmmm . . .
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Tillie
Posted: 28 January 2016 - 12:01 PM
Good Morning Everybody :)

I am back from the dead.
One thing that happens when I force myself to leave the house and socialize or shop is that my body and mind are not together.
My mind says that I can and will over come this agoraphobia and deep fear of humans,
but my body completely falls apart and turns against me.
But with periodically exposing myself to these situations, I am getting better.
At least now I can leave the house, go out in public, talk to humans, and the physical toll waits till I am home safe again.

Going to try to catch up around here today.
Already have a load of laundry hanging out on the clothes line.
Need to wash some dishes.
No matter how sick I get the cats are always taken care of and have everything they ever need.
Going to take things slow today, still a little bit wobbly.

TTYS :)
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Tillie
Posted: 26 January 2016 - 11:05 PM
LAVENDER
true

Perennial in zones 6-9

Fragrant herb, attractive fragrant plant
Edible flowers
Grows well in deep containers
In cold climates, bring indoors in the Fall in a sunny window
Prune regularly to promote bushy growth
Collect flowering stems in Summer and tie them in bunches, hanging upside down in a warm, airy, shaded location to dry
..............read off the packet..............

Yeah Dave :D
And I bought the seeds at "Dollar Tree" for 25 cents a packet.
The huge bag of potting soil came from "Walmart"
for less than 3 dollars.
I already have flower pots.
So it is a really fun and cheap date. :D

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Dave
Posted: 26 January 2016 - 10:02 PM
Perennial lavrnder-shrub. It can be grown from seeds?
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Tillie
Posted: 26 January 2016 - 10:05 AM
Good Morning :)

Hi Tatoulia :)
Good luck with the laundry! :)

Went by that shop yesterday as I had been ordered to.
Happy to find that it is closed on Mondays! :D
Then I did some visiting.
So nice to have a car again and can get out and about when ever, where ever I please.
Yesterday I started some seedlings (lavender) in a pot inside to get a jump on Spring.
I think some day next month I will get out and start preparing/cleaning my garden.
Right now it looks a mess with dead leaves all over it.

TTYS :)
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Tatoulia
Posted: 25 January 2016 - 07:24 PM
Thanks for the nice encouragement, Roxie and Tille! I too am craving some stew! How did that happen?

Doing tons of laundry right now. Usually I work from home on Mondays but went in to office today. So am doing a title laundry tonight instead.

And checking in on you all, my dear friends. Will catch up with you later. Keep up the good work!
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Tillie
Posted: 25 January 2016 - 09:18 AM
Good Morning Everybody :)

Hi Roxie :)
WAY TO GO!
making stew on a cold Winter day! :D
"Clink!"

Hi Tatoulia :)
Happy to hear that you are not being so emotionally drained. (((hugs)))
WAY TO GO!
For keeping up with the bedroom, dishes and desk. YEA!!!

Since I no longer hunt, the other week friends gave me some of their game.
I now have some venison, antelope and elk in my freezer.
For some reason I now have a hankering for some stew. ;)
Today I am driving back into town.
Saturday my hoarder came home from his thrift store shopping and told me that I have to go to this one particular shop today.
He said they have a lot of stone beads that look just like the beads that I do my crafts with.
I never go to this shop because it's a personal business, not a charity thrift shop.
The lady who owns it is very nice but all the stuff comes from storage units that have gone to auction.
I always feel so bad for the people who lost all their stored possessions and wonder whatever became of the people.
The thought of buying their things makes me feel like a Vulture/Buzzard.
Anyways...
I will go look and then I plan to hunt down some people I know and have a bit of fun while I'm in town. :)

TTYL :D


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Roxie
Posted: 24 January 2016 - 02:33 PM
Hi, all. Tat, so sorry you have to deal with the family member. Don't know how you do it.

Tillie, I'm glad to hear you being more sociable. I want to see you doing that a lot more now! It is very good for you and will help you get/stay happy.

Yesterday I made a pot of stew, the second cooking I've done in years. For me it meant a lot of breaks and resting, but I did it!

Coffee clinks to everyone.

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Tatoulia
Posted: 24 January 2016 - 11:07 AM
Coffee clinks!

Am able to sleep a little later because abusive person in my life (mentally ill family member) is only on the periphery these days. Not eating up weekend after weekend with crazy talk, threats and insults. I don't know what the rest of the day will bring but the last two weekends have been pretty peaceful. I only need to ignore the texts and emails. And calls.

