HI GRACE! 😀
WAY TO GO! for never giving up!!!
One clear space is fantastic! 😀
Spring will get here soon now. All the little birds looking for nesting spots told me. 😉
Wonderful to hear from you. (((hugs)))

Noooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's plastic. I was going to save it.

Ok. I can do that.

Hello Grace! Congratulations! Good work!

Dave, that is a victory in my book! You found space inside the diaper wipe box. Now to make more space by putting the wipe container in recycling? Maybe? And no, mrs Dave didn't tell me to say that. Maybe.

just posted and saw your post.
Congratulations on the clean space. That will also help with your process because now you have a staging area to set up a sorting table. All the hard work you have done is sort of like conditioning muscles too. It will help you in the next round.

Hi everyone! It has been a while. I miss you all. Long cold winter but spring is in the air. (Well, at least for a couple of days.) Still cleaning since my husband left all of his hoard behind. Sometimes I want to just give up but guess what? I never did! This group is very encouraging. One space clean in the basement . Much more to go. But, with people like you supporting me, I'll get there. Thanks

Sad day in mudville!

two boxes labelled keepsakes, which Mrs Dave prescreened for me last summer. Hmm, what can I do here? So I open them up and study on the contents. A diaper wipe box says PLASTIC SACKS!!. I open it anticipating my plastic sack high. It is ...... empty!

Heh! Heh!
Fresh victims to frighten!

WAY TO GO!!!
everybody.

Together we CAN do it!

So far today I have fed the cats
scooped litter boxes
put down fresh water & filled kibble bowls.
swept the floors
took a shower, got dressed
made my bed
straightened up, put stuff back where it goes
spent time with each cat apologizing for there not being any sunshine today

Soon I will go to the neighbor's house and relate to their pets to get them nice and spoiled before they are in my care for a whole week while their people take an anniversary vacation.
It has been a long time since I last baby sat them.

WOW! Good work Dave and Diane! Everyone,is getting it done today! Together!

Oh my goodness we are all posting at once--haven't read all of them but Tillie, reading about your daily chores is extremely helpful to me. It hasn't gotten me to act....but it will. Just you wait and see! (Insert little hearts here)

Rainy here too, no smoothie in yard, guess could set up one of 10 umbrellas, tee hee. Sure enjoy the active chit chat!!

WAY TO GO DAVE!!!

YOU CAN DO THIS!
We are all here jumping up & down, waving our pompoms from the sideline
cheering you on.

Dear Bitsy, my heart thinks of you often. Please know if I had a magic formula, I would send it to you before I sent it to everyone else.

Diane (((HUGS)))

Wonderful inspiring post.
Thank you for working so very, very hard and sharing all your struggles and successes with us.
You have been an inspiration to many.

I understand the psychology behind the attacks and that helps me to not take them too personally.
😉 (winky face smiley emoticon)

WAY TO GO!!! finding the check and being reimbursed! Always nice when shown appreciation at work. 😀

Raining & cloudy here today.
Hope you have a chance to sip a smoothie in your garden today.

15 of minutes of dish washing now
clean counters
cook something healthy
I did call for tax appt

Dave, I threw away 5 containers today that I was starting to save, thanks you yelled "toss it"

I am churning in the garage. So I can churn from the (supposed to be) garden shed to the garage. Diane and Tillie and Tatoulia are watching.

For me, in my situation, the help I can receive from here is not limited by what folks are willing to offer. It is limited by what I am willing to receive.

(((HUGS))) Tatoulia 🙂

It helps so much knowing you are there cleaning and plugging along right beside me as I clean and plug along too.

Good morning all-and I do mean all of you. Bitsy, so sad to read of your desperation, I have been there, so angry at my situation, feeling helpless, like a failure, with no way out. Motivation never came. I took advice on here, visualized an area set timer, got off my butt and started. Posted on here daily for over a year ups and downs. Tillie gave me support and suggestions. As did others, Tillie was the one consistent in my life. Shopping has always been the thing that brought me instant happiness, really was painful to stop, have had plenty of slips, but never went back to the addiction to shop. When I stay away from the board, usually because of arguments, attacks, mostly of Tillie or me, then I back slide, so now I know to just keep connected, I need the support.
Tat, I relate so closely to everything you said. Except, I do have my finances together, as together as they are going to get at my age, that is. I only buy things with cash, pay bills on time. Work even though I am 67 this year. Maintenance and excess still plague me, and the burden of not consistently changing my behaviors. The positive is we have accomplished soooooo much and we have hope now. We will continue to improve if we keep connected here.
Dave, enjoy your thinking so much, and your honesty.
When I was in pain I often struck out at others, and really felt it was my duty to point out their flaws, when in truth my pain misinterpreted others behaviors and words. I still catch my thoughts going to that place, stop and focus on what I am grateful for. My job tomorrow, gives me the weekly chance to have a condensed course in responding with love when criticized, or left out.
I made $150 yesterday, found the check for nsg. license, printed it off, and will take to work tomorrow, they offered to pay it, would not have happened if I was a grump.
I agree Dave, doing nice things for others, is a reward in itself. Doing nice things for myself, other than shopping also is heart warming. I love you Tillie, and you will be a target, people love to shoot at things that shine.

