Stoptober for Hoarders

[hellobeth]

Yay!

[chaosqueenParticipant]

2 more books walked out of the house by themselves…how convienent.

*rant alert*

how is it that people always call when they want soemthing from oyu, but forget about you the second something would make your life easier. I am ticked. Kids are going to a play tomorrow with school and all the kids within walking distance are already caarpooling with somebody else. Admitedly I am late asking for a ride, but obviously they already found peopel to ride with some of them rather far off even. LAst thing I need tomorrow. Additional taxi rounds. :evil:

[chaosqueenParticipant]

YEAH! Nenad just got himself 75.000 pounds on Deal or no Deal. I am highly motivated to fold some laundry now! :lol:

[chaosqueenParticipant]

I am not quite sure wether I should kick into super hero mood, or slip into survival mode. 2 kids home sick,again, altough a different combination. My eating habbits are borderline suicidale. This needs to stop. I’ll tkae it 10 min at a time. Even that sounds too much at the moment. I should eat breakfast first. Keep up the fight. We can do it!

[chaosqueenParticipant]

Has anyone seen my optimism? Must have been chucked by accident. That’S why I NEVER want to throw anything away. You toss it, Next day you need it. My freind says you can always buy a new one. So here we go. I am ordering 1 pounds of optimism. Anyone willing to send some over?

Everybody is back to school. Fortunately it wasn’t anything big. just headaches, temperatures and increased whineyness. Of course I had to cancel the fun stuff I had plan ned for myself and a friend. I’ll be all orgnized and go on to the things to achieve thread for the rest of what I have to say

[chaosqueenParticipant]

Just reread that last post. I would also like to order one pound of spelling sparkle and grammar dust each. The winds have stopped it’S greay and rainy, went to bed 5 min after the kids did last night. So today I am trying to catch up with the most important tasks. And no, the abominable pile is not on the list. My head is stuffed. The kids will now get their second round of chores. Here we go! Hope you are feeling more enthusiastic about your chores than I feel about mine!

[hellobeth]

Spelling sparkle & grammar dust! Not likely this side of christmas! :lol:

[chaosqueenParticipant]

Well, you people will just have to suffer through my terribly spelled posts!

I am a bit under the weather, and no, I am NOT refering to the recent storm that must have been quite the expirence for soem of you. Fortunately nothing happend around here.

WE signed up to have “bulky items” picked up by the local dump tomorrow. I am happy to say that more went then I thought I would put out. AS I was gathering the stuff to go out on the street I saw 2 more things inthe backyard that got the boot and a few things from the attic. Interestingly enough most of the stuff were things I got for free or used. 2 things were brandnew when I got them. One was completely worn out after 8 years of excessive use and the other one was a lesson learned: “Cheap does not equal bargain”

I thought of you all while putting out the stuff. Believe it or not. This forum helps me so much. Each of YOU, especially Beth, Helprich and Jannequin (alphabetical order in case you were wondering :lol: ) have really helped me to not just plan to get rid of stuff put to actually let go and feel good about it.

Thanks to you Greenermum, I haven’t replaced my keys once the last 10 days. Every time I just want to drop them somewhere I think of you,pick them back up and put them were they belong! :lol:

So pat yourselfs on the back everyone. Just by sharing your story, your sucesses as well as the relapses you help ME to move on!

THANK YOU!

[hellobeth]

Hi there Queenie

You are most welcome & don’t underestimate what you do for us too; the feeling is mutual. Well done for moving so much stuff out while doing ‘life’ at the same time. You are so encouraging & entertaining. Like

[chaosqueenParticipant]

I am wasted. How much MONDAY can there be in a Monday? My cold is bad enough to seriously hinder me, but not that bad to just drop everything. When a friend called at 7 am. (Yes SEVEN am) to remind me of an appointment she had made for us I was to chicken to cancel. It would have been the third time in a row, always due to sicknees. (First the kids, now me) who would believe me. I dragged myself through the day never making it backt to bed and to my book. I obviously worked hard enough as the house looks as bad as this morning and not worse as it should. I am so tired. I want to stay in bed tomorrow but there is a recital at school in the morningnand another one at dance in the afternoon.

