Making do with less

Anonymous

http://s59.photobucket.com/albums/g288/thebandteacher/?action=view&current=cefc9401.pbw

I can never get these to work.....

Copy and paste this into your browser and it should work! 

paige-allyson

That does sound like hoarding- also like you are making headway toward taking it in hand. What's your current project?

To backtrack to the beginning of this thread- where is the no more made in China thread? Can it be bumped up? I looked for it but was unsuccessful in my search.

shokk

Good morning clutter queens...........first of all Tina thank you so much for the links for the decluttering tips..........Allyson I was looking for the no more made in China thread as well.............Deb I think hoarding is part of a Compulsive disorder.........there is medication for it but I don't think that is really whats wrong.......hoarders have a tendency to save like dryer lint......I think it may be just depression about your dad and maybe just spending to make yourself feel  better.......you will work through this.........at least you are aware of what you are doing.................and have a desire to fix it......Nancy it sounds like everyone in the house needs a good old fashion purge to get rid of stuff..............if you have to go through treatment not really sure why but that is what set me off to get rid of just about everything............I also have not bought anything in months.........it started last summer for me.........my oldest daughter that had helped me through treatment.......we started getting rid of all kinds of things............we had three garage sells and made close to 1500 dollars.....my ex is a compulsive shopper and he had left most of his clothes behind when he left........I had no idea that he had hidden so many clothes in the attic..............we sold one shirt get three for free.......we still had enough clothes to fill the back of my truck to take to goodwill......anyway I have felt so much better..........treatment took its tole on me but getting rid of the stuff that has accumulated in my house that my family has lived in for 15 years enough was enough........good luck.........Shokk

livesstrong

Nancy - so glad you made it over here!!  I'm sure it all seems overwhelming right now - look what you have been thru in the past few months - one minute your life was normal, then bc hits, then you personal space gets invaded.   After the big purge when the weather breaks how about your brothers chipping in for one of the storage units??

Deb - I think shokk hit the nail on the head - depression.  It can do strange things to people. 

Well ladies, good luck!!!

Valerie 

Anonymous

Oh yeah, depression was totally rearing it's ugly head.  

I'm working on that, and am so glad I have been able to catch this before it goes wild.  

NancyD

Wow, Deb! I looked at your pictures. Great job clearing up.

I may have to resort to someone like that here if the big Spring Clearup doesn't produce livable results. 

Anonymous

I need to take pictures of the other rooms, too. 

Sometimes people get scared of investing so much money into an organizer, but she really saved my sanity.  It was SOOO out of control at our last house, just before we had to put it on the market.  There was junk everywhere (my husband is a natural pack-rat, while I am happiest in a clutter free zone).  She made it look amazing! 

All my papers (you know, the ones you know you need to save but shove into a box since you don't know what to do with them) are filed into two file cabinets.  It was originally about 14 large boxes of paperwork.  How does she DO that?!?! 

Don't get me wrong, it took DAYS for her to get the house under control at our last house, and this time, we only had two days of intensive organizing to work with.  It was so worth it. 

paige-allyson

Deb- you're really inspiring me. I have some major paper piles that need to be dealt with.

bluewillow

Hi there ladies!

I just love this thread and have visited it many times just to read how you all are doing!  You inspire me!  But I need some extra help and inspiration (and a kick in the seat!)...

I have a spare bedroom that I have turned into my "sewing room", except that it is so piled full of stuff I have to sew standing up and only for quick mending jobs!  I am ashamed at the chaos and I need to figure out how to approach it and where I am at in my sewing life.  It just doesn't light a fire under me like it once did (is that depression?) I have been a quilter for many years, so I have stockpiled patterns, books, and yards upon yards of high quality cotton fabrics.  I also do crewel embroidery, which I still enjoy. I also have cross-stitch supplies, books, and floss, which I really don't care if I cross-stitch again, mainly because I find it boring now and I have a terrible time reading the charts and seeing how to cross-stitch in my "old age".  I also have an assortment of stenciling, scrapbooking, and stuffed toy supplies.  How do I weed out what to keep and what to ditch? Of course, I wouldn't throw it away, but would donate it to someone who would enjoy it.  I guess what I am asking is how do I narrow down the sewing projects that I am going to finish in my lifetime-- I've got enough to do four lifetimes!  Has anyone else gone through this?  I am almost 52 and have been collecting this stuff and sewing since I was about 12.  How does one decide what to keep????  Thanks in advance for any hints and support here...

