This one's for the hoarders
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Wow! @Abm4n "Thirteen years at English boarding schools starting from the age of 5 can predispose a person towards food hoarding. I still have a little tucker box filled with chocolate! " I bet that really changes your view of food!
My career was in IT (with a English degree - a bit of story). Of course there is an algorithm for mum's buying a storing habits. N + 1 And here I thought it was just keeping up with 3 hungry boys in the house! And perhaps because both my parents were starting their adult lives during the depression. Never throwing out what might be useful, storage of food "just in case", their freezer was just as stocked for the 2 of them as it was for the 6 of us. Not hoarding but certainly prepared for shortages. I have struggled to shrink what is in my cupboards since I don't have 3 hungry boys.2 -
I'm a hoarder. At the superficial level there's definitely a factor of control-freakyness. On a deeper level there's also the continuing battle of distracting myself by avoiding unpleasant feelings. My theory is that all disordered behavior is a cushion to avoid feelings. I notice that I binge, shop and do gaming when there's something that I allow to nag on me or there's unresolved issues. It's a comfort thing, but it doesn't solve anything for the long run.
Oh, I hoard food too. There's always a rationalizing in case I'm "running out". But my bf who's a neatfreak has helped me a lot understanding what I need to do to keep things outside jungle zone. It's still a struggle though and I understand there's emotional ties here that I haven't quite figured out yet.3 -
I am so good at decluttering stuff, getting rid of unused stuff, etc. why is it so hard to declutter my excess weight?0
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I loved Kondo's book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Great read. I used her ideas on my pantry and freezer. Awesome. It was easier to prepare food without digging past the junk. I didn't lose weight from it, but it was mentally satisfying.
Teehee. In her list of comments from clients at the beginning is, "I finally succeeded in losing ten pounds."
That's right! I forgot about that. LOL0 -
My Aunt is a hoarder. The kind where there are 'paths' thru the piles of unopened bags of stuff and more stuff. So sad. I've tried to help her clean it out and she panics that she needs this, going to fix that, can't part with that and just gets upset. I tried to help her with a keep, sell, donate and toss pile. She squirreled through the toss pile after we agreed something was broken and stashed things in her car, so I wouldn't see her 'saving' things. I just quit trying. When she passes, it's going to be a dumpster project for sure. She is just a tiny thing, never been more than 99 pounds. She takes extra food from restaurants, but doesn't eat it. She boxes up any extra popcorn to give to the birds. There is an illogical emotional component to it, but I don't think there is necessarily a link to over eating. For her it is more about having food or things available and around, not the consumption of things. Most of the things she has are unopened and never used, never eaten, just stored.0
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I just realized (after posting above) perhaps one of the reasons I don't have as much food in the house anymore is because of my habit of walking to the grocery store for exercise. I have the luxury of having 4 supermarkets stores within my 3-5 mile round-trip-walk-range. On occasion (if I need something I can't carry) I will drive to and park at one store, put on my back pack, walk to another store (that is otherwise out of my range) return to the car, drop off my loaded backpack and go into the store where I parked to get the heavy or parishable stuff. Drive home. This "drive n park" places 7 supermarkets (and a few more ethnic stores) within my walking range.
I have plenty of time in my day. I've walked to the grocery store for a broccoli crown. A banana for my husband's lunch. A garlic bulb. A piece of fresh ginger. On those days I don't bother with the backpack.
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@kpk54 I think that's how we evolved living in the wild. We COULD get a whole bunch of food if we were prepared to make the physical effort to go get it. It helped us to sort out our priorities. Now, with food on every street corner it's too easy to overindulge. I admire your habit of walking to the shop to buy things as you need them. When I shop I am now trying to limit my purchases to what I need. I will usually fill the bottom of my hand held basket with two bottles of mineral water "ballast" so it feels heavier and I am less inclined to fill it up with random stuff.3
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Opposite here. My girlfriend is thin and cannot throw anything away. My Zen attitude embraces the impermanence of materials and I throw out what others would consider priceless sentimental jewels.
My dad, who might weigh as much as his shadow, is also a hoarder. My mom, who is bigger like me, will throw almost anything away...she will keep those sentimental relics.0 -
Right before I started losing weight, I gave up. I went through every piece of clothing I had meticulously saved since HS, favorites from pre-pregnancy, and all of it. If it didn't have particularly special significance or there was no way I could realistically fit into it inside a year, out it went. I sold/donated a carload full of clothing...probably multiple, actually.
That was January 2012. In February 2012, my company started a "Biggest Loser" contest with a money prize. I figured what the heck. I didn't win, but it started me back here, where I'd been before but not really used much...which lead me to uncovering a number of undiagnosed health conditions I now treat, about a 70 pound weight loss (and some regain), the low carb path, and a number of other things.
I've frequently said that without that decluttering, I wouldn't have been in the frame of mind or had the space I needed to get healthy.
As for the hoarding, I never had much growing up, so once I could, I always accumulated as many things as I could, to the point of spending more than I had, and running out of room to store things. I moved from a 4 bedroom house into 1.33 rooms at one point... My downsizing has resulted in panic, as I was clinging to things I would have sworn blind I needed. I'm needing to do another major declutter/minimalize now, but I am struggling to make time, as I swear I feel like I'm never home, and my apartment is tiny in many places my previous place was not, so I'm struggling even further, as I'd already pared down more than once in that area... My guy is in utter denial about hoarding, but he holds on to many things "in case he needs them" and tends to clutter up every solid surface in the place. But we're both working on it...4 -
One thing I do hoard is food, everything else can go. My books are on my kindle. I regularly clean out my clothes. But food OMG I need two of everything in the cupboard and a full freezer. It takes me 5mins to walk to the supermarket. I get why I stock pile my water and glutenfree stuff, but 10 onions? 5 packs of taco powder mix? Soups I won't eat? 4 plates of 85% and 90% dark chocolate? I have eaten one single square the last week.
I think I need help!1 -
@Bonny132, I will come over tomorrow and help you declutter the plates of dark chocolate!
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I just deleted about 20 episodes of Game of Thrones from my hard drive without ever bothering to watch them. Also with Spotify I don't keep much music any more.2
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KnitOrMiss wrote: »As for the hoarding, I never had much growing up, so once I could, I always accumulated as many things as I could, .... My guy is in utter denial about hoarding, but he holds on to many things "in case he needs them" and tends to clutter up every solid surface in the place. But we're both working on it...
This is my life! still surrounded by my in-laws' clutter and hubby's, and my own. It is hard to work up the energy to sort through it all on my days off, though.
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I just deleted about 20 episodes of Game of Thrones from my hard drive without ever bothering to watch them. Also with Spotify I don't keep much music any more.
I cannot wait for GoT to come back on the screens, but my Tivo box, hardly ever goes over 20% usage, I clear out everything as soon as I watch it. I use Amazon music for my music, no need to buy it and clutter anything up when I have so many playlists to play from.1 -
@KnitorMiss:
"I've frequently said that without that decluttering, I wouldn't have been in the frame of mind or had the space I needed to get healthy."
I truly believe that when we get rid of something old it makes way for new good to come into our lives. I learnt this from Katherine Ponder about thirty years ago. Good changes often start with clearing our the old stuff and making room for the new.7