[chaosqueenParticipant]

I WON! I WON! I WON! I WON! I WON! I WON! I WON! I WON! I WON! I WON! I WON! I WON! :shock: First price for best looking cookie! If they would have had a category for most points combined (best looking and best tasting) I would have scored again. And let’s face it. The “best tasting” one only won because the spanish crowd felt homesick and voted for the spanish entry, :lol: Ah… I wish I could just put a plate of cookies her for you all to enjoy one! I better go clean up the kitchen now

[greenermum]

Aw chaosqueen – It is true you do random so admirably! You do make us smile…. and you managed to fit in the best cookie BAKE admidst the chaos, most impressive. Actually I have finally cracked my Special Dessert Recipe for Boxing Day. I saw it on TV (?random advert, can’t remember, I seem to be in a random blur of randomness right now too!) – Anyway it is quite complicated! and since I am always busy fiddling and hunting for things I can’t find, I feel this is a suitable challenge to my culinary skills. I am a burnt out cook. ” class=”bbcode_url”>

Take one strawberry (if possible leaving the green corolla) and cut off the top third horizontally.

Place a blob of double cream on the bottom two-thirds of the strawberry and replace the top. Apply two teeny blobs of cream for eyes. Corolla is the hat.

Put tiny cross of cream on the bottom two-thirds, blending it in with the blob in the middle, to create a scarf effect.

Two tiny white blobs for feet. Two teeny chocolate blobs on tummy for buttons.

Multiply that by 8-12 per person, and if you are having more than 6 round the table prepare to be very bored in the creation, but unchallenged in the baking.

Result: Zero thinking zero planning, zero baking, zero burning, zero dropping, zero doing it wrong.

Big challenge here – well the way I feel at the moment anyway – is to remember to buy the strawberries and the cream (ooh and a bit of chocolate…)

[chaosqueenParticipant]

Here I go, happily googeling “strawberry and boxing day” and I get pictures of Prince William and Prince Harry. :shock: I do agree Prince Harry is what some would call a “strawberry blonde” but not his brother. Oh well. I have a hard time visualizing the scarf effect. So. A cook. Burnt out. No pun intended I asume. Oh. These days I dream about training as a confectioner. Cakes and cookies are quite the creative outlet at the moment. Also gives me self esteem a boost and gives me the feeling of having achieved something.

Sounds like you are planning to cook up a storm for Christmas! Biggest challenge for me here would be to actually by the strawberries. At thattime of year besides leaving the house that might mean going to multiple stores! Sounds like a job for “James”. :lol:

Taking about burning…the timer claims my cake is done!

[hellobeth]

Ah you both give me a great laugh, enjoying the read

Queenie YOU WON! YOU WON! YOU WON! YOU WON! YOU WON! YAY! Was rooting for you – how could you lose? :lol: Any chance of a piccy or is it now in tummies?

Greenermum You underrate your talent! My little strawberry man would look like he’s been in a fight or, if I did well, tipsy! :lol: I might have more success with tomatoes – I wouldn’t need a magnifying glass

Have loved baking & cooking most of my life. My brother trained as a french chef & I was mesmerised watching him decorate cakes. Thought I’d have a go and made one at school. Went down a storm & I got the cookery prize that year Still got the book I won! :roll: He went on to do a lot of exhibitions – absolutely amazing stuff :o Opened his own restaurant which attracted quite a few VIP’s of the day. I went on to open a restaurant too – but I didn’t do amazing stuff! :lol:

Hardly ever bake now; maybe christmas or the odd family party. Trouble is you have to eat it which isn’t good for my looks! :roll: My daughter’s doing christmas this year (her first, bless! She’s so excited) so no baking for me this time. She caught the cooking bug from me too. She takes photos of all her creations & is compiling a book of them.

We digress ladies – does this have any relation to decluttering??? Of course it does – it’s random :!: :lol:

[chaosqueenParticipant]

You’ve got a point there Beth! This thread has a working title. One that I am quite sick of by now to admit it. After all it is December! Let me sum up what Stoptober has done for me.

My goal was to not “clean up” by stuffing things in boxes. It is unbelieveable just how hard that was. I became aware of just how often I wanted to fall back into that trap. I also found it interesting that there was one particular area in the house (the hall) that was basically impossible for me to clean up without this approach. I don’t know ho many days I failed. 2 or 3 times if my memory is accuarate. But I am very happy to say that to this point I have managed to stay away from that tactic. It is still hard. It makes cleaning up so much harder, but it also is more efficient. I think I also throw more things out just because I don’t have the object of hiding them somewhere.

So. I highly reccomend it. Even if you just do it to raise your awareness to this tactic!

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