I've just watched the programme about hoarding on BBC1. It is one of the saddest things I have ever watched. People keeping and keeping and keeping stuff until there is nowhere to sit, there is nowhere to sleep and there is nowhere to wash or cook.
I think there are elements of that in so many people. Yesterday I threw out a little plastic pot. It had had a snack meal in and it was just a handy size. I could have saved it for little bear for crafts, or darling father for seeds, or for me for use in a dozen ways. I consciously threw it out. Because I can have lots of snacks and if I need a pot I can get one then, and until I actually need the pot (which I don't at the moment) where am I going to store them? Still part of me was crying out - it could really come in useful!
My late grandfather would save all sorts of things like margarine cartons. After all, a margarine carton can be a useful container. But you were left with an empty margarine carton around once per fortnight, and still they were not used. Still it was a shame to throw it out, when it could be of use, and you ended up with stacks of the things twenty or thirty high. Unfortunately I am not exaggerating. They collected dust, took up space, got in the way and continued to grow, but they couldn't go out, because they might come in useful.
I really struggle with this - getting rid of something that is bound to have a use somewhere. It is really hard for me to just get rid of old sheets to next door, to lose the excess stuff that creeps up on me. I look at the pot of curtain hooks, old shirt buttons, fasteners from shirts to use as paper clips, treasury tags and carrier bags and think that there is so much use in them. But if I don't then I will end up living in a house where you cannot walk up stairs, or cannot use the bath. And truthfully, I am not using them. I am merely housing them and quite often I can't find something I need because of all the stuff so I have to go out and buy more.
I have gone shares with Nice Mr Next Door in getting a skip. It should be here by the weekend. I think, after watching that programme, that I shall have plenty of use for it. Despite all of the things I have thrown out, and the care I am taking to try and limit what comes in, the house still feels so full of stuff that it is hard to breathe.
3 comments:
Sybs I can so associate with this subject as I am a terrible hoarder.Just recently I have decided to tackle the problem and have binned so much clutter that its unbelievable.But I have to admit that the extra space we have gained is worth the anguish that it caused.I now have a conservatory that we can sit in and not just a giant dumping zone.I have been brutal with the kids rooms too and as a reward for their patience with my decluttering efforts I have redecorated their rooms to their own specifications so now they have lovely clear rooms that look nice too.So Sybs fill the skip to the top and just close your eyes to what you are binning because the quality of life you will attain is well worth the hassle and its so much easier to keep clean and tidy when there is less stuff to move around
Lesleyxx
Good for you! I would definitely have gone shares in a skip with you if I had lived next door - wish I had a neighbour who needed to share one! Our neighbour is a single man who moved in before Christmas after a marriage break up, and he doesn't seem to have a lot at all: he was sitting on a deck chair for quite a while before he got proper furniture, so I doubt he has need of a skip.
Sad, wasn't it - I wasn't sure whether to feel more sorry for the poor old chap (Alan?) or his wife....and the other man - Richard - for whom all his stuff was such a security blanket....but how people can live like that I can't imagine. I'm not too bad, but it made ME go and get a black sack and fill it!
There but for the grace of *inset chosen deity here* go I....!
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