Oh, sweetie, i am so sorry...i cant even imagine....but i love your idea to donate it to a good cause. You are a Brilliant Light with solving things with Love...♡....i had so hoped he would expand on that good feeling of having donated those guitars & do more in that direction. Is there any way you can gently explain what you would really like as a gift, instead?

Hello everybody :)

Really bummed out due to his shopping frenzy yesterday and again today.
So much stuff we have absolutely no use for. So much money wasted.
From the hardware store summer clearance sale today he brought me two electric wax melting units.
I abhor small electrical appliances.
And a bunch of miscellaneous assorted clutter.
From the grocery store clearance rack yesterday he brought me over a whole years worth of chocolate candy.
From the thrift shop he brought me more useless crafting supplies for crafts that I have absolutely no desire to do and a bunch of plastic beads, I really hate plastic anything.
For himself he bought two truck loads of stuff over just these last two days.

Shhhhhh....
Don't tell him but this week all that stuff he brought me is going to the thrift shop that supports the food pantry.
Maybe then I will be able to be happy again. :(

Hello to all!~ :D
Joan, its interesting what you said about your place reflecting your brain. That same day you posted about that, i had been thinking, with all the advancements made recently on the brain, that i would like to see a chart of what part of the brain makes decisions, and what it looks like when a brain is indecisive vs making a decision. Then i would like to start doing healing visualizations specifically towards that!!! As crazy of an approach as that sounds, itd have to work better than my current system....
Tatoulua, every time you mention your boyfriend, it reminds me there might be a guy for me out there somewhere...♡
SubC, i now have 5 baby raccoons that are like a bunch of toddlers in my yard every night! I find it much trickier to deal with babies...
Right now is the worst time of the year with bugs & critters of all sorts....just keeping them all out of my house & things is my almost a legitimate excuse for avoiding other stuff!!! (sorta sarcasm) ;D

Joan" I am so glad to see you posting. You are doing very hard work. I am standing right by your side, cheering for you,

The woman re-sewed the final curtain panel today. She is so lovely and so pleasant. I took mom with me for the ride. I was a little cranky on the way up so we rode with the windows open and enjoying the breeze. After a short while with mom I felt so much better. BF will help me hang the drape tomorrow. He offered to do it this afternoon but I know how many errands he has to run and I will wait. It might also give me a chance to clean up in here a bit.

I am grateful to you all, When I log in and see that someone has posted it feels like such a gift.

SubC, the short answer to your question is NO, I cannot do that.

If I had been able in any way to have made my living situation more comfortable, I would have done it. Everything in my system, EVERYTHING, was totally stuck due to very advanced, sophisticated energy implants that had been imbedded in my system. These implants sabotage all normal human functioning. It has taken me all of lifetime, and very specialized expertise, to remove these implants and repair the damage. This all goes on in the nonphysical world. i am talking about the universe we live in beyond the strictly physical, the places from which all physical, linear manifestations emanate: The source(s) of all physical manifestations here.

This more expansive realm of our universe, even when it is acknowledged, is generally misconstrued by humans. There is almost no good information about it out there at all. For basic background on the history of this planet, I highly recommend the free Kryon audio channellings on the Kryon website. The planetary grid shift that happened 12/21/2012 is of particular interest, and the channellings given in 2012 and 2013 are especially salient. They help to explain what happened at that time

Last week I had a breakthrough in my work on myself. I suspect it changed my abilities to handle the world around me. Thus, I am testing my hypothesis by removing my containers from the dish drainer to see if the dish drainer remains accessible. If so, then I am correct, and I can proceed with having a life - which I have never had on planet Earth, due to the sabotage of my system.

Thanks for your question

Good morning!

Tatoulia, I'm glad you are feeling hopeful! Did you get something good to eat?

Thanks to your laundry update and Tillie's comment on fresh blankets, I am washing my overdue sheets as I type.

Tillie, the clearance sale thing sucks. I don't do that anymore, but I remember!

Joan, instead of trying to do a big clean and sort on the containers you have, which is really demanding, do you think you can decide you have enough and put any new ones that come in into the recycling or trash right after you eat? That would keep them out of your dish drainer and stop them from piling up anywhere else. I want you to keep enjoying your clean sink forever!

