Obsessive Hoarders

I started watching the tv series The Hoarder Next Door recently(you can watch Episode 1 below). This series seems to be a spin off from the documentary about Mr.Wallace  (above) who is the UK's most extreme hoarder. Over a lifetime he has buried himself under vast stacks of papers, rubbish, and day to day clutter. He has to crawl around his house on his belly to get from room to room. The documentary is so sad because he comes across as quite intelligent and erudite, but he is crippled by his hoarding disorder, to be honest I cried when I watched it.

The series on Ch4 is quite fascinating and at least has some modicum of compassion towards the people it's documenting. Sadly now and then it slips into reality tv mode and starts pointing fingers at how disgusting these peoples lives are by showing endless shots of dead mice and rat droppings. Beneath this veil of pop tv lies a window into these peoples lives that is compelling and full of pathos.

I must admit that I'm a bit of a hoarder, obviously nothing like what is shown in the programme, but I can see where they might have started out. I grew up in a house that was as clean as a hospital, my mother is a total neat freak. So I assume my clutterbug tendencies are a rebellion against that. While watching the show last night I could imagine myself becoming that type of person, if something happened to catalyse it. It is generally thought that a traumatic event of emotional upheaval escalates a person into obsessive hoarding, that it can be used as a device to numb emotions just like any other addiction. I hide most of my magpie behavior under the veil of my business, most crafters seem to be the same. I have stupid amounts of materials, but I can't bear to part with them because A) I paid good money for them and B) they will eventually be used (I swear!). Unfortunately I collect books, dvds, clothes, scarves etc. too, and they all take up space.

This morning when I woke up I still had the show in the back of my mind. I looked around me bedroom and looked at the bundles of unsorted clothes and decided not to procrastinate anymore. I used one of my clothes rails that I bought for the market and dug out a bunch of spare hangers. It was obvious by the clothes strewn across my floor that I didn't have ample storage space. After about an hour or so I reclaimed my floor, made a nice storage area, and even found some clothes I had totally forgotten about. To be honest I could have done with sorting out the load of craft materials that I have in there, but hey at least I did a bit!

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Some Early Spring Cleaning

I did a pretty big clear out of my room today, I spent hours going through clothes and deciding what to keep. Part of me hates doing this kind of thing because I'm highly allergic to dust, and something in the fibers of clothes too, it makes me sneeze, wheeze and the inside of my face drives me insane with itchiness. But it had to be done so I persisted. I separated them into 'keep', charity', 'upcycle' and 'barbootsale' piles. The 'Barbootsale' is an ongoing flea market type event at which people sell their stuff, I plan to take a stand at the next one and sell some clothes,jewellery,books, and dvds, it's a great way of making space while earning a few extra quid. I also went through the dvd collection last night and picked out about 20 dvds that I wouldn't mind selling. I think nearer the date of the event I'll photograph everything so I can promote it here and on facebook to build up a bit of enthusiasm. I'm sure of lots of bric-a-brac too that I can add to the stash.

My plan of action this morning was to go through my wardrobe while just wearing underwear and try on every item of clothing to see if it was too big. If it fit I had to be honest with myself, had worn it in the last year, and was I likely to wear it again in the coming year. This system made it easier to part with some random odds and ends that I had been hanging onto. There were a few dresses I let pass by these rules as they were too cool to part with. I don't have a lot of space for my clothes and since I dropped a size this year I found I was only wearing a small percentage of what was in my wardrobe. There were too many clothes crammed into a tiny space, so i didn't even know what was there, now I can see what i have, and I don't have entire sections that I'm ignoring cos they don't fit anymore. Also I discovered that I have an insane amount of dresses and skirts, and maybe a total of 5 pairs of trousers.

I'm still not finished this mammoth task, a particularly mental fit of sneezing drove me out of the room in search of real air. But I hope to finish it my the end of the day. I think I'll leave jewellery till tomorrow, most of it is in a tangled lump, and I need to make some sort of display/system. I found this cool shadow box idea on Lakota's blog(a very cool thrifty blogger) and I think it might be the solution to my storage problems.   Pin It

Spring Cleaning

It's that time again when I've to clean the studio...it seems like I've done 20 of these cleaning blog posts, and I always fell so pleased with myself and promise to keep the place tidy, but I never do. I have an addiction to collecting things in bags and then leaving them around the house. I come in from the market, put them down somewhere, and I never unpack them. This week I found  a long lost bracelet, necklace, cardigan and a bit of bread(and considering I have't eaten bread in 2 months that's pretty gross). I reminds me of when my mother would make us clean out our school bags and bits of forgotten lunch would rear their ugly heads.
I also found 4 packs of blank square cards, my heat gun mixed in with a box of scarves, and 2 copies of the same crafting magazine! I won't lie to myself and say that it will stay clean, I'll just enjoy it while it lasts.

Attempts at Tidying

I got an email about a possible magazine feature, but it's all as yet unconfirmed so I've to keep shtum about it for the time being. In the mean time I've been cleaning my house like a maniac in preparation for the photos. I'm not the tidiest person in the world, and even my previous attempts at taming the beast of my studio have been so-so at best, not exactly photogenic. I've completed downstairs with the exception of my tiny kitchen.Over the past few days I've been attempting to tame the beast that is my studio bedroom. As you may remember from this post, I had to move my bedroom into my work space. It's been workable but a bit of a nightmare.

This week I bought lots of storage boxes, this great one with little compartments was only €2 in Easons and it's perfect for all my threads. I also got these lovely little baskets in a pound shop for some of my personal use buttons ( the ones I have for sale are sorted into a set of drawers), they were €4 a pop, but I think the add some character to the bland shelves.

I groan when I look at inspiring craft studios like these. But I'll show you the fruits of my labour next week when it's all done, and before it gets messy again!

New Ideas

Well it's taken a good few hours but my studio is back to sometihng resembling normal. There were many sneezes, as I have quite a severe allergy to dust, and I nearly gave up a few times but I persisted, and it payed off. I didn't take any pictures though because I want to do a bit more work on it tomorrow...there are still about 5 bags of unsorted clothes. But at least my rails are back up, all my trimmimngs have been sorted and packed away, my table is clear and the floor has been swept. I also sorted through about 4 bags of clothes that were donated last week, and there was some really funky stuff in it..like a purple corset, and some very nice dresses from Villa.

Before I jump into work I think I'll spend some time this week doing some drawing, figure out a few new ideas. I know when I'm in the thick of it over the next few months I'll be happy to look to a notebook for some ideas rather than my addled busy brain. It's been nice to take a break from sewing 7 days a week, but I', also excited to get cracking on some new work. I learned a lot from doing the show, and now it's time to put some of those ideas into practice. Even the small thing of being able to see a full body of work being worn by models, gave me new ideas on what to work on next.

Anyone know a fairy?

Help...does anyone know where I can find a magiacal cleaning fairy. Just for one day...or even 5mins as she would be able to blink or flap her wings and all my troubles would be over. My studio has exploded and imploded at the same time. Picture the mad run up to the show, add a splash of manic packing in two days before we left, a good dollop of hangers and unassembled rails, a pinch of dumping all our gear when we got back, and at last a sprinkle of two bags of donated clothes...and you have the recipe for my disaster zone. I have to wave my hand in the air and admit a healthy dose of procrastination is half to blame for my predicament. I took a week off, then another week just sorting buttons, and tomorrow I have to start back making clothes.

So if you happen to glimpse a flutter of silver wings in the magic of twilight can you pass on the message that I need a bit of a miracle thrown my way.