The Front Porch Swing

[Beekissed]

I sometimes wonder if living in the country or "on the farm" lends itself to keeping more things around - just in case you need to fix something and then don't need to run into town. My DH worked hard in his shop a couple years ago to clean out things that had accumulated from when his Dad passed away. A lot of things seemed to migrate to our place. I don't think he misses much of what he got rid of, but every now and then he bemoans the fact that he took something to the dump and now he could use that piece to fix something. We've been asking ourselves the same types of questions - what should we get rid of now. 3 or our 4 parents have died and close friends of ours are cleaning out 60 plus years of stuff and clutter from their parents' house. What a lot of work! We don't want our kids to have to go through that. And yet if we get rid of everything old, we end up spending money to replace it when something breaks. There must be a balance out there somewhere and the hard part is finding it. The big thing is not to look down on others that don't think the same way as us. We're all on different journeys and like Bee mentioned earlier, what we have lived through or whom we've been close to impacts how we see "stuff".
Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday!

Yes! I think that on a farm they don't call it hoarding, it's just stuff we may need.... but in town they call it hoarding.

I think in any case, if the clutter and "stuff we may need" threatens to be a health hazard for humans and animals, or if it tends to stress out the owner of the stuff, then it might need addressing to improve quality of life. I have two kids that lean towards having "stuff" issues and one that doesn't. I used to have stuff but I wasn't as attached to it as most folks, so letting it go was easier and felt good to me....for other people that may not be the case as their stuff gives them a sense of security in their lives, albeit a somewhat misplaced security, and letting go even holds with it a physical and emotional pain.

And that is very true...as in all things in life, a balance is essential to good health and well being for all creatures. Striving for that balance is probably what most folks do with the majority of their lives....I think the only way for humans to find balance is to weigh every possession and action in their lives by how God sees it, not how we see it. If our possessions seem to give us more of a feeling of security than does our faith in God, then it's time to review where one's heart is. A person cannot have two masters...but that objectivity is something we all struggle with. The only way to try to see things through the eyes of God is to read His word about such things and actually apply it and therein lies the hardest part of all.

I've been working on trying to see my life and the lives of others through the eyes of God for the past several years and am constantly learning how poor my vision has been and still is, so I keep reading and trying to improve my vision. May I never stop trying to correct my vision on that matter and may the Holy Spirit help me to do so.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

The irony about OCD people and their need to control their environment is that they can't seem to control themselves, so their environment and those around them are the next best thing and they will spend a lifetime of futility trying to do that, alienating people and friends, and finally end up old and alone....usually in a nursing home where the standards of "clean" are a great deal less than they normally would tolerate. To see former OCD people shuffling around in a nursing home with food on their shirts and their hair all a mess is both sad and ironic at the same time....suddenly all that doesn't matter so much anymore and they are reduced to comfort...eating, sleeping, eliminating on a schedule, etc.

YEP! This is what I notice about a lot of controlling people ... it's a desperate attempt to externalize their internal chaos. A coping mechanism. They need/want everything around them to be their version of "perfect" so they can pretend that when they inevitably loose it they won't get quite as damaged as they would if things weren't properly arranged.

 

[Triple Willow]

I sometimes wonder if living in the country or "on the farm" lends itself to keeping more things around - just in case you need to fix something and then don't need to run into town.  I agree with that 100%. If I had to stop and go into town every time I had to do something or fix something, I would spend a life savings in gas and who knows how much in time. And when you can't just up and run here or there when you need to, it gets worse. ...I buy the economy size pack of toilet paper. LOL My DH worked hard in his shop a couple years ago to clean out things that had accumulated from when his Dad passed away.  A lot of things seemed to migrate to our place.  I don't think he misses much of what he got rid of, but every now and then he bemoans the fact that he took something to the dump and now he could use that piece to fix something.  We've been asking ourselves the same types of questions - what should we get rid of now.  3 or our 4 parents have died and close friends of ours are cleaning out 60 plus years of stuff and clutter from their parents' house.  What a lot of work!  We don't want our kids to have to go through that. My boyfriend has cleaned out I believe two complete houses where the parents passed away and their kids didn't want to fool with the things in the house. The kids didn't give a darn about anything in the house unless it would be money and they wouldn't even bother looking for that. They offered my boyfriend something like a washer and dryer just to clean the house out PLUS he got to keep all of the stuff in the house. And oh yeah, some of it made its way to my house- nice and actually useful stuff.  And yet if we get rid of everything old, we end up spending money to replace it when something breaks.  *There must be a balance out there somewhere and the hard part is finding it.* Oh yes, I am searching for it too!  The big thing is not to look down on others that don't think the same way as us.  We're all on different journeys and like Bee mentioned earlier, what we have lived through or whom we've been close to impacts how we see "stuff". Ditto!
   Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday! 

