Not quite a horder - decluttering
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Deleted to protect my privacy.
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I avoid cleaning out drawers, closets, and cabinet areas - I have an absolute phobia about it. I have drawer that haven't been cleaned out in five years. They are basically full of garbage - old bottles of lotion and and cold meds that are too old to use, etc. I threw out my tube of lidocaine gel from when I got my radiation therapy in 2002 just the other day, and only because it was all dried up. I was actually trying to use it on a mosquito bite!
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desdemona222b - is there someone else you can delegate to do it? Maybe just tell them you need help but don't let them do it right away and don't let them tell you when they will do it, just, voila, one day it's all gone?
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My son sometimes steps in and reorganizes for me, but then I can't find anything!
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I am on vacation this week, and am living with minimal clothes, toiletries, hobby supplies, books, and one laptop computer. I am cooking in a tiny galley kitchen with minimal appliances (supplemented by 2 of my own favorite knives). I am finding it is so wonderful, wondering how to replicate this at home, especially when DH has more "stuff" than I do. But I plan on taking a fresh look when I get back home to see what I can do to really get to this level there. I don't remeber who mentioned it a page or so back, but I realized I also do not use anything from under my bathroom sink, so plan to start there!
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Teka, having a daughter helping would be wonderful. I only had boys.
Baby steps, 15 minutes at a time.
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My mom also had so much stuff. When they moved she was forced to part with a lot of it. Maybe I'll pretend I'm moving in to a mobile home and downsize appropriately. Ok, I'm no longer de-cluttering, I'm downsizing!
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Separated more papers tonight and ready for the shredder tomorrow. And tons more to go! I'm going to need my own personal recycle landfill.
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Okay, I almost fainted. Do you know what professional de-clutter people get?
I just called a place to see if they could help de-clutter my home office and they said it would cost $750 to send two people for the day!
I don't know why they thought I needed two people. The owner of the company didn't even ask if my office was 9X12 feet or 20X20 feet. Anyway, that option is out. Totally. I'm still in shock. Tho it makes me think I have a more valuable problem.
I could hire six psychiatrists for $750!0 -
Okay, shredding lots of papers is hazardous to my back! Sounds like a great reason to get a massage tomorrow - we'll see.
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Hello Ladies,
Love this thread.! Took me a couple of weeks to read it all. Just want to let you all know about my 3 car garage that was full of cr@p and I don't mean cars. Boxes were ceiling high.I had 2 walkways, one to the back door into the house and one over to the Christmas boxes. I liked to buy Christmas stuff, geegaws, knicknacks and collectibles(another word for junk).I also like to craft, paint, sew and I was always going to re-decorate some year. Then there were my clothes: dressy clothes, work clothes, to small and way to small, etc,etc.Then there was all my 2 kids stuff. WHOA. That's another long list. Had a lady stop one day and ask me if I was getting ready for a garage sale. I was embarrassed to open my garage door. I don't have a have a basement or attic. It took me 25 years to fill it up and it took me over 6 years to whittle it down. I can now park my car in it. Now I'm working towards parking my husbands car in too.
I wanted to share about professional organizers. I had several come over about 6 years ago. The first one came in and wanted me to make a snap decision about everything like you see on the hoarder shows. (Keep, Toss, Donate) Wasn't going to work for me. I had collections scattered all over and wanted to get them together and then decide what to do."That's not how you do it" she told me. She was expensive at $60 with 4 hour minimum. The next one came and I was trying to let go of some of my old clothes she asked why I was getting rid of a red sweater (I didn't like it anymore) She said I should keep it,she didn't understand why I would want to get rid of a beautiful red sweater I kept it, grrrrr. Donated the sweater next fall. She was $50 an hour with a 3 hour minimum. I tried again thinking 3rd time a charm. HA. She wanted to throw everything away. She threw out my cats bed. I told her, but she said to buy a nice one. I was crying when my husband came home and he went out with me to retrieve some of the items she threw away. We still have the cat bed box she wrote "garbage" on. Cat still sleeps in the box. I decided to work by myself.
