Thank you Dianne. I too have had difficulty. Thanks for alerting Cory.

I shredded all I could shred in the house and went to car to get a Rubbermaid tote of financial stuff. Going to work on it tonight.

The chaos in my home was overwhelming me so I cleaned the kitchen today and cleaned off my desk. The kitchen looks very nice as does my desk. I put out a little Christmas tree on it and it looks really sweet. And to think that a year ago I wouldn't have been able to even see the chaos--or know how to start! Amazing! Thank goodness for this site and all of you!

I took three bags to goodwill and got rid of mom's punch bowl. At the last minute i decided to keep it, really nice style (from the 60s) and all 12 glasses were there. And then, at the last second, I said, "keep it for what?!?" And I let it go to goodwill.

What did I learn, okay to change mind at last minute as long as I realize 59 seconds later I need to change back!

Thank you for your support. Going to do laundry, tonight while shredding papers. Have to go into office tomorrow for training, so I won't be working from home.

Dave, your quote got me through the punch bowl. Thank you!

Dave, thank you for your thoughtful posts. Very helpful. Thank you Dianne for keeping me going and LR I wrote you a post last night that disappeared into thin air.

I can meet my goal today. Yesterday, I Finished up another box of shreddables, have another box of recyclables and even convinced my mom to let me donate some of her stuff.

My house looks terrible right now but I have plenty of strength, my newspaper didn't arrive and my lunch plans just cancelled. Feeling pretty good here!!!

Thank you! I'm going to keep reading these tonight because I really appreciate and need your encouragement. Shredded a lot today and got a giant bag together filled with things that can be recycled. Made the tough decision to get rid of some throw pillows I live but have been sitting in storage for so long that I'm not sure I can trust the cleanliness. As I cleaned out storage there were lots and lots of mouse droppings. I paid a lot for the pillows many years ago but I also used them for many years. Do not want to put them on my bed. Okay, I just reinforced the decision to get rid of them. Thank you!

Thanks, Dianne!

Way to go, Tatoulia!!!!! Whoo-hoo!!!!

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I did all the cooking and it went off without a hitch.

Great news: as of today, I am out of storage spot!!! That's right! O-U-T out! Done! Boyfriend came to help me and we finished it today. Had to make some tough decisions and tougher ones are just around the corner--I have an unbelievable number of boxes to deal with. Giant thanks to LR (so happy to hear from you-- good work! Tough decisions on your end too and I'm proud of you!), Tillie, Diane, Roxie, Bitsy, Karl, Dave, Dianne, Mel, EVERYONE! I did it.

Now, I want the stuff I brought into my house put away or thrown away by Monday night! And I need your help.

Much love.

Hi, again, everyone! I haven't finished reading up on recent posts, so I'll save comments on them until another time. (Just to be clear, I don't feel obligated to read them . . . I want to read them! There's a difference!)

I've had so many floods here over the past five or six weeks (not to mention the multitude of other water-related issues here over the past year) that it's hard to even remember the details of what happened and when. Let's just say that I've been doing a lot of flood cleanup (again). Although I haven't posted on the message board much, I did get on chat quite a bit over the past few weeks (once I got Internet up and running at home again) and did a fair amount of buddy-system work (via the chat room).

I've known for a long time that I've needed to move (because of the flooding and for all kinds of other reasons), but various things have made me hesitant to turn in that official (required) move-out notice. Trying to imagine getting everything packed up and getting it done in a way so that I didn't misplace everything had been one of my reasons for my hesitation. (It's hard enough for non-hoarders to pack and move. For those of us with hoarding issues . . . well, you know how it is!!) My wanting to get a certain kind of job lined up first (before setting a move-out deadline) had been another issue. But the floods were getting so frequent and making my life so much more unmanageable than it already was that I finally had to say, "Enough! If I have to put everything in storage and sleep on somebody else's sofa somewhere, I've got to get out of here!!!" Well, this week, I turned in that notice! That's a big, big deal to me. Am I panicky? No (not yet, anyway). Right now, I'm relieved that I made the decision and am moving forward on it.

The frustrating part is that I've had a lot of days of just pure exhaustion over the past two weeks, and I've had a hard time getting anything done. (Getting on chat on some of those days helped me get at least a little done and gave me encouragement.) Today is one of my more energetic days, fortunately. I'm doing some packing, and I'm taking breaks from cleaning and packing to catch up some on the posts here.

