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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Messy Studio

I'm always reading blogs that show pristine studios, with great colour schemes and wonderful light, and they make me envious. I'm lucky enough to have a good bit of space to work in a room that I love, but I've discovered over the years that I like working in chaos. So I've posted these picture for those of you who are also messy pups. This is currently what my desk looks like, I've been making loads of cards and this is the madness that grew around me. I'll finish my card making stint and have to tidy it all away. Then I'll probably start some sewing and mounds of felt and thread will evolve over a few days. Certainly around Christmas my propensity for messiness goes into over drive due to more and more constraints on my time. In the New Year I'll do a large scale clean of the studio, and make sure everything goes back in it's place...but until then I'll continue to squirrel away in the madness.

Ps: I also wanted to show you pictures of my two new favourite toys, my glue gun and also my heat gun for embossing. Marian from Made Marian was very kind this week to drop in some extra craft supplies that she declutered recently. She gave me the heat gun and a host of other great card making goodies. Then yesterday in Silkes when I was about to spend €10 on lots of glue I thought maybe it's time to invest in a glue gun. It took a while to get used to how fast it dries, but now I'm loving it. I've been toying with the idea of doing a card making video for the blog, and I might just have to now that I have such posh tools!

Missing the Neat Freak Gene

While browsing through lots of lovely craft blogs I always see pictures of amazingly tidy studios that are really well organised and beautifully quirky. I seem to be lacking the gene that the rest of my family inherited to make them neat freaks. When I visit my sisters houses they are the kind of people who apologise for the mess when the place looks immaculate. I on the other hand have a large propensity towards messiness which I fail endlessly at reining in.

The prime example of this at the moment is my studio. A few months ago the lovely Claire-Ann came and did some work experience and did an amazing job sprucing up my work space on her last day. She is one of those people who loves tidying things, so messy me and neat Claire were a match made in heaven that week. For a couple of months I managed to keep things fairly well in order until my large delivery of supplies arrived and then all hell broke loose.

The crazy thing is that there are going to be big changes in my studio in a couple of months. My lovely boyfriend John is moving to Cork for a year to do a masters in archaeology so that means I'll have to move into my studio and rent out our bedroom!!! This means sleeping and working in the same room for a year, nightmare I know! I'm gonna have to pare back lots of my materials and get really organised if I am to survive that year. I know lots of people work around having small work spaces, but I've been spoiled with my beautiful work space for so long it will be hard to change back. Luckily I'm not one of those girls that has lots of clothes and accessories, a small wardrobe and chest of drawers will do fine for my own clothes. I'm far more concerned about maximising my crafting space. I keep telling myself 'it's only 12 months, it's only 12 months'. In other preparations for Johns big move I've started doing the market trip by myself, so I get used to it by the time he is gone. Weirdly I think John is finding this stranger than me. Even though he hated having to wheel down my crazy market trolley for years, now that he's not doing it he says he feels unneeded...men, they're crazy!

Anyhow I thought I would share some pictures of my demented studio in a bid to shame myself into tidying it up....here's hoping it has some effect!