Mary Jo

shokk

Mary Jo you may want to try the 27 item fling..........  www.flylady.net everyday you go into the room and get rid of 27 items.........won't take too long.......things that can be thrown away and a box of things that can be donated....everyday take the box of things to be donated to where ever you are donating them to.....in other words make sure that 27 items are removed from your home everyday........you have to get your mind around it.....if its your sewing room....if you have fabric that is 20 years old but you just "may use" it someday get rid of it........its going to be outdated anyway..........Oprah's guy says everyday one bag of trash and/or donated items removed from the house......so in a week you have at least removed 7 bags of junk.......oh and one more thing about the flylady that I love is she has a section on her web page about weighing your stuff......and then post it.........pretty interesting.......good luck.........Shokk

pconn03

Mary Jo:

Shokk gave you great advice.  I will add just one thing - that is when you are looking at the room as a whole and it seems overwhelming, I hear it is good to break it down into sections (2 or 3 or 4 depending on the size of the room) and just concentrate on that section.   You could definitely do the 27 item fling that way.

Great de-cluttering to all, 

Pat

pconn03

Hi All:

Hope you are all just busy de-cluttering and I'm not a notorious thread-killer!!    Anyway, I just wanted to let you know I received the "EarringMaster," and it is great.  I'm starting to put my earrings on it now and it feels so good.  Just another small step . . .

shokk

Thread killer...........that's not what I've heard........ha....so glad its the weekend........going to get rid of more stuff........yea...........Shokk

althea

I just wanted to give an update on from my post last month.  I have been grappling with a thyroid out of balance and doctors who are no help at all.  They'll do blood tests and use standards that became out of date in 2002 and then tell me my thyroid is fine.  Well, it isn't fine, and I've been complaining of fatigue since november 2005. 

So I ordered some products from a natural healing site.  It's their 'vitality kit' for beginners.  Ladies, I am very pleased to announce that I really and truly feel better than I have in a very long time.  I went through a winter without having what I would call a good day.  I've had more good days in the last month than I have in years.  So my intestinal decluttering is a success, and I haven't even done a detox kit yet. They recommend that you get things moving through at the proper rate before doing a detox.

I've planted two flats of flowers this week.  I feel lighter and brighter.  I got some overdue maintenance and stickers for my truck.  Then my water heater bites the dust.  I could barely afford the truck maintenance!  My disposal got clogged temporarily.  And two lamps which had both been on for a while suddenly burned out at the same time. I hope this all means I have new and better things heading for my life.  Now I'm cleaning my stove.  Feng shui tips say cleaning the stove can help money come in.  Sure hope it works.  I need a new water heater.  

livesstrong

just bumping

Anonymous

Whoo-hoo!!! 

Still taking control of my hoarding "skills," and clearing out a lot of junk.  I spent a few hours in the basement, and I am proud to say my son can now run around half of it!  

abbadoodles

Go, girls, go!  I am impressed with all the progress.

My only little triumph lately has been this:  My (deceased) girlfriend's husband sent me a pile of pictures of her/me/us, etc.  I guess he was feeling like he needed and wanted to keep cleaning up the detritus of a lifetime.  (She died about 2 years ago.) 

What did I do with them?  Looked them all over twice, shared with dh, then threw them all out.  Not hardhearted, but I didn't have them before to remind me of her so I really don't need them now.  I have my wonderful memories and that's all I really need.  The mind's eye is so much sharper than some old photos.

Tina

Anonymous

Tina, though I am saddened by the loss of your friend, I am impressed by your thought process of why to get rid of the pics.  

We spent all day yesterday going through our basement.  Poor dh wasn't all that into it (he HATES decluttering).   I kept saying, "If we don't get rid of it, we have to pack it up AGAIN for the next house!" since we are hoping to move soon. 

That inspired him to go through bags (his favorite way to store stuff is in plastic grocery bags), and he found things like coupons that expired 8 years ago, 10 year old Tylenol, really old stamps......

Too funny. 

I was so hard on him-all my clutter frustration kept coming out on him, and I had to apologize to him all day long. 

But the basement looks GREAT!  

We're getting ready for a garage sale, so I'd better go!  
Love and prayers, Deb

NancyD

I just watched a portion of the PBS show The Human Footprint. Gosh we are such consumers!  If you haven't seen this program, try to catch it on the next go round. It won't make you into a pack rat, but it will make you have second thoughts about if you really need some things before you buy them.

abbadoodles

I just received my copy of Vastu Living (something like that) and am reading it.  Did you know that vastu is the Hindu form and predecessor of the Chinese Feng Shui?  It's related to yoga and meditation, etc.  I learn something new every day.

Of course, the books will be passed on after I am finished.  MUST trim my library!

Tina

abbadoodles

Just found a great blog some of you might be interested in following:

 http://unclutterer.com/  Some cool ideas!

Tina

livesstrong

bumping up - bbl

Valerie 

Anonymous

Okay, my de-clutter story of the month. 

