Update 12/9/2010

I got rid of 2 boxes worth of stuff today via throw out and via give away yay! I also combined some boxes to save on space so technically I got rid of 4 boxes (even if two of them just were emptied into other boxes lol) Tomorrow I will attempt to go through those boxes I combined and try to get rid of more stuff out of them and combine those boxes into one instead of two or whatever...anyways...slow process but being pregnant has benefits as far as memory goes I have pregnancy brain fog so I don't remember what things are so its easier to get rid of but it also has its difficulties...so tired...and aches and pains make it hard to do much but it will work out I am sure...I will get through the whole room I have to get through and hopefully start to go through the garage before baby gets here...I probably should do the garage first so we have a garage to put our car in for the winter so we dont have to scrape windows...anyways...thats my update thanks for checking in on me...I just thought of another thing to post as far as hoarding thought processes...I may post that soon...not sure when though...anyways...talk to you later.
Sincerely,
Rabeka Jo

Progress as of 11/27/2010

Sorry I didn't get a chance to update the day this progress happened but I at least am posting an update right? OK.
So I spent 6hrs cleaning I cleaned the bathroom (prolly for 30 mins) I took a few breaks cause I am 3 months pregnant and its very exhausting to do much of anything...but for the rest of the time I cleaned the boys room...I got rid of many buckets of toys and downsized to a few bins that fit under their beds...swept and got things cleaned for my son's birthday party the following day which was a success...My husband went through the living room and back door entry way which looks like a whole new house and also the dining room table and kitchen counters as well as the stove...the pantry is still cluttered a little...and the baby's room is now packed full...but I plan to go through one box a day...(at least) I have 6 months 6 days as of today till my due date is here...long as the due date sticks which from the sounds of it they maybe moving it a week before that due date...(June 5th)...anyway I have been doing really good as far as getting rid of toys of sentiment...now that I have the boy's toys under control I get to tackle my own hoard and get rid of the things I planned to do something with many years ago but never have done anything with...which my husband had found some of these type things while going through the entryway and dinning room...and I proudly told him ya I planned to do something with that yrs ago...lets just toss it so I am very proud of myself! Yes there was the anxiety there which made me angry...but it isn't his fault for asking a simple question about do I want to keep this or get rid of it?...its not his fault...I kept telling myself this and thats what got me to be able to tell him toss it...on a few things he did run across...some things I did keep...I have to admit...but they were little things I am not ready to let go of just yet...I will but not right now...I got rid of 98% of the stuff he asked about...anyway...
I am doing good...my husband on the other hand...I want to get rid of the books on ebay...and donate some of the profit to different foundations that have been apart of my life...the books are from my belated mom's belated husband's aunt...and many of them are first editions and my husband wants to keep hold of them incase someday they are worth something...and the national geographic magazines I also planned to do the same on ebay and he wants to keep those as well...oh well...anyways...he did throw away a whole lot while going through boxes while I went through toys...anyways...I am proud of him...just some of the stuff kept don't make sense to me but of course my keep pile probably don't make sense to him either...oh well...we will end up getting rid of a lot of stuff and gain two car garage, and baby's room before we know it...just baby steps...one box at a time...as planned...and if feel up to it more than one...and only work 15 mins at a time...and drag out so much stuff that it takes longer than 15 to pick back up and put back away for later looking through if have to halt on the task...anyways...I think we are making progress and keeping these things in mind throughout my doing the going through is helpful...as well as it helps to say to myself I want a house to live in to entertain family and friends in...and raise my family in...not a storage unit...and that keeps me going...also it helps that I have a clock to go by...I have to be ready in 6 months for the baby...so that helps...set a date I would suggest as your "due date" when you want everything in order 6-9months down the line would be good...so that way you have a dead line...or set it for a holiday that you want the family over for dinner or whatever...even if its a yr or two away even....long as you have a due date or a dead line...you can do it I believe you can! just believe in yourself!
Sincerely,
Rabeka Jo
P.s. Comment your progress I would love to hear about your progress in your hoard and tell me if I am encouraging you or not? I am doing this for free I am not trained...its just what I gathered from the hoarding shows and my personal experience as far as whats going on in my head and anxiety and all that...anyways I hope it helps someone...and I hope it encourages someone...if not a whole lot of people as I hope...anyway ttyl

