Hi Mariana,

I am definitely still interested in becoming an "Extreme Cleaner"; and yes, so far I have lead 2 major clean-ups. One was in Seattle and the other one was in Houston. Both of the hoards were level fives and I did both of the clean-ups for free. 🙂

I am always up for doing another clean-up. So if "Green" (formerly "Me") wants me to help, then I would LOVE to do it! 😀

Well, today looked at house and said, this is in need of maintenance, did the dishes, cleaned counters, stove top and floor.
Went through jewelry box that came out of big bedroom last week. I thought it was one that I bought at garage sale, but really was my mothers. Sad looking at all the junk jewelry she had, nothing of any value at all. Some were kind of cute, earrings I had made her years ago. I threw away any that were rusted or super ugly. When it got too much, after about an hour of cleaning, I bagged it up and will sort stuff for give away another day, too emotional right now. At least all the real junk is out and cleaned all of the drawers, and sections. I learned hoarding from the best.
I have worked in here for 5 hours, short breaks, and I am done for now. My friend is still coming at 8am tomorrow, so is motivating me to get the basic maintenance done in house she will be in, bedrooms still off limits for now. She is a minimalist and is willing to point out cluttered areas, I think are ok, Actually looks pretty nice in here after all the junk I got rid of is gone.
We will see. She lives in a beautiful home so is a little difficult not to compare her house to my trailer. My hoarder friend just called with excuses, it is getting old, wished her well and suggested starting with 15 minutes, says she can't do that has to have all day, and it has rained. How about tomorrow, supposed to be sunny, said she has a class, I said that is an hour, she said needs whole day or can't do it, boy did that bring back memories. I said to call after she puts in 2 full days, and I can help after that, think that is good.
Now, get to go put tools in clean cabinets in garage, in between showers. Got all the paint brushes, paint pads, and paint rollers, and drop clothes sorted and they will be all on one long shelf, yes, long shelf. Will not need to buy anymore for years, and now know where they are so can use them to my hearts content, did I mention I am a paint hoarder, and love to paint? Well finally getting to it!!! Will vacuum later today in here, and will make bed in big room, washed all linens. Yes, starting to see some improvements after 3 months of daily long hours, have to look for the good and stop my mean mind from looking at only what is not done and the extreme extent of hoarding.

MayMay, are you still interested in becoming an extreme cleaner? You mentioned that you went somewhere to lead a cleanout (relatives I think?) at no charge since you were not professional and just seeking experience. Could you help the poster "green" ( formerly "me")? I know this might really not be a good idea since she is a stranger and I don't know where either of you live.

As I think on this idea, I realize it is not a good thing. It is just distressing that most of the time we really can't help people in these desperate hoarding, moving, eviction situations except with encouraging words and possible hints. I suppose that is better than nothing.

I guess we have come to realize that most of the time hoarding is the outward manifestation of something deeper. Maybe we need to see what can be done help healing before cleaning.

Feeling so helpless.

I just finished giving Snuggles, Matt, and Cory their baths. And now I am getting ready to go get my monthly "full-body" massage. YAY! 😀

I am in serious need of a massage. 🙂

Good morning, everyone. Another cockamamie day for me. Didn't get to sleep until an ungodly hour then woke up around 8:30 a.m. Eyes are gritty, thoughts are fuzzy, motivation is at zero.

How's everyone and what have you got planned or have already done for today?

OMG! Right now it's thunder-storming where I live, and I just saw the COOLEST lightning strike! 😀

I LOVE THUNDER-STORMS! 😀

Thanks diane, Tillie, and Roxie. 🙂

WOW! Taking care and playing with 7 dogs at the park for most of the day is exhausting. It's FUN!... But it's also exhausting. Lol. 😉

We just got back from the park a few minutes ago. I have already dropped Cory, Matt, and Snuggles' doggie friends off at their homes. I was going to give Cory, Matt, and Snuggles all baths, but I decided to wait until tomorrow to do that. We are all exhausted. I am going to go take a shower though. 🙂

Diane,
Things are getting better for me. I am still having some flashbacks; but not as many as I was the day after the crash. And I haven't had anymore seizures. 🙂

Roxie,
I would love to foster some dogs. 🙂

Today while I was at the park a lady asked me if all of the dogs that I had with me were mine. And I told her that only 3 of them were mine and the rest were dogs that live around the neighborhood. She asked me if I ran my own "doggie daycare"; and I told her no and that I would love to run my own "doggie daycare" but that I don't think I could run a "doggie daycare" AND travel around helping hoarders at the same time. 😉

If I do become a super successful extreme cleaner like Cory, 2 things that I want to have are a private jet and a fancy tour bus like what Rock Stars travel around in for me and my crew; and also so that I can take Cory, Matt, and Snuggles with me whenever I have to travel. 🙂

I'm a bit groggy, so bear with me. I went to bed at reasonable hour but didn't wake up until 3pm.

