I have a lot of stuff & how I deal with it

OK... I admit, I have a lot of stuff, but then again I have been married since I was 17. OK, not to the same guy but that's a whole nother story.

The House Elf called me a hoarder.  I am not but I looked it up anyway. You can walk through my house and when I have my house in order it's awesome but moving three times in a year and a half kind of puts a kink in that ability. So, I looked at; http://sodomesticallychallenged.com/hoarder/ and on her scale of five color levels I am a green. Check it out and see where you fall in this chart.

Green:

Structure and Zoning • All doors, stairways and windows accessible • All plumbing, electrical, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems fully functional • Installed and functional fire and carbon monoxide (CO) detectors Animals and Pests • Appropriate animal control (behavior and sanitation) • Number of animals in compliance with zoning regulations • No evidence of non-pet rodents or insects Household Functions • No excessive clutter • All rooms being used for intended purposes • All household appliances fully functional • Consistent routine housekeeping and maintenance Health and Safety • Safe and maintained sanitation conditions • No odors (animal, food or natural gas) • Medications: quantity within normal limits; appropriately stored, current dates and child-proof lids as indicated Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) • PPE Optional • First aid kit, hand sanitizer, flashlight and insect repellent.

With a few "issues".... 

• my "garage" stuff: tools & nuts and bolts are in the kitchen or on the porch, waiting for the tool shed.
• My kitchen stuff: dishes, pots & pans, canning & baking equipment & supplies are all in totes in the kitchen waiting for the cupboards.
• My books are in boxes in the living-room waiting for the bookshelves that are in storage.
• My studio equipment is in boxes in my room waiting for a studio.
• Isaac & Alissa's stuff is in boxes in my room and the man-child's room waiting to be taken to them.
• Electrical: I need an electrician to come and figure it out. We bought this house as a half finished remodel. The electrical box has new breakers and all of the outlets and lights that do work that have been updated. There are still whole walls; one in the living-room and one in the House Elf's room, that obviously haven't been connected to the new box. We also need lights and outlets moved for the new kitchen design but this will have to wait till the cash comes in from the sale of the other house. 
• Plumbing: It all works but we have plans for a second bathroom and need to move it around a bit for the new kitchen design, again a money project. Remember I had to have a new well drilled, yes, I am still paying on that.
• Structurally: the back of the house needs to have the brickwork finished, all of the brick is around, I have been gathering stray bricks from all corners of the property since we moved in. This will be a spring project. There is a lot of little things that need to be done but that is why we got such a good deal on this house. 

These things are works in progress and not intended to stay that way.

Most of the things here in my house that the House Elf squawks about is a matter of opinion and taste. She hates anything that looks country and thinks my house needs to be stainless steel and glass topped. (Hello? Have you met us?) Btw: she HATES the color red I put on the wall in the living-room but it "feels" warm and cozy to me. 

So, as we have concluded, I am not a hoarder but I do hang on to things and I have a lot of things that aren't necessary, in "other" peoples opinion, like my apple, peeler, corer. Don't call me a hoarder because I have a tote full of jeans (Yes, one whole tote full) that has jeans in it that I can wear for any occasion; hippy campfire evening, yuppy casual dinner and drinks, work, a cob work day... and the pair I am wearing that I got when my oldest son was a toddler.... that's NOT hoarding, that's being thrifty, well rounded and prepared.

Since I am always trying to figure out why I do things I began a little further research and as I dug I found a bit of psychology behind "hoarding". 

• Trauma; neglect & abuse, physical brain damage (loss of cognitive ability)
• Loss; death of a loved one, abandonment & divorce 

Understanding Hoarding
Hoarding is the persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their actual value. The behavior usually has deleterious effects—emotional, physical, social, financial, and even legal—for a hoarder and family members.

Reasons for Hoarding
People hoard because they believe that an item will be useful or valuable in the future. Or they feel it has sentimental value, is unique and irreplaceable, or too big a bargain to throw away. They may also consider an item a reminder that will jog their memory, thinking that without it they won’t remember an important person or event. Or because they can’t decide where something belongs, it’s better just to keep it.

Hoarding is a disorder that may be present on its own or as a symptom of another disorder. Those most often associated with hoarding are obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and depression. 