 

[wyoDreamer]

Cross your fingers - we are putting in an offer on a place. DH just looked at it and is excited about it.

 

[Triple Willow]

Ditto.  I have a slight case of OCD.  Unfortunately, the cleaning part of it didn't kick in.  My DD calls my room tornado alley because I have so much stuff in it.  When I moved in with her I got rid of a load of stuff, but still not enough room.  I bought a storehouse to have extra space and have to put my shelves together.  Then I'll start moving excess out there.  That's also where my brooder, extra freezer etc will go.  Still need to buy an AC for the heat but I'm pretty much set.  Waiting for the chickens.  Mar 27.    

I think moving every few years might be the answer. If a lot of us had to pack up all our stuff one time and move it we would no doubt get rid of a whole lot of clutter. I know I would! LOL

Beware... those cute little chicks will get massive amounts of dust all over your things. I don't know how they do it but they sure do.

 

[LBejaran]

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.

I always giggle now when I think about how the flock has evolved since my sister started raising them for FFA. She was raising broiler hens and one of my friends -a very trendy organic, vegan dieter- had decided to raise chickens for no reason. Well, she ended up with only roosters (hehehe) and I took three off her hands. I remember how she and her mother were spending so much time trying to grab a single rooster and I just snatched two up and put them in the box. Even then, when I had no experience with chickens. I was pretty good, haha! My main regret was bailing her out by taking a rooster that she didn't mention was violent. It ended up spurring all of us before it died mysteriously. I think the dog killed it, but I'm not sure. Needless to say that I don't talk to her anymore.

Anyway, there is good news!

I went to the feed store yesterday and picked up 3 more Ameraucana pullets when I noticed they had turkeys and guineas. Oh, the conflict I felt!

Mom just told the guy helping us to put three keets in the box. Now I have six more babies in the coop!

I fixed up the coop with 2 heat lamps, elevated waterers and plenty of shavings. Two of the sides are already covered, so I took an old plastic chest and used it to block the uncovered wire wall. I also utilized some old lattice and staggered it over the wire. It's temporary, but the chicks are totally fine.

Oh, you'll see the occasional quail mixed in. They needed better shelter and they teach the chicks to scratch better. It's a bit wet and cold outside right now, so the extra heat helps too!

The hierarchy is pretty good! The guinea keys hide under the wings of the Ameraucanas, the Ameraucanas hide beneath the Wyandottes, and the Wyandottes hide under Salazar, our special RIR cockerel that survived for a week inside a snake's aquarium. He even rode on top of the snake and pecked it! He really worries about these chicks, too. He pecked me when I got too close to them, so I had pick him up and coddle him. He's not scared to be picked up and hopefully that'll help in the future.

So a lot got done yesterday. I need to go clothes shopping, unfortunately. I need work clothes for Wednesday. -_-,

 

[Searsmom]

I think moving every few years might be the answer. If a lot of us had to pack up all our stuff one time and move it we would no doubt get rid of a whole lot of clutter. I know I would! LOL

Beware... those cute little chicks will get massive amounts of dust all over your things. I don't know how they do it but they sure do.

Yes, my DH was amazed at the small amount of possessions I had when we were married - most of it was books. My secret was to put all the stuff that was "clutter" on the front lawn while I was packing. It usually disappeared after a day or so - some folks actually stopped to ask if they could get stuff.

So we moved in and I was sparse but he keeps accumulating clutter and not organizing it and it's very frustrating. It's always something that will be useful or has sentimental value so he has to save it. I thought moving into our house together would get him organized, but he just packed messes and stored them upstairs, where they still sit. I even bought him totes, they sat around for a couple of years before I decided I could use them.

Still a little frustrating, but I'm working on my frustration.

 

[Gldnrose]

Oh, you guys are cracking me up!
Deep litter on the floor will protect those feet from that landing. Even if you only raised it another 6", it should be too high for her to be doing that, right?

We have decided to raise it a bit more again. I don't do the deep litter method though. I'm curious, you guys with high roosts, are your coops pretty large? So in essence the birds have more "flight room" down to the coop floor? Mine isn't huge so it basically would be a straight down jump.

My Wellies were pretty big Nice roebst legs... I had two roosts one at about five feet up and one at about 4 The only reason I did that is because my roof is six feet up and I figured it would be easier not to have to duck when they landed going up... But They all came off the roost from the top.Flying about ten feet as they arched down to the ground. There were only two hens who chose to roost on the lower roost.... They had a bottom of the pecking order position in the flock.

With the guineas All their roosts were at five feet.... a T shaped affair hung from Baling twine from the ceiling.... They litterally could run along those roosts... and pace back and forth. My first guinea Coop had the roosts up at six feet with no intermediary.... They shared with some of the Bantams that wanted to be higher in the pecking order.... LOL>

deb

Hey everyone!

