super stash

Yes, we're counting on you Vic.

As I said I would never leave that beautiful room. Barbara

Don't make me come up there! :)

Dawne, I looked in the mirror one day and I said, get over yourself. So, this is the result. I am much happier. Of course the four years of chemo helped me be a crab, but there is no good excuse.

Oh don't worry, I'm full fledged GOW! The only difference is that now I am working at not saying every thing, to every one, any way I want to, when I want to, and spilling my guts out every second.

Okay, everyone in lock step...march right, about face, forward march, gimme 100, no not push ups, compliments!

Seriously, a very long time ago when I was in full "mouth off" at an AA meeting when I first got sober in 1984 a woman who was sober for 46 years told me a few things. She told me honesty is not always synonymous with a big mouth, vice versa. She was right.

I know about this one! It's called 'Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder' (*quite* distinct from the OCD, where people compulsively wash themselves and check things). My DFIL is severely disabled by OCPD and his house is as you describe. You have to turn sideways to get into it! He hoards all sorts of things. Electronic parts, videos and DVDS (both blank and recorded), newspapers, cornflake boxes... His yard is utterly chocka with building materials, yet if we need anything and ask for something he has stocked up, he can't bring himself to let it go. It's the *saddest* thing!

Of course, even sadder than that is that my DMIL (the sweetest, kindest lady you could hope to meet) must live among it all with him. The hoarding isn't all there is to the disorder: it comes along with a certain egocentric disposition as well, so the sufferer helps everyone around him suffer too. My DFIL has daily remorse at the way his and his wife's lives have been tainted by his compulsions, but at seventy-five he remains powerless to do much about it.

And (LOL!) I have to say that if you try to talk to him about his 'er - little problem', he gets *yodelling* mad about it! Once, DH and I tried to have a gentle little chat with him about DMIL's state of mind and he flew into a rage that lasted two years! Whew! Won't do that again in a hurry!

I'm very sorry to hear this. My prayers go out to all the afflicted. It truly is a very serious condition.

I am a clutterbug, that's my plight. The last several months I have had this garage sale pile in the kitchen. Every now and then I take something back. I do NOT need these things. They will never be used, not ever. My idea is a free yard sale. Whatever doesn't sell goes directly into the car and hauled off to Goodwill. I will feel so much better with a lot of it gone. It's all just stuff not being used. My old recliner. It's still very nice, but I don't want it any more. Ottomans, two of them. What for? Oh yeah, the magazine back to the beginning of time. In all these years I have never once looked at them again. Nic nacs. What do those do to improve my life? I only have to dust them. Then I say, oh, my giraffe collection; I can't get rid of that. Then it goes to another thing and another and I am back where I started.

So, this time I'm doing it, damn it! Yes.

Cathy from KY Did i ask her [politely of course !!!] what she ACTUALLY does with her Aggeration . ?

mirjam

Barbara And you could Open a club of Cahrity knitters in there as well :>:>:>

mirjam :>:>:>

"Jangchub" I'm very sorry to hear this. My prayers go out to all the afflicted.

Oh, me too. And I have clutter from my late mother, my kids, my not quite ex husband.........(hey, theirs is clutter, mine is stuff I am going to get around to, right???) And despite good intentions, it can be overwhelming. Where to start? A young woman I know read and highly recommends Peter Walsh's "It's all too much". (She is going to lend me her copy). What she said she got from the book struck me---you can't live in the moment if you are surrounded by stuff from the past or stuff that is just in case for the future. Made sense. Will let you know how the book---and the throwing stuff out---goes.

Dawne

your so right. To even have a room to call your own for your crafts would be great no matter how it looked it is yours! All that yarn and the colors were so bright. Can the woman adopt me.I would learn to share Barbara ;)

My husband and his mother tend to be packrats - I am the complete opposite. I'm not saying I don't have stash - or my collection of cookie cutters (over 600) - but everything is organized, labeled and stored out of sight. My house is not perfectly clean - impossible with kids, dogs, etc., but it is not cluttered...although I often feel like it's me vs. 3 to keep it that way!

My family is now trained to put anything they've outgrown, don't want, etc. into the closet in the laundry room. This is ongoing as my MIL likes to shop and is always bringing over useless stuff :) Once I've got several grocery bags' worth of stuff I put it in the car and drop it off while out running errands. Books go to the library for their book sales or I trade them at the used book store. It's now become a family habit so it's not as hard to get them to do this. You can just trash things too - If you need new shoes because your old ones have holes in them - throw the old ones out! I nag at times but they're getting better. Outside projects always generate trash too so when I get a large enough pile on the side of the driveway it's off to the county dump - only $15 for a full pickup truck load...no matter what it is.

I can't imagine if both my DH and I were packrats - it would be hard to move around here! Even so, I dread the day we decide to move - we have a house, garden shed, horse barn and 2-story workshop/barn just full of treasures....sigh. I did finally get DH to part with the 8-track tape player he was hanging on to - he seemed to think because it still worked it was worth saving....LOL

I just figured if it's something I like I would be using it or admiring it - not keeping boxes put away for "some day" - but that's hard to come to that realization for some. I think my Dad has a bit of a hoarder's heart - his house has a lot of papers, books and magazines that he wants to look at some day. Um, when? You're a retired widower with no real hobbies - now would be good!

All I can suggest for those who know people with these issues is to maybe seek some outside help. We all know that listening to family members doesn't always work.

MelissaD

I'm sorry - my first reaction is ACK! This room needs to be cleaned and organized. My fingers are itching to get all the non-yarn stuff out of the middle...why is there stuff all over the floor? Waaayy too messy for me - it stresses me out.

I want to put the yarn back in all those shelves by brand, or fiber, then color ---or something really anal-retentive like that. With an area for patterns and needles and a few tables and chairs to sit and work at. I could certainly sit down and work in a nice clean organized space then :) Not sure I'd want to volunteer though - looks like it would take a while to get this stash to that point! LOL

How hard must it be to find a hank of that blue whatever you saw last week??

MelissaD Whose IKEA wardrobe full of needlework supplies doesn't seem so bad now....