The Front Porch Swing

[Triple Willow]

The Powers That Be ... (mostly "Dad" but could be one of any number of his employees ... all men ... who enjoy standing around watching me work and commenting on what they think it is I might be doing wrong)

I know all about those TPTB's. I wonder if I will ever get to be my own boss!

Oh those people standing around commenting on your work... you step back and tell them to show you how it ought to be done. After they realize you will walk off, that usually gets rid of them. lol

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I know all about those TPTB's. I wonder if I will ever get to be my own boss!

Oh those people standing around commenting on your work... you step back and tell them to show you how it ought to be done. After they realize you will walk off, that usually gets rid of them. lol

Yeah. Them.

When I got the birds one of the guys was screaming at me to ask over and over how I was going to water them. This is while I was trying to build the coop and had to keep walking around him. I said, "I'm going to install waterers when hauling water gets to be too much for me." But he wouldn't stop asking. He went on and on like carrying water was impossible. I hate carrying water, but I know it's possible. This guy couldn't be convinced, and didn't believe there was such a thing as an automatic watering system for poultry. He grew up on a poultry farm, so he knew. ALSO we have a landscape business, so work with irrigation systems from the ground up, so know some stuff about plastic pipes and stuff. But when it came time to install the automatic watering system I picked out suddenly nobody on the farm knew the first thing about plumbing.

Fine. I go to school on that. It takes more time, but nobody owes me help. I find out all about PEX pipe and I figure out what PEX pipe tools actually work and what fittings work the best in each situation and how to fudge the parts of the system that a "real" plumber would have made super complicated. And I think ahead to freezing temps and flushing the system and shutting down part of the system while the other still flows. That's all great -- I like planning. The hardest part was getting my ex partner to listen to me enough to follow the plan close enough to make it work.

Guess who has chickens now and wants to "borrow" some of my waterers for his birds and have me teach him how to install the PEX pipe?

Yeah ... him.

 

[Beekissed]

To be de-cluttered... ahhh a dream.

I'm weird no doubt... I love watching old shows like Andy Griffith, Leave it to Beaver, Lassie, etc so I can check out their houses. I love how simple they lived and no junk in sight. Simple, clean and so nice. Someday...

That was pretty common back then, but mostly because there just wasn't the "stuff" out there to buy and there was rarely any money to buy it. I went to a very large and year round flea market the other day and I just walked around the place in a daze...the sheer amount of just JUNK that was being sold! I know these folks make money on that stuff or they wouldn't be there day after day, but to me it looked like the debris of the world of humans spread out before me.

I used to love to yard sale and I still feel that pull when passing a good farm style yard sale, simply because I love old farm tools and things but I have largely gotten over "collecting" any longer, no matter how good the bargain. Three times in my life I have sold off my collections of antiques, tools, canners, jars, crocks, and all things useful to a homestead or country home and the last time was the biggest of all...and that was only after 6 yrs of being at that place! It took us days to put it out for sale, everything marked so cheap it was like dollar days and when the two day sale was done I gave away full long trailer loads of things to a family that scrounges for a living. Even then, I had a truck load of things to move when I left there.

And I am pretty poor...all those things were obtained extremely cheap at yard sales or scavenged for, given to us because people knew we could use them, etc. Imagine what the more well funded people have cluttering up their buildings and homes!

After that last sale I realized something...I used to have everything I owned in a cardboard box under my bed and I was fine. I don't need all that STUFF and I will never need that much stuff again because I'm not going to ever put myself in that position again. That stuff is like a millstone around my neck...it hinders movement and freedom, as I had to constantly worry about how I would move my "stuff", store my "stuff", have room for my "stuff", clean my "stuff", etc, etc.

So now I routinely check myself to see if I still have extraneous stuff that can be removed and if I am slowly but unconsciously accumulating more stuff...then I really go to town to keep myself traveling light in this world. I try to keep all my personal items to the amount that can be fit into two large duffel bags if I should have to suddenly relocate...or if I am suddenly gone from this Earth, no one has to fool with all my "stuff".