I am doing a 100 day challenge. It's supposed to be something that will make a change in your life. I'm not sure what the rest of the group thinks about me, because they have picked things like exercising and diet changes, and one woman is working on becoming a writer and she pledged to write a page a day for 100 days. I thought about doing something related to my pottery, but I decided what would make the biggest change in my life is my kitchen.

So I am going to go to bed with a clean kitchen every night for 100 days. By then (December 4) it should seem normal. I am going to have to change a bunch of habits to do that, but I think I can. I gave myself some exceptions - like if the dishwasher is running at bedtime I can leave rinsed dishes waiting for the next load, or letting the cast iron pan cool on the stove, or if dh has a snack after I finish. But I'm going to try really hard.

I'm hoping today will be the hardest day. I have almost finished the counters, but the kitchen table is still buried. (In part with stuff I took off the counters)

Good morning, everybody! Feeling much more hopeful today.

I'm up early and have nothing in the house to eat. I think I'll quickly run to the store to get bagels and cream cheese. I will head up to seamstress today to have the one panel fixed. I changed my sheets last night and I managed to do one load of towels. So it's actually going pretty well using the big washer here.

Have a great day, everyone! Joan, I bet you feel good when you wake up today and see your sink!

Tat, I have been thinking about you, too. Never underestimate the power of the nonphysical connections between us. I live mostly in the nonphysical world, and I could feel lately that someone wanted me to post. I have to wait until the time is right for me, and I am well enough to manage it. I really appreciate your good thoughts of me.

Tillie, thanks for the suggestion. I am not at the point of making any decisions about the containers yet. In the past I have organized somewhat along those lines. As I said, though, with my health collapsing after a sorting job, containers just pile up again. That is really the big problem, for me. Yes, it was REALLY a big deal for me to get a new kitchen sink pad. I am so happy to see it there. A real morale booster.

Take care.

Hi Subclinical :)
That table sounds lovely.
Twice now Steven has brought home a solid wooden shelf unit from the school library.
I immediately took both of them.
One is used for shelving in my pantry and the other smaller one is in my room.
If your family isn't going to keep the table it will be very easy to find someone who has a need for it. ;D

Hi Joan :)
Wonderful to "see" you.
It helps if you pick a number for the containers.
Figure out just how many you could reasonably use and then let the rest go.
As a new one comes in you would then either keep it and let another one go or just recycle the new one.
Setting limits for ourselves on the number of something really helps take the hard decision making out of the equation.
WAY TO GO! for your new sink pad! :D

Hi Tatoulia :)
WAY TO GO! for all the very hard mental work you have done to help stop the acquiring.
(((HUGS)))
Good luck and best wishes that the rug and microwave will be gone soon.

The hardware store in town is having their annual summer sidewalk sale this weekend.
Of course he came home with bag upon bag of stuff.
The sale will be 75 % off everything tomorrow and I know he will go back.
"Heavy sigh"
Today I stayed home and did some laundry and took care of the cats.
Tonight Scooter and I will sleep with freshly washed sundried blankets.
Priceless. ;D

Joan! So glad to hear from you. I was thinking about you a lot today, so this is such a pleasure to hear from you!

You've made and important realization! And congratulations on having a clean sink!

SubC, yah oak library table is something I would definitely want, I love those old quarter sawn oak library tables. Great use for daughter's wedding meal! I love it!

I am up after a nap and going to try to make some progress here. Any progress.

Hi SubC!

Good point, you have to reduce the "in" first. I did that many, many years ago. I have been too sick for at least a decade to shop for anything but food, so that answers that.

The containers are food containers. Most get recycled, but when I find nice ones, it is hard to throw them away. I have piles and piles of old food containers. I have also been too sick to do anthing on the stove but boil water in a small pan. Three of the four burners have been covered for at least five or ten years (front butner open wine bottle dates back to May 2014). So almost everything I eat, I buy in recycable containers.

Thanks for the feedback!

Hi Joan!

I think you are on the right track!

For me, stopping the in (ok, clearly I haven't stopped it. -controlling? Minimizing? the in.) was the first and most important step. Before you can start to make it better, you have to stop making it worse.