I feel better rested and much less stressed. Struggling a bit with buying stuff and still need to clear off coffee table. Keeping bedroom together, dishes out of kitchen sink and desk clear and usable. Let's see what I can do in next half an hour.

Much love to all.
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Tillie
Posted: 24 January 2016 - 10:15 AM
Good Morning :)

Yesterday I just finished washing up a sink full of dishes when I had unexpected company drop in.
We had a really nice visit catching up on what all we'd been up to. :D
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Tillie
Posted: 23 January 2016 - 11:44 AM
Hi


So, what's up?
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Tillie
Posted: 22 January 2016 - 12:14 PM
Good Morning Everybody :)

Hi Dave :)
WAY TO GO!!! :D
And thank you for sharing your methods with us.
5 pair of socks too!
Wonderful. ;)
True, fear of making the "wrong" decision paralyzes people and brings the whole process to a halt.
That's when I like to play a game called
"worst case scenario"
where we try to think of all the possible things that could happen if we let go of an item.
It usually ends up with a lot of laughter about the absurd conditions where having that item means the difference between life & death or any kind of emergency where that item would be the only thing to save the day.

Hi Roxie :)
"CLINK!"
Thank you so much for the update! :D
Good luck with the hand washing.
I know you will get your room all sorted out in no time. :)
(((HUGS)))
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Roxie
Posted: 22 January 2016 - 11:03 AM
Good morning, everyone. My keyboard has been acting up so I don't know how much I'll type, but I want to tell each of you that I am reading with interest all your posts and it makes me so happy to hear from you!

Today is the anniversary of my release from the hospital interim care unit! Today is also my last day on 24/7 oxygen! That makes me quite nervous, but if I don't need it then I suppose it should go. Overall I am doing much better than a year ago, and being able to get around better. Still tire and get winded easily.

Speaking of clutter. My room is cluttered with books, paper and clothes. In the bathroom are a some clothes I need to hand wash in spots where I had nosebleeds. Been putting that off. But I will get to it. I have my last med apt this coming Monday then can relax a bit more.

Hugs and coffee clinks to you.
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dave
Posted: 22 January 2016 - 10:52 AM
I think that sometimes rattlesnakes get meals because another animal is frozen by fear when they hear a rattle.

When dealing with "STUFF!!" it is possible to paralyze yourself into inaction or indecision through FEAR OF MAKING THE WRONG DECISION about keep or go. ie, it is possible to destroy any possibility of momentum or success in discarding items by overthinking what one is doing.

In his book, Brooks Palmer, a clutter busting consultant (whose blog you can find online by the way), says that he approaches jobs with the idea that 75% of what he will see is not useful in or for a client's current life.

With that in mind, 3 or so years ago I approached a basement corner containing more than 12 7' high piles of copier paper boxes-many of which contained clothes-with the idea of reducing the volume by half. I didn't quite get there, but I got rid of a lot of stuff. I have since filled that back up and it is a source of current grief because I need the space now for something else.

On that initial project, I used Brooks Palmer's approach of quick questioning, "DO I LIKE THIS, OR CAN I LET IT GO?" and "WILL I USE THIS OR CAN I LET IT GO?" I had some indecision items I used some other techniques with too, but I got rid of a lot just using those 2 questions.

Last month, in beginning to try to get that space opened up to store items for a current hobby project, I got a pink Amvets bag full of pants out of boxes in that area by going through, picking up a pair of pants and asking those 2 questions and going with the initial response. I put some things in the closet. The room for that came from another pink Amvets bag I filled with shirts and jackets and sweaters from the closet and boxes as a result of asking the same questions. (Even let go of 5 pairs of socks!)
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Anonymoniker
Posted: 21 January 2016 - 02:56 PM
YEA,Tillie!!! That's fantastic!!! Way to go!!!
Ive noticed being more immune to the smells in my house than other places...maybe that's a good thing?! Its really good to get out!!!
I agree about making projects out of old clothes. I dont want to do much of that. I think part of what has me stumped is that i finally have someone that not only appreciates fun clothes, but that i can go places with to wear fun clothes!!! That makes me want to keep a lot of stuff i havent worn in several decades!!! However, i need to weed through it and be realistic...
I hope everyone enjoys their weeding & cultivating processes, as well!!! :D
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Tillie
Posted: 21 January 2016 - 11:30 AM
Good Morning Everybody :)

Hi CriticalMass :)
Happy you are feeling better! :D
Good luck with all your future planning. :D

Yesterday I just had to get out and talk to humans rather than sit in here and talk only to the cats.
Was able to catch up with a friend who I have been missing terribly. :D
Had a wonderful time.
Anyways...
I was thinking that the inside of my home must surely be smelling funky after all this time being all closed up.
But when I came back after breathing outside air, I found that my home didn't smell funky.
It smelled good!.
That helped lift my spirits too. :)
Today I plan to boil some eggs and make egg salad sandwiches.
Already have a load of laundry out on the clothes line.
I can think of a lot of other things that I might do today.
Where ever the mood takes me. :)

TTYS
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CriticalMass
Posted: 20 January 2016 - 06:04 PM
Wow, so glad we are all here.

