trying to declutter....

I'm in the process of trying to dig our house out of a cluttered mess.... Man what a battle I don't know how we ended up with ssssoooooooooooo much stuff!!!
Dh is a little too in touch with his inner hoarder and is fussing as I tackle each clutter zone. He doesn't know why the heck I'm so bent on this mission and is worried I'll chuck something important. I am checking with him about some things but a lot of this stuff is just well... Junk. The kids have accumulated an unbelievable amount of toys, clothes and books too. Which I have also been going through. I donated some of the baby stuff that was still in good shape and tossed anything too woren out or broke... Not going to be saving anymore gift bags either had a pile of those too...
This all started after Christmas went I decided to reorganize that stuff and find a better place for most of it. So far I'm happy with what I'm getting done... I think my biggest challenges will be the DVD collection, DH's collection of sports stuff, his tools .... The garage.... Then there's the junk the former owners of this house left behind in the yard....
This is going to be quite the mountain to move.... Sigh


Anyone else out there trying to conquer their inner hoarder?

 

My in-laws are really bad for hoarding they have a room you can't even go in because it's so full of boxes and most of that stuff has been boxed up for about 30years.... The garage is packed, so is the farm yard, stock trailer, broken vehicles... Yikes

I tackled some of Dh's sports equipment today and found more DVD's.... In bags… :/

 

I have a vision of this house being neat and tidy, free of clutter... Organized... It's not like we're living in filth, just clutter and excessive amounts of extra stuff. For some reason I have 12 backpacks... I remember buying 2 of them where did the other 10 come from :/ ! (Likely gifts) anything we don't really use or need is going to the good will bin.

I attacked some of the stuff in the garage today... It's hard not to get mad for the state of it...

 

Had a bonfire yesterday anything burnable left out in the yard went and I have a pile of scrap metal going. I found a pile of rotten old baby clothes, kids books, toys and a bag of pennies stashed among the junk... I have been finding odd jars bags and other little stashes of pennies in the most random places... The last people who owned this house were definitely hoarders.

 

The people who owned our house before us were truly hoarders, I found more pennies.... Stashed inside cinder blocks this time. Man what is with the pennies?!?!?!?!?!? I've started a bucket for them, not sure what to do with them now that we don't use pennies anymore in Canada. Part of me wants to see just how much has been stashed away around here.

As for hoarding being normal, yes everyone has a bit of clutter bug in them, most people do not live in houses that look like perfectly staged show homes and a heck of a lot of us are pretty messy! Hoarding is different, hoarders have attachment issues and it causes them serious distress to get rid of their "things", sometimes even rotten food. They also have a habit of collecting more and more of a certain thing. My MIL collects old furniture, she has stacks of old broken worn out furniture that she cannot get rid of without breaking down into tears and yet she continues to shop and buy more old used furniture. She won't deal with the issue either, so... Someday down the road I know it will very likely fall on mine and my husband's shoulders to clean it all up. (Sigh) at least most furniture can be dealt with with another big bonfire....