Although less often, hoarding may be associated with an eating disorder, pica (eating non-food materials), Prader-Willi syndrome (a genetic disorder), psychosis, or dementia.

Also; we have a special needs child that hasn't the cognitive function to NOT be a "hoarder". If he has something in his hand and is finished with it his hand goes down and it falls where ever he happens to be and it is forgotten, forever & always, whether it is a toy, clothes or trash.... the psychology of this is pretty obvious too.

This is obviously where people need help.

https://challengingdisorganization.org/content/clutter-8211-hoarding-scale

Hoarding vs. Collecting
Hoarding is not the same as collecting. In general, collectors have a sense of pride about their possessions and they experience joy in displaying and talking about them. They usually keep their collection organized, feel satisfaction when adding to it, and budget their time and money.

Again; the Craft-room is a whole page onto it'self. I don't have time to go into that today.

 

About Me:

I was raised by my grandparents. My parents got divorced when I was three years old and my mother went back to school and my dad went to work. I guess it was easier for everyone for me just to be at "Mom's". There is a whole weird control issue here too but I am not opening that can of worms, at least not today. Here's the abandonment and trauma psychology issue.

My grandparents were married and lived together through the Great Depression which caused my grandfather to say, "Don't use all of that" about everything, all the time, over & over... for years. When I was married for about ten years I went to my bathroom cupboard and I realized had a dozen bottles of shampoo in there with about an inch of shampoo left in each bottle... and the echo's of "Don't use all of that." in my head. Once I realized what I was doing and why, I used all of the shampoo in the bottles and use things all the way to gone before opening a new one. This ran over into lotions, toothpaste, make-up. Let me tell you that part of the legacy ran deep. It took me a few years to recover from that one, I think,  I actually didn't have to buy shampoo for at least a year. More obvious psychology.

 Fifteen years ago, when I got divorced I was devastated. I packed up 20 years of my life in boxes. I was in mourning for a husband that didn't exist, for a life that had been and would never be again and it stopped me in my tracks. I moved into a house and I unpacked the things I used daily, pots & pans and the like but the things that were part of my "past life" stayed packed away, crouching in boxes in the basement, taunting me with memories. My whole house was packed in a few short days by three of us, just grab a box and fill it, that was the objective, no sorting or even writing on the boxes, tape them shut and move on.  As the years went by I began going through the boxes that I had no idea what was in them or I what memory it would invoke when I opened it. It took me about 5 years after my divorce, before I opened the last box and sorted it. The psychology of this pretty much speaks for itself. 

I use things the way they were intended to be used, I don't use a kitchen knife to open a can of paint, I use the paint opener for that, so, I own another thing. I have a couple of round nose shovels for digging, one flat nosed for scraping, a heavy metal snow shovel, a light big flat snow shovel, a couple of short pointy shovels, hand trowels, a rectangle shovel for digging trenches, does this mean I am a shovel hoarder? No, it means that I have collected what I need when a project arises and I have taken care of it and I still have it, duh! That is pretty much how I got cookie sheets, cake pans, bread pans, muffin pans, wine making supplies, craft supplies, gardening supplies, and all the other stuff I have. That's not hoarding, that again is getting what you need and using it as you need it. The other day, as I looked around, I asked my husband, "Do you think I am a hoarder?" He looked at me and grinned... then he said, "No, You use everything you have." Thank you very much!

When I moved (in my past life) from Indiana back to Michigan I filled two 4o foot semi's with my life. when we moved back here I filled a 20 foot truck and a 20 foot storage unit. (The equivalent of ONE semi). In those years I cut what I owned by half. Read on to find out how.

When I lived in a house with closets and shelves and a garage for tools and Christmas boxes and everything had a place, I began teaching a class. This class was called the "Gentle Art of Soul Crafting." This class was geared towards women being taught by woman, the idea behind it was that years ago woman were taught by the older woman, neighbors, sisters, mothers from their community in all things, from how to deal with a colicky baby to what to use on your hair to make it healthy, how to craft and cook and all these things that quite a few woman's spirits' hunger for but in this day and age. In an age where people move far from where they were born and do not root deeply this class became a solid foundation for a beautiful circle of women. 

One of the things I taught was organization of stuff.