Hi Chickenboy

Hello every

Welcome WindStep

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?

I'm starting to get the spring cleaning bug myself. I have to go through my house periodically and de-clutter. I must admit that I definitely have pack rat syndrome in my bloodlines. It is a struggle. I have gotten much better. I used to save stuff that I just didn't need. Problem is, if you hang onto something long enough and finally decide its time to "clean house" of those unwanted/un-needed things its even harder because you have held onto it all this while.

I wouldn't say my boy friend is OCD, but definitely thinks every thing has it's own place; AND he is much more comfortable when everything is in it's place.

I keep a clean but admittedly slightly cluttered house. His apartment reminds me of a picture out of a magazine.

We don't live together but he is here most of the time. We solved the problem by having our own space and I don't allow my clutter to wander into his space.

The bathroom counter - the left side is his the right side is mine. Same in the bedroom. It may sound juvenile, but it works for us. He rules the kitchen, which is fine with me, he does the cooking and dishes.

Mike is disabled so he doesn't work. He jokes about being the stay at home mom.

I love coming home to a meal on the table. He spoils me!

My husband is a little bit of a neat freak where I can handle a little more clutter. We are opposites but somehow make it work. I think we even out each of our individual OCD issues, lol.
We work the same days but I work days and he words nights. So he does the majority of the neatening of the house and I do the deep cleaning.
He cooks the dinners too and I agree, its great to come home to dinner already prepared. I'm spoiled too and appreciate all that he does around the house and for me.

Ditto. I have a slight case of OCD. Unfortunately, the cleaning part of it didn't kick in. My DD calls my room tornado alley because I have so much stuff in it. When I moved in with her I got rid of a load of stuff, but still not enough room. I bought a storehouse to have extra space and have to put my shelves together. Then I'll start moving excess out there. That's also where my brooder, extra freezer etc will go. Still need to buy an AC for the heat but I'm pretty much set. Waiting for the chickens. Mar 27.

Same for my room. Or that's the way it used to be anyway. Trying real hard to keep the clutter under control. I always felt like a hypocrite when I told my kids to clean their rooms and mine didn't look much better.

 

[Beekissed]

Cross your fingers - we are putting in an offer on a place. DH just looked at it and is excited about it.

So exciting!!! I hope you get what you are looking for!

I think moving every few years might be the answer. If a lot of us had to pack up all our stuff one time and move it we would no doubt get rid of a whole lot of clutter. I know I would! LOL

Beware... those cute little chicks will get massive amounts of dust all over your things. I don't know how they do it but they sure do.

Exactly!!! The three times I had to de-clutter was in preparation for moving. You'd think a person would learn quicker but it took that third time to get it through my head...stop accumulating stuff!!!

Moving is stressful enough without worrying about packing, sorting, transporting, unpacking, sorting, organizing, etc. over and over again. Now I'm determined to keep stuff down to a dull roar...I just can't do all that again, that stress and ripping away and realizing I had put such importance on these things for years only to let them go for a few bucks in a sale. What does that say about the things I find desirable and waste my time upon? It says in the broader scheme of things, they aren't worth much.

 

[Beekissed]

We have decided to raise it a bit more again. I don't do the deep litter method though. I'm curious, you guys with high roosts, are your coops pretty large? So in essence the birds have more "flight room" down to the coop floor? Mine isn't huge so it basically would be a straight down jump.

My coop is not large and mine just drop down, not fly. Just a hop down.


Hi Chickenboy

Welcome WindStep
I'm starting to get the spring cleaning bug myself. I have to go through my house periodically and de-clutter. I must admit that I definitely have pack rat syndrome in my bloodlines. It is a struggle. I have gotten much better. I used to save stuff that I just didn't need. Problem is, if you hang onto something long enough and finally decide its time to "clean house" of those unwanted/un-needed things its even harder because you have held onto it all this while.

My husband is a little bit of a neat freak where I can handle a little more clutter. We are opposites but somehow make it work. I think we even out each of our individual OCD issues, lol.
We work the same days but I work days and he words nights. So he does the majority of the neatening of the house and I do the deep cleaning.
He cooks the dinners too and I agree, its great to come home to dinner already prepared. I'm spoiled too and appreciate all that he does around the house and for me.

Same for my room. Or that's the way it used to be anyway. Trying real hard to keep the clutter under control. I always felt like a hypocrite when I told my kids to clean their rooms and mine didn't look much better.

Exactly! When you finally let them go you wonder why in the world you kept them so long and why it was so hard to give them up, but when the chips are down you find they aren't that essential after all.

You are certainly spoiled by that man....drink it up because you are so very blessed to have a man like that!