Life's hard but we pick ourselves up and keep going.

Hi everyone!

Thank you for the comments left on my last post.

Alex - thank you for your kind words.

Every one of us in this family has been through a lot in our lives, even Daisy. She fought on to survive in the womb, growing very slowly, but growing, so she got to stay there a bit longer! We were so pleased to get past each week of her pregnancy, so her lungs would be able to cope a bit better. We were so excited to get to 23 weeks and each week after that until she was born naturally a month early. She was very closely monitored by our wonderful maternity unit in Banbury and came through ok in the end. She inherited lactose intolerance from her mummy. She hasn't got a daddy and her mummy lives elsewhere. Mummy contacted me last night after a week of not hearing from her, not even when I informed her of Daisy's allergic reaction!

Daisy's problems I can 'talk' about here, but not much else... horrific crimes took place, that's all I'm saying...and that we are all survivors!

I know that every family deals with stuff day in day out and don't want to sound selfish...I no longer wallow in my own self-pity because life is too short and we need to make it good for our children and grandaughter.

Loo - Thank you for your kind words.

I don't think it matters what the item is, if it holds sentimental value to you then it is important. The photos in this house are the only thing (apart from Daisy's room) that are properly organised! I think we need to keep on supporting each other in this quest for a tidy and uncluttered home! I think that I am changing slowly though, because I see things around the house that are beginning to annoy me now and they need to go!

Taaleedee - I had a back injury six years ago that flares up my muscles every now and then and I am disabled until I recover fully which can take weeks. I would be devastated if that happened now because I am in a mess and my family would not find anything! My lovely husband is currently suffering from screeding a floor - he has a bad back and is off work (must be bad because he rarely takes time off, he's self-employed). I am really careful not to do heavy lifting when decluttering and sorting.

Lors - I tried Flylady, but you get so many emails! I save so much stuff to preserve the memories because I compensate for what I haven't got. My children are old enough to decide for themselves what is and isn't kept, but I would check a pile for the bin, just-in-case there was something I wanted to keep! We don't want Daisy to grow up thinking that her mummy (and daddy) didn't care, so we are doing our best to create visual memories that she can look at later even though she won't actually remember them.

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Daisy's waking up now so I'll have to go, but I'll be back with what we ate last week and my carboot treasures (all justified and needed!)

Thanks for reading

Mandy x

My life as a hoarder...

Hi everyone!

It's true, I am a self-confessed hoarder and have been for some years. I believe it stems from my childhood where my things would be thrown away while I was at school if they were viewed as rubbish. I am a very sentimental person and those things were not rubbish to me! I would have liked to of been asked first so I could explain why I needed them.

I grew up in a house that was always spotless, but we were not allowed in a room that had just been cleaned, even our bedrooms after school. Any of our mess was put on our beds and we had to tidy it away or there was no tea! My upbringing was very strict and a lot of the time very unfair. Incidentally, I have no contact with any of them now or ever will (for reasons that I really cannot talk about here) and now I can see that a lot of my own emotional issues began from this controlled environment. Any good memories that I had were destroyed by the actions of a very evil individual. I'm not going to dwell on this because I have moved on now, but this highlights where my urge to hoard began.

My children have numerous memory boxes in the loft and originally I had kept everything! Between us, we narrowed it down and just keep the really sentimental stuff. I left home with my birth certificate and a few childhood toys that I did manage to keep. No photographs of my childhood to look back on - photographs are very important to me. I have taken so many photos for Daisy to have when she's older and we spend a small fortune getting them printed off when we do our shopping. They are neatly organised in baby albums with her age written next to them, so she will be able to enjoy her journey living with us in the future when she's old enough to understand. I also plan to make her a scrapbook soon for her first birthday. This will show her what her first year was like. I write things down like when she got her teeth through and all this will be documented for her when I've found a beautiful 'daisy' book.

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Alex - welcome to my blog! Thank you for your best wishes, it's a very slow process but there is progress. Hopefully a carboot sale in a few weeks will get rid of a load more.

Loo - we've been exchanging hoarding/decluttering achievements for some time now! Our front room is home to: a playpen, a pram, a swing, a walker, three baskets containing toys and books, a baby nest and two floor mats for Daisy to play on. You see what I mean!

Jane - for me it's a lifestyle change that's needed and that takes time. My spare food goes on top of the kitchen cupboards which looks really untidy.

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So how do I move on from this and make the lifestyle changes needed? With a lot of support and understanding from my family. Time? This is something that I don't have because Daisy requires my attention, although she is sleeping more during the day and will play alone in her playpen for 20 mins at a time now. It's all about being ready to snap into action when the opportunity arises. I have decided to tackle one area of a room at a time and keep going until it's sorted. If I had a week all on my own with no other chores to be done, I reckon I could have this house a lovely home. Nevermind! I'm not feeling sorry for myself or hard done by because I created this mess, but small steps are the way forward and I will let you know how I get on when I blog. I will feel awful if there's nothing to tell... having said that... yesterday there was decluttering paperwork planned that didn't happen :(    What I did do was some ironing while Daisy was asleep and that cleared a space on my utility room work top.

Is anyone else battling with this daily???

I find really good support on here, so thanks for that, you can be my motivation!

Thanks for reading,

Mandy x