OK, so maybe I'm not a hoarder! But, I am seriously drowning in crap over here lately. I've been flirting with the idea of moving, as I've posted before. Now that the end of my lease is coming closer and closer on the horizon (I still have several months yet), I've decided to go through my crap and seriously start to purge. I have a few ideas of where I may be moving, but still haven't quite nailed down the perfect locale; regardless, it will be a smaller space that what I am accustomed to.
Some of you might have wondered whatever happened to my plan to donate one box each month. Well, I didn't end up doing it every single month, but more often than not, donations were made last year. A close relative passed away unexpectedly this past year, so donations have been going on a regular basis while we've been travelling between states for the past few months. It's a mishmash of things -- mine, family's, whatevz. I did, however, stop selling my used books and things on Half.com. Way too much work, and I didn't make enough to really justify it. Most of the stuff I wound up donating, and some of it was just tossed.
This week, I went down to the basement to see what was going on. I was shocked to see the stuff that was piled up down there! There were clothes that I didn't even remember that I had, or stuff that I thought was long gone (and have since replaced). I brought up a big ole vat of things to sort through.
Here's where I worry about my hoarding tendencies... The clothes. I have stuff that fits, stuff that doesn't, stuff for sitting around, stuff for clubbing, stuff for funerals, stuff for business meetings, stuff for psychic gigs, stuff for repairing, stuff that I save for nostalgia, and stuff that I save because I want to do something else with it. And quite honestly, it's really hard to make decisions about what to part with. I love my clothes. It's not even that I buy a lot of them, but I do save things that I love. And with the basement being what it was, I've "lost" things that have had to be replaced, so now I have extras. Not good!
Hoarders have problems with getting rid of things, too. It can be very hard to make decisions about what to throw out and what to keep.
I always refer to my guide about decluttering. (But, sometimes I save clothes that I probably won't fit into next year!) This year, after saving a couple of boxes of clothes which I still hope to wear again one day, I've decided to just eBay them! They are way too cute to be sitting in boxes!
I still have a few months before it's time to move; even though I've been decluttering, donating, and tossing all year, I have a whole lot more to do. Here's hoping I'll get it finished soon! I miss having a decluttered house! :)
As a recovering hoarder I try to keep one box by the back door and I add to it whenever I find something I don't want or use. It is a lot easier than setting a plan in place or trying to go through a lot of stuff at once. I got rid of thousands of pounds of stuff this way. :-)
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