Just stopped in for a split second. Hello to everyone. Diane isn't that the best feeling, to throw something out?

Hello and keep up the good work everyone. Will write more later.

Hi gals, it is raining here, hope it comes your way Tillie, really cleaning the air. Past 2 days worked on the roof, still have leak between walls. Did stop one leak. Tillie only you can understand how exciting it is to no longer have a leak in walkway between trailer and freezer room. This morning I worked in room off garage, found some stuff to toss including a mouse in mouse trap. I organized some stuff that was so much fun. Found some fabric that had been soaked when had flood, which I planned to wash, today I said why, just put in garbage, such a better plan. Some of the craft stuff out there was so much fun to organize.
Off to work now.

Good Morning,

TTYL 🙂

Hi Bitsy, always one day at a time.

Thanks for the update, Bitsy. I am happy to hear that your making some progress and that you are maintaining the hotel room. I am sure that this is very, very stressful and am sending you strength and love.

Thank you for the Bitsy Bright story.

thanks Tatoulia, Tillie, Dianne, and LR2014.

still in motel. maybe will post some goals later. One day at a time.
we did get completely full garbage can and recycle can to street again this week for pick up.
Took son to NAMI support group last nite and to art therapy this A.M. First time he has been since hospital. He needs these. we are both a bit too introverted which can slip into reclusive. and deeper depression.
Got some bills paid. Keeping up with laundry, dishes, clutter etc at motel.
Have not felt well last few days. (spring and fall when weather changes so suddenly I get kinda sick. maybe allergies.)
Bitsy Brite was a "character" created for the grandkids when they were little. She was a woods fairy (a spirit of nature) who lived in the little woods next to their house. She would bring flowers and leaves etc and leave little notes signed Bitsy Brite was here.

Tillie I am so sorry. Sending you and the kitties much love and many hopes and wishes for clearer air NOW.

bitsy: Since I got very behind in reading posts, I started trying to catch up the other day by reading the latest ones and working backwards. (Still am behind, but I'm working on it.) One thing that I noticed in your Sept. 15 post was your comment about the joys of being with that group of very young (ages 3 to 6) children. I've come to believe that my life is missing something if I don't have at least one 5-year-old in my life. I can so relate to what you were saying! When my nieces and nephews were young, I almost always did have at least one 5-year-old in my life. Their sense of awe about the world, their inquisitive minds, their ability to have creative fun, their ability to enjoy simple things, their energy . . . it's all so inspiring. Being around them helps me put so many things in life into perspective. (I hope you found those gifts you were looking for in the "patio door" room, by the way.)

just learning the site

Oh Tillie, I'm so sorry to hear that!

Hey,

The wild fire smoke is the worst yet today. 🙁
Laying low all closed up inside, still hard to breathe.
Marty (the cat) is having coughing fits. Scooter (the cat)'s eyes are hurting him badly.

Oh Well,

Hey Bitsy, baby steps are always a good thing.

JarLady, great to see your post! Your goal is a very good one. Yeah, that stuff that might come in handy one day is very, very tough to overcome. But you'll do it!

Hi, I'm still slowly chipping away at my "hidden hoards", and just wanted to update my IN/OUT list for 2014:

Items IN: 48
Items OUT: 73

(Note: I do not count consumables or paper, unless it's a book or magazine).

Goal:
To have the OUTS double the INS.

Biggest weaknesses:
- all the stuff that "might come in handy one day"
- anything vintage
- and JARS (of course, LOL)

Just remembered the correct wording:

Life starts anew when it gets crisp in the Fall.

Much love

You are 100% right, Diane. Sounds like you did a lot today! Congratulations! But I'm happiest with your internal work. You most certainly deserve a capital D. As does Bitsy--time for a capital B Bitsy?

Forgive me all for not putting one and one together--I sure would've put a stop to it! You both deserve the respect of a capitalized name!

Keep up the good work, everyone. I continue to work on my place. Maintenance is going great and I'm finding fewer and fewer things that I'd like to keep. It's hard. It can be tough. But only when I stop and reflect.

Yes, Hello Autumn!!! I read a quote once that said, life starts anew when it gets cool in the Fall.