Anonymoniker, I know what it's like to be creative like that and want to upcycle stuff. And there are many people who are able to balance that as a pastime while not attempting to cope with major clutter accumulation and stress. What I've had to do is guide myself gently away from some of that. I have a rough hierarchy of what creative things I want to do and then I try to determine where something fits.

For example, I love writing and doing artwork and sewing, and several other creative things. But sometimes I see too much potential in something I have, or something I saw at a garage sale or whatever. "I could make that into a ______!" But then I look at its place in my hierarchy and note that it falls pretty low. I ask myself if I wouldn't really rather be doing an awesome painting with my acrylics over trying to turn an old hat into a purse or something like that AT THIS TIME in my life. Ninety-nine percent of the time or more I know I'd rather be doing the painting because that's what I really love. Then I let the other thing go. Perhaps some person who would rather be using it in their own upcycling craft project actually has time and focus to make something really cool out of it - more power to that person! ;)

For budget and other reasons there are many clothing items I check thrift stores for before buying new at retail price. However, in the past I would make the mistake of buying an item that needed some sewing or other action taken before I would've been able to actually wear it. Those UFOs (UnFinished Objects) piled up. My new rule for buying thrift store clothing (only necessary items!) is "Don't buy a project."

Dave, your brilliant statements about potential tie right in with all this.

In other news . . .

I'm recovering well from my sinus infection. In fact, the rest did me good and my mental state is clearer for the most part, and I'm eager to get to my Extreme Life Makeover as I call it, of which decluttering is most of the battle. I've been doing some listmaking and planning on my computer. I'll tell more about that in a future post. Though it might sound tedious to some, it's really helping me be prepared for when I can actually tackle the storage unit come spring. We all have our different skills and ways of approaching the problem - it's great when we are able to discover a method that works and propels us forward, simplifies things, and makes us feel progress is possible! :)
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Tillie
Posted: 19 January 2016 - 12:52 PM
Good Morning Everybody :)

Thank you both for the kind words (((hugs)))

Hoarders are not lazy.
In fact they work much harder than most.
It is not an easy lifestyle at all.
Being a non-hoarder living with a major hoarder
I see daily how much more effort it takes for him to do the simplest things within his hoarded spaces.
His bedroom, huge garage, carport and yard
are impossibly hard and dangerous places to try to accomplish even the smallest task of walking through.
Looking for specific items can take hours or days.
Towering stacks easily fall, causing injuries.
He never has real leisure time because the hoard demands all his time, shifting and churning it.
Repairs and maintenance to the house is never done due to inaccessibility to outside areas, causing major damage that will cost thousands to repair.
He worries about all his stuff and has set up cameras in case thieves come to steal it.
He works hard dumpster diving and shopping thrift stores and yard sales daily/ weekly.
He buys lots of "reduced for quick sale" food that he stores inside his bedroom and outside in the garage & yard.
He gets a lot of diarrhea.
Has no time to do any of the projects that he has plans for doing with all the items he has brought home.
It is a sad, sad existence.


But I live in my clutter free zones.
One small room that is the living room/kitchen/dining room, combined.
The bathroom, my room and pantry.
There is also a small patch out front that I have made into a little garden area with grass and flowers.
Takes me very little time to clean it, leaving me with time to relax and play and do crafts.

I keep hoping that one day he will want to change.
Until then, he will continue to live this way.
If he dies before I do then it will be me who has to untangle this mess.
I worry about that a lot.



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ShedTheShame
Posted: 18 January 2016 - 04:45 PM
Tillie, you're always sending (((hugs))) to everyone else. Here are some (((hugs))) for you.

Sad that we have to work at relaxing! It makes me so mad when people label compulsive hoarders as "lazy," when we're working so hard to keep our heads above water.