My Progress as of 11/22/2010

Hello guys and gals, Beka here. I have been going through toys, I have a big huge black plastic trash bag full of toys! Go me! Only one set back...I was getting tired and dumped trash toys and dog hair and dirt swept up into the darn bag and now I have to dump it out and sift through it and get all the good toys back out and throw away the bad ones and then fill the bag back up with good toys to be donated to Good Will or D.A.V. or we have a place called Y.W.C.A. Treasure Chest its for D.V. victims and their families (the profits help fund the shelters) Anyway...the bag has been sitting for 4 or 5 days now waiting for me to go through again...and suddenly I lost my motivation again...I still have loads of toys to sift through that we still have in the boy's room. Tonight we started going through the boy's room again, and got quite a few more toys added to the trash and the bag to be gone through again lol...It is so hard ya'll...There are so many toys my mom got my boys and its very hard to get rid of them, even if they are broken! WHY?! She just Died in 2009 This Jan will be 2 yrs...maybe that has something to do with it...I just don't know. Then there are the toys I got from my mom that were my child hood toys that I just can't part with...which is again stupid cause I had them for many years and for some odd reason my kids destroyed most of them in a matter of moments with them...guess that is the difference in 4 girls and 2 boys...I don't really know...lol...Anyway I am trying to get places with my hoarding and fast...we have a week to get ready for the birthday part for our oldest son. (next sunday is his party yikes) I am probably going to be trying to rearrange the garage to make room for the stuff in the house and move it all out there until the party is over lol...then go through them maybe a little at a time bringing things back into the house one box at a time or something so its not so overwhelming...Anyway...its a process and its so overwhelming of a process I kind of wish I was rich so I could afford a professional to come in and help me...though I have good days and I have bad days as far as energy goes, and my health goes...I have headaches some days, I have nausea others...sometimes I have both...and most of the time I am just totally exhausted and cant hardly do much of anything...just doing the necessary things are impossible for me at times....like go to the school and drop off our youngest at school, then later in the day pick up both boys from school...that takes the life out of me completely most days...I don't understand why I have energy some days and not others, but I am too young to feel this damn old is a definite conclusion I have came to realization of. Maybe its pregnancy, but its been this way for a long time long before pregnancy...to come think of it...I been like this since Teen years (yes Aunt Flow began)...but no one but me puts the two and two together...usually when I am pregnant I feel the most normal far as mental goes...the physical becomes a challenge with my unbalanced body forming...lol...but I am tip top shape in the head minus the pregnancy fog and memory problems and well OK its not tip top...but my depression is minimal...but this go round...it hasn't hit that point yet...its like I just skipped that part and went straight into postpartum depression...which is very odd...anyway back to the hoarding.

I got rid of a easter basket my mom got my son's (well there is two I just don't know where the other one is...the boys used it to carry their gerbils in so it had pee and poop inside it and it was just gross...but I dusted off the dog fur and dust bunnies (cause it was found under the bed) I took a picture of it and chucked it...wow...that was hard for me...but it had to be done!

I think my main thought problem is what if someone could use this instead of wasting it and throwing it in the landfill and wasting space there why not give it away...and its so hard to throw away good stuff that could be cleaned up but I have no desire to clean things up...but I don't want to donate them dirty like that thats just gross and how embarrassing and they would probably throw it away anyway...and if they found it and said oh this whole bag is full of stuff like this and just throw the whole thing out...that fills me with so much anxiety its stupid!!!!! I am the kind of person who thinks of all the possible outcomes and analyses everything cause everything has to have a reason for existing or being in my life or whatever...stupid I know I am just that crazy I guess..and its just so hard to get over my anxieties its insane....

So for me, hoarding was the easy part, now the getting rid of things to make room for US not hopefully new things to replace things (though I know my son's birthday is bringing toys, and then Christmas is around the bend too) UGH I will feel like my wheels are turning in the mud but hopefully it wont keep me from keep on going through stuff and get this hoard down sized to bare minimums and essencials and be able to enjoy our home and have people over and not be embarrassed...then when the baby gets here...not be so anxious about  the baby coming home to this home! I mean its not that bad its not filthy clutter its just we have alot of stuff...and no place to put it now that we lost our basement and 1,000 square feet of our home (ya we downsized the home now to catch up with all our stuff thats the trick) Which we have downsized considerably but still have a bit a ways to go and its a slow process especially given my day to day health...Anyway I am getting tired...going to drink some warm milk and go to bed.