Today I cleaned out a trash bag of clothing out of my closet to take to Good Will and I still have shoes and other items to take there as well. Then I'm going through my small catch all places and start tossing things in the trash, organizing or eliminating, until it's all smooth and uncluttered once again.

We also started on Mom's room today to organize all her papers, declutter her room and allow for more space and less busy looking surfaces. We have so much enjoyment out of seeing something cleaned up, organized, pared down, etc., that it's exciting and soothing to view the results!

In the grand scheme of things, our house would be considered pretty barren and very neat compared to most homes out there but to us it's gotten way too cluttered and spring cleaning is just the therapy we need to start out spring feeling fresh and renewed.

Anybody else out there doing some serious decluttering and spring cleaning?

 

[ocap]

To be de-cluttered... ahhh a dream.

I'm weird no doubt... I love watching old shows like Andy Griffith, Leave it to Beaver, Lassie, etc so I can check out their houses. I love how simple they lived and no junk in sight. Simple, clean and so nice. Someday...

I had fun on our visit to Mount Airy, North Carolina. The Mayberry police car, barber shop.......even a trip down memory lane to "No Time for Sergeants".

 

[perchie.girl]

Me I am the opposite with regard to clutter.... The last time I moved I sold my house to a developer.... it was so bad I just didnt have an inkling of where to start. The fellow that bought the house finally hired three men just to empty it out..... They made me sit on the couch and delegate.... first it was save save toss..... then it was save toss..... then it was toss toss save.... It became cathartic as I felt the weight of sixteen years being lifted from my shoulders. They threw away Two 16 foot long mega dumptsers full of "stuff" And I still had enough to pack into a 40 foot long container.

I knew there was something wrong with me at the time but couldnt find out what it was. My office at work was always reasonalbly organized.... enough that I could find anything I wante pretty quickly. Now from watching the Hoarders show on TV I understand.... Believe it or not its a form of OCD. If I couldnt do it perfectly I wouldnt do it at all.

So Now I strive for mediocrity in my house keeping. Believe it or not it works. Also having a tidy Friday....

Matter of fact when I moved to my house in the desert I had all my stuff packed into a 40 foot storage container and only moved a few things into the house propper. There is a resale shop in town once I move back up there.... He said he would move the rest of the furniture up to the house in exchange for the bulk of the container. I only have a few pieces I want in my house now.

I dont even have a couch up there or a refrigerator..... Two things on my Buy it when I can afford it list.

deb

 

[Beekissed]

Hoarding seems to have reached epidemic proportions in developed countries and very much so in America...it certainly seems to have psychological implications for sure. Most people don't consider themselves a hoarder,even when they watch the shows...or they laugh it off and say they aren't THAT bad...yet.

Doesn't it feel great to not have that weight of stuff on your shoulders? I felt as free as a bird, though I was by no means a hoarder...just useful things I was using or would be using in the course of living a homesteading kind of life...I'm not much into knick knacks or household items so much as I am into farm/work/garden tools and equipment. It all had fit neatly into my buildings and home and one couldn't see any clutter, but all those items were there nonetheless, taking up space, needing dusting and organizing on occasion, packing and transporting when we moved, etc.

I had been carrying around one small stack of Mother Earth News mags from the 70s and 80s since I was a little girl...they were my favorite ones out of all those my parents had and had things in them that I wanted to try or do one day. Finally looked at them one day and realized I had already done all those things I had wanted to try along the way somewhere in life and no longer needed them. Tossed them out.

 

[Triple Willow]

I had fun on our visit to Mount Airy, North Carolina. The Mayberry police car, barber shop.......even a trip down memory lane to "No Time for Sergeants".