Great ideas for deciding on what task to take on... like being at a casino in Vegas :)
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Anonymoniker
Posted: 18 January 2016 - 01:16 PM
Wow, Tillie, i am so sorry you were treated so horribly as a child. You seem to be half Angel and half Saint~♡~
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Tillie
Posted: 18 January 2016 - 11:47 AM
Good Morning Everybody :)

Hi LR2014 :)

Some people also like to make a list, number the tasks and then roll dice to find where to start.
Some put tasks on small pieces of paper and then draw from a hat/jar/box.

Today is dark, cold, windy and wet.
Good day to stay inside and watch Netflix.
Learning to relax and have real fun takes practice and needs to be a conscious effort.
Growing up I was never allowed to just be a kid. I always had to do chores. Reading was considered a waste of time.
Any time I was caught being idle I was immediately assigned chores.
I always had to take care of my younger sisters, actually raised them the best I knew how to.
If they got hurt or in trouble, I was severely beaten.
Unfortunately, being a child myself, I failed horribly.
Anyways...
schedule time to relax, read and play or to just sit quietly and day dream.
Eventually it will become easier. (((hugs)))
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LR2014
Posted: 17 January 2016 - 05:13 PM
Hi, everyone. A special "hi" to STS and Arggg. : )

My neck and shoulders were bothering me badly for some reason yesterday (don't know if it was from overactivity on Friday, from stress, from fibromyalgia, or other reasons) and are still bothering me some today. Decided to put heat on them and to try today to just rest and relax. Relaxation and fun are still not my strong points, Tillie, but I'm working on it. (Can you "work" on relaxation? Hmmm . . . ) It occurred to me that today would be a good time to get caught up on some posts. I actually find that to be very relaxing!

Dave, good to "see" you. I was thinking just a few days ago about comments you've made in the past about empty space. Nice to see them reiterated. Those thoughts are very helpful to me.

Somebody (CM?) was talking about challenges in deciding what to start on. About a year and a half ago, I had a lot of decluttering projects to work on, and it was hard for me to decide what to start on. (There were some that I was just flat out procrastinating on. Imagine that!) Yes, I already know about starting with obvious trash, working with just a section at a time, and things like that. But I was at the point at which I was at kind of a standstill. I got some index cards and put one potential project on each of the cards. Then I drew a card out of the pile and started on that one. It really helped me get rolling. I put my little deck of cards in a drawer for future use.

Karl, glad to hear you have a new place. Looking forward to hearing more about it.

More later.
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Tillie
Posted: 17 January 2016 - 11:40 AM
Good Morning :)

LOL Dave :D

Yeah, it is always an adventure to push a vacuum over an area without having to move things out of the way first. ;)

Well, the rat traps are baited and set.
Peanut butter is the best bait.
Caught Marty (the cat) in the cat trap. "Heavy Sigh" ;/
No plans for today...
thinking about doing some craft projects.
Maybe make a Summertime dress that I have the pattern & fabric for.
But that involves a lot of frustration because Scooter (the cat) always "Helps".

TTYL

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Dave
Posted: 17 January 2016 - 12:55 AM
The voyages of the starship vacuum cleaner.
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Tillie
Posted: 16 January 2016 - 12:19 PM
Hi Dave :)

As long as the wildlife, the indigenous species, stay out of my house
I just let them work things out for themselves.
Whenever I put food out for the birds, the birds eat it until sundown, when birds roost for the night.
During the night mice, skunks, rats and coyotes visit.
I rarely feed the birds any more, just on special occasions.
In summertime all the snakes are active at night and they eat whoever they find.
All year round there are raptors hunting day and night.
They eat everybody, including kittens and puppies, just like the coyotes do.

The cats and dogs get dumped here by city people who think that they will survive just fine in the country.
They suffer terribly. Many die of starvation. Some have babies. The babies turn feral.
They have more wild babies.
Disease and malnutrition for everybody.
I am left to deal with trapping them, rehoming the tamer ones.
The feral ones we are lucky enough to trap are neutered and released in an area where people have agreed to feed them.

In this area of the west the rodents do tend to carry diseases like Hantavirus and Bubonic plague.
We all must be very careful around places they nest.
I should wear a Hazmat suit whenever I venture out in the carport and garage.

If the yard, carport and garage were not hoarded so densely, there would not be such lovely nesting areas for rodents and cats and I would not have to constantly be on guard against this infestation.