So you know what you are NOT going to do with the containers. What ARE you going to do with the containers? Where are they coming from?

Dh loves this table!

Hi everyone!

Just now I got a major new insight into my hoarding behavior. No matter how I tried to organize or clean things up in the past, midway through projects, my health would collapse. Then the projects would stop, half done, and new stuff would get piled on top of the semi-organized batch. This is what was happening in my brain, too, so the house accurately reflected how scrambled my thinking had to be at the time.

Tonight I realized that the biggest issue for me is MAINTENANCE, not cleanup. I just got a new pad for the bottom of my kitchen sink today. I always hated the old one, and now it is all moldy. Maybe I will throw it into the recycling. Anyway, seeing my clean "new" sink, I thought for the bizzillionth time how I would like my dish rack to only hold dishes. There are always, these last years, cleaned containers all piled on top of the dishes in the dish rack. So I just took the containers, put them in a big plastic bag, and set the bag down atop my dining room bags.

If I'm right, and my brain is working better now than it used to, then I'll be able to keep the dish rack just for dishes. If so, I can then sort through the containers later and reduce the amount of containers I have. If I cannot MAINTAIN the area, no point in putting in the time and energy to sort through the containers. The problem will just grow back again.

What do you think?

Today I finished setting up my classroom for tomorrow's open house.

I also put the new lid on the kiln. I threw the old cracked kiln lid in the dumpster instead of trying to figure out if the material could be used for something. It didn't even bother me, so I have come a long way. I also threw out the cardboard box the new lid came in because it had spray in packing foam stuck to it.

I cleaned out the kiln room and I filled a large kitchen sized trash can. Some of the trash had metal parts that might have been recyclable, but not easily. I threw away a really old extension cord and a plastic table cloth.

I can throw away things that are broken beyond repair or soiled beyond cleaning or dangerous or truly useless.

But there is a large oak table in my truck. It is a long solid rectangular table from the school library and the building manager had been told she had to get it out of the building before tomorrow and she couldn't find a charity that would take it. The surface is marked with rings and scratches but nothing bad - light to moderate sanding. I am going to put a table cloth on it and use it as an extra table to serve ds's wedding brunch on next week instead of the flimsy plastic folding table, but after that I don't know.

Good morning everyone.

What a struggle this is. I see everyone's point. And I don't disagree. I don't want to live with terrible broken stuff, I hate to see wasted the planet is important, etc. the only thing I can say is I need a balance. A balance where my life isn't cluttered and filled with this thing and that thing. I got rid of boxes upon gift boxes upon gift boxes. I can't be a repository or a museum. I just had to learn to not keep things or take things or buy things because someone somewhere might need them, I try very hard not to buy stuff because it would be fun to own the item.

I read somewhere (likely here) not to hang on to stuff for someone else-- it may turn out they don't even want it/like it. So I try to live where I reasonably recycle things, I donate where possible and the rest I just have to say goodbye to,

Speaking of which I really want to see the rug and the microwave go this week, I wonder if i will do either,

I've done absolutely nothing to improve things around here and they are going downhill. I'm sleeping too much. I also overate the past two days, a habit I thought I'd broken,

Well it is after 11 and the calls from the brother have just started now, so I got a little alone time after all.

I'm really sorry about your situation with Steven. I'm not Steven, but school dumpster diving did make the hoard problem worse at my house for a while. I homeschooled my kids for years and the local public schools where a huge source of resources, but I brought home more books and worksheets than I could sort out in a reasonable time.

Otoh, I have a huge blackboard in my barn that we love and all my math resources were free, and I didn't need to buy printer paper for 12 years, and I still have half a desk drawer full of envelopes....

My school is not usually very wasteful. Compared to the public schools, almost nothing was thrown out. The teacher who threw away the fabric is just too exhausted and overwhelmed in her life to do anything other than toss stuff. She was cleaning out the art and sewing closet. She actually apologized to me for throwing things away because I was in her room helping her. I told her it was ok, I'm doing better. (We are old friends) I did "rescue" some sponges and two drawing dummies for my classroom while I helped her. Each of the dummies is missing a foot, but I really don't think that impairs their service as sculpture references. And the fabric. She still filled an entire 32 gallon trash can and two large boxes and I just let it go.

