trying to declutter....

[Northie]

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?

 

[sourland]

My mother and mother in law were hoarders. Thankfully my wife is not. Mom cleaned out her house before she sold it and moved to Fla. I had to take a week of vacation to empty my MIL's house when she died --- what a night mare.

 

[Northie]

My mother and mother in law were hoarders.  Thankfully my wife is not.  Mom cleaned out her house before she sold it and moved to Fla.  I had to take a week of vacation to empty my MIL's house when she died --- what a night mare.

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… :/

 

[lovingmyhens]

My ex in laws have to rent a storage space when all their closets got full. I always said that I dreaded the day they passed on...now it's not my problem...it's my ex hubby's new wifey and my girls. Not they would want one blessed thing they have kept!!

But seriously, I did spend my entire break decluttering and re organizing. Everyday, out there in the garage, in the closets. Now I gave a huge stack of stuff for a nice little garage sale. When it warms up

 

[Northie]

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...

 

[Noah]

Hi Northie,

I know how difficult it can be to get the house decluttered.
I'm still working on it.
Something I found helpful was to have a yard sale.
As soon as my husband saw that I was making some money, he jumped on board and cleaned out the shed.

It's definately easier when you have someone helping you.
Keep up the good work.

 

[Northie]

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.

 

[Arielle]

I actaully think we are all horders at heart-- or enough of us that hoarding is actually normal. THe abnormality comes from that we can access so much more "stuff" than we could even 100 years ago . . . HOarding just wasn'tpossible 100 years ago . .

I work with my kids on a 1-10 scale and tell them that 1/3 must get cleared off their dressers. I'm trying to help them see the relative value of items . . . if it is cluttering our lives and stumbling over or around is a regular occurance . . . how does that feel? Once we can aknowledge the feeling, we ( my kids and I) are better able to move forward and toss a few things and put a few other items into a give away pile.

I have one child that will collect everything off the streets he finds from bottle caps to scratched lottery tickets.

As for paper storage: Many paper forms and recepts can be scanned and stored electronically with back up.

QUestion-- does hording chickens count?? I"m just kidding-- We are selling ALL the eggs the girls can produce!!

 

[Northie]

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....

 

[tridentk9]

I don't know about Canadian pennies- but older (mid 80's?) US pennies were made with zinc. Toxic if swallowed. And for some strange reason pets, even birds, would swallow them. Turn 'em in to a coin star.