What to Do When One is Not Enough and Two is Too Many? HoarderRehab Inspiration or Desperation, Story #10 {written on 1nov2012 and found on 16jan2013, added pics and proofread}
I've been fighting the flu for over a week now and today I was finally well enough to have some coffee, but one cup wasn't enough and well, two cups was much too much! Which reminds me.....
I had a relapse over the weekend! Two Steps Backwards, One Step Forward!
This story was written on November 1, 2012, but it got lost in my hoard of backdrafts waiting for a weekend to take the pics of the books, which are now listed on The Destiny of Things.
It's listed under "HR Mishap Books." This book I just had to have because it explains my allergies in simple terms with pictures! Just like how I like it!
mr oz. and I have been celebrating financial landmarks from each etsy shop, VintageToGoetsy and HoarderRehab by watching "The Dark Knight Rises" at an IMAX theater two weekends in a row before it leaves. The kind with a really big huge screen, like about three to six stories high!
Last weekend while we were celebrating, both shops hit another goal! We have found good homes for over 100 hoarded items! There are 100 less items in our home! It's hard to tell, but at least I can say the hoard is more organized and there is hope at the end of the tunnel, instead of a head on collision!
BOOTS or BOOKS?
The IMAX is in an outdoor indoor mall with a Nordstrom Rack! Nordstrom Rack is about the only place I have a decent chance of finding a shoe that fits me! I know I'm banned from shopping, but it was a celebration and I don't know how it is for you, but for me, finding size 5 shoes that fit and are comfortable is like finding a needle in a haystack!
Forget about stylish, I'm lucky just to find my size, but not at Nordstrom Rack! They always have at least one row of size 5 shoes, so off we went to see what I could find! My heard was racing and my eyes popped when I saw that they had -two- rows of size 5 shoes! Long story, short--- I turned down the cutest black chunky black boots in size 5 that seemed to fit and were even stylish!
On to the bookstore, my niece's birthday is around the corner and I have the 1992 version of Lily's Purple Plastic Purse plush doll, but not the book!
I was going to sell it, but my niece loves capes and it's such a good story, especially for how to behave in class! I saw another 90s Lilly Doll online and it was priced at $95. Hard to believe! Anyways...
Unfortunately, I have the book somewhere lost in my hoard, but I can't find it, so..... there was this used bookstore across from the IMAX and we went in to look for the book! What a mistake! I mean, challenge and learning experience!
The bookstore was huge, perhaps a retired, Borders. The children's section was disarray and not in any kind of order I could figure out. I was doing fine looking around and rummaging through books looking for Lilly's Plastic Purple Purse book, until mr. oz found a double sided book from the 60s and put it in my hands and that was the end of that!
You know one of those kinds of books that has a story and when it ends you turn it around and it has another story! One side has "Petunia, I Love You" and the other side has "Trubloff". It has classic 60's illustration, graffics and colors! I won't be parting with that book any time soon! chuckle-chuckle
After that, my attention strayed and although I went looking for my neice's particular book, I kept finding other books, until I had a pile of seven!
This reminded me my Richard Scarry word books I had as a kid and used in the classroonand I actually thought I would brush up on my Spanish! Which I did, but only for the first two days!
This Word Book also had an organized format that I couldn't pass up! Very silly, illogical and ironic, but true! I buy things for how well they are organized. See the alphabet at the bottom of each page? It corresponds to the word group in alphabetical order! Neat!
I wasn't a hoarder at that moment, but instead a thrill seeking bargain hunter! In hindsight, I should have tried to walk away and later returned to them, but at the time I could not let them go! And maybe enough time has not passed, but I am still glad I bought them, but am now more conflicted about it!
I bought this because I think it might be a letterpress book or something I can use in my paper collage art. It's not enough that I already have boxes and boxes of collage paper to organize!
Learning Curve:
1. I need to have celebration and/or reward items chosen ahead of time, so I don't buy random items on impulsive compulsively. I probably should stick to online shopping unless I've had a fair amount of sleep!
2. I need to remember to pass on a good deal. Just practice looking so I don't add to my hoard! Stay on course with goals, do not let the thrill of a bargain derail my goal of a Minimalist Organic home!
Remind myself that my bargain hunting skills coincide too well with my hoarding and should not mix, until I have my hoarded life in a more manageable existence!
3. Don't put things in my hand or keep them there! Put them down and return to them. Even if the thought of someone else buying them, instead of me, keeps rolling in my head like a repeated warning!
Then later practice having things in my hands that I want to keep and see what happens.
4. As a hoarder, celebrations are a challenge for me. I passed up all the shops at that mall a week before and I did make plans to go buy my neices' book, but didn't make them. So did I use the celebration and my niece's book as "EXCUSES" to add more to my hoard?
This isn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. It's going to take a lot more practice than I thought to control myself.
5. What to do when one isn't enough and two is too much?
6. Should I wait to practice until my hoard is gone? or should I practice as I go along? What happens to spontaneity? Are stores always going to be like taking an alcoholic to a bar and placing a drink in their hand? Am I always going to feel like "all or nothing?" Will there be a time when I'll be coherent enough to think beyond my hoard?
Did I find the book for my neice? I did not and ended up walking out of the bookstore with 5 books. Even though the books were bargains in the end, it cost me more due to it's hard knock to my head and adding to my hoard! The thrill wasn't nearly as good as when I got home and tried to find a place for them! I felt as if I had lost the race I had been winning. I felt confused as to how I could not stop myself. I felt grateful that mr. oz didn't stop me and let me work this out for myself.
I have a lot of unanswered questions about my hoarding ways and how to solve them, but it's more questions than I ever asked of myself when I used to relentlessly purge my hoard without thinking about it, so I feel as though I'm making progress, even if they look like set backs.
So in the end, I am hoping these two step backwards will later prepare me for my next steps forward in my challenge into my unknown hoarding adventure!
Post Thoughts: (Added 16jan2013) Do I see a pattern here? Do I add to my hoard about every two months? This weekend we'll be taking pics of my HoarderRehab Meltdown! Again, now that all the packages are arriving from my buying spree, it's way more than I thought!
At least now I have my built in coping mechanisms, like theme songs, quotes and planned rewards to practice and the BIG question to ask myself over and over, "Is this going to bring me closer or further away from my goals?"
Thank you US, Germany, Japan, Canada, Cypress, South Korea, Malaysia, Trinidad and Tobago for your time and company at the HoarderRehab Blog: The Destiny of Things!
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