Featured Hoarder or storer?

I intend to show this thread to EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN MY FAMILY!!!

 

Thanks, Pat. Yes - I like the good days I usually start each day pretty early so I know which way it will go. I tend to stay pretty positive overall, as I watch the news and see so many accidents and what not and think about the folks who never got to come home and see their pets or loved ones that day and how lucky I am, while petting my assistant (Tasha, in the avatar picture). Only on very rare days does the pain really frustrate me.

Thanks, afantiques for starting this thread. I really, really (!) want to come play in some of ya'll (that is about as Southern as I get since moving to the South) houses. I see some amazing goodies in there. And I love the dust, boxes and clutter. It's what we do.

I love having my own private thrift store. So often I bring something up from the basement, wash it... look at it... look at it some more... decide it I really don't want to list it 'right now' and want something more exciting. So back down to Aisle 14 I go (ha-ha).

I've been looking for something very valuable down there since we moved in to post on the Finds Thread, probably the most valuable thing I've found at GS. I hid it from myself. It will turn-up.

 

Try out-of-season handbags, or clothing.

Or, in the bookshelves but in the back, down Behind the collection of Parson Prattle's sermons.

Or, in the back of the freezer marked "chopped kale."

 

There's hope for us all...................

 

I don't have pictures. My work room, where I bead is the worst. I started, every where in the house with a desk, and usually a bookcase behind it. I needed a desk to write at, but that became cluttered and filled with boxes, and a desk for 'wet' crafts and painting, soon cluttered as well, and there's two work tables that go in and out of clutter.

In my Living room, bedroom and kitchen I have a strict take-and-leave policy, I try to follow. If I buy a new lamp, or see a new side chair, I can only buy it if I replace one I already have, otherwise the Living room would have 18 side chairs and still no where to sit (because there is always boxes piled on them). The stuff I replace, I either give to my aunt or sell to the antique store down the street. In that way, I improve my collection rather than just add to it. But seeing these photos makes me think of what I should be getting rid of, namely all the boxes in closets, under beds and in the basement storage that I never look at. Your are a hoarder when the junk dictates what you can and can't do. "Oh, I would love to have them over to dinner, It might take me a month to clear out the dining room."

But it also makes me think of something I have never seen but would love to own. A Doll house decorated like an antique hoarder's house. Yes, I have a big box of miniatures down in the basement somewhere, all I need is the house, but where would I put it? Hmm, if I get rid of the junk on that writing desk I can't write at....

 

If you can't even navigate in your own house without tripping over stuff, it's hoarding. Clutter is different.

 

"But it also makes me think of something I have never seen but would love to own. A Doll house decorated like an antique hoarder's house. Yes, I have a big box of miniatures down in the basement somewhere, all I need is the house, but where would I put it? Hmm, if I get rid of the junk on that writing desk I can't write at...."

LOL! Great idea!

Hmm, I have a dollhouse upstairs in the biggest bedroom that's barely useable 'cause of all of the boxes and clutter in the room... and lots of dollhouse items I made or bought to resell filling boxes and cabinet shelves... hmm....

Wonder if I could then sell the hoarder dollhouse to a hoarder who would get a kick out of it... but, wait, they'd have to figure out where they have room for it... hmm...

Oh, and that reminds me of the almost-antique dollhouse I bought over 10 years ago that's down in my very cluttered basement... so cluttered, I forgot about it... hmm, that dollhouse would be great filled to overflowing with antique dollhouse furnishings... maybe I should start looking for them on eBay...

No, wait, where would I ever put the antique dollhouse furnishings, which I probably wouldn't get to anytime soon... hmm....

 

What a great thread, makes me feel so much better. Like silver in post #61, I will show this to my family so they will know I'm not the only one that has a house and barn/shed full of stuff.
I'll have to work up the courage to take some photos and share them to you all.
Mary

 

p.s. My last post demonstrates why I have so much clutter, not counting my mom's things. I used to start either designing things in my head or thinking imaginatively and then would buy things to fit what I was envisioning before my logical brain would kick in and bring me back to reality. These days, I work really hard to just stay in logical, practical reality in the first place, hard as it feels sometimes.