Last winter my huge 27" tube style TV fizzled out so I bought a new sleek 26" flat panel LCD.  Somehow I managed to drag the old tube TV into the garage where it has sat all these months because it was too heavy for me to lift by myself.

This has really been one of those things that bothers me because I've been working on cleaning out my garage.  Every Wednesday our local recycle place allows you to bring in old TV's, computers, monitors to recycle for free to keep them out of landfills.  So, I worked for two hours last night getting this huge 100 lb TV into the front bucket-style passenger seat of my small sedan.  This is the only place it would fit through the door opening and the  trunk was just too high for me to have any hopes.

I got up early this morning and hit the road with this huge TV as my shotgun companion and ignored all the looks I got on the freeway.  I pulled into the drive thru recycle center where all the young, brawny guys looked at me like I was a fruitcake.  I hopped out of the car and opened the passenger side front door and the guy looks at me and politely asks 'what's wrong with it'? 

Now I ask you....who's the real fruitcake here?  The short, fat 50 year old woman with a huge TV in her front passenger seat...OR...the guy who thinks she looks like the TV repairman?

abbadoodles

You have me chuckling.  Boy, though, are you lucky to have FREE recycling of electronics in your town.  We have to pay through the nose.

Now about those big old TV's.  We have a 36" monster.  Our house was burglarized.  Guess what they left in place?  That's right.  Must have been too heavy for the thieves.

Anonymous

Tina -- it really is nice to have free recycling but I think they do it to keep these things that contain hazardous materials out of our landfills.  So far I've recycled an old pc tower, 17 " tube style monitor, old 13" tv, paper shredder, and now this monster tv and they didn't charge me a dime.  Its only for individuals though.  Businesses have to pay a small fee. 

I'm not surprised they left that huge TV.  These old tube style TV's weigh a ton.  I'm really glad they've come out with flat panel LCD's.  I can pick it up to move it much easier and it doesn't seem to collect as much dust or have as much static as the old ones did and the space I got back is amazing.  This LCD can sit just about anywhere.

abbadoodles

You ladies must pat me on the back!  I have gone through about 25 years of knitting magazines and pamphlets and have weeded out about 1/2 of them (Hey, it's a start.) and posted them on freecycle.  Someone is supposed to pick them up asap.

Now I must go through the old Piecework mags.  Then the spinning, then the quilting.........

Has everyone else given up de-cluttering?

bluewillow

Hi Tina!

Big pat on the back for you!  Wow, great minds think alike!  I have spent the entire Memorial Day Holiday cleaning out my sewing room, while hubby and son fish the river (long face-- wish I was fishing too!).  I've gotten a lot accomplished-- packed a huge garbage bag full, and like you, went through a whole bunch of "vintage" needlework patterns, books, magazines, etc. and I can actually see my sewing machine!  I considered listing them on eBay, but honestly, I'd like to just give them to a good home.  I think I'll take inspiration from you and try Freecycle.

And Congratulations on your de-cluttering too!

Happy Memorial Day, everyone, and remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

Mary Jo

abbadoodles

Mary Jo, I was thinking of selling some of my mags on ebay,too, but that is so labor intensive (read: a pain in the butt).  I am thinking of offering my old Threads as a lot as I checked ebay yesterday and a couple of large lots of them went for big bucks.  Listing individually is out of the question!!!

bluewillow

Hi Tina,

Yes, I think listing mags as lots is the way to go-- good luck to you and I hope they bring in some good revenue for you!  I've also seen sewing notions and supplies listed as lots that bring a good sum too.  I sell some on eBay, mostly for my daughter and son-in-law, and it is definitely a pain in the butt. It takes lots of time to photograph, compose the listing, downloads pics, etc., not to mention the fees going up.  eBay used to be a lot of fun but not so much now...  I was just thinking this morning how liberating it was just to clean out what I did yesterday-- and how great it would feel to just take ALL of it to Goodwill instead of storing it to sell on eBay or yard sale, etc.  I may work up my courage yet!

Thanks for your on-going inspiration!

Mary Jo 

Anonymous

Hey ladies,

How is the clutter-free lifestyle going? 

About the mags-I have an ebay store, and I have to say that in my experience, magazines have not sold well at all. In addition, yes, you can send them as media mail, but they are HEAVY as heck, and if you sell a few of them in a lot, they are EXPENSIVE! 

Selling on ebay is really what enhanced my hoarding tendencies.  I buy so much junk because "it's so cheap, and I can make such a great profit on Ebay!"  But like you guys have said, the process of listing (especially when you have a zillion things to do) sucks!  I keep saying, "I'm closing my store," but then I find more stuff that "I can make so much money on this!" 

Will it ever end?!?!