Compulsive hoarding is a mental disorder that is just beginning to be understood. As a hoarder, I have acquired things over the years with a specific purpose in mind at the time of the acquisition, used some of those items for their intended purposes, forgotten the goal for different objects, but now that I find that they have outlived their purpose in my life I am struggling to rid myself of those same things.

You can read the start of my journey here.

Monday, January 23, 2012

How do I know, if I'm a hoarder? Pt 4 - Too many categories.

I've always struggled with sorting things. It's not that I can't sort. I can. But something I have in common with other hoarders is sorting things into too many categories. 


For example, in the past, instead of just being able to close the box of crayons and put them away, I would have to sort them into like colors. It wasn't good enough to sort all the shades of red together. I'd have to sort them into shades of red starting with the pink on one side and ending in purple on the other. And it's something I did every time I'd put the crayons or markers away.


And laundry? 


Towels are sorted into:


     *Kitchen
           *Darks
           *Whites/lights
     *Bathroom
          *Darks
          *Colors
          *Whites
          *Reds


Clothes are sorted like this:


     *Sweats
          *Reds/Pinks/Purples
          *Oranges
          *Darks
          *Colors
          *Whites
     *Pants
          *Black/BlueJeans
          *Khakis 
     *Dress clothes
          *Light Weight Clothing
               *Reds/Pinks/Purples
               *Oranges
               *Darks
               *Colors
               *Whites
               *Whites with any sort of non-white trim
          *Medium Weight Clothing
               *Reds/Pinks/Purples
               *Oranges
               *Darks
               *Colors
               *Whites
               *Whites with any sort of non-white trim
          *Heavy Weight Clothing
               *Reds/Pinks/Purples
               *Oranges
               *Darks
               *Colors
               *Whites
               *Whites with any sort of non-white trim
     *Sweaters
          *Light Weight Sweaters
               *Reds/Pinks/Purples
               *Oranges
               *Darks
               *Colors
               *Whites
               *Whites with any sort of non-white trim
          *Medium Weight Sweaters
               *Reds/Pinks/Purples
               *Oranges
               *Darks
               *Colors
               *Whites
               *Whites with any sort of non-white trim
          *Heavy Weight Sweaters
               *Reds/Pinks/Purples
               *Oranges
               *Darks
               *Colors
               *Whites
               *Whites with any sort of non-white trim
     *All other shirts 
          *Reds/Pinks/Purples
          *Oranges
          *Darks
          *Colors
          *Whites
     *Sheets
          *Darks
          *Lights
     *Underwear


Thankfully, the kids are grown now, and I don't have to do all the sorting I did for their clothes when they were little anymore. I generally washed them separately from the rest, because their skin was much more sensitive. So add all the categories above to baby clothes, and you can understand why I've struggled with laundry over the years.
     
And when I clipped coupons? Yeah. I pretty much micromanaged my coupons. I stopped using them, because it was so time consuming. And toys? Oh my goodness. I'm not even going to go there. And this doesn't even scratch the surface of all the things that I need to sort in a day. 





Needless to say, it's exhausting. 


I've been able to curb the sorting of crayons and markers. And the toys the girls with are not the type that need sorting as much now. I still have a lot of their old toys, but they'll be sorted into 3 main areas when I get to them. Keep, donate & trash. And I will be getting rid of most of them. 


But I don't know that I'll ever be able to sort the laundry any differently than I do now. For whatever reason, I can't seem to put the categories into bigger groups. I can handle crayons just being crayons. 


But I can't handle laundry just being laundry.

2 comments:

  1. So I started off thinking, I'm not quite that bad, and then I realized oh. I may not care about the order of the crayons (cause the girls destroyed the box and they now get dumped into an empty wipes box), but that story about the crayons is totally me if you replace 'crayons' with 'fabric'. So instead the fabric is jumbled into boxes and spewing from them and my closet..... I'm loving your posting theme!

    ReplyDelete

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