Hey there!
Jul. 12th, 2011 07:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
squirrelodoom posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
unclutterI was so very glad to find this community!
I hope you don't mind the "o hai! Here's my first post!" post-- I guess I need to start at the beginning and work from there.
I have a problem with organization. My dad was born shortly before the Depression, and my mom was raised very frugally-- so when I was a kid, you never threw anything away. Things that couldn't be used for its primary purpose can always be used for something else, or saved so that it could be used. It was ok and my mom kept things pretty neat until my dad got sick and she had to work. So it was a double whammy: My mom wasn't able to be home to contain, and my dad who wasn't working would both fill the void by shopping and would insist that we needed to save everything... and since he wasn't well the house fell apart.
Fast forward to today: I still struggle, and I'm worried about losing the battle. It's nowhere near what happened when my brother had moved out and literally left us a Hoarders: Buried Alive-style mess to dig out in his room... but I have a teenager, a preschooler and a toddler. The younger two literally will tear things apart after I put toys and books away, and since I need to keep an eye on them it's hard to really go through boxes and stacks of papers unless my husband, mom, or teen daughter are there. Teen daughter does chores, but it's grudgingly. My mom recently had a knee replacement so until recently, it's been me taking care of the kids and my mom. Add to this mild depression issues and my cleaning just slid into survival mode.
Now that mom's knee is better and the girls are a wee bit older... I'm trying my best to dig out. So far my stratagies are:
*I have a charity that comes in my area every five weeks to pick up donations. I always tell them I have something, and I make sure I have at least one box for them to take. There's a box always dedicated to donations. Today was a pickup day; and I was able to winnow out games that my older child does not play anymore but are too old for the younger two.
*I've put safety pins on my hangers in my wardrobe, and turned my folded clothes so that they are "backward" for me. When I take something off a hanger, I slip the safety pin off and don't put it back on. Clothes worn and washed get folded and put back the "right" way. In six months unless it's something specific like a coat or special outfit, those items not worn are getting donated.
*Trying to replace all the batteries in remotes and toys and the like to rechargable, so I'm not constantly having to buy replacements and have to have a special box that I need to take to the special hazardous item drop off.
There's so much more I have to do, but one day I'll get there. This all didn't happen overnight; so it's going to take a bit for me to get back to organized chaos. Thanks for listening to me; and I look forward to reading and talking with everyone.
I hope you don't mind the "o hai! Here's my first post!" post-- I guess I need to start at the beginning and work from there.
I have a problem with organization. My dad was born shortly before the Depression, and my mom was raised very frugally-- so when I was a kid, you never threw anything away. Things that couldn't be used for its primary purpose can always be used for something else, or saved so that it could be used. It was ok and my mom kept things pretty neat until my dad got sick and she had to work. So it was a double whammy: My mom wasn't able to be home to contain, and my dad who wasn't working would both fill the void by shopping and would insist that we needed to save everything... and since he wasn't well the house fell apart.
Fast forward to today: I still struggle, and I'm worried about losing the battle. It's nowhere near what happened when my brother had moved out and literally left us a Hoarders: Buried Alive-style mess to dig out in his room... but I have a teenager, a preschooler and a toddler. The younger two literally will tear things apart after I put toys and books away, and since I need to keep an eye on them it's hard to really go through boxes and stacks of papers unless my husband, mom, or teen daughter are there. Teen daughter does chores, but it's grudgingly. My mom recently had a knee replacement so until recently, it's been me taking care of the kids and my mom. Add to this mild depression issues and my cleaning just slid into survival mode.
Now that mom's knee is better and the girls are a wee bit older... I'm trying my best to dig out. So far my stratagies are:
*I have a charity that comes in my area every five weeks to pick up donations. I always tell them I have something, and I make sure I have at least one box for them to take. There's a box always dedicated to donations. Today was a pickup day; and I was able to winnow out games that my older child does not play anymore but are too old for the younger two.
*I've put safety pins on my hangers in my wardrobe, and turned my folded clothes so that they are "backward" for me. When I take something off a hanger, I slip the safety pin off and don't put it back on. Clothes worn and washed get folded and put back the "right" way. In six months unless it's something specific like a coat or special outfit, those items not worn are getting donated.
*Trying to replace all the batteries in remotes and toys and the like to rechargable, so I'm not constantly having to buy replacements and have to have a special box that I need to take to the special hazardous item drop off.
There's so much more I have to do, but one day I'll get there. This all didn't happen overnight; so it's going to take a bit for me to get back to organized chaos. Thanks for listening to me; and I look forward to reading and talking with everyone.