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Tillie
Posted: 16 January 2016 - 11:53 AM
Good Morning Everybody :)

Hi Anonymoniker :)
I would love to read that you were able to invite everybody over and partied all night. :D
Be very careful about saving clothes for future projects.
Lots of stuff has potential but we all have limited space and time to do everything. :)

Hi Dave :D
So true and so sad...
my hoarder is truly a prisoner of all his possessions with their perceived potential.
There are so many of them that he doesn't have the space or the time do anything to bring any of his ideas to fruition.

Hi STS :)

Hi Fave :)

Space, the final frontier.
In my "Clutter Free Zones" I value even the smallest empty space and work hard to keep it empty.
One two foot long stretch of empty floor is precious space just to be enjoyed for it's emptiness.

Well, the rats are back under the house.
Scooter (the cat) and I could hear them scratching under the floor in the hallway yesterday.
There is also a colony of cats now living in the cluttered carport.
Probably why the rats have left the yard and gone under the house, to escape the cats.
I will set up rat traps where the cats can't get hurt by them and set up my cat trap and try to rehome the cats.
I am so very, very tired.

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Dave
Posted: 16 January 2016 - 11:39 AM
So I'm curious. How do you deal with wildlife competing for your facilities?
We had a neighbor move out and I brought several planters to our yard. The neighborhood squirrels have been happily rooting off and on for weeks-I doubt there are any edible seeds left.
In an old house (in the heart of a city) several years ago, I put a metal wardrobe on the back porch, put pet food in it, and padlocked it shut. We came out one morning to find the top of one of the doors bent open , courtesy of the raccoons who lived in a chimney.
The birds and squirrels get the fruit.
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Dave
Posted: 16 January 2016 - 11:39 AM
So I'm curious. How do you deal with wildlife competing for your facilities?
We had a neighbor move out and I brought several planters to our yard. The neighborhood squirrels have been happily rooting off and on for weeks-I doubt there are any edible seeds left.
In an old house (in the heart of a city) several years ago, I put a metal wardrobe on the back porch, put pet food in it, and padlocked it shut. We came out one morning to find the top of one of the doors bent open , courtesy of the raccoons who lived in a chimney.
The birds and squirrels get the fruit.
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Anonymoniker
Posted: 16 January 2016 - 08:48 AM
....i know everybody has different comfort levels in hoarding, etc., but if my house looked as nice as the 'after' pics in that video, id be celebrating & have a party & invite everyone i know over!
....i hope its ok to say that...
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Fave
Posted: 16 January 2016 - 01:03 AM
Using a little phone in wee hours. Can't watch video.
Just read title of video link. It is a hurtful title. It makes me sad for you.
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Dave
Posted: 16 January 2016 - 12:54 AM
Space is an "object".
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Anonymoniker
Posted: 15 January 2016 - 09:18 PM
....wow....interesting video....yeah, potential....hmmmm......
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ShedTheShame
Posted: 15 January 2016 - 03:30 PM
Here's a video I made about how I see potential in objects... and how that contributes to my predicament.


Potential in everything but me
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Dave
Posted: 15 January 2016 - 01:25 AM
Plenty of Posters and Passersby here are Prisoners of Potentials which they Percieve.
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Dave
Posted: 15 January 2016 - 01:13 AM
Potential!
So much wrapped up in that one word.
So much gathering and saving behavior wrapped up in that one word.
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Dave
Posted: 15 January 2016 - 01:13 AM
Potential!
So much wrapped up in that one word.
So much gathering and saving behavior wrapped up in that one word.
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Anonymoniker
Posted: 14 January 2016 - 11:43 PM
There is a part of me tempted to save clothes with potential to alter them into new things. I have several neat magazines on doing this. Many things have elastic that is shot, but is fine otherwise...i use to sew & create clothes a lot...i wonder if i could again? At worst id have a project box in my storage shop....??? ...hmmm...
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Tillie
Posted: 14 January 2016 - 10:22 PM
Hi CriticalMass :)

You can't concentrate and make decisions about things when you are sick or having allergy problems.
You ARE tired and need to sleep.
So, get the rest your body needs, drink plenty of water, tea, juice.
Fell better soon (((hugs))) :)

Hi Anonymoniker :)
Starting with the obvious rejects is a fantastic way to start! :D
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Anonymoniker
Posted: 14 January 2016 - 09:14 PM
.....that 'future-frisbee' of mine wont let me even see the pics i took of my Mom when she came out for her 80th birthday unless i keep buying 'money cards' for it!!! ....grrrr!!!
I think im gonna just first go through all my clothes and throw out what is fairly obvious...that might be enough....i hope.....ha ha :D
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