Buried Alive. Hoard much?
Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 8:30PM 
{Above: This is our walk-in-robe....photo taken before we moved in 3 months ago....it's now somehow FULL!! Is storage a good thing? Or a curse?}
There was quite a few reasons why we sold up our last family home & moved on. But one of them was that we had severely outgrown the 3bedroom, 1 bathroom house and the storage {or lack of} was starting to take it's toll on me. I know that sounds superficial & ignorant considering we live in a world where the homeless rates are at an all time high, but for me....living in my world....it was getting hard to house our growing family, 2 cats and 2 businesses in a house that had only 1 tiny linen cupboard & no shed. Almost everything we had was on display, or crammed into a draw/wardrobe. I had to be clever with toy storage, but even then, I started to feel like we were getting buried alive in our own belongings! The walls felt like they were closing in on me.
And to be honest, by nature, I think I'm quite drawn to the notion of hoarding! As a kid, I made shoe-boxes called MEMORY BOXES and I would cram them with 'special things' like feathers & shells & photos & toys & lists & bubble gum wrappers. And as soon as that box was full...I'd create another. I hated parting with toys or clothes that no longer fit, and I was convivnced that I should hold on to EVERYTHING....as one day it'll be useful again!!!!
Chris isn't a hoarder. Luckily....coz as I said...our previous home lacked in excess storage. If I wasn't with him & lived in that house alone, you would probably see me on a recent episode of Buried Alive!
For the past few years, every 6 months, Chris would get a huge skip bin delivered to our front yard & encourage me to fill it. And....do you know what? We did....everytime!! And then it was trigger a decluttering spree in me.....and I'd start filling bags of kitchenware, clothing, books, toys & stationery to donate to charity, and then fill bags of baby clothes to hand down to family & friends. I'd get inspired to clean out drawers & cupboards & handbags. Over time, the hoarder in me was drilled out and I became quite ruthless with what stays & what goes. {Although.....We still have 2 boxes under the stairs full of my childhood toys, diaries, school books etc....Sssshh!} I only keep Ella & Ryder's very special outfits, and the rest gets passed on...every season! Toys.....every couple of months, I aim to fill a garbage bag with Ella & we donate them to the local Kindy or Charity Shop. I sell off bigger items like baby bassinets, baby baths & old dinner sets at the local markets or on Ebay. And in a way, it feels quite liberating & VERY refreshing to cull, declutter & rearrange!
BUT!!!! We're now in a house that is rich in storage. And when I say rich....I mean it's the Bill Gates equivalent of storage success. And as much as I love it....it also scares me! What if I fill all of this storage?? Then we're in trouble...haa!! When we were moving in and I was finding a place for everything, I promised myself that I would NOT fill every storage hole, just for the sake of filling it. I would still cull & keep things simple and minimal! However, 3 months on....and I'm already noticing full drawers, overflowing cupboards & piles of 'stuff' hidden away. In Ella's robe, I have 2 full drawers of clothes that no longer fit her....so why have I still got them?? Because I can! Because those 2 drawers will sit there empty anyway!!! Ahhhhh see...too much storage, has it's cons!
Just writing this is making me want to get in there now and start cleaning out!!!! In fact, I WILL clean out both kid's robes tomorrow...hold me to it!
Do you have any tips on sensible storage? And how to live clutter-free?
Are you a hoarder? Or a minimalist?
Reader Comments (9)
Are you serious?? That's your walk in robe?!!! You lucky duck!! When can I move in? This post has seriously inspired me to de-clutter. It's almost 9pm and if I wasn't so sleep deprived, I'd jump up now and madly organise and cull everything :) I am far from a hoarder, I often toss things too easily and months later, regret it :) We have a real lack of storage here though. Our main problem is that our spare room is now Sophie's nursery and so now, instead of hiding things in there, they've found there way to our study floor. It seriously looks like a mess. I have old baby items to deal with, things to sell on ebay, papers to file etc. etc. I deal with baby/kids stuff in a similar way to you - baby clothes passed on (I just keep special outfits too), bigger items listed on Gumtree, toys donated :) Besides our study, I desperately need to go through the girls wardrobes and cull small clothes. I must say, getting rid of Sophie's things makes me a tad sad though :( I can't believe you guys used to fill a skip bin every 6 months :)
Enjoy your evening lovely xx
I AM A HOARDER!!!! HELP!!!!
I CAN NOT throw anything away! And I keep buying/get given more! I keep absolutely everything and we are 2 people living in a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom house and ever single cupboard and draw is FULL!!! I promised Rob that by the end of the year I would declutter our home and it would be more organized! HA! I have 6 months! Let's see how I go!!
I'm a bit of both. I still have lots of artwork/school books/memorabilia and toys from my own childhood that I cannot bear to part with and combine that with hubbys deceased fathers school books (from the 60's & 70's!) and 3 huge moving boxes full of old slides you might call me a hoarder! But having said that we have a fair bit of storage in our house compared to our 2 bedroom unit, so my son's clothes that no longer fit are all stored away in vacuum sealed bags inside bigger things like the bassinet/baby bath etc, to make use of otherwise 'dead' space (we will one day have more children so don't want to get rid of these items).
However I do think that the more storage space you have the more likely you are to fill it. I don't have any regrets about keeping childhood artworks/memories and some special toys/clothes because hubby moved every 6months or so growing up and his mother was very ruthless with throwing things out, so he has NO childhood toys/special items/artworks at all.
Ummmm when can I move in? ;) xx
Timely post for me Claire. I'm about to brave the loft. We have a storage space up in the ceiling above our bedroom wing of the hut. We both like a very clean and minimalist look in the hut, but I know there are things up there that moved with us, that we don't really need!!
There's also some stuff we left behind at my parents place (where we were living in a tiny 2 bedroom flat while our home was being built). We've nearly been at the hut a year, and I need to get up into the loft and be realistic about some of the things that got chucked up there, do we really need them? If i haven't needed them by now, will I ever! I'll let you know how I go!
Sometimes I find that if you know the items are really going to a great home then you can pass them on easily.
I gave a bag of books to the crèche and the next time I went in I saw a little bubba happily flicking the pages. With lots of kids flicking them books soon get ruined at creche and they are expensive to replace so I know they enjoy them.
St Kilda Mums in Melbourne have call outs for specific things and tell you about the family, for instance a brave Mum fleeing domestic violence that needs to start from scratch to set up house, imagine no sheets, towel, veggie peeler, cups...so when call outs are there it is easy to look around the house and donate as much as possible.
For me, the happy glow of giving far outweighs the joy of clutter in my house.
Yep I am a chucker. A bit addicted to it really and love the cleansing feeling of a good clean out. You know what, I have never really missed anything I have thrown out so it just goes to show! I don't really buy a lot of stuff anyways. Not a big consumer, I like to think... ) I do love your wardrobe, that is a corker!x
Wow, what a wardrobe! I guess I am not a hoarder since only yesterday I was wondering when we are due for one of those footpath charity collection days so I can load up the lawn with unwanted goodies someone may consider treasure :-) However I am not blessed with a walk in like yours, then it may be a different story!
Um, I die! Wardrobe heaven you lucky girl! Storage is a blessing! I think I used to be a bit of a hoarder but after moving countries three times in the last five years we've been quite ruthless when it comes to what stays and what goes. It makes the thought of moving again not so scary hee hee xoxo P.S photos of your new LV please darling girl!!! X