On the Subject of Hoarding

I've got an admission to make, that I have a bit of an obsession at the moment, with a series of programmes on CBS Reality Channel, about extreme hoarders in the US.  I'm recording them via a series link, as they are on daily, and I'm gradually finding time to watch them.  I've mentioned before that I have mild hoarding tendencies or have had in the past as I can get quite sentimental about some items, but in recent years I have managed to get them under some sort of control and gradually minimise the urge to buy more and more 'stuff'.  I still sometimes have the odd lapse, but where I do buy anything, I try to make sure that it is either something small or something that I will definitely use or wear.

I'm finding most of the episodes very interesting, save for the ones where people hoard animals, which I enjoy less.  I can empathise with the fact that animals can be very good companions, and I could see myself with a guinea pig village if I had a spare outbuilding, but I've always found pets to be a very big responsibility, not to mention expense and some of the animals in some of the programmes don't always appear to be very well looked after, which I find a bit distressing.  Not that I'm making judgements,  it is very difficult to tell from an edited TV programme, just what is the real reality.

I do, however, find watching these programmes quite inspiring, as the psychologists and organisers very kindly and gently try to help the afflicted, whilst trying to identify the underlying reasons for their behaviour, and bring some normality back to their somewhat chaotic lives.  I have to admit I find these programmes therapeutic too, as after each programme I watch, I wander off and purge another part of the house to free us of 'stuff' I/we no longer want or need.  It seems to be working, as the house is so much less cluttered than it was 3 months ago.  I don't know what I will use to inspire me when the series ends!

Part of the reason for the sudden interest, is that we are having guests coming to stay in a week's time, so I'm trying to get a grip on the house, to enable me to give it a good spring clean in time for their arrival.  The sewing room/spare bedroom is the main room left to tackle, with piles of fabric everywhere, that I have laid out intending to use for various projects I have in my head.

This morning, I decided to start to tackle this room.  I tidied away as many stray items as I could and then decided to sort through all of my sewing patterns and there must be 70+ of them.  I pulled out any that I fancy making in the next 6 months, and any that I am never likely to make, so that the latter could be sent to the charity shop.  I probably got rid of about 10, which wasn't great, but it was progress at least.   I then matched the fabrics from the piles to the sewing patterns and created one big 'to make' pile, which makes a lot more sense of the mess.  Most of the remaining fabrics were then tidied away in drawers and other storage containers out of sight. 

There's still a bit of tidying left to do, but I'll tackle that another time.  I find that sometimes when you get stuck, as I have today, as to where you're going to put everything, if you walk away, think about it for a while and then go back to it, it can all fall into place in your mind at least where everything should eventually go.  That's my theory anyway and I'm sticking to it.