As cluttered as things are here, they are so much better than they were when I started here in this group in March. I can see so much more floor, which means so much more space to move around and work in! And my little outside storage room isn't full of boxes (nor is it full of the other "stuff" that those of you who know my story will recall quite well). That's encouraging. The other day, when I was kind of discouraged and was trying to figure out how to "attack" my living room, I took some digital pictures of it first. During a break time, I pulled up some pictures on my computer that I'd taken of the living room back in May (pictures I'd taken as part of one of the Buried in Treasures book exercises). I was able to see how much improvement there had been since then, and that was comforting.

I'll probably be pulling my hair out a few weeks from now as it gets closer and closer to the time I need to move out of here. For now, though, I feel pretty good.

Thanks, you guys, for your role in helping me move forward!!!! Lots and lots and lots of hugs!!

On this wonderful day, I am thankful for each one of you. Happy Thanksgiving! Hugs to all!

Dianne and Dave (and anyone I might have missed)

Thank you sooo much for your words of encouragement. I ended up helping my neighbor host her Thanksgiving and my daughter is going to stop by with her boyfriend. And... best part, she didn't have table cloths and decorations etc. so I was able to help her with that. The only food I had to do was the appetizers. I hadn't bought a turkey since my daughter and I don't eat meat, so no food waste.

I evicted my daughter's roommate. Unfortunately, I can't get my name off the lease. My daughter can't qualify. Since I am paying for the roommate's space, I decided to make it into an office where I can bring all the things I want to sell/donate. I get HUGE tax deductions by photographing and logging every item I donate. Saves me about $10,000 a year. I am way behind in filing (yikes... two years) so having space to work efficiently will be great.

Sleeping on the couch has been kind of rough, might look into some kind of cot that folds up or air mattress, but no room for that yet (barely a path between the couch and the stuff I emptied out of my bedroom to rent it out).

Thank you for suffering through my long and whiny post. Just needed to spit it all out and try to release it. You all are GREAT.

Well off to cut veggies for tomorrow! :)
Grateful for your support. Be blessed!!
xoxoxo Darci

visitor postponed till Christmas.went to doctor. cholesterol ok.thyroid numbers good. actually lost 8 lbs.still way overweight for my 4'11" height.blood pressure way up. now have two meds for that.kidney numbers off so not supposed to take most pain meds. got a cortisone shot for shoulder.
son is getting antsy... colostomy reversal surgery put off by surgeon till after sometime in january. supposedly my son is not unemployed but his employer won't let him work with the colostomy. so he's kind of in limbo.
daughter, her boyfriend, and my grandson came to work on the yard because the insurance company was going to do a drive by before renewing contract. (house still in daughter,s name although I paid off 2nd mortgage and have paid 1st mortgage for 7 yrs. anyway, they did mow back yard which i appreciated but they also spent hours running the electric blower to blow out the gutters, blow leaves off driveway and from around the house (would you believe into the street)... this neighborhood has about twelve trees in every small yard, most of them various kinds of mature oak trees, and now a week later the gutters are overflowing and you can't see the driveway.just like the rest of the neighborhood.bad timing. sorry... rambling... not getting much done. did get a little bit done in "living room" and i threw out a bunch of out of date canned food. next week my great grand daughter will be 4. i should go spend some time with them. they live 2 minutes away. but it's too hard... too complicated and too complicated to explain.

hahahahahah Dave, yep plenty of time on roof. Just finished making a big pot of soup and decided to read posts on here, great idea reminding us how much Tillie has given to this site. She kept me on here regularly, just to have her cheer me on, and to cheer her on. Sure do miss Tillie since she took a break.

Supper with some of Mrs. Dave's family. My guess - 20-25 people.

I stumbled upon this yesterday looking for something else. As I recall, it was quite popular when originally posted and I thought it would be worth a repeat.

Tillie Posted: 27 January 2014 - 12:29 PM
Good morning Everybody :D

Must clean the house today!
No procrastination, no excuses, no whining.

Right now I have been downloading updates, defraging, deleting stuff to see if something malfunctioned with my computer & fix it.

Really enjoyed reading the message board here today! :D

Even when you feel your posts are not worth posting, please post! It is important to put it all out there, let us know how you are really feeling, so we can understand and be better able to help you with suggestions or just a (((hug))).

Wishing you all glitter covered unicorns farting rainbows today. ;)

the second post was basically
Use the Bing search engine,
type in the term HOW TO MEDITATE

See the Jan 27 post below and the following one at 12:19 I don't know how to link to.


