Good Morning Everybody 🙂

Hi Dave 🙂
WAY TO GO!!! 😀
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! 😀
Good luck with the hand washing.
I know you will get your room all sorted out in no time. 🙂
(((HUGS)))

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!

Hugs and coffee clinks to you.

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!)

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!!! 😀

Good Morning Everybody 🙂

Hi CriticalMass 🙂
Happy you are feeling better! 😀
Good luck with all your future planning. 😀

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. 😀
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

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! 🙂

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.

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 🙂

Wow, Tillie, i am so sorry you were treated so horribly as a child. You seem to be half Angel and half Saint~♡~

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)))

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.

Good Morning 🙂

LOL Dave 😀

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

The voyages of the starship vacuum cleaner.

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.

Good Morning Everybody 🙂

Hi Anonymoniker 🙂
I would love to read that you were able to invite everybody over and partied all night. 😀
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 😀
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.

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.

....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...

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.

Space is an "object".

....wow....interesting video....yeah, potential....hmmmm......

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

Plenty of Posters and Passersby here are Prisoners of Potentials which they Percieve.

Potential!
So much wrapped up in that one word.
So much gathering and saving behavior wrapped up in that one word.

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...

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! 😀

.....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 😀

.....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 😀

Stuck in second gear sometimes here lately. Dumb stuff happening that puts me behind, plus I'm not sure what to do first. Also I'm semi-sick with sinus congestion and allergies. My sympathies to those of you also under the weather.

Thinking about dealing with my mess right now feels like attempting to drain an ocean with a teaspoon. I do think I'll have a better outlook when I have more energy. Seriously considering a nap. Really the only reason I'm debating is that I worry about being that much further behind later. Yet, I'm not on a strict deadline. But I also know how I procrastinate, so . . .

See how my mind works?

But I'm still checking in with you all and I am going to have faith that that is a sign I'm committed to this. 😉

Good Morning Everybody 🙂

Went to town yesterday to get cat snacks and a few other food items.
Spent 48.00
But I did not want to go straight back home.
Wanted to be out and around people.
Went to several locations and got all caught up with folks.
Had a real good time socializing 😀
Have a little bit of tidying up around here to do today.
Other than that I can relax and watch this next storm blow in.

😀

Good Morning 🙂

Hi Karl 🙂

Hi Tatoulia 🙂
Feel better real soon (((hugs)))

Hi STS 🙂

Since Saturday I defrosted & cleaned the big freezer, Sunday I cooked & froze a bunch of food & cleaned the kitchen, Monday I cleaned the house up real good...
I decided to take Tuesday off from life. 😀
Really have to go to the store today, we are quickly running out of cat snacks and I am afraid of what the cats will do to me without their snacks.
I will look at the produce while I'm there.
The sun is shining and the sky is clear and blue. 😀
This is the calm before the next snow storm.

BBL 🙂