Dave,
WONDERFUL!!!! to hear about your changing thinking when it comes to buying! 😀

That is what I have been working on with Mr. Hoarder.
Think it through.
He has been doing much better too.
No longer feels the need to buy it all just because it is a good price.

YEA!!!! for you Dave! 😀

Space is an item. Thank you Dave! Space is so precious and valuable. Thank you. Whether I have "room" for an item isn't the point--it's whether I want to have it take up space. And the short answer is NO.

Hello Tillie! I just need to clean and plug away and post here. Being encouraged, understood and even at times being misunderstood are important! Thank you for that.

EVERYBODY

My apologies. I am the one that introduced the word attack. It is an emotionally laden word which I should not have used.

Tat,

If you can add Space Space Space to the refrain of I have money I have money I have money I want Iwant I want, it may help you when you again have the ability to buy more freely.

Hi Tatoulia 🙂

So very wonderful to read about your table with the lovely blooms on it! 😀
WAY TO GO!!! for all your great accomplishments!
I come here for support and human contact with people who I can be honest with about my living conditions.
It really lifts my spirits and gives me hope and the will to go on hearing that I am not alone.
Posting and reading here keeps me from just giving up.

Thank you for the smiles and encouraging words. 🙂

We have sunshine and mild temperatures here today! Lots of dirty snow piles that are still higher than my head, but I wore shoes out last night and not boots.

I have the windows open to air out my apt. My apt is a dirty, filthy mess. There is not one room I could have anyone in, but if they'd like to look at my dining room table, it is clean and clear and polished and the daffodils are fully open.

I came here when I cleared out the trash hoarder's place and I faced the fact that I am a hoarder. I've gotten rid of the stuff, I've stopped acquiring and I'm working on my finances/debt. And it's going beautifully and I credit all past and current posters. Now I can't keep up with maintenance. Simple maintenance is beyond me. I need help with this. I come here. It isn't easy, it will never be easy, and I worry once my finances are back on track I'll spend my extra money on acquiring. But for now, I'm here. I feel free to post my successes and my failures. Sometimes I post because I want contact with you. Sometimes people post things that make no sense, (TO ME) and I'm sure some people skip over my posts. Sometimes I don't agree with things people say and I'm sure the reverse is true. I soldier on and try to remember what I am trying to accomplish. Peace, cleanliness and freedom from clutter.

I email a lot at work and I read and re-read what I've written befor sending since using smiley faces in a professional email can't be done. When I'm worried re how something will sound, I pick up the phone. I don't want my tone to be misunderstood or WORSE, completely understood! Here, I write and babble on and rarely proofread. Life is tough. I find that it's easier when I have you ALL here.

Sending you all love and sunshine and fresh air.

I was not attacking either.
Neither was I preaching.
I was asked a question and I tried to answer it.
I have no malice in my heart towards anybody.
I guess I have failed to come across here as being a positive optimistic person.
When people read written words they are free to use a negative voice rather than the one actually being expressed.
That is why emoticons were invented, to relay the feelings behind the words.

i was not attacking
i was trying to communicate
i am and have been "motivated"
but apparently motivation is not enough
i dont know why I posted
maybe thats why visitors dont post
this can be a bad hurtful place
i am out of time and hope
i should be planning my funeral not trying to figure out what to do with junk and how and who to get help from
im tired of trying to be responsible for everything
ive tried and tried
I do not have the necessary abilities
Be more positive is an easy thing to say but not possible to magically accomplish. I can put on a smiley face but that doesn't make it real.
Preaching is not always helpful
I wish you all the best

Good Morning

Hi Diane 🙂
Hi Dave 🙂
How's it going you two with the boot inventory?

My mind is occupied with all my worries and fears.
Too many thoughts competing for space in my brain.
Need to quietly meditate and think my way through.
But first, the cats are demanding their breakfast. 🙂

Bitsy,
I helped people who asked me for help.
I knew them and their extended families well and they all knew/know me.
After watching/knowing them all that time I knew their personalities and thought processes.
They were in crisis when they asked for help plus I was/am still near by to answer any questions that came up over the years.
There have been people who I did talk to who were not motivated to begin so they are still stuck.
Like the man I live with. He has been listening to me though because I hear him now using terminology like churning and staging area and he also admits that he really is a hoarder.
Took a long time for him to finally see that there is a problem with all his stuff and his clutter has been starting to bother him, which is good because that may motivate him.
He has also stopped dumpster diving and rarely makes any thrift store purchases now. Fingers crossed that he doesn't back slide. 🙂
Setting up systems and schedules, cleaning and organizing comes easy to me, professionally I am a surgical assistant. That's why the people that I helped came to me.
People need to be motivated to change or it won't happen. Some take a long time thinking about it before they act.
Clutter and lack of house cleaning are common issues that are more easily tackled.
True hoarding is so much more complicated due to the people's emotions/fears/thought processes surrounding their possessions. 🙂