Not quite a horder - decluttering

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Blessings -I know several people that are hoarders.Especially the girl I stayed with during the power outage. OMG I was in her basement and she had so much stuff...and mice. Gave me the willies for sure. My step sister inlaw has a problem too. She has a house and a cottage at the lake all filled to the brim with stuff. She would come by my house when I was cleaning out and say she loved something so I gave it to her not knowing what her homes looked like. Once I saw her houses that was it for me giving her stuff. You are right about orange county. I especially loved the Laguna area. Beautiful homes and I would love to relocate back there but could never afford it now.

Teka - Just had the insurance claims adjuster here for all the mess with the ice storm/power outage. We waited till now so the windows could be opened for ventilation. My entire ceiling in my den has to be torn out to fix the frozen pipe plumbing leak underneath. My closet in my hall has a complete bulged wall from the ice jam on the roof and the leak from my flatroof that was tiny is now much bigger so that needs repair as well as the kitchen wall below. I often think about a white living room because I have white Pottery Barn furniture in there but there are so many whites now. Might go with a very light beigh instead. Have you picked out your white? 

Bunkie - You lived in OC? Wow.... we have a timeshare in Laguna Beach (long story, my brother gave it to us...) and we get down there twice a year... can't imagine anyone buying property there now.

Teka - we had our house built in 2005 when we got married. It has tall ceilings, lots of windows, and every wall was "builder white"... I kept after DH to paint some rooms and get some color in the house, and for six years all he would say is "White's a color."

But somehow I convinced him to paint three rooms... the den (Man Cave) is a soothing sage, the guest room is a light tan, and the master bedroom - my favorite - is a pale blue with white trim.

I kept my kitchen white, though, because it's filled with Mary Engelbreit stuff, and vintage teapots. There's already enough color in there.

Blessings - Yup I did and worked there too for ATT over by the big mall. We had an operator office down there and I trained people for a couple years. My favorite place was lunch at LasBrisas resturant and then looking in all the quaint shops down there. My rustic dishes are from a pottery shop they have down there. Memories. I miss it so much. VERY expensive. There are beautiful time shares in that area.

Bunkie - Las Brisas is our favorite place, too!!! The last time we were there, we sat at our window table and watched a pod of dolphins playing in the surf below us.

Teka - my brother had been with his partner for 33 years when the partner died unexpectedly. Together, they had purchased numerous timeshares over the years, as well as a huge expensive house and several cars. They had good incomes, but spent every cent that came in. They had made absolutely no arrangements for each other in case one of them died.

Afterwards, it was a scramble to get my brother moved out of the house - he and his partner were hoarders, only not garbage and trash, but things like furniture, paintings, sculpture, and rooms and rooms of new clothing with tags. This was a 7,000 square foot house, 35 rooms total, and it was filled to the rafters.

Then there was the 2,500 square foot, two story garage - also filled to the rafters. They had even purchased those industrial shelves and rolling steel staircases to store and access their "treasures". There were also two outbuildings filled with stuff.

Imagine a home filled with such beauty, and then multiply the stuff by 1000. In some rooms, there were only tiny pathways to navigate. In one hallway, boxes of new (unworn) shoes lined each side up to the ceiling.

He lost the house to foreclosure. I called in an Estate Sale company who held sales on three consecutive weekends. They'd never had a sale that huge.

Much of the clothing went to consignment. Much of the artwork and antiques went to dealers in the Bay Area for auction.

A lot of the older clothes (nothing was ever tossed out) went straight to donation to charities and churches. We donated around 300 pairs of brand new socks to a homeless outreach organization. They were thrilled. THEN they saw the 50 almost-new winter jackets we donated. Lots of tears that day....

When our family came in to rescue my brother, he repaid us by giving us things. He said that he could never, ever visit those places where the timeshares were because he was heartbroken. So he gave them away. (Selling a timeshare isn't fast or easy, nor does it bring in close to the original amount that was paid.) So I paid the transfer fees - not cheap! - and I pay the yearly maintenance fee... not too bad.

Since DH and I don't do any traveling at all, this is a way for us to have a vacation at least twice a year!

(And yes, we did get that house completely cleaned out on deadline, and my brother found a much smaller place in town with a much smaller amount of "treasures" to surround him.)

Oh, believe me.... that topic was discussed MANY times as we shoveled through piles of incredibly stupid purchases! But to them, THINGS mattered more than people. They thought they could achieve happiness by buying more STUFF. Didn't work.

DH and I are finally comfortable... I can afford to buy a pair of (cheap) shoes AND go to the dentist in the same month! For most of my life, I couldn't. But that hasn't changed us. We remain frugal... remembering both our parents who saved every dime they made, and "made do" with things even though they could afford to replace them. We still shop in thrift stores and the Dollar Store. We have a decent car and a truck we take care of, because we plan to keep them til they fall apart, no matter how long that takes!

We don't go to movies or shows, rarely go out to dinner (and when we do, we get takeout boxes so we have at least two more meals), and have never been on a cruise.

Our house is nice... but it is furnished modestly, with a few new things and a lot of hand-me-downs. Since we are retired, there's no reason to buy many new clothes. (Well, except when I lost weight, and was keeping my old pants on with a binder clip....)

We've never used the timeshare in the summer because it is in the heart of Tourist Territory!!! The beach traffic in the summertime is unreal in Southern California. But this year, for the first time, we'll be there in June, as that was the only opening they had for the unit we like. Doesn't really matter too much; the beach is across the road, and we can walk to shops... and the grocery store is just a few blocks away. We'll see! Usually we go in the early fall or late spring, and in the winter.

Blessings - OMG!! That does it. If I ever get back to Cali we are meeting for lunch there. Yes I always get a window seat and then walk around the walkway down to the beach area. I even took my mom there.

Wow that is something about your brother. Glad he is doing better. Stuff sometimes takes over.

Not that you can tell by looking at my house, but I just completed my charitable deduction.  I gave over 200 items to charity last year.  My goal is for 300 items this year---by items, I mean housewares, clothing, things other than cash.  I bet if some of you look at your itemized lists of donations, you will also be surprised.

Hope to finish the taxes tonight.

Hugs to all

Mandy

Onco Warrier:  all of the housewares and usable clothing that you donate to Goodwill or the Salvation Army or any actual charity may be deducted.  The amount depends on their condition and a number of other things.  But if you have donated, take the deduction.  You can even deduct mileage for driving for a charitable purpose but you have to be more organized than I am to take advantage of that.  My sister used to keep a note book in her glove compartment and if she drove for work or for charity, she'd note the date and miles.  

Anyway the end of these taxes is in sight for me--so that is great!   I also do taxes for both of my duaghters so it is a lot of paperwork.  But with today's tax programs, so long as you get the numbers put in correctly, it is farely easy to do taxes. I can remember doing them with a paper and pencil, not that many years ago---it took forever!

Teka, that is perfect!!! :-)

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Cat and water story.  My son's cat turned on the bathtub faucet while he was out of town. The water flooded the condo below his, the insurance asserted that my son had left the tub running when he left for the airport.  To prove it was the cat, my son sat in the bath room for over a day before he was successful in getting the cat on video turning on the tub. Finally the insurance company relented and paid for the damage. 

We had some that drank from the tub faucet, but they never managed to turn it on themselves, thank goodness.