I am changing my name to Diane. I realize diane is low self esteem, like I do not deserve respect not even a capital letter! Tillie when you wrote Diane, thought you were talking to Dianne, when I realized you were talking to me, I felt better with capitol letter.
I have felt left out, not being in chat, was such a part of my week for 1&1/2 years. Thanks Tillie for including me in your post. I have finally done the dishes, watered all shrubs and trees, worked more on entrance, I really like it, still want to change a few things.
Did 2 loads of laundry today.
Finally threw away all the food I left in refrigerator too long, really dislike throwing so much good food away because I let it go bad.
Washed sheets today so must take overdue shower now. Good tv on tonight so have to go get in shower now. Feels good to write on here again.

Good Bye Summer. 🙁

Hello Autumn. 🙂

Bitsy

WAY TO GO!!!

Great work, Bitsy! I know how hard this is and you are doing great! Please be careful not to overdo. I hope your son is doing better. Are you back in your house yet or still in a hotel?

Baby steps
By a baby. feel so needy. I need maybe just one WTG.

posted 9/9/2014 . this was a major big deal for us.
"we went to the SE house and got five bags of trash and four bags of recycling out to the street for pick-up"

Posted: 9/15/2014.. Thought I made some progress. eliminating some computer clutter and finding rather than buying more presents and getting a bit sorted and a little trash out of that room. and being able to spend a couple hours doing one of my favorite things. One of the few things that relieve my stress and anxiety, (besides reading posts here.)
"Frustrating. my computer running slow. I don't know how I could go back to snail mail for paying bills! I did finally get a couple important ones paid. Um.. After I closed "a few" windows I had open and "a few" documents I had been working on. Yes, even clutter in my computer.

I worked in the "patio door" room yesterday. My motivation was that I needed birthday presents for my great grandson and I knew there were some in there somewhere that didn't get to him last Christmas. Strained relations between my daughter and my grand-daughter, my hoarding situation, and my grand-daughter's very crowded living conditions pretty much made last Christmas a bust. Things are going better this year for daughter, grand-daughter and of course the great grand kids. Such a relief for me. I of course had to try to help everybody instead of focusing on my PROBLEM.

Anyway, I got to be with, talk with, and observe a group of 3 to 6 year old children. I so enjoy seeing their minds working and expanding. It was a very nice change to just enjoy myself and not worry or feel overwhelmed with everything."

Thank you, Tillie, for helping me see my way to forgive myself. Very helpful. As I posted on the other page, today I am evaluating what I will be keeping, rather than what I'll be giving away. Feels more positive for me right now. Have the ten dresses I'll be keeping, not an issue saying goodbye to the others.

Good morning

Hi Diane 🙂
What a LOT of work you have done! WTG!!! 🙂
Nice that you can now enter that area.
Having the wood closer to the house will also make it easier on you this winter.
Have you been doing art/craft things?
Would love to see your rock sculptures. 😀
If you get a shelter dog they usually have had a complete physical and temperament evaluation. Come fully vaccinated, micro chipped and spayed or neutered.
Do some research on physical issues associated with different breeds too to know what you may face in the future.
Many fine, good quality puppies and older dogs can be found at animal shelters.
(((hugs))) 🙂

Hi LR2014 🙂
Nice to "see" you last night in chat.
Keep up all your fantastic progress! WTG!!!

Hi Tatoulia 🙂
Your insight into the "why" do I have these things is FANTASTIC!
Once we realize what made us buy or keep items, it becomes easier to make better decisions as to what we actually need & want to keep for ourselves.
You weren't bad or knowingly being wasteful when you acquired. You were thinking with your emotions and the emotions told you that this was the way to do things.
Now you're brain is in charge of the thinking and you are able to make better decisions as to what you need and want for your life.
(((hugs)))

The smoke has blown back in, was nice to have that little relief.
My plans for today are to do cat related stuff, some laundry and kitchen tidying up.
Need to try to wash Scooter's eyes. They are troubling him and have become crusty.
He really hates having the wash cloth on his face and fights it tooth and nail, but only if I can catch him in the first place. lol
Catch ya later.

I just finished it. What an uplifting movie!

LOL Tatoulia 😀
I watched that too!

Tillie, that was a lot of outdoor work today--I hope the winds at least brought fresher air with them. Oh, and you are a saint. Today I watched part of a Netflix movie and thought about you...a documentary about someone building his own Tiny House and I thought, I bet this would suit Tillie.