Karl, Diane, Tillie, MayMay, I'm enjoying your posts and send congratulations all around for your hard work and for your taking care of yourselves.

Diane, I "get" your fixations. I have had such tendencies myself. Where they involve NOT shopping, I just let the fixation run itself out. It might be ancestry dot com, or researching some subject, etc.

I too had collected picture frames. I enjoy them just as they are if they are "cool." On one wall I have mixed pictures and empty decorative frames. Looks nice, in my opinion. I think it baffled my oldster brother, though.

I have a lot of art that I do not plan to get rid of at this point. I may cull a few and donate them to the cat shelter thrift store.

I have a huge oil painting that I no longer care for (it was expensive, too). I am thinking of calling the library and seeing if they would have any interest in my donating it to them. They have various areas where artwork would be nice, but I also figured they could do a silent auction if they wished and get some money for it. You might think about doing something like that, too, for your nicer pieces. Other places might like some free art: women's shelters, hospitals, etc.

I have no idea what I'm up to doing today yet since I'm not even thinking straight. I did place an order for the cat shelter for three boxes of feline combo SNAP tests and when those arrive in a few days I will deliver them. It's just easier and safer for expensive items like that (not to mention fragile) if they are delivered here where I am almost always at home.

MayMay, rather than hoard animals you can donate some time to animal shelters and/or foster a dog here and there. Be careful because they WILL take advantage so you have to be able to firmly limit the number. I'd say no more than 2 dogs at any one time. My inability to say "no" led me to squalor. Sigh.

What I see most needed for shelter dogs is TRAINING so they are housebroken and are good canine citizens. Much more likely to be adopted and remain in permanent homes that way.

I love the new prison dog training systems. Excellent for prisoners and dogs alike. They have one here now.

I had a shepherd mix female foster living with me an entire year before she found a home in New England. I had just become resigned to thinking mine was her permanent home. But I was 84% happy to send her along. Her name was Lovey and she was a very good dog, Took up most of my bed, though. And was very hard to move when she was determined to stay right where she was.

My recent "shopping spree" for live plants has backfired on me as I have yet to plant anything. That makes me sad but it also ended the little spree. Sigh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i58IjeHIuZ4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7U0eszEBrM

These are some links to some YOUTUBE shows.
I found them to be very interesting and at times inspirational.

Good Afternoon 😀
Been taking it easy today, watched some videos on the computer.

MayMay, have fun romping in the dog park with a whole pack of dogs. 😀

Diane, I love reading your long posts. Gives me great insight into your thought processes as you process through your sorting out. 🙂

Hi Maymay, sounds like fun for all, see, don't need to animal hoard, just borrow friends dogs!! Was thinking about you and hope things are easier for you.
Another rainy day here, no dog park for me!!
I finished painting the room attached to the garage, it is so cute painted light pink, now will have to make a plan what I want to put in there and label the cubbies so always keep organized. No mice droppings yet, nice to have it painted so can see if mice or spiders move in.
I think so much space out there was part of the hoarding, knew there was more space so could buy anything, until there was no more space anywhere.
A friend is taking her guest to airport at 6 on Thursday and will come here at 8am. I have so many bags of frames, etc. I think I will ask if we could fill her SUV with bags including some Christmas and take to Goodwill, too much stuff for any other thrift store to handle. Some of the paintings are HUGE, wouldn't fit in my car. Goodwill can handle Christmas I would assume, will be so great to get that huge load out of here. Funny how I get on a tangent, liking acquiring picture frames to paint and do wonderful things with, then they sit for years collecting dust and I move to the next project, like tons of mirrors, then fabric, doesn't matter what I get fixated on, really think it is my mission to get a bunch of whatever it is and create these wonderful projects. Since the high is in acquiring, nothing gets made. The addiction of acquiring seems to have subsided but dealing with the consequences of this is so overwhelming, and am getting clarity on the thinking that goes behind this acquiring. Had to work on forgiveness today as I bagged up more hoard, and cleaned the dirt off floor in little room. If I can continue to forgive myself for past wrongs and believe I now deserve a wonderful clean life that is pleasant to live in. Tough to forgive myself for the mean things I said, to my nutcase mom, I did take care of her, her last year of life, to make amends to her, for being cruel to her over the years. She was very jealous of me and said cruel things, so I made sure I got even. Wish I could have taken the high road, but I didn't know better at that time.
Many time I shopped instead of spending time with friends, then lied about why I didn't make it to get together. All I can do now is be kind to myself, make my life happy and share that with current friends. Ok, at the risk of going on too long, I will end with saying how grateful I am for this board and the kindness everyone has shown and the healing that is possible if we take action daily on decreasing the hoard, and stop shopping. So grateful, even in the clouds today.