Anyway, 2 years ago I put an add in our local newspaper for a college girl to help. The first one would just stand there waiting for me to tell her what to do next., but my second one was FABULOUS . She just knew how to get in and use a box cutter to open boxes and set things out to sort and how to group things together. She was good at suggesting that something was dated, old, or tired looking, or that something was timeless or could be re-used. I still have her phone number and she has 2 more years of college. Yipee. She was the cheapest of all I paid her $20 an hour to start and raised it to $25. So worth it. I couldn't of done it with out her. Seemed like 4 hours works best as 8 hours was too mentally challenging. I'm doing a bit by myself this summer as she has a job at the mall.
I wish all of you the physical and mental strength to carry on.
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Coldandhot, your experience with helpers is typical. Mostly they have different values to us and pressure us to throw out things we're not ready to let go.
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I agree with the college or high school students, but I have a woman who charges $30/hour and have her scheduled for 16 hours next week. She worked with me for about 8 hours a couple of weeks ago, and I found that she has the same "vision" of where things should go as I do, and she is very efficient, doesn't waste any time - it really helps! And she does push a little, but is gentle about it, acknowledges that there are things that I have an emotional attachment to, and helps me identify those so that they don't get tossed out. I did have one helper a few years ago when we moved that told me I needed to toss some "empty boxes" and I said they weren't mine, so best to keep them.... long story short, they belonged to my husband, and they weren't exactly empty, had equipment instructions and a few light-weight things.... he has not yet gottenn over it!!! Luckily, he still thinks I am cute, and has been fantastic support for me... wheww! But I learned my lesson!
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I have a hard time understanding how someone else would be able to tell what's important to me or what I need to keep. How do they know? Is there a course they take where they get certification? Is it just some kind of second sense that a person is born with? The kid you had that just stood around probably was like me, clueless and maybe also overwhelmed. Some stuff I can understand if it's old, ratty, useless, etc. but some things I guess you just get rid of them because, well, just because?
Yes, I've spent countless hours the last 2 weeks shredding papers dating back to the 80's and 90's (who keeps 15 year old utility bills???). But that's paper, not "stuff". The stuff I have now is mainly what I salvaged from my aunt who was a hoarder and so I will sell most of it next week at the yard sale and donate what doesn't sell. After that I will attack my closets for, like hotandcold so aptly puts it "my clothes: dressy clothes, work clothes, to small and way to small, etc,etc" and I might add "too big" because I have those as well.
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Attacking my closet sounds like a good idea for something to do tonight. I already did some shelves once, but now need to do drawers and hanging clothes. The one thing I'll keep that I no longer wear (too small) is the jacket I got married in. My daughter could probably already fit into it.
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Teka, you are so right about them ending up with it. My aunt had never married and had no children so we nieces and nephews inherited all her stuff. Most of it has no sentimental value to us as a lot of it was just QVC items. I wonder how many of us are holding on to stuff that, when we pass, won't be of interest to the people going through it. So that may be the way to look at it, not if it has value to us but will it have value to anyone else or will we just be leaving a big mess for others. It took us, 4-6 people at a time, at least 8 weekends to clean out her apartment and still wasn't all done when we finally had to relinquish the keys.
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Patoo,
It is some kind of second sense a person is born with. The college girl that helped me was born with a second sense of how to help, sort and work, I'm sure. Even now with less stuff, I find myself standing there, clueless and wondering what to do next. I know it is a talent or gift because those first 3 women were awful and this girl was amazing. I got rid of stuff not just "because", but because I asked myself the question "Does this help me live the life I want?" I got that from a book by Peter Walsh called "It's All Too Much." I've been buying "organizing books for 20 years. It wasn't about organizing, it was about my emotions.
I had several themed collections for Christmas, "Santas", "Angels", "Mice", "Barbies",etc.we finally got most of them all together and spread them out on the banquet table,card table, and floor. I took pictures and then put some back in boxes because I didn't have an area big enough to lay them all out on! She asked me which ones did I like best? Could I get rid of any right now? It did take me a couple of weeks just letting them sit there and me looking at them to finally decided. Funny thing, my married daughter (not organized either) came to visit and told me she didn't want what I thought she would and she wanted a couple of things I was surprised about. I thought about my kids ending up with all that "Stuff" and then got rid of about half.
