#ocd hoarding

[meatsugar-general]

Hey, why the fuck aren't we talking about the horrible trauma that affects children in hoarding situations.

Can we like, please stop using the hoarding tag to romanticize it.

People who use the term hoarding for a description of something happier have never lived in a house where your beloved pet has been dead under the couch for half a year.

[tiger-in-the-flightdeck]

Attempting to do some organising today. Laubdry basket is unloaded, folded and/or hung up, and now I'm folding fabric. I ordered a few more storage bins because I've run out, so right now it's just folding. No labelling or packing.

[tiger-in-the-flightdeck]

Trying reeeeally hard not to be embarrassed or ashamed that my hoarding had gotten bad again over the summer because I wasn't working on organising anything. I'm just going to focus on the positives and the realities: I did a lot of work on it before I relapsed, and now that it's getting cold again, I'll have the energy to get back to it.

I ordered myself a few more storage bins, to put fabric into, which should cut down on the Pile by a huge amount. I think I might also organise what's left of the fabric by what I bought it for. So one bin for dress fabrics, one for lingerie, one for quilting, and so on.

Wish me luck, please.

[tiger-in-the-flightdeck]

Fabric storage tips are all 'Fold your fabric and put it in a drawer!' 'Fold your fabric and put in these cute 25 dollar boxes!' 'Fold your fabric and put it in a drawer except this time the drawer is in a filing cabinet!'

Which is my grumpy way of saying I'm storing all my fabric, which until today had been just sitting in shopping bags in a giant heap in the middle of my room. Some for multiple years.

I've folded approximately ten miles of fabric so far.

[tiger-in-the-flightdeck]

I am gradually (so gradually) working my way through my hoarding situation. This afternoon I used vacuum sealer bags to compress and stack all of my faux fur. My next step is going to be to iron and fold all of my cotton fabric, I think. Using sealer bags on that won’t be too effective, but ironing it should be. I’ve already gone through all of my stuff previously, and gotten rid of a lot of things, which is a huge deal for me and my hoarding compulsions. So the focusing on storing what I have, instead of the anxiety inducing process of downsizing, is going to be what I have to do now. As it is, everything I have is just basically sitting around the middle of my room in a huge pile of shopping bags.

If anyone with OCD has a severe hoarding problem and have found techniques to cope with it, I’d love to hear them!

[tiger-in-the-flightdeck]

Hoard tackling day 5:

I went through two of my storage bins that had fabric in them, because someone was asking on Buy Nothing for cloth to start sewing with. I was able to fill one of those big reusable shopping bags from walmart with stuff for her without making myself panic.

Immediately after I put the last piece in the bag, I did get the urge to go onto my favourite fabric store’s website to order new stuff, but I worked through it, told off my usual intrusive thoughts(no, brain, nothing terrible will happen if I give away that metre of satin I’ve been holding onto for almost twenty years, shut up.), and my trembling is already starting to pass.

I know for someone not on the ocd spectrum, this sounds like the simplest thing in the world, but for me this is a huge win. I’m almost in tears, but in a good way.

[tiger-in-the-flightdeck]

Hoard progress, week 2:

Folded nearly all of my fabric

Stored fabric in catalogued bins

Stacked bins against my far wall so they are out of the way while I do the rest of my work

Folded one wardrobe shelf worth of clothes and put them in cardboard boxes, instead of them being shoved in the back corner of the shelf

Catalogued another bin of craft supplies

Divided all of my pearls, crystals, and gemstones into small bottles (which does double duty of storing both the jewels AND the bottles!) and put them in a nice tin

Vacuum sealed two more bags of wool and yarn and stacked them out of the way

Filled and catalogued smaller bins of specific craft supplies, like my glitter and sequins

Absolutely, completely, ridiculously tired

Absolutely, completely, ridiculously PROUD!!

[tiger-in-the-flightdeck]

Hoard tackling, the first week:

Found several things I had been driving myself up the wall thinking I had lost or thrown out. But thankfully never bought replacements for, something I’ve done a lot in the past.

Gave away 1 storage bin worth of fabric.

Used vacuum sealing bags to compress faux fur and yarn to save a ton of space. The sealed items also go pretty rigid when all the air is sucked out, so it makes stacking and moving them a lot easier.

Filled and catalogued the contents of three storage bins, emptying a fourth in the process (moving items from the fourth into the other three)

Filled those bins by ‘theme’ rather than just randomly throwing stuff in them. That means that I’ll have one bin for jewellery supplies, one for general arts and crafts, one for sewing/embroidery, and so on. This will mean that when I want to work on a specific project, I only have to go into a single bin to get what I need, rather than a bunch of different ones.

Cleared out a shelf in my wardrobe.

Put one of the filled bins on the shelf- now it is filled, catalogued, and OUT OF THE WAY!! (I’ll put a second bin on the shelf after lunch, my arms are a bit noodly right now, so I’m going to have to work up to lifting more)

Only had one breakdown!!