Quote:
Originally Posted by Cuehip
It seems like a no brainer doesn't it? I began to collect extra stuff when my brother died. I graduated from trash to junk to selective junk. At first it was coping skill that gave me projects. Coping skill gone bad when too much of stuff and still if pile more. Thank you to those gently and consistently, forced perspective I am not a hoarder. But I have small piles of stuff in , everywhere except the bathroom. In these piles is one of everything that needs married to something else in all the other piles! I really want to three step these hurdles and celebrate at the finish line. Read books, asked friends, they don't get it exactly, I'm not hoarding again am I ?! No, I'm not, I assure them , and I'm not. I'm not taking more on, I just seem to rearrange what's left! Arg!
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Do you have one person – even a social worker or a rent-a-maid – who could come in and help you one day of the week to clean out one particular area?
I got in big trouble with a government agency a couple of weeks ago because I haven't been letting my caregiver clean the clutter (and that resulted in problems vacuuming – no filth, though. I couldn't stand that).
So now we're taking ½ room at a time, or even ½ closet, and cleaning every Friday. We're opening shipping boxes that have never been opened and this morning she started taking stuff to my apartment lobby and had people come down to see if there was anything they wanted.
I've never been a hoarder. Never could stand clutter or dust; not a clean freak but... I just had so much stuff coming in each day and I would get my caregiver to pile it up and I became overwhelmed.
I understand what you mean about having piles that need to be married to others! I found a tape recorder used to record lectures in a bag in my bedroom closet and I know that the accessories for it are in a bag in my storage closet but I can't even get into my storage closet right now.
We did my bathroom last week; which wasn't hard because all I had were magazines and old grooming accessories in it. And I even cleaning some of the clutter in my bedroom this morning. I just became relentless. I filled four of the "heavy-duty" black construction plastic bags that were hauled away. Everything from a Freud figurine to piles of hard drives, routers, old clothes, etc. I be got rid of my last superfluous television!
My advice is to stop moving things from pile to pile: if you find something that you don't need (and be brutal when you use the word need – I'm one person and there are only four eyes on my stove: I had six tea kettles and now I have one) if you can't give it away or donate it to a charity within 24 hours, then it's junk and should be thrown away.
And the piles of things that need to be married? Toss them away. I know that feeling so well... "if I could find the charging cord for this mobile phone that I haven't used in two years, it could be useful to someone." Throw it away. You have to get into a hard-headed frame of mind to do it it I can tell now, looking around my bedroom, that it's going to be wonderful to get back to that new beginning phase.
If you look at one pile that's been together for a bit, is there anything that you absolutely need in there? If you've lived without using an item for 3 months, it's probably not a necessity.
I still have a long way to go but I like the fact that we're making progress!
Good luck.