This morning I started watching the "Hoarding" series on Netflix — OMG! The people on this program are scary. It is clear to me hoarding tendencies definitely run in my family.
Watching this show has unearthed many memories of our efforts to help my Mom clean up her house. While her house definitely isn't as bad as some of the houses on the show, she has many of the same issues as these folks. She always had to touch and "approve" everything before it left the house. You'd spend hours cleaning and only manage to unearth like a square foot of floor. The one time I really screwed up is when I tried to clean up the garage without my Mom's permission (by inviting my father and brother to remove their stuff). She took away my house key and I'm pretty sure, she never forgave me for that... So, after that, I simply just stopped trying to help.
I guess this can be a wake up call for me. I tend towards being a "keeper." As long as I have space, why get rid of something I might need later? So far, I've been lucky to have had large homes, for the most part. I am also lucky I am an organized person and am able to organize the stuff I save, so we can usually find it again.
But with the last several moves, we've accumulated more and more misc. boxes. And I picked up a number of boxes of "Grandma's Stuff" from my grandmother's house I still need to sift. Once we finish remodeling the house next year, we really need to finally adjust our stuff supply so it fits comfortably in our space. I want to be able to clean up for company and not be embarrassed by how cluttered my home looks.
We're living in a bit of chaos right now because we don't really want to unpack everything and "move in" when we'll be remodeling in the next year and we'll have to move out of the spaces again.
Jeff and I actually cleaned a fair amount this past week just by wandering around the house and collapsing empty boxes. My father is visiting soon and I didn't want to have the living space filled with a bunch of empty moving boxes and packing supplies. It's better—but it's not clean by any means.
I love watching the show since it makes me feel better about my own house! The show I started watching earlier today has a family where no one throws anything away...that's just gross. That reminds me...garbage picks up tomorrow.
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