Today I am going to take Snuggles, Matt, Cory, and 4 of their doggie friends to the park to play. 🙂

Great Karl 🙂
Wishing you good luck finding willing and able helpers.

Diane,
How wonderful to find a nice room suitable for crafting, buried out by the garage! 😀
(((hugs))) for all the soul searching and self forgiveness process.
You are so beautiful. 🙂

great reading what everyone wrote. It rained here and in mountains so didn't go to lake with my friend, they went anyway, brr.
Did I mention there is a little room attached to the garage? Well I took all the picture frames and most of junk out of there today, still not done, never been painted before so soaks up the paint. did I mention I hoarded paint? yes Tillie, well If I don't use it, have to get rid of it so am painting rooms that were part of hoard haven, I saved out several frames, then got rid of them too, why would I keep them, never will use them. Even got rid of some paintings I like, but no room for them. Had to be aware of my self criticism of the hoard, forgive myself, and let the crap go. I wrote down most of the stuff I bagged up, got to be a bit much so missed writing down some. Have so much some of it is crap some good, getting easier to recognize what I like and will use and what needs to go, crafts and clothes still emotional. Miss Tillie, you were a busy young lady today, good you had your energy back.
I am really tired and want to go back out there, and am going to take care of myself and lay here and watch tv. I ate soup out of the pan today so didn't have to wash a bowl, I really am taking the week off from dishes. This morning I did do dishes, need to finish clearing backlog so can enjoy my paper plate wk. The sun peeked out for a few minutes so I laid on deck and thought of things that are bugging me from the past and told myself, I did best I could and it is ok, tough to forgive yourself and not dwell on faults, have to really work on this. When I was painting the little room todaycruddy dirty room, lots of droppings and webs, that was transforming into a cute light pink fun room with built in shelves and a counter, really quite nice and newer an in garage, I smiled ear to ear, realizing that I am going from a miserable hoarder into a lucky woman that is discovering fun places to do projects in. I can see my glue gun in there having lots of fun, appears to be insulated, garage is not, was going to take door off then realized might be nice to be out there in winter with heater and stay warm. Have never used any of the space, just stashed stuff everywhere, and saw it as a dark horrible place, now garage and room are transforming into my dream workshop, never expected this difficult work would reward me in this way. I am grateful today. Thanks for all sharing your hearts.

OK, I've booked both Friday evening and Sunday afternoon/evening for helpers. Let's see what kind of response I get this time.

Hi Karl 🙂

Book 2 days for help with the kitchen.

GREAT idea putting the plastic bags in the tubes! 😀

Good luck finding the stove parts.

HI Everybody! 😀

Today I cleaned some in the house.
Cleaned the bathroom.
Wiped off lots of areas all around in here.
Washed the floors.
Vacuumed the carpet.
Swept the porches.
Cleaned the kitchen.
Generally tidied up. There were cat toys scattered everywhere.
Then I took a shower and shampooed my hair. 😀

Cloudy and lightly drizzly day here so not doing any laundry.

Hi AnneW 🙂

Hi Diane 🙂
Remember what we asked you to do in chat last night. (((HUGS)))
WTG! on all that garage work! 😀

Hi MayMay 🙂
Big (((hugs)))

Hi Karl 🙂
Remember to call a friend to come over! 😉

Hi Roxie 🙂
lol hope you have your A.M.s and P.M.s all straightened out now.
WAY TO GO! on all you accomplished!
Now get those plants in the ground. 😀

Going to take a little nap now.
TTYL 😀

Roxie, that's part of the reason that I use 24-hour time on my computer, and on every clock that can handle it!

My current goal: Kitchen. (Landlord deadline: July 13th.) I've been doing some sessions of 15-30m. I found I had zippered plastic bags in more than one place; no container, and I didn't seem to have a good location for them -- but then I realized I could roll several of them together and store them inside a cardboard tube, one for small bags and another for large.

My electric range has four burners, one larger than the other three, and I need to replace the drip pans. A Web search revealed a four-pack deal, but when I looked closer, I found that it's two 6-inch and two 8-inch, rather than three of one and one of the other. Bah.