I will do my best in updating this blog as often as I can...I have it open up each day when I check email and stuff so I am reminded of it every day so it shouldn't be hard to remember to drop you guys a note saying hey this is an update whats going on with me now...and get it done and hopefully come and find comments to read to encourage me going through my hoard. I appreciate it and if you would like encouragement hit me up I am on facebook look on the right of the page its right there add me and say who you are so I know to add you to my blog friends so I can send messages to all of the friends involved with this blog...so that way we can keep in touch more often and I can even get apart of your lives and encourage you back...I know how hard it is...I really do...and I am hoping to encourage those out there to get through their hoards...and hopefully get through mine in the process of helping others....cause if I can do it...anyone can I am telling you!

Talk to you all later,
Happy Cleaning,
5-15 mins at a time www.flylady.net it works if you apply it :-)

Sincerely,
Rabeka Jo

A change in my blog from now on next introduction

Well I plan to blog my updates as to what I am doing with my hoard. It will be sporadic and not on a schedule like you have seen over the past few weeks...but I plan to keep it pretty much updated as to what I am doing as far as going through stuff, thoughts that are stumbling me from completing tasks at hand, my thought process through this whole process...including but not limited to my anxieties. lol. If I can do it then anyone can do it...some need professional help...others just need motivation via comments on a blog (which would be me hint hint) I have an update to announce so shortly after this posts I will post an update on what I been doing here lately.
Anyway thank you for following my blog and please keep coming back and checking in on me and please do comment my blog so I am encouraged to keep going...I appreciate it cause I need all the encouragement I can get!

Sincerely,
Rabeka Jo

Introduction to this blog

In this blog you will find the many motivations behind the hoarding lifestyle so maybe those who are not hoarders can understand the mind of those hoarders in your life you just don't understand. Also for those Hoarders who don't know how they got their house to where it is. I am going to be comic about it...forgive me. I know this is a serious illness I have a mild case myself but I am starting to get a hold of it before it gets too out of control. My husband also is a hoarder, and a lot of my material will come from the way he and I think, and also his mother the professional hoarder of the family. My mother also was a hoarder probably the executive hoarder of the family, God rest her soul she is no longer with us. But I grew up with a hoarder also, so I have many insights to this disease and I hope to entertain through comedy relief on such a serious subject, educate by showing the world the thought pattern that leads to a hoarding lifestyle, and I also hope to get feedback through comments since, it will be what motivates me to keep updating the blog.

Thank you I hope you enjoy my blog,

God Bless,

Sincerely,

Rabeka Jo D

The creator of this blog
p.s. I am not sure what this blog has in store...it maybe a day by day walk through in my shoes as a hoarder going through my hoard trying to downsize and get my life in order...but I cannot say until I feel comfortable with such a commitment I might just stick to weekly updates though I might send 150character messages via my cell phone to the blog to update my progress throughout my day I just don't know yet...I really wish I could have this blog from oldest to newest order...but you have to post date everything to follow today starting from oldest to newest on down and that would get time consuming after a while...especially if I do update via my cell phone cause I would have to come on here at the end of the day and edit all the small tweets and fix the dates so they follow the same pattern....so ya probably not sorry guys...it will just have to be newest first...I will try to keep introduction at the top best I can though so new visitors can see that hey there is a introduction that explains this blog...and then they will findout they have to read from the bottom up to get the full effect (so those who are new to the blog thats what you have to do thanks :-) lol) Anyway who knows I am pumped up though cause I have captured more than I thought I would already as far as followers and interested individuals so hopefully this will go farther than any other blog I have started, and can't seem to complete cause I get stuck or discouraged cause no one is following it or commenting it...I am a real sponge when it comes to comments and stuff I eat them up and it keeps me going...of course the negative comments can be left off my blog...there is really no need for abuse and proper actions will be taken for harassing or abusive comments...anyways...thanks for reading my blog...I hope you do enjoy it...I hope you find it funny, amusing, or educational ANYTHING?! lol I appreciate the feedback even if its just a click of the different ranks thats something and its better than nothing so thanks!