The thing that is hard for me is that if people just took a few extra minutes to seperate the recycling (like, an extra five minutes for the whole trash can if you sort as you toss) there would be half as much trash. And we have a parent volunteer whose support job is to collect the recycling from the classrooms every week and take it to the drop off. Every parent has to choose between a support job or a fee and recycling is important enough to the administration to make that one of the jobs.

I also rescued nine bug nets from another teacher's trash for my insect unit.

It is also very hard for me when I feel like I participated in the problem. It is still bothering me A LOT that my plastic bottle went in the trash and I didn't pull it back out for recycling. I didn't do it because I know it is socially inappropriate and I was meeting the new teachers. But I think it would have been the right thing to do, so I feel like I let social pressure convince me to do something I know is wrong.

The bug net teacher is going to teach me to make hummus so that I don't have all these little non-recyclable hummus containers in my life.

Subclinical
Steven works at a school.
For many many years he has "rescued" so much of the things thrown away there.
He always says somebody could use it or it could come in handy someday or it's cool to own this stuff or he can use it for parts, etc...
Most of the stuff was thrown out because it was old, worn out, broken/damaged, outdated...
The vast majority of the massive hoard here at my house is from his dumpster diving at the school.
The stuff is all still here all dirty and ruined from being in a huge heap.
Just this past week he drug home many very old outdated computers.
Very little has ever been recycled, gifted or donated.
He has also brought home a LOT of dumpster kittens that I have rehomed except for the two I have kept since they are too feral for the general population.
Yes, schools and other businesses are very wasteful and neglectful about recycling so now I live in extension of the dump because he sees value in owning/rescuing everything.
I really hope I die first so I don't have to clean up this mess. :(

I am sorry about the bunny.

I am reading and thinking overtone, but too overwhelmed right now to formulate good replies.

Today was hard for me. We are setting up at school and so many teachers are throwing so many things away.

We had a lunch today and nobody even recycled the drink bottles. Someone cleaned up my plate while I was getting a cookie and threw away my drink bottle. I want to run around the school rescuing things and pulling recycling out of the trash, but I know I should not. I need to be doing other things.

I did rescue some fabric another teacher was throwing out. I don't need it, but it is big pieces. It can go to goodwill or the upcycle store?

Hi CM--great to read your post -- you are doing so much and handling it all so well! Sorry about the the losses you are experiencing right now. It is hard to be an adult in so many ways.

I bet your quilt is going to be beautiful--I hope there is some way we could enjoy a picture of it.

Tillie, I bet that was great fun lounging today! I had to go into office for a conference then office closed for summer event. After summer event I went back to office to work a while then had BF pick me up and I came home and slept. Absolutely glorious sleep. I just got up now to check in kitty and to feed her. I will go back to bed now.

Just wanted to check in on everybody.

Hi CriticalMass :)

Thank you for your wonderful post!
Have a safe trip and enjoy your visiting.
(((HUGS)))



I got to sleep in today AND stayed in my nightgown until 11:00!
Did cat stuff and nothing else but rest, relax and have fun. ;D

Checking in to Phase Eight with many updates.

Went back and read final posts from Phase Seven.

Fasten your seat belts, this is going to be a pretty long post!

Porter, glad your daughter stopped by and that you're enjoying being absorbed in your research. It's fun to be "in the zone" with an idea.

SubC, Tractor Supply here has been having Chick Days. Fun. I get it about "Frankencoop" LOL - we have "Frankengreenhouse." We tried, but kept having to re-engineer things that didn't work. If at some point it becomes affordable to replace plastic sheeting with plastic panels, it may work out a lot better.

That was cool of the priest to invite you & students to watch the eclipse. An astronomer, eh? Wonder if he's a Jesuit like Brother Guy Consolmagno, the Vatican Observatory's head honcho - whose books are in my "to read" stack.

Glad also that you found such a great recycling and donation place. Sounds like a win-win for everyone. I, too, hate to throw things away that can be used for crafts, etc., though I've been able to force myself to for the sake of decluttering. But recycling would be preferable if it just were less time-consuming and close by where I live. Down the road when I've de-hoarded enough I think I'll be able to do more recycling in an organised fashion.

