Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

Oh dear, that's tough @Dimity to declutter while not feeling ruthless. 🫂

Yes, my agoraphobia wouldn't let me go out to do shopping yesterday so now I have 2 stressful over-busy days. 😣

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@Dimity wrote:

I need to rethink my storage. I boxed books and used bookshelves as open storage but want to revert somehow.

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What do you mean by "revert"? Not sure I understand.

Good luck today 🤞

@NatureLover have you considered maybe shopping online? But I trust things aren't as stressful as you fear.

My place is a muddle but I aspire to "reverting" to books on shelves again as I'd emptied my shelves and given some away. I'm not sure how I got here but I seem to have had upheavals every few years and have been in chaos ever since. And I've been too depressed to do anything about it. That has to change.

No I can't be ruthless. I'm still hoping to rediscover something worthwhile, that my life has been worthwhile. By slowly chipping away something good might emerge. I'm trying to work with what I find.

Good luck with your shopping and errands tomorrow.

@Dimity @NatureLover @creative_writer@tyme

hi all, sorry i was away, i had a lot of work to do. @Shaz51 I am sorry to hear about losing your mum, I remember briefly checking the site and I saw the post. I was thinking of you even though I didnt log in. I will try to update some info on the toolbox and I will try to tag everyone, its just that I cant remember everyones name. Sending you all blessings and warmth

Lots of unconditional love,

Scruffy.

Hi @Dimity , I hadn't considered shopping onine...I did it a few times during Covid, and the drivers touched every item and I freaked out. My MIs clash with each other 😢

Ah yes, I see what you mean by "reverting". Depression really is an awful, awful thing. The worst, I reckon.

I do admire your perseverence despite very large and significant challenges.

My boss has called me in today as we are short-staffed due to Covid.

I hope your day is successful today...

Hope you're not too tired after your extra day @NatureLover .

Sorry to hear online deliveries are so upsetting... I guess you're disinfecting anyway because of shelfstackers and checkout operators and random people. I'm thinking of trying online deliveries myself as I'm finding shopping harder.

I'm plugging on with low-key tidying and decluttering. I've been sowing some seeds in pots but the packets are so old they might not germinate. My hyacinths are starting to come up again - I hope they flower.

It's a chilly evening. Best wishes for tomorrow.

Hi @Dimity , no, I'm not too tired thankfully. I might find it catches up with me next week though!

Online groceries are good sometimes. I hope you find them helpful if you try them.

That's kind of nice to try the old seeds - you might get some nice surprises?

I found I couldn't get warm yesterday, but today feels much milder to me. Am up early to do my errands today. I was meant to do them on Friday, but Friday I had a medical appt plus a plasterer here. And on Tuesday I have an electrician coming. I decided to tackle maintenance on the house (the landlord is nice but doesn't do maintenance).

I hope that today you have success with whatever you decide to tackle 🤞

Hey @NatureLover ,

Hope you are doing okay.

I read about your online shopping. I tend to shop online a fair bit. Saves me going out. I'm hearing you about people touching everything. With me, I find more people touch things at the shops than straight from the factory? What do you think? No pressure to respond if you don't feel up to it.

Main thing is that you do what works for you. Online shopping has it's woes too... the other day, I got an order and realised I ordered the wrong size shoes! That was the first issue, and then I realised I order 2 or the same sneakers! Why would I possibly want the same sneakers? So I had to return them. Lesson learnt: double check... I didn't even realised I paid for extra shoes even though it was a good $100 extra.. my fault.

@scruffypuffball - you sound like you have been really busy. So cold on my end. Hope things get better for you!

Hi @tyme , so lovely of you to pop in! Thank you 🙂

I agree with you about less people touching things with online shopping if it's, say, clothing or shoes or furniture or something, straight from the warehouse.

But with groceries, I figure that drivers touching the steering wheel (lots of germs on those) then each item of the groceries, is much worse than me plucking the item off the shelf when maybe only one shelf-stacker has touched it. Also, I try to choose items that are still in their box on the shelf - you know how shelf-stackers cut open the front of the box? Then I figure no-one has touched the item 🙂 Plus I still wear masks in the supermarket, so I figure it's hopefully safe.

I get so, so sick of disinfecting things @tyme . If I can avoid disinfecting groceries, I will. Even if it clashes with my agoraphobia.

Oh no re your online shopping woes with the shoes! So you had to return 2 pairs of shoes and order again in the right size?

I can hear you really struggle with your germophobia @NatureLover . It's amazing you're up to getting the necessary maintenance done, and having the tradies in. i hope it won't be too expensive - your landlord really should be footing the bill.

Like @tyme I've bought the wrong size shoes online and had to pay return postage. Today I ordered a top at less than 1/3 the original price. I'm glad it was marked down as I'd bought it before and it was stolen from my letterbox. This time I'll pick it up from the post office.

I need to get back to decluttering again after taking a couple of days off. I made a real effort last week - it also paid off in reduced screen time and improved mood.

Fingers crossed the covid outbreak at your workplace runs its course without you succumbing.

Hi @chibam , this is my thread 🙂 So I thought I'd answer you here, so as not to take up too much of the other thread.

I googled the Gold Rule of Therapy as I'd never heard of it before. Got some conflicting information.

I know you prefer a social type of therapist - I think you might've used the word psychosocial therapist in the past? Can't quite remember. But I was wondering, is that the sort of thing more covered by social workers? I mean, addressing the living situation, socialisation, jobs etc of their clients?

I know my psychologist definitely makes my life better. But it took me 18 years to find a therapist who did (the first one retired and now I have this psychologist).

I'm just so sorry you got those two unprofessional therapists (I'd like to say worse about them). And that you feel your life's not worth living. Hugs, @chibam (if that's OK).