Diane 😀
(((HUGS)))
Be very kind and gentle to yourself.
Try not to worry about anything that's been removed.
Focus on what remains and your vision of your life as you want it to be.
I am so very, very proud of you for allowing and trusting your friends enough to help you through this difficult process.
I smile when I envision you working away in your special rock room, doing what you love.
(((HUGS)))

Tat, Tillie, LR so happy to read your posts this morning.
I had spent many hours over the past week, picking out the things I thought were necessary to keep. My two friends came in with guns blazing and shot holes in my plans of keeping stuff. They continued to bag/box up so much stuff. They filled a 4x8 utility trailer and 2 SUV's of donations and bags of garbage, stuff that I thought I needed. The big room is almost empty. I trust them both, and had to keep reminding myself I want freedom more than I want this stuff. Emotionally I was a wreck by the time they left. I only slept a few hours last night, kept waking up thinking about stuff they took to donate, very anxious, and had to remind myself this is normal for a hoarder to feel anxious when relinquishing control over stuff. I finally got up and have accomplished very little since I got up hours ago. I rifled through the "garbage" and took out "donations" and "keepers", noticed the mess I made, and asked myself can I let go of these things, I have to trust my friends want life to be better for me, not trying to take things from me. Very difficult morning for me. Thanks for all of your continued support

Thanks for posting that you feel better when things are clean. I need to wash dishes, clean counters, take garbage out and trust I will feel better like you do. I get busy trying to figure out what to do with small items, and let dishes etc. go. Such a good reminder to take care of the things that matter, like dishes. Last month we got rid of more than half of dishes etc. in kitchen because I continued to let dirty dishes pile up. I still need to do them daily so dirty dishes don't scream, "see you really are a slob"
Happy you have a light bright house Tillie, cloudy here. It is such a miracle that the core group of gals has hung together, and now that I am ready to rejoin you, you have accepted me with open arms, thank you LR,Tat,Tillie Roxie, means so much

It's 60 degrees here on the East coast today, Tillie, if you can believe it! Thank you for the beautiful visual of the snow and sunlight.

Here's something that I keep thinking about: my life is easier and I am less tired when my house is clearer. I've been working on keeping dishes out of sink and keeping laundry folded and out away. And my life is easier and I am less tired. I hope that holds true for you, Diane, and anyone else reading this.

This is a struggle and I am a work in progress. I need to keep the progress working in my direction.

Hadn't checked back here since I posted several days ago. (Have had lots going on this week.) When I checked the board a couple of hours ago, I saw . . .

Diane!!!!!!! Great to hear from you! Like others have said, I've been thinking about you! (How's the freezer doing?)

And, of course, hi to everyone else, too! (Lemonade clinks, Roxie.)

Tatoulia, I agree that life is easier when things are clearer. FYI, lately I've been organizing some things. It's amazing how much my spirits lifted after doing that little project!

Thanks, Tillie, Roxie, and Tat, for your comments and sentiments related to the storm situation. I got lots of work done out there this past weekend. I've made numerous piles of debris. If all goes according to my plans, I will probably load the piles of debris onto a trailer Friday evening and take it to the dump on Saturday. (The first Saturday of the month is free day at the dump.) I will still have a lot of debris to deal with later (i.e. after Saturday). As long as I get a little bit done at a time and keep at it, it will get done.

Holding your hand, Diane! Sounds like you are mentally prepared. And ready! Keep up the good work.

Good Morning Everybody 🙂

Hi Tatoulia 🙂
Sounds like you have a good solid plan for that area.
Now, you just need to find that special dresser.
Looking forward to following your progress on this project. 😀

Hi Diane 🙂
(((BIG HUGS)))
We are with you today in spirit.
Keep your vision of your rock room front and center in your mind to help ease the anxiety.
Would be so wonderful for you to have this space to spend all your creative energy.
I know how much you love working with stone.
(((HUGS)))

Very, very cold here these last few days.
Hoping today the temps get better than yesterday's high of 22 degrees.
The sunshine reflecting off the blindingly white snow really lights up even the darkest corners inside the house.
There is mail in the mail box but I have not yet gotten up the courage to walk all the way out across the road to collect it.
Today I am going to pop some popcorn for the birds.

🙂 TTYS

Great suggestions, Tillie! You are right, right, right. I need to clean out the area in front of the closet and then make a plan. Right now I have this large piece of furniture--Victorian hat stand with seat and mirror--that I've decided to get rid of and in exchange I'm trying to find a small vintage bow front dresser for that space. It will give me sime drawers and wall space for artwork and stop that area from piling up. And up. And up. Thank you for your tips--I need a plan.

Diane, how nice that you are able to find help and accept help. Hard to get those things. And at the same time! I was naturally pained to read your post but we all slide. The trick is to find your traction. Glad you are back. I have been fairly sporadic lately but have renewed energy and am glad to have my friends here.

Hello to everyone.

Tat and Tillie so great being greeted by you both. T&T, friends I feel I have known forever and like no time or distance since on here months ago, thank you both.
Today I got up at 6 and started on rock room, OMG what a challenge, good it is so bad, made me realize even more that I need to just let them bag stuff up. I spent most of the day going through bags of stuff I haven't looked at in years, picking out valuables I had to keep, by the end of the day, looking at the huge mess, I realize, no matter how much I want to keep stuff tomorrow when 2 women are here bagging up stuff, I have to just trust them and let them take stuff out of there, sure wish one or both of you were here to hold my hand T&T!! I am so nervous to have them both see the condition of room. So happy I have this board for support.
Tillie you always have such good advice/suggestions. Tat, so happy you are still on here and continue working on your home and give such good visual details so I can visualize your furniture and changes you are talking about.

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.

HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY! 😀

Hi Tatoulia 🙂
Good luck and WTG! finding and packing up the Christmas items! 😀
One suggestion for helping to keep stuff from piling up by the coat closet is to make a "system" that works easily for you.
It sounds like it's the first place you are when you come home so it may be things just get dropped there.
Maybe a hook to hang hang-able items?
Maybe a basket or bowl to collect small items/mail etc.?
Maybe a larger container to hold shopping until you are ready to put it away?
But you would also need to schedule time daily/weekly to put the things away.
Just suggestions, you have to find what really works for you and everybody is different. 🙂
Fantastic! progress you are making!!! 😀
Keep up the great work and soon you will have this clutter all under control!

Hi Diane 🙂
So wonderful to read your posts!
So happy to read that you have a kind, gentle and understanding helper. (((HUGS)))
So excited to hear about your lapidary project.
What a wonderful treasure the other occupants left buried for you to find.
The areas you once had all the way you want them will be easier to declutter and clean this time.
Honest, it has not been all that long this time around.
We all understand how hard it is to make all those decisions, especially all alone.
Please always know that no matter what you are up to you are always in our thoughts and hearts and we accept you whatever way you are. (((HUGS)))

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.

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&12 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.

Good Morning Everybody 🙂

Diane! 😀
Together we can make this a FANTASTIC year! 😀

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 😀

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.

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. 😀
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? 😀

Great challenge Tillie, I am ready to start a new year with you.

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. 😀
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. 🙂

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🙂

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. 😀
Soon, I will venture out and build a snowman!

(((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."

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 🙂

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 . . .

Perennial lavrnder-shrub. It can be grown from seeds?

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 😀
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. 😀

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!

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! 😀
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 🙂

Hi, all. Tat, so sorry you have to deal with the family member. Don't know how you do it.

Good Morning Everybody 🙂

Hi Roxie 🙂
WAY TO GO!
making stew on a cold Winter day! 😀
"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 😀

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. 😀