*UPDATED introduction can be found here* thanks for checking out my blog I hope I can help people!

Toy Hoarding

Your children have way way way too many toys, but a lot of them were given to them by your late mother so you cant seem to part with those just yet. But its getting out of hand like extremely out of hand. You can hardly walk into their room anymore cause they don't pick them up but where would they put all the stuff? they dont hardly have enough room in toy bins and those take up most of their room...what do you do? Your kids wont let you get rid of any of it either...you tell them if they leave the toys in the living room you will throw them away...but you cant seem to bring yourself to throw them away cause you know how much they love to play with them, so you cant keep your word on that. So your kind of going around and around and having a hard time trying to get rid of the massive pile that just wont go away on its own. Its so frustrating to see the kids live like that but what else can you do? you are partial to lots of toys they are not, then when you say you are finally going to get rid of a toy that your late mother gave them they point out that you dont love your mom cause your getting rid of the toy she gave to them...how horrible of a thing to say...and you try to explain to them that no honey it don't mean I don't love them it means I love them enough to move on with my life and let them go. But you end up stashing the toy away in a box somewhere cause your kids really struck a nerve you thought you got rid of...then you know they love to play with certain type of toys but how many is too many?

When do you say enough is enough? That is a hard thing to think about cause you know they play with all the stash of cars they own cause you see them all strung out all over the back yard, or the house, or where ever they decide to play with them at...and most of the time its nice and neat rows of all the cars. You don't even want to count and see how many cars they actually have cause you know its a ridiculous amount of cars so you don't want to even know. If its girls its Barbies or Bratz...what ever you decided they like a lot and you bought a lot of and had family and friends buy a lot of lol. Lego's for instance when is there enough? and what is too much? but look at how much money you spent on all them legos! its enough to make you sick to your stomach to think that you would get rid of any of them for whatever price garage sale goers would pay...most likely little to nothing! ugh! the horror! So you keep them all, and wonder why your kids cant play in their room (because there is no room to play).

Good thought, back outcome.

Ebay Entrepreneur

So you heard you can make money on ebay from all these books out there and you want to tap into that wealth but how? You find you go to garage sales find items for cheap and ask to come down even farther than the asking price and then turn around and put it on ebay for just above what you paid so you at least get a small profit. You also shop thrift stores for these finds. Finding antiques that could be of value if placed on ebay for the avid hunter to stumble on. Among other can't pass up type bargains. So you buy and buy and buy and stock up a room full of stuff and then you have to figure out a place to take pictures of your items with perfect lighting and everything to make it presentable for ebay users to want the items. Finally you get a set up that seems to work, but your camera doesn't seem to be making the pictures you thought they would, so you gotta save some money to buy a new camera before you can get the items up on ebay. But you still go to the garage sales each weekend to hunt great buys to sell on ebay, and end up spending your savings for that camera you need to be able to sell the items you are buying. So you can kind of see where this is going. You don't want to miss out on all the bargains that could be flipped into mega bucks on ebay if only you could have a camera that took pictures that showed off your prizes in their best form.

Good thoughts, bad outcome.

Clothes hoarding

You can't pass up a good bargain you find at a store that allows you to fill a paper bag full of clothes, and all you pay for all the clothes is 5 dollars! How can you not buy clothes at that price? So you shop around and find all the clothes you would wear or would "like to" wear (you know those goals you want to fit into a size 10 instead of size 16 or whatever the case may be) so you stock up on the motivating clothes that you absolutely love and also some that you can wear now and just in case you end up going in the opposite direction even a few larger sizes than you are in now. Wow! They have maternity clothes! You plan to have a baby some day, so you snatch up some of them too, along with baby clothes of both sexes just so you have 'em whenever you end up having the baby. Then you also find some clothes for your nieces and nephews thinking they are the size you are finding but later find out that you were off on sizes so you save those for your kids you someday will have. Boxing all the clothes you can't wear and the clothes you don't need yet, because you don't have the baby, you aren't even pregnant yet, wow! How crazy is this? But it's OK, you will someday be a size 10, you will get pregnant, will have a baby girl, and maybe even a boy later or visa versa.