Tillie - Steven let go of some stuff - that is nothing short of FANTASTIC. I do believe your quiet example is bearing fruit. Perhaps it's not beyond possibility that he will catch the de-hoarding vibe. Because he's got to see that what you are doing, you are doing because you find value in it - and maybe a part of his mind is mulling that over and beginning to see that it might be worth experiencing for himself. We can hope!

Tatoulia, hope the delight in redecorating will still be there despite the parts that feel like a drag. I know I get so impatient - it's like, well, I made the resolution not to hoard & clutter, so now I want everything clean and neat YESTERDAY!!

Hope your kitty will be completely better soon.
And your washer - hope that gets fixed at last. Repairs that drag out are, well, such a drag.

My big bunny Heather is having "sore hocks" which means her back feet are both afflicted with pressure sores. We may need a vet visit but I'm trying some home remedies for now - rubbing coconut oil into the sores - it softens the skin and helps the hair regrow, which will give her feet more cushioning, and it has antibacterial properties. I've also got a softer kind of bedding to try. She is so comforted by spending time cuddling with her "husbun" - they are so sweet together.

Sadly, the other big bunny Ginger in our bunny club died the day after my aunt passed. :( It appears Ginger had a stroke right when she was recovering from the big surgery. Poor baby, she went through so much.

Our bunny club meeting was Sunday - and getting ready was stressful and sad. The event went well except for some drama where a couple of our club members got bitten trying to break up a rabbit fight. I'm concerned about our club - we need to have liability insurance if we're going to do public events. It had lapsed. And the bitten members were venting to me and I felt the old "I don't want to adult and have to be the one who takes the flak when sh** gets real" nervousness.

Anony, sorry to hear about the tarp setback! Hoping you find a good one. I know it's hard with them for roofing because of the UV damage making things deteriorate. My roommate's greenhouse is a constant challenge in that regard.

Speaking of UV and light, hope everyone enjoyed the eclipse. Here we had 93% totality. I had seen the glasses at the grocery store a couple weeks ago for $1.99 but was hesitant to spend the money - there are times my new resolves of frugality and not buying too many things backfire. You guessed it, by the time I decided I would go get a pair, glasses were sold out everywhere.

But it just so happened that my next-door neighbor is home in the daytime and had a pair and was nice enough to share! I had also made a pinhole setup, and I enjoyed taking pictures of the crescent shadows the leaves made on the ground.

Get this: I will get to go to my aunt's funeral. God works in mysterious ways. My roommate and I had a trip planned that way for this weekend and the funeral is scheduled for Saturday. How perfect is that? I will miss my aunt, of course, but I'm coping okay with her passing because she did indeed have a full long life for the better of 96 years, and she was getting pretty feeble. My uncle passed in 1998, one of her daughters in 2008, and her brother earlier this year. So now she can be with them again.

I'm going to take some framed needlework pictures up when I go to give to a cousin who I think will enjoy them. They were ones my mom and I liked but I don't think I'll have room for them in my new future life I hope to have - passing them on to a family member who knew my mom is a great way to have them still be enjoyed.

Okay, one last thing for now. This is huge - last night I finished all the embroidered squares for my quilt! So now I cut them to size and sew them into the rows. I'm doing this the way I did the 4-patch blocks: taking photos and making a computer mockup, so I can distribute the colors how I want them. It only takes a little more time and I like being able to envision the whole quilt before I commit to the sewing part.

The surviving aunt that I'll be staying with on the trip this weekend is a quilter. It'd be cool if I could have everything sewn together to show her the finished top, but I don't know. There's a lot to do to get ready for the trip. But I can at least take the pieces so she can see, and show her the mockup.

Wish me safe travels - I love seeing everyone and I enjoy the scenery, but the travel/agoraphobia and being away from my rabbits is the downside. Trying to stay positive though. Don't know if I'll have wi-fi, but if I do, I'll post how it's going. Otherwise, I'll be back next week. Ciao!

Hi Anonymoniker :)
You are beautiful too (((HUGS)))
I suppose our two cats are especially sensitive and emotional to react to the eclipse.
Sometimes those tarps start shredding after just a little while but you must have gotten a real "lemon" for it to be shredding already. :(
Keep looking for a free-bee old canvas tent. One of those along with a tarp underneath would help.
Keep up the great job soaking up all those millions of honey drops.