I love that show. It always looked like the ideal place to live to me. Well, if I couldn't have Gilligan's Island all to myself. lol

 

[downrangechick]

My dh and I are complete hoarders. We collect things we use on a day to day basis. We always have 3 of everything. It's all pretty organized though except for scrap metal outside. (He fabricates farm equipment and we make wood fire boilers) I don't know if it's growing up with nothing or getting it all taken from you at one time or knowing your gonna need it one day. I will say some houses I've been to there is a path to every room. I could never live like that. Then I would have OCD about being stuck inside with a house fire.

 

[Triple Willow]

@Bee... Yep, seems like very few people have a "happy medium" when it comes to "stuff". I know some that are like you describe your mom or worse. Then there is the opposite end of the scale folks like the ones who make it on TV. But really, it seems like everybody has some "OCD" area in their life. And it seems to most people that the other person's "OCD area" is far worse than their own. I believe that the people who are so judgmental about the others have some real deep seated "issues" their self. There is a famous televangelist who I have heard mention many times how his mother enforced a clean house. You could tell that no doubt he was OCD about "cleaning" and having everything just so-so and he got it from her. Even in his sermons I would hear him talk bad about people who didn't have a neat house or as some would put it, were horders. He was even on TV one day telling about going in this one woman's house and how AWFUL it was. I really lost most of the respect I had for that man when I heard him talking about that woman. I'm sure there was a real good chance she was listening to that sermon and heard how bad he was talking about her and I can only imagine how it made her feel. So her whole experience with him went from her spirital need to how disgusted he was with her and how two-faced he was in dealing with her. I imagine if she is still living she is another person who has left the church. I'm sure I would have his anyway. This man "has it so together" that his wife of at least 50 something years divorced him "because she couldn't stand it anymore". After hearing how he talked in many of his sermons I am sure that he was a tyrant to live with about how she kept their house. I'm sure she was expected to tow the line to his standards or caught hell when she didn't... and this is a supposedly good Christian man and WONDERFUL preacher according to many. And yes he is a great bible teacher but I can't hardly stand to listen to him anymore because of what he has said about this and about people who don't live up to his standards. If you notice, people with the "constant cleaning" OCD are VERY judgmental towards the people toward the other end
of the scale, like they are so much more superior than those "nasty people". I have seen that sooo many times. ...I'm convinced we're all crazy!!! LOL

 

[Triple Willow]

Me I am the opposite with regard to clutter....  The last time I moved I sold my house to a developer....  it was so bad I just didnt have an inkling of where to start.    The fellow that bought the house finally hired three men just to empty it out.....  They made me sit on the couch and delegate....  first it was save save toss..... then it was save toss..... then it was toss toss save....  It became cathartic as I felt the weight of sixteen years being lifted from my shoulders.  They threw away Two 16 foot long mega dumptsers full of "stuff"  And I still had enough to pack into a 40 foot long container.

I knew there was something wrong with me at the time but couldnt find out what it was.  My office at work was always reasonalbly organized.... enough that I could find anything I wante pretty quickly.  Now from watching the Hoarders show on TV I understand.... Believe it or not its a form of OCD.  If I couldnt do it perfectly I wouldnt do it at all.

So Now I strive for mediocrity in my house keeping.  Believe it or not it works.   Also having a tidy Friday....

Matter of fact when I moved to my house in the desert I had all my stuff packed into a 40 foot storage container and only moved a few things into the house propper.  There is a resale shop in town once I move back up there.... He said he would move the rest of the furniture up to the house in exchange for the bulk of the container.  I only have a few pieces I want  in my house now.

I dont even have a couch up there  or a refrigerator.....    Two things on my Buy it when I can afford it list.  

deb

Deb, I have the exact same problem as you said, "If I couldnt do it perfectly I wouldnt do it at all." It is hard to believe and impossible for many to understand, but that is a real problem and one I struggle with every day. I'm sure that it is pretty dang impossible for anybody to believe that a "perfectionist" can live in a mess. I don't even get it! It is so frustrating!