Good thought, bad outcome.

Free stuff hoarding

While online you stumble upon a site called freecycle and think-wow I can get rid of all my stuff to people who really want my junk I don't feel right throwing away because someone may get some use out of it. So you join and see posts for free stuff you could use "someday" so you email a response and they email back with where to pick

 it up. So you go pick up your new treasure. What a thrill! You actually were the first to respond and you won-so to speak-the item, and you didn't even have to spend a dime, wow! Suddenly your intent of joining to get rid of stuff goes immediately to the back burner, because all the items you someday will use may go to someone else.

You may end up watching the message board all hours of the night and day to be the first to respond to get the items that you may someday use. I mean you know those things that may come in handy on odd occasions, yeah, those things.

Just to think, you now have a garage full of free stuff you someday will use, but the original intent was to get rid of your bedroom full of stuff that you've come to realize you won't ever use these items ever again, yet you seemed to increase the pile 3 times the original size. Because your double car garage is now a storage unit without the outrageous monthly charges attached to the handy building that keeps things out of sight and out of mind.

Good thoughts, bad outcome.

Quilt Hoarding

Your family member whom you adored passed away. While the family goes through their belongings, they find many unfinished quilts and sewing projects, along with boxes upon boxes of material and thread. No one seems to want any of it so you say you'll take it all, with the thoughts of finishing the projects plus you find some patterns you wouldn't mind making. So you take these boxes home, may even sort things, even put it in a priority system of which ones you want to do first. But you ended up as over whelmed as your lost loved one must've felt and you decide to just box them up for a later date. You feel guilty throwing out your loved ones's hard, unfinished work, so you keep it, in the hopes you can finish it someday. But it just sits stored in boxes in your home. You may even go to garage sales and find boxes of material for a great buy-even bags of cut squares for quilting and you just cant pass up these great buys. So you add this to your already overwhelming heap of material and hope to someday be able to finish the quilts and then eventually start your own quilt.

Good thoughts, bad outcome.

Yarn Hoarding

So you decide to teach yourself to knit and crochet. All those years ago when your grandmother sat you down and taught you or rather tried to teach you come rushing back to you, you remember the toys, blankets, sweaters, pot holders, slippers, socks, and many other things your grandmother made and you remembered how special it made you feel to received these "slaved over" items. You decide that's what you're going to do for your family and friends.

You buy all the pattern books and magazines you can find, when you stumble on a good buy on yarn you buy it, and when you see a skein of yarn and the color stands out to you as being the perfect color for a certain pattern in that one book, you of course, buy it. Before you know it you have boxes of yarn, even the ones heaped together from garage sales you couldn't say no to. A full, even over-flowing box of perfectly good yarn that just needs sorting through for 5 bucks-thats like 40 dollars worth of yarn right there! So you buy it too. Before you know it you have boxes upon boxes of patterns and yarn. Do you disagree? OK then, you have had time to start projects but they too are boxed up unfinished, or even in a tote you carry around from time to time so you can work on it here and there.

Or maybe you have finished projects but the people receiving the gifts don't seem as thrilled as you remember yourself being when your grandmother gave you the same sweater with a corded telephone knitted into it. OK, maybe its outdated since now we use cordless phones, but you spent hours on it and they should appreciate your hard work whether it's outdated or not.

Good thoughts, Bad outcome.

This company came out with a gadget that takes broken crayons and melts them into new crayons. How neat! you think, so you buy it take it home, even try it out and it works! How exciting! Then you put it in your closet till you gather more broken worthless crayons.

Five Years later you accumulated a shoe box or two full of worthless crayon pieces. Do you have time to sort them and use that handy gadget you bought 5 years ago? Possibly. Have you forgotten about it? No doubt you did, minus the second you stumble upon a crayon piece you quickly place into the shoe box with its other friends, during of which you don't have time to sort and make new crayons and decide you'll do it later, but never get around to doing. But you keep right on collecting those crayons and hope someday to be able to sit down and sort through all the bits and pieces so you can make new crayons of same colors and then finally make some use of the gadget you purchased so long ago. See this is how it goes a lot of the time whether we find the gadgets at garage sales or on sale at the store, you just can't pass it up when it saves the planet in some way.

Good thoughts, bad outcome.