Hi Tatoulia :)
I like to imagine Diane has been enjoying ice cream and berry smoothie fixings from her freezer. :D
Thanks for redoing the thread. I never have any button issues so don't know when we need a new one.
Poor Kitty :(
Once Marty showed up very lame. Would not stand or walk. He had managed to dislocate his hind leg somehow. Of course it was after Vet office hours.
A few hours later he popped it back into place and was fine again.
He never did tell me how he managed to do that.
Have you checked Kitty's finger nails?
Sometimes they will break/split a nail into the quick and that really hurts and makes them limp.

One suggestion when you are feeling miserable and bla...
Do something nice for yourself.
Treat yourself with an indulgence like playing in a bubble bath until the water gets cold.
Make a blanket fort inside and eat dinner in it.
Do something naughty. ;)
Quit acting like a responsible sensible adult for a while.
PLAY :D

Think I can take tomorrow off, except for cat stuff.
Want to sleep in and stay in my night gown until noon.

Well I'm feeling blah and still worried about my limping kitty. I will get her to vet on Monday or sooner if she seems to be in a lot of pain. The limp has gotten better but still not great. No swelling, no cuts. Poor little cat.

I cleaned bathroom vanity and toilet. Frustrated by the state of the house. Not hungry, not thirsty, nit tited. Just super bored and uncomfortable. I'm out of paper towels and disinfectant wipes, so I'm using that as an excuse to feel miserable too. Feeling blah. When I was a kid my mother would tell us something snappy that never helped--you know, of the clean your room or go outside variety.

I hope I can shake this.

Hello there Anony! Glad that phase 8 came in time! I'll try to remember to keep an eye out for it--don't want to lose you!

Well washer still not working. However, we discovered a leak while working on it--thank goodness-and plumber fixed the leak for now before I damage place beneath mine.

Anony I am so very sorry about your troubles--while I would never wish misery on anyone, I am miserable too so we have each other. My kitty still isn't w 100% but I know a vet visit will be terrible on her. My house is disgusting in more ways than I can describe and I find the re-do to be so taxing. I am trying with all my might to stay calm. Stay calm. Just breathe. I am doing it on the outside and inside is only half/convinced.

It is so gross here.

Anony I am worried about your tarp and the honey and the whole shebang. I wish I could help you. I wish I could do anything to signal progress rather than no decay.

I'm going to go back to work now. Maybe get dressed too. And be grateful for my friends here.

Love from Tatoulia.

Thank you, Tatoulia! Yes, i had lost my buttons, was trying to adjust to the 'full site' option, but it was very challenging!
~♡~Ice coffee clinks & cyber hugs to all!~♡~
Ive been having the backsliding-blues with almost everything the past few days...im blaming it on all the retrograde planets...ha ha The trick to the honey, is to keep putting warm water on each spot for long enough to soak into it, so ive been doing that...today im gonna work on the carpet & seat cushins. One of the most central backsliding events has been the unexplainable shreading of one of the roof tarps. It has barely been 2 weeks...ive been looking into old billboard tarps(they are also recycled!) Its another big chunck of money, not to mention getting on the hot roof again and hiring my friend again...so, im also now worried about all the unexpected expenses & problems with building a house, too. Money is a big part of my whole 'hoarding' saving, not replacing, not fixing, etc., situation.
Tillie, i absolutely LOVED your thoughts on the eclipse, and the laundry, and your kitty reacting...one of my cats really acted strangely that day, too?!! It was truly beautiful! You are beautiful! ~☆♡☆~
I hope we all can create new things & new ways of changing things, or handling things, through this eclipse opportunity!~☆~♡~☆~

Spending the day cooking sounds so satisfying, Tillie! I wish we would hear from Diane do we could learn if her freezer is still chugging away!

I am fasting today, which almost always feels good. I need to focus on work and hope handyman actually comes today! I did try to sneak in a wash but someone is using the washer right now. Maybe later!

Really hope your washer gets fixed today! :D

Hello! I've started phase 8 to make sure we all have access! So, what are you doing today???