Hoarding

ForTheHoard - 5 Gifts for Hoarders

5 Gifts for Hoarders (100% not backed by science)

Here’s a gift guide for the hoarder in your life based entirely on the gifts I would appreciate or find frustrating. I’ll provide my reasoning so you understand why a gift is a good or bad idea for a hoarder. And if you think the hoarder you know completely loves and appreciates the gifts you give them so you don’t need to bother reading… well, that might be true. Or maybe they don’t recognize they have a problem, so the more gifts, the merrier! Or maybe they just haven’t told you how conflicted they feel. And if I were talking to you face-to-face, I wouldn’t either. The one time I refused a gift because I’d already told the giver I didn’t want to bring more things into my house, the situation blew up in my face. Learned my lesson! Now I’ll just say “thank you” and smile and feel like one more thing is drowning me. Is that what your hoarder did? Hmmm… Let’s dive down into the anxiety ocean that lies inside. What should you give a hoarder as a gift?

Regain Space by Collapsing Shipping Boxes

Do you do a lot of online shopping? Does it lead to cardboard creep, shipping containers that pile up quicker than you deal with them? I’d like to share my strategy for tackling these boxes. It’s not the most efficient way, because that’s probably to take care of them as they come into the house, but it’s the “this is what I can do now” way.

Another Blog Post on Hoarding ~ ForTheHoard.com

Audiobooks to Clean to

I took a week off work for both a relaxing break from the busy beginning of the year and a chance to focus on a deep decluttering of my house. I usually listen to Dana K. White’s How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind to keep me motivated while I clean and declutter, but this time I’ve chosen a few titles I’ve never listened to before. Take a look and let me know if you’ve listened to any!

Another Blog Post on Mental Health ~ ForTheHoard.com

Short-Circuit the Anxiety Loop

A common thought process in anxiety is “catastrophizing.” In a split second, our thoughts leap to the some of the worst possible scenarios, or catastrophes, for whatever we’re worried about. Those thoughts generate worry and fear and consume our focus. Our minds become stuck in a loop of anxiety that wears down a rut in our thoughts. It’s hard to escape and think about anything else. When we want to change this cycle of anxiety-increasing-anxiety, we have to find a way to jump out of that rut and change our thought processes.

Blue Valkyrie Needs Sunshine Badly ~ ForTheHoard.com

Blue Valkyrie Needs Sunshine Badly

Phew. Anyone else hit that January wall? Using this and last year as data, I’d say mid-January is when the lack of sunshine starts really taking a toll. I feel it in December, but I can run on reserves of goodwill for a little while. But the tanks are dry now! I’d hoped to dodge seasonal depression/irritation this year because there hasn’t been too much snow, but I guess it really is a sunshine thing. I shall slightly recharge with an afternoon off spent at a local tea house with a friend. Just thinking about it is cheering me up. To tea and tiny sandwiches!

Another Blog Post on Hoarding ~ ForTheHoard.com

When I Consider Neighbors – or – Some Days I Want to Just Throw It All Away

How was your weekend? Despite the accumulation of snow and one of my dogs sliding on the icy porch to scrape a strip of skin from her chin, mine was pretty good. We made tasty, toasty food, watched a ton of Buzzfeed Unsolved, braved the frigid air to walk the doggies, and even got in some gaming. We did a fair job of keeping up on the dishes in that there are less waiting now than before we started two days of cooking. And I started folding laundry again while my bed linens were in the wash. So both a relaxing and productive weekend for me.

And yet, Sunday night I was once again frustrated with the state of my house. I blame the snow.

Another Blog Post on Meatspeace ~ ForTheHoard.com

Turning Chores into Daily Quests

I put off washing the dishes Tuesday night when my partner, who hasn’t been feeling well, asked that I spend time with them instead. I’m wasn’t going to abandon them in their evening of need, so dishes will just have to wait till my next free evening (Thursday). But I did get the idea to turn this chore into a daily quest to hopefully make it a little more interesting and rewarding. I’ve been toying with the idea of gamifying the tedious parts of my life. The working title of this IRL RPG is Meatspace. Read on for my motivation and ideas.

Another Blog Post on Hoarding ~ ForTheHoard.com

Will You Accept the Dish Washing Quest?

Now that vacations and holidays are completely over for me (sad face), I feel I need to take stock of where I currently am versus where I want to be on the house maintenance front. By maintenance, I mean keeping an area of the house in the same state. I may not be making it better, but I’m not letting it get any worse. Read on to see how I’m doing.

Resisting Cyber Monday's Siren Call ~ ForTheHoard.com

Resisting Cyber Monday’s Siren Call

Did you manage to get through Black Friday and Cyber Monday without buying something you otherwise wouldn’t have purchased? This is the first year in a very, very long time that I did. I had been procrastinating ordering my dogs’ medicine, so I used Ebates’ 6% cash back on Pet Care Rx as motivation to purchase their refills. And that was it. True story! …

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