Sunday, November 20, 2011

Hoarder's Anonymous


We are preparing for our move to the smaller apartment. I'm really excited about living there, just not about getting all our crap out of here.

So now I have a math equation for you:

If a woman has managed to fit 400 square meters of utter crap into a 130 square meter apartment, how does she then manage to pack and contain all that in an 80 square metered apartment?

The Answer:

Throw crap out! We are having a cleaning, hoarder's anonymous, purging of the home all week long. This will be the time where I will open the junk draw and actually be honest with myself. There will never be a moment where I will really wish that I had kept the finger flashlights or those broken crayons. I am not going to miss the wrinkled pizza restaurant slips nor is there an actual emotional attachment to the ticket stubs from some bad random movie.

This stuff is going into... gasp... the recycling bin.

Now don't get too scared for me. I have already sent a Tupperware, large enough to fit Mr. Rant, full of his crap to the in-law's house. As they were the ones to encourage his collecting of CDs and comic books, they can house them.

It's 80 some odd square meters of living space which means there is only about 20 left for actual stuff.

And this isn't the real challenge. The real challenge will be me keeping that little place organized and free of clutter. I'm going to be honest, I am horribly lazy when it comes to organizing crap. I just can't be bothered, and I'm even a Virgo. So stuff that in your face astrologers. I prefer living in organized chaos.

But in the best interest of my children, I am going to reform.

So here goes the first week of the rest of my life cleaning up and organizing my crap. Maybe you should be scared for me...


This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…



  • Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
  • Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
  • Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
  • Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
  • Link up your post.
  • Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.



#SOCsunday

15 comments:

  1. Hello. My name is Fadra. And I might be a hoarder. I have the same process going on. I hope we both stay strong.

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  2. Timely, I'm trying to gather my strength to do my annual cleaning of closets and toy-toss-out/crap donations, the husband is really pushing it as we might be moving next year. I took a look the other day and just couldn't face it. Also need to embark on a 10 year shred-fest in the coming weeks (before summer vacay). Summoning my inner organizer, where are you??? Time's a wastin'!

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  3. DO it! Throw it out! My hubby and i are both children of packrats/hoarders. I've finally gotten to a point that i can purge with no problem--and am constantly calling up the vets to pick up our stuff for donation. My hubs still has a few issues, but i keep it contained to a few areas, and nag him if it spills over or looks like ass.

    Be strong! you can do it! it's just STUFF.

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  4. My husband is going through this (ironically he wrote a post about this yesterday, lol!) Good luck!!

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  5. Had to throw out so much stuff accumulated by relatives who became deceased - and then where does the stuff go? Into my house and garage! Finally, finally, I chucked it, donated...

    Once in a blue moon I get a twinge. But the deceased get to enjoy themselves in an uncluttered world, why shouldn't I?

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  6. My motto whenever I go through a purge is: BE RUTHLESS. Another motto is: if I haven't used it in a year, but I've had to clean around it for that year, then it's time to let it go! Fresh start ;-)

    --Jean

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  7. I'm sending you my super organized don't keep one extra morsel of stuff mojo!

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  8. Good luck with the move .... it's really therapeutic getting rid of all the junk ... and then you can start all over!!

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  9. I recently went through a massive declutter. My house looks completely different so now we are doing a massive (albeit slow!) redecorating.

    I loved reading this today... always fun to check in with other SOCSunday bloggers!

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  10. Moving is such a great opportunity to purge! When I moved here, I only brought what could the two 70-pound suitcases TAM allowed me. I did leave a bunch of stuff at my parents' house, but after nearly a year being separated from it, I don't even remember what it was.

    I'm a huge fan of blogs like missminimalist.com and becomingminimalist.com - I may not follow everything to the letter, but there are definitely some good principles there.

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  11. Why not try this?

    http://orgjunkie.com/

    And, c'mon, let Mr. Rant house at least one of his comic books. Those kind of things are part of what makes a man attractive, you will regret getting rid of all of them. I know this to be true since the ladies often remark that they get hot after viewing my stamp collection. It is so potent that they can't seem to withstand more than 20 seconds of exposure before closing the stockbook and moving on.

    Some tips for storing philatelic material below, useful for comics as well.

    http://www.stamps.net/storing.htm

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  12. The answer: use square feet inside of meters. Then it will all fit.

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  13. It is so liberating to declutter!!! I love the feeling!

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  14. I lol about the broken crayons! Our house is for sale and we will eventually move across country. I have gotten better over the years about getting rid of stuff but part of my problem is we do have SOOO much space and tons of storage so I haven't NEEDED tom KWIM?

    Visiting from SOC.

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