I'm *almost* confident of being able to clean up the kitchen on my own, but I think it'll be better if I recruit help again. I'm unsure whether to book just one day this weekend, or more than that.

Diane, you can rightfully feel proud of those painted cabinets, and that you have already planned permanent homes for those tools. Sounds nice just hearing about it.

Today, I so far have brushed my teeth, bathed and shampooed, managed to find clean clothes, ran an errant, did grocery shopping, put away all shopping items and even their bags, fed all the cats canned food (oh, they were happy cats), and opened the top of a large box in which two new shrubs arrived. Yep, waiting for me to water and plant them. Yep, soon. Yep.

Thanks for your support everyone! 🙂

You guys are great! 🙂

(((HUGS)))

MayMay, I'm so sorry to hear your news of what you've witnessed and what you've had to deal with medically. Sounds to me like counseling from your firefighter friends may be among the best helps for you. Surely they witness and experience traumas sufficient to be able to relate. Gentle hugs, friend.

AnneW, good to see you posting. Please update us, okay?

Everyone else, hugs to you.

Yesterday I was on the computer and noticed it was 7:00, so I shut down the computer and settled in to watch my Sunday night tv shows. Only none of them were on. Programming was completely foreign to me. Tried to figure if there was a holiday throwing off the schedule or what. I finally gave up, signed back on the computer, only to realize it was 7:00 IN THE MORNING. Yee gads, talk about a confused woman.

My solution turned out to be to stay up all day (useless as I was) and go to bed at a more normal hour. I got up at 9:00 a.m. (yes sun was up) more like a normal person. 😀

Maymay, thank you for posting about the support and love you are getting, I feel better knowing how loved you are by your group of friends.

MayMay, I'm so sorry you saw that. It must have been horrible.

Thanks AnneW and diane. 🙂

I've done a lot of crying today and I have been getting lots of support from my boyfriend, my boyfriend's best friend, my boss, and everyone at the bar. And today I've also hugged every firefighter and paramedic that always comes into the bar; including all of the firefighters that helped clean my room while I was in Hawaii. And earlier this evening we had a group therapy session and they all gave me advice on coping with the trauma of seeing something like the plane crash that happened. I feel like it has helped a lot. 🙂

My boss also gave me the whole week off so that I can have some time to process and cope with what happened. And right now me, Matt, Cory, and Snuggles are all staying at my boyfriend's house so that my boyfriend can keep an eye on me just in case I have another seizure. 🙂

Today rained all day so finished painting cabinets in garage, all thoroughly done, so hopefully mice and spiders will not like having everything painted white, they are used to unpainted wood and dirt and filth, so this clean stuff is shocking hopefully. Tomorrow I can move all the tools, nails, screws etc. in to their forever home and off the deck. Will be so nice to enjoy the deck without all that stuff there.
will post June challenge stuff tomorrow, too tired now

so sorry you had to see that Maymay, it will take several days to get that out of your mind, such a difficult thing for you, and then to have a seizure. Just seeing in on the news, affected me, so I can't imagine what it must have been for you.
I once stopped at a wreck and stayed with the two guys until they died and paramedics arrived. I kept waking up in terror. A friend told me to tell my mind to STOP thinking, and ask to have the image go away. Don't know if this will help or not, just want you to know that you will get through this, and the pain will get less in time, my heart goes out to you.

yes, had to unload then load Java, spent hours trying to figure it out, then 'Tillie told me to redo it, sorry you missed chat Cory

Dear MayMay -- I am so so sorry you witnessed such a traumatic event & followed by your own neurological/somatic trauma... Please know my heart is with you right now.

Be as kind and gentle to yourself as you can for the next few days and beyond. It will take some time for your body and brain to process, integrate, and heal from your recent experiences.

Allowing yourself time to cry, "zone out," sleep more, take bubble baths, receive hugs &/or massage, AND allow other people to care for/comfort you -- like your wonderful "peeps" who brought you that healthy fruit when you were sick to ensure that you didn't only eat pickles 😉

Speaking of which 😉 --Please do not neglect proper fluids and eating -- even if you don't feel like it... Even if you just have some chicken or miso soup.

I'm really glad you have Matt & Cory & NOW Snuggles to give you LOTS of LOVE 😀 & doggie "kisses" & cuddles!!!

Thinking of you, MayMay, & (as so many others said) sending you big hugs...

Update us & keep us posted on how you are feeling and doing, ok?

Take Good Care,
AnneW

5 of us have gotten into the chatroom.
We all have updated JAVA.

Yes Cory 😀
it does look silly.
We will miss you.

Yes Cory we got that too but we kept on running the updates until they worked.

You may need to unload JAVA and then reinstall it.