 

@FunkeysFinds in your last photo is that a Puppy Pal creamer in front of the Christmas ornaments?

 

Skeezix, you lucky fellow -- two barrister bookcases!!!

I have one three-drawer barrister bookcase which I got free of charge. I saw it out by the communal industrial-size trash bin in the parking lot shared with a couple of law firms and one or two other businesses.

I spied it back in the early 1970s and was able to gather it up, pack it in my car (a 1960 mint-green Plymouth Fury), and drive it home without incident. We still have the barrister bookcase (but the mint-green car is long gone LOL).

 

OMG - I love that pink panther! Too cool.
I feel so much better now. Although, I haven't photographed the attic. Don't ask. We inherited several generations of hubby's family stuff when we moved in and it's all still there. Except for a horsehair sofa that his brother took.

 

@ Mary - yes. Found it in a great small store. Got some blenko, some interesting restaurant china and several other items I can't recall. It took awhile to get into the store, it is basically two falling down shacks and you literally have to be there when they decide to be open, no actual hours. I had never made it before. I've still been trying to get into the TS in that same town - it is packed with PGP, but each time I go, they've changed the hours. Because I need more stuff.

It's the thrill of the next treasure. It will always be that thrill. I think the treasures are getting better, or I'm getting better at finding them.

Cory

 

Well, I still don't see DUST on your pics folks?

Pat, I picked up this face for a clock at a T,I plan on making a clock out of it someday. Its all wood but I doubt its old.

Skeez,even your clutter is organized

Funky, I had cervical fusion in 01, need two more but passed. I have severe degenerative disk disease in my spine and blown discs in the low back. I still am active but OHHHH the pain.

I collected minitures since the 70's and bought a vintage dollhouse on a wheeled platform to fix up and decorate,it even had wood shingle roofs.. Well,I gave everything to my granddaughters, they lost them all, what a waste Then my barn leaked and the dollhouse was ruined.

I used to have 5 of those metal shelve units my late DH used to store X-ray films. When I was moving up here,took weeks, someone at my old ranch stole them all plus other stuff.

 

I believe a hoarder can't let ANYTHING go,they hang on to rotten food,trash,and they are infested with rats and roaches.

I have been clearing out some of my stuff, I gave a gal a couple mos. ago teacups and saucers and other collectables. I just gave my daughter all the pressed and cut glass and crystal,some not shown. I am still searching for the rest. Here is what I gave her so far in the last month. It feels good to clear out some stuff. Oh, plus I gave my daughter ALL my Disney stuff that she is now selling on eBaay.

I let her wash all the barn barware

 

I say I'm a 'Trader, w/ Inventory Issues.'

I like that definition. Sounds better than "Clutter Queen."

 

Besides, that's MY title. You can't have any.

 

@ spirit - now that is some giving! Sorry for your pain I often sleep like last night in a recliner on a heating pad and then use Ms. Jiggley (that is what I call her - a vibrating ice pack) on the neck and shoulders in the morning.

I grew up with clinically diagnosed hoarders as parents. Exactly like one would see on the tv shows, with the house caving in and a refusal to acknowledge there is a problem. Three stories of a house full, one two story garage full and a very large yard full. My mother (bless her soul) had many challenges and health problems and I tried with officials to get her help away from my stepfather, but she wouldn't take it. In that State, without her approval, in her failing health, they would not step-in since she was married (at least at that time, it may have changed now).

I work hard not to have the same challenges my parents faced. Even in my big basement of inventory, I work hard to keep it clean. I do not dust anything as I clean everything before listing and touch-up before shipping, but I sweep the aisles (there are aisles between the bookcases) and the rest of the floor a few times weekly. Last night I vacuumed the dusty old couch down there and swept underneath.