Self confessd Hoarder

mamamags young friends of ours moved into a flat which had been emptied by the children of the elderly woman who lived there, emptied except for a hoard of sewing stuff including sewing cotton in every conceivable colour, embroidery cottons (likewise), measuring tapes, buttons, scissors and all sorts of wonderful stuff all neatly sorted in old fashioned shirt boxes. From the prices some of it is pretty old.

You guessed it - the wife doesn't do "any of that" so they called me in and asked "Would you like it?" I fell upon the treasure trove and have made good use of it ever since.

I hope the original owner is smiling down on me from wherever she is

Decide on two or three crafts to do and get rid of the rest. Schools often want crafting supplies so you could donate to local schools. If you have a lot of fabric store it in vacuum pack bags as that will take up less space if sewing is a craft you want to continue.

Yes I am a hoader, I have taken up alll sorts of hobbies, jewellery making, dress making, stain glass, wood turning, painting, you name it I have probably tried it. Lucky for me my son is also iinto craft and has taken over the stain glass stuff (and made a very nice stain glass window for the shed). He also paints so he collects a lot of my painting stuff. Now its just the piles of materials I have waiting to be made into somethng and the books I cant bear to part with. As my son is also a hoarder he will probably keep most of the stuff I leave behind when I pass on.

One day I might need all those empty yoghourt pots, face cream pots and small glass jars that baffle DH. About to be put into my sewing box is the cord from the carrier bag flower arrangement that I was given recently (along with other salvaged trimmings). I'm sure there will be a use in the future for the leather and metal trimmings that I cut from some worn out loafers. Throw something out and you find you need it next week. Shortly after DD1 took 40 years of old paint pots to the tip we found we needed two of them to match up some damaged paintwork. SiL1 refers to our garage as Aladdin's cave.

I have been trying to get rid of 'stuff' since I read those excellent ideas on a thread a little while ago. But my DH still hoards. He has loads of 'stuff' from when he was building an airplane!

So many of us guilty of hoarding - makes me feel less guilty! A couple of people have already suggested donating to WI, schools etc. Can I suggest donating to groups such as Brownies, Rainbows, Messy Church all of which are run by volunteers and have limited budgets?

Unless you are really elderly, (not 70) Just enjoy all of your things!
I appreciate all my bits and bobs.
When we go to our reward (!) the DC and DGC can take anything they fancy, and then the other things can be sold or given to a charity, or failing that, freecycle.

I love having a good clear-out, can't stand having loads of stuff in the house. Just done 23 years' worth from under the stairs. Freecycle is a great way of getting rid of stuff to a new home rather than to landfill.

I vowed when I moved to this house that the loft would remain empty and to date it has. I am slowly getting rid of "stuff" by taking it to a local charity shop.

I once worked with a colleague who certainly did not hoard- she owned something like 6 pairs of knickers, ditto tops and trousers. She rented a room and it was almost devoid of anything personal. A bit OTT for me but I do not need the amount that I do possess.

My OH's mum sadly died a couple of years ago. She had been a dressmaker and crafter for most of her life. One bedroom was packed floor to ceiling with all her craft stuff and the attic held many many banana boxes filled with material of every colour and type you could imagine. Then there were all the little treasures and ornaments she had acquired in her past 90 years. Not to mention all the beautiful porcelain dolls she had made and then dressed with fantastic clothes over the years. Then there was a garage plus a workshop both filled with her husband's tools etc etc which had not been touched in the almost 20 years since he died. My OH gave lots of the crafting stuff to his daughter (also a crafter) and his sister took many of the dolls and yet more boxes of material to her home abroad. I helped him to sell loads of his dad's tools and he threw lots of broken/rotten stuff away. Even so, his house is now crammed with stuff from his mum's house and he he has even hired a self-storage unit to store a vast amount of stuff, esp boxes and boxes of books. It seems like an insoluble problem. The last 2 years have been a strain on his health (he's rapidly approaching 70!) and our relationship but he can't bring himself to actually sell anything to clear his house and is still paying rental on the storage unit. Meanwhile my house is full of 60years of clutter and an ever increasing amount of card making stuff. MyDS is likely to skip everything when the time comes and decluttering seems impossible without a lot of help! We are both overwhelmed and it is just easier to go out sometimes and forget the mess at both houses. Maybe we should be on the Hoarders programme on TV! Aaagghhh. Oh, and my DGD lives permanently with me and adds to the clutter on a daily basis!

Books seem to be attracted to me! I do pass them on once i've read them though

I keep all the books I really enjoyed as I will read them again. A few books I have lent out to people and not been returned have been bought again! Just live books.

I can't resist buying books and I think we have more books than some public libraries! I have a pile on the bedside table waiting to be read, and bookcases full of books I have read but I keep in case I want to read them again. I have books from my own childhood, books from my sons childhood etc
I've filled my shopping trolley and given them to Oxfam but it's made no impact.
I must be a bookaholic if that's the word. Surely I'm not alone?

You are definitely not on your own mrsmopp, especially going by the responses to this particular post. It appears that a good percentage of us are addicted to some type of this hoarding process The trouble with me is that I cannot resist a bargain and they keep piling up.

I really must be the answer to a salesman dream