Tillie Posted: 27 January 2014 - 12:13 PM
When you get so befuddled you don't know what you want or don't even care about doing anything
because it all seems so futile/hopeless
It is a GREAT time for you to meditate.
Sit quietly, breathe properly, relax, let go,
forget about the world and all the busy-ness there.
In the calm and quiet you will be able to hear a different sound.
This will lead you to your inner thoughts and needs and desires.
It will release you from all the distress of the modern world and allow you to become centered.
When centered, you will be able to calmly and serenely do that which you now can see is the way you should proceed.
(((hugs)))
Tune out, Tune in

SORRY SO LONG!!!!
Well, this is the first time I haven't even come close to reaching a goal of number of boxes to donate. My daughter, who has always been MORE than I could cope with, was diagnosed bi-polar with about 7 other "tendencies". I kept blaming my poor parenting, my hoarding, etc. etc. for her hateful disposition. Anyway, she has moved out and we still have explosions when we see eachother. After one such explosion over her roommate not paying a dime in rent or utils (lease in my name... so I got stuck with an extra $1,000 in expenses in less than two months), I literally felt something pop in my head... my heart was racing and after a few hours of my heart racing, I cried myself to sleep. I woke up with a headache that made my migraines look like nothing more than a sniffle. After three days, chest pain started. Went to hospital... they couldn't find anything and acted like I was crazy. Needless to say, no progress on the Thanksgiving cleanup. And I am too sick to put on Thanksgiving. So all the things I saved in hopes of having a wonderful Thanksgiving with my daughter and her boyfriend will go to waste. :(
I came out of the hospital in worse shape than I went in but am forcing myself to try to clean a teeny spot or teeny box at a time. Very hard as I am very dizzy, blurred vision and still having severe chest pain.

Why I am such a pickle... other than being a hoarder for over 25 years, I recently had to completely empty out three bedrooms in order to rent them out to pay my daughter's rent. She is too explosive and verbally abusive to be at home and I needed to emancipate her as quickly as possible. I am a single mom with MS and she destroyed my last two relationships so I am very alone. NO friends, family, NOT a SOUL or support system less than 1100 miles away. My dogs are my only companionship. I am extremely close with my ex (not her dad) and now that she has moved out, he wants to come back.

Anyway, I had to empty the three bedrooms quickly, so everything got thrown into boxes and piled in the garage, in my ex's "man cave" (he let me stay in his house so my daughter would not have to switch schools, and the living room (which is now my "bedroom"). I got pretty burned out having to do all that packing, moving, painting and repairing on my own. Daughter refused to help because I should just "throw everything away" and it is MY fault that I am having to move so much stuff. True, but she could help... I wouldn't have to be moving things if she wasn't so explosive... not her fault?? How much is bi-polar and how much of it is that she has learned that being explosive is a means to wear down mom and others and get your own way??? With MS, I have bouts where I can barely walk, weak, etc. etc. My daughter totalled a car in September and then had another accident last week. She also got two tickets and $$$$ fines, etc. Her roommate didn't pay rent, so I also got stuck with an extra $1,000 in expenses (lease in my name). So, let's throw in overwhelming legal and fincial troubles in there.... perfect storm.

So, for the last several weeks, overwhelmed was an "understatement". Just brush yourself off and start over, you say. Well, with a bones crusing headache and chest pain, dizziness, blurred vision a little rough.

One thing I can say, though, is that I have done an excellent job keeping all the common areas immaculate and have not had an tenants complain that the front half of the garage (visible when they do laundry) or my area is a problem for them. One guy said that my common areas were more cluttered than he would like, but the areas are immaculate and he complains about everything anyway (house too hot, too cold, doesn't like my brand of pots and pans...). I simply reminded him that his lease is week to week and either party can cancel for any reason and he hasn't said a word since.

So, for a hoarder to be able to clear enough for three extra people in the home, I guess I am not at total rock bottom.

I did have a few slips at the thrift stores (I had gone in for "legitimate" reasons... my last pair of jeans totally ripped, needed lamps for tenants....)

So, here I am... trying to get past feeling overwhelmed :(

Hi Mariana. Welcome back! I'm not sure where Roxie is. We all miss her. If memory serves, she was in the hospital and then once home her brother wanted her to go stay with him and she didn't want to leave her home. We haven't heard from her and she is sorely missed.

Tillie is still around although we only catch glimpses of her now and then. I think she's taking a break. We miss our anchor but recognize that it's a lot of responsibility to take care of so many of us. And that can be a thankless job.

Bear in mind the above is what I tell myself. It's not based in fact. We miss them as I am sure you have been missed! Would love to hear your story and find out what is going on with you!

Hello LR! Have been missing you! Very sorry to hear about the flood. But I am glad to hear from you!

Hi, everybody. I haven't had Internet at home for about a week and a half, but that's resolved for now. I'm so glad to be able to be back in touch with you all here! Missed at least three of the recent chats. (Frown.) I'm looking forward to catching up on what's going on with all of you.