Dianne, it was Tillie who gave me the mental image of building up my mental muscles. And the image is resonating with me, too.

LR, I enjoy your posts immensely. I gain a lot of strength from you.

Will write more later. My day continues to show progress, and I give each of you credit for that.

LR, I was kind of forced into getting over those hurdles asking for help. Over the summer I had to take on care for someone that was going to take most of my time daily. I knew my own home would crash horribly. Laura can do a lot but not for more than a day. Since we needed the help just with animal care and maintaining I figured, try to bite the bullet and see what can get done without my peevish pecking.

Today I started on one of the last two bedrooms that are still stuffed with stuff. I'm exhausted, will write about it tomorrow.

We had terrible winds last night, lots of tree branches down.
I got up before the sun and started cleaning up all that mess.
Since I was already out there anyways, I watered everything and burned a lot of old branches and other stuff.
Pruned tree branches I could reach that were too near the house.
Tried killing the red ants, again.
Discovered hoards of wasps and sprayed them.
I am tired.
"He" sat at his computer playing games.

Heard a Dove making an unusual squawking sound and went around to the side yard to see what was up.
My Great Horned Owl was having breakfast. 🙂

A couple of other comments for the moment: Dianne, I relate to the idea of having a hard time asking for help. From what I've read from you since I've been on here these past few months, it sounds like you've gotten over a lot of hurdles with that issue. (Yea for you!) I had gotten to the point of being willing to get help from one particular friend several years ago, but she's pretty unavailable right now because of life circumstances. I do have help dealing with a parents' leftover hoard, but I'm slow to get help with my own. I'm working on some specific ideas right now for getting help, though. (More to come on that later.)

Tatoulia, I love your thinking as you let go of a lot of stuff. Thank you for the encouragement you give to us on this site. Hugs to you (and to everyone else here as well).

I'm catching up little by little on reading posts. I see that SusanL recently wrote: "I thought I needed all that stuff but it was ruining my life. Better without it. Give away, throw away, just get it OUT of the house." I really relate to that statement! It's encouraging and inspiring to hear what all you've gotten done, Susan! Yea!

This afternoon, I plan to have lunch with family members. I also plan to work a little on some paperwork, including getting a bill paid. I will probably also go to the coin-op laundry to dry the clothes I washed yesterday. Although I might be a little late, I will likely be at the chat tonight.

Have a wonderful afternoon, everyone!

Well you all made me very happy with your posts! How nice to hear from you all. As usual, Diane, you exhaust me with the amount of work you've done! I had to learn early on during my dehoarding that I cannot spend too much time mourning the $$ I wasted on this sale item or that sale item. There was this part of me, during the beginning of the process, that felt like I'd abused my privilege of owning things and now I'm being punished. I had to turn that around pretty rapidly in order to move forward. I found that my stuff fell into threeson categories: 1) the stuff I hung onto for emergencies or if someone else might need it, which I call my Just in Case stuff; 2) the stuff that I thought Ioved, including things that I have an emotional attachment to because so&so gave me or something I bought to portray myself as a certain way to the outside world; and 3) things I just bought because I liked them or they were on sale or they made me feel good. Once I recognized the just in case stuff, I got rid of it. I'll run to the store if someone needs a hero. The emotional stuff required me to figure out why I was keeping it (largely to prove to myself that I was loved--honestly does the card from the bookkeeper at my office where I worked 15 years ago and sent when I had my appendix out merit keeping?). The sale stuff and buying stuff to feel good (let's try on about 4 or 5 different set of glass plates and bowls, shall we?) made me feel wasteful and stupid.

But I've found a way around. I read these posts and I leaned on you and I got your praise and was forced to notice that I am loved and important in my own right. I freely and honestly feel gratitude and affection for each of you. You cannot imagine what it feels like to know that in fact, I'm okay, and if I cry you will offer me a dry shoulder to cry on. If I beat myself up, you'll run to my defense.

Diane, I feel like being with people and being "on" is exhausting, hard work. We will talk more about that some other time. Just bite your tongue and find a way to suffer the fools gladly. (That has made my New Year's resolution list more than once).

Much love and gratitude. Thank you all for saying nice things to me.