Purging or Hoarding

I'm a hoarder. I guess I can say I'm a reformed hoarder. 

I once had ten years of magazines (TV Hits, Smash Hits, Dolly, Girlfriend, Cosmo, Cleo) that I refused to throw out. Hundreds of magazines. I finally had to toss them and I cried. Not just a few tears, full on sobs. 

The mister thinks this pile is bad!

After that I refused to toss anything else and instead stuff overtook my bedroom at my dad's house. 

My poor dad had to put up with a junk room instead of a tidy room where the cats could retreat to and where guests could possibly stay. So much stuff was stored there, whenever I ran out of room where I was living I'd store dump it at dad's. There were blankets, toys, letters, school stuff, clothes, shoes, TVs - you name it and it'd most likely be there. 

My room at dad's before, what I tossed, and after. BIG difference!

The mister HATES clutter. He is a compulsive purger. Seriously he wouldn't own anything apart from the clothes on his back if he had his way. It's disgusting and inspiring at the same time. I don't know where he gets it from as his mum and sister are like me. All three of us have battled with him at points to not throw something out from his youth (I've made him keep his school bag, books and jumper - mainly out of interest as our schooling was so different). I swear he would donate all my books if he had a choice whereas they are my pride and joy.

When the mister and I first got together I was living by myself in a shoebox with NO storage (the only cupboards were in the kitchen and a tiny one in the bathroom). I'm not sure how he didn't hyperventilate every time he entered my small, cluttered home. Every surface was covered with trinkets, the floor had books stacked high and a desktop was used as a linen 'closet'. I tried to keep it tidy but with no storage and so much stuff it just didn't work. I vowed never again to live in a house with shit storage.

Since then;

1. I've lived with a housemate shit-head in a unit with awesome storage, 
2. we've lived with the mister's mum, sister and her boyfriend while I was pregnant and stored most of my stuff in their spare bedroom,
3. we've lived in a beautiful, three bedroom townhouse with awesome storage,
4. we've lived with the mister's sister and boyfriend in mostly two rooms - bedroom and spare room converted into a lounge room,
5. we know live in a two bedroom unit with not ideal storage.

While I love our unit. It's so cute and it works well for us, I do wish the storage situation was better. The courtyard is amazing and we all love it. If only it had a linen closet, a bigger bathroom and maybe air-con (although it's pretty cool here in summer). From previously living in small spaces we have good storage solutions like our desk and TV unit. 

The mister has definitely been a positive influence in reducing my hoarding tendencies. He is so encouraging when I go through piles to donate. Honestly, sometimes too encouraging but never forceful. He pretends to understand when I say I need to keep a dress because it was my favourite in school. I never threw out or donated a pair of shoes before I met him, I think I've managed to donate or toss fifteen pairs since. 

Donating

Having children brings on a whole new dimension of clutter, clothes and stuff. Whenever lufflump had outgrown clothes I'd put them all into storage straight away. The only time I'd been through it all was when he was six months old and I gave some to my friend for her baby. This week I've finally been through three MASSIVE space bags and one HUGE box full of clothes, all three of ours. I've managed to get it all down to one massive space bag and the huge box full of lufflump's clothes for sesame. Five garbage bags full of clothes were donated and three garbage bags were tossed. Of course there were winter and 'I'll fit into them when I'm not pregnant' clothes that couldn't be donated/tossed and that's mostly what I kept. 

It feels so good purging; donating and tossing. I feel satisfied, I feel lighter and I feel proud. I'm no longer a hoarder. I'm able to donate clothes, shoes, toys and housewares. I may even go through the bookcase and donate some books. It's just a start though because really I haven't made that much an impact compared to what we still have.

What we donated when we first moved here

We still have a lot of boxes and stuff down in our garage. When the floods happened earlier this year I remember telling the mister that it was ok if we lost everything in storage. I believed it at the time but not now although I know what is in some boxes while others I have no idea. I know my Beatles dolls are down there with my James Dean and Michael Jackson dolls, it would NOT be ok if I lost them. I also know that there are a lot of lufflump's toys down there and while they can be replaced it would be expensive and annoying. I'm sure there's linen down there that we haven't seen in over eighteen months and I couldn't care less if we lost that. There's a bunch of other boxes down there and I have NO IDEA what is in them.

Guess what today is? Sorting through the garage and hopefully donating over half of what is down there. We might even go through lufflump's toys. I'm determined and on a roll!

Do you purge or hoard?