Surprise, surprise . . . I had another flood this week. (It started in the kitchen this time.) Still have a lot of cleanup left to do from that. Might see if anybody is on chat early this evening and see if anybody is up to a little bit of buddy-work cleaning.

Hugs to everybody!

For various reasons (moving, surgery etc.) I have not posted in a long time but I have checked in periodically to see how everyone is doing. Lots of new people here but missing some old familiar names. Does anyone know what has happened to dear Tillie and Roxie?

Good memory Tat, yes freezer room is fine, I have a lar ge light bulb right over where the pipes froze last year in freezer room, no frozen pipes this year. Having the freezer is so great when I am snowed in like this week. Have frozen vegetables, fruit and chicken in there so no worries about food.
I have lots of single socks, if I ever start dusting I will remember to use socks.
Today I got dishes done, cleaned the stove, under burners too, put aluminum foil on stove burners. Moved stuff off deck, shoveled snow off deck and some in driveway, brought in firewood. .Organized some of living room, more needs to be done.

Dave and Diane, my neighbors use old socks for dusting, which was funny to me at the time, since dusting seemed like an impossible task. Now I kind of like the idea!

Diane is the freezer room keeping warm enough?

Thanks Dave, trailer trash, ran through my mind when I put tarp up, what the heck, I is what I is.
Did you know if you put a treasured sock on each windshield wiper, you can pull it off to clear ice off wiper? See all of our loner sox have a purpose!!

Great idea with the windbreak. You are most creative.

ONLY 7 below! I feel like I'm reading about the weather setting for the poem - The Cremation of Sam McGee!

Running water this morning!!!! Hooray. Only 7 below zero last night, already 7 above zero, so today will be warmer. I feel so blessed that I did all the insulation fighting spiders, last year under the trailer. I even put up a white tarp to stop wind from blowing up on deck and to kitchen pipes that froze. My pride out the window, more impt. to stay warm and have water, it can come down easily as soon as it is above freezing, soon I pray.
I enjoyed the chat about empty spaces, I can relate so much. Now that my living room is a disaster area, it gives me permission to visit old emotions, frustrated, hopeless, stuck. The familiar old crap feelings are more comfortable than empty spaces that bring up new feelings,I just have to clean up living room today and embrace new feelings and let old negative feelings go to the graveyard.
Mel enjoy all you share and so proud of you for letting a loving man into your space.

Thanks Tat, appreciate you explaining why driving is difficult, and happy you are safe and took sleeping teen for support.

18 below zero last night and still have running water, several record breaking cold nights in a row, coldest November since 1955 one weatherman said, brrrr
I was supposed to work in a nearby town tomorrow but can not get car out of driveway yet, boss was so gracious when I told her. A friend picked me up for a class today, I walked down the hill since cars are getting stuck coming up this street.
Since I will now be home all day tomorrow I plan to clean living room tomorrow, it has tools, lamps, nails and other fixit stuff all over, oh and lots of clothes, I recently washed, and did not put away. I want living room clean so I can do some craft projects this week while I am snowed in.
loved reading about roommates/boyfriends and the adjustments it take, proud of you both.
Thanks for birthday wishes Tat, incredibly 19 people wished me birthday happiness on Facebook, more than i can ever remember, 4 b day cards, usually get one or none. I think letting walls down, getting rid of things and letting a few people back into my life might be worth the pain. More to be discovered.
Being in this group has been the support that has been missing in my life to change hoarding behavior, and accept that more to be done can be done slowly, I have given up on rushing to finish line. Thanks for being here and working honestly on your stuff.

Diane, wow you have a lot to deal with! Glad you made soup and also happy to hear you had birthday cards waiting for you! I kept up with dishes and dishwasher and did a bunch of laundry. Was tired from trip but luckily I work from home most Mondays so it was an easier transition than going into the office. We had rain all day and I was grateful that I had changed my original plan, which was to take today off and drive to VT. So glad we had clear roads yesterday. This was my first time driving to VT in many years, I think five, because I had a panic attack driving home on the last trip and thought I would die. (Immediately went to see dr and was dx'd with thyroid problems and had thyroid removed).

Changing the day from Monday to Sunday meant that my boyfriend couldn't go with me (and do the driving ) so we had one of the neighborhood kids ride up and back with me. Although he didn't do any driving, I could rely on him to talk to me and keep me calm. I only came close to panicking a couple of times. He mainly slept in the car--he'd been out til 4:00 AM--ah to be young.

Mel, your sense of humor over the cat "revenge vomit " will continue to help you through this.

also...

I keep stepping on the cats! I feel so bad about it. I'm used to both stepping on stuff and not really looking where I'm walking. Kitties revenge though, I also stepped in kitty puke.