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hotandcold, that has been a great experience for you. I agree that what is important to me probably won't be of any interest to my sons and, should they ever marry (I have my doubts!) their wives probably won't want any of it either. I have a friend who is holding on to "stuff" for her kids and I look at it and say, quietly to myself, 'why would they want that?' Hopefully the young lady who was such a great help to you realizes her gift; could be a lucrative career for her.
Not much decluttering for me this week as I'm busy every night but hopefully will get lots done this long holiday weekend.
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Wow, you ladies are making this thread awesome! Just finished catching up and hoping I can stay caught up now. The last 6 weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. I haven't been able to do any decluttering but I also have kept the house the way I want it or haven't added more clutter. Welcome to the new ladies I haven't met yet.
I must agree with hiring a high school or college student to help with decluttering. I'll add a stay at home mom also - they're usually looking for extra money and if you can work out a schedule they're a great source for hiring too! DIL really appreciates the money I pay her to help me - I can see I need to raise her hourly pay quite a bit.
This weekend I have nothing planned and a four day weekend so am hoping to get some more decluttering done.
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I also have very little planned for a 4-day weekend so I also intend to get some decluttering. Yard sale is next Saturday so need to get some stuff organized anyway and would like to attack my pantry (which has everything but very little food!) and linen closet (again, little linen in it.) Where's the linen you ask - on the couch in the den of course, where else. Clean and waiting to be folded and put, where, in the linen closet that needs to be cleaned out to make room for, what? Linen, what else!!! Right now it just can't fit. Go figure.
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Hope you don't mind if I pop into your thread...
About a year after chemo and the kids and I are hitting the whole house. It is a mess. You see, during chemo I really didn't care. I care now but it looks like a HUGE project. We are taking the advice of heidihill and pretending we are moving. We did the dining room and part of the living room today...thanks for this encouraging thread!
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Welcome Ang7. You almost had me there as I initially thought, what a great idea (must have missed it when heidihill posted) but then I thought, if I were moving I would probably just box up the "stuff" and carry it to the next place. So, hopefully you won't do that but will discard instead. Remember, it's not decluttering if you just pack it up and store it. It then just turns into 'organized clutter'!
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Thanks patoo~
Luckily the boxes that we did fill made their way to GoodWill this evening...
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Oh, you're soooooooooo good!
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Wow, I should come to this thread more often...
My dear husband said he "did not see much difference."
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Come on Ang7, do they ever see anything? Right in front of their noses and they question 'where's the .....'. It's a male thing.
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Patoo, you are cracking me up!!! You are so right that men just don't see! My sister says that the Y chromosome is missing a whole bunch of stuff that we have on that X chromosome!
Welcome, Ang7! I agree about the moving - I have actually moved some "stuff" three times... ugh.
OK, so today I went to REI to buy ONE thing for yoga/dance classes (just some workout pants or capris because all I usually work out in is jeans or shorts, and actually wanted to LOOK better!) and came out with 3 capris, 2 tops, and also stopped to buy a pair of tap dance shoes. SOOOO... I need to discard some stuff!!!!
I DID put my 2 wigs (shampooed and clean), scarves, and all assorted paraphernalia into a box that I will be donating to the local cancer society, but missed the turn to the shop where the lady collects them. So they are still in my car, but should be out by one day next week.
Linda
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Watching 'Hoarders' so just put it on DVR and going down to do some organizing. Yard sale this Saturday, can't wait to part with some of this stuff.
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Hope the yard sale was a success, patoo!
I decluttered some drawers in the kitchen. Threw away food past expiry date or unlikely to be eaten before then.0 -
Okay, I'm starting on the computer paraphernalia assembled over almost two decades. I threw out all the old computers, cables, etc. None of them worked. I even threw out computer stuff that I couldn't identify. I think I was keeping the broken computery things because they cost so much when they were new. That's a rationalization I guess a lot of people have.
I'm also going through all the dopey disks and showing no mercy. One of the benefits of removing stuff from your house is that you can actually see what you have under it. It's good to see how other people are doing this.
Teka, with you as inspiration I will get rid of any shoes with dust on them. There are so many piles I never even think about as clutter until someone here mentions it.
B-bye shoes.
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