ONE SIMPLE QUESTION....

[sissy]

I think we all have a little or big find a treasure and take it home syndrome .

 

[Lisak1]

You know those little plastic containers that the very expensive Maryjane comes in now that you sometimes see laying by the side of the road?

I had to read that three times to figure out what you were talking about! haha! We don't have that particular "product" for sale here yet!

 

[addy1]

When my mom passed, my dad asked for us to clean out the house. My mom had tons of cloth, old canned food, years old! to dangerous to eat. I filled up a huge dumpster for him.
The cloth, yarn etc was given away.

Bags of the old publisher clearing house mailers, you will win tons.....................only had a path to the bed. Dad just wanted it all cleaned out. Spent the week home, after the funeral, cleaning his house out.

Of course one crazy sis, wanted to save torn dresses, debris, i.e. treasures, told her fine, drag to your house.

 

[Lisak1]

There are savers and there are purgers - I definitely fall into the second category!

As thanks for spending two weeks sorting through 45 years of "collecting" and packing and moving her to her new, clean, handicapped accessible apartment, my mom now calls my sister and I several times a day to ask "where is my WHATEVER or did you throw that out, TOO?"

We had to force her to sit in the room we were working on and make decisions about every single item in her home - she had so many other things she wanted to do instead (including RUNNING TO THE STORE!) but we knew if we didn't make her participate, she would accuse us of throwing away important things. She was grouchy and crabby and mean as a wet hen the whole time, but we kept calling her back and making her pay attention. But she still insists we got rid of all her most prized possessions. She even asks us about things we KNOW she never had - yesterday she called me wanting to know what we did with her microwave omelet maker... HUH? She saw an infomercial and KNOWS she had one of those and has a taste for an omelet made in her microwave... RIGHT NOW. haha! I'm sure she was at Walmart picking one up before the sun went down.

Dear God please help me remember to be kind to my family - if I don't remember a single other thing, please let me remember that!

 

[sissy]

When I retired from from NJ I gave everything away except clothes and my curio cabinet and my grandfather clock .Bought all new when we moved here and hubby and I enjoyed the hunt from all the outlet stores here that made furniture .Some one of a kind stuff that they made samples of for the furniture show in NC .Dirt cheap at outlet stores .coffee table and 3 end tables and a sofa table (stone and metal ) were only 100 hundred dollars for all 5 pieces brand new 1 of a kinds .They did not sell because they were heavy as heck

 

[MitchM]

I'm thankful for the TV show "Hoarders".
It's brought to light a past secret that many people and families suffered with.
It's a real disease and these people need help; dealing with them certainly requires patience and better understanding.

 

[CountryEscape]

You are sooooo correct, @MitchM ! I always just thought my brother was lazy for nothing washing dishes and tossing trash. He's still mad at me for not recycling his milk jugs ... with curdled milk still in them. Yuck!
And, when I look at all the "stuff" I have, I know that I also need to purge a LOT! I am about 2 years away from retiring, maybe more, maybe less, depending on my attitude toward work ... and it's something I will be doing in earnest when I retire. One room at a time, and the barn and other outbuildings. I was so glad to have all that "space", which has been utilized for more "stuff". Ugh!
I agree, @Lisak1, I sure hope by the time I die, the only thing left for my kids to have to deal with will be money. My mom has done this for herself. She has the "500 items or less" rule! I'm taking a pair of socks is 2 items! Yes, she is well below that, I'm certain! And, she is still getting rid of stuff. But, she is ready for death, too, and it will be a breeze to handle her estate, so I want to be like that when I die. I sure hope I don't die soon ... my kids would kill me! LOL

 

[Lisak1]

It's brought to light a past secret that many people and families suffered with.

So very true. I think it's way more prevalent than many people ever realized. The interesting thing is my mom did a lot of social services work for county agencies. She used to tell us about the "path houses" - homes that were so stuffed full of junk that the person living there had just a small path to walk. She was appalled at the way some people lived... and now here we are. We have had to have lots of hard conversations with her - like the time she sent me a nasty email about the fact that we never come to her house anymore and I had to point out that we couldn't because A. she had a dog that would murder anyone who tried to step foot on her lawn and B. her house was so full of stuff that there wasn't a chair left for anyone to sit on. Every available surface was covered with years worth of newspapers, magazines, files from her work days (she's been retired for 10+ years - she just never put it all away), junk mail, bags of things she bought but never put away... and of course, food. She got rid of the dog (after he bit the UPS man, the meter reader, and chased a lady visitor back to her car) but the clutter stayed.

She did finally admit before the move that she was overwhelmed and embarrassed by the clutter and since moving into her new apartment she has had lots of visitors over for coffee - something she used to enjoy doing before the house got so - as she termed it - "messy". So we are hopeful that she will keep her apartment nice...but I'm honestly not holding my breath.

And @CountryEscape - I operate on the "one in, two out" philosophy. If we buy something new, two old things go out the door. So even as I'm contemplating buying something, I'm asking myself "what am I willing to give up to buy this?" Sometimes I decide it's just not worth it. I've also done the 40 Days/40Bags for Lent purge for the last three years and will do it again this year - for every day of Lent, I "give up" one bag (or one large item). It's a refreshing way to look at Lenten sacrifice while also leading into spring cleaning with a good purge!

 

[CountryEscape]

I love the 40 Days/40 Bags idea, @Lisak1. I sure need to get rid of a LOT of clothes! I'm living in a 3 bedroom house (but 2 of the bedrooms became one larger one) with 3 closets, plus front door coat closet, closet in utility/laundry room, and they all have stuff in them! It's JUST ME! Yep, I sure have an issue. But, at least the overall appearance of my house is not cluttered. Oh, and I have a basement, it has my Christmas decorations and ... stuff. LOL I bought baby stuff for when my grand babies came to visit, but 3 live in North Dakota, and the other lives 3.5 hours away, so it's harder for them to come see me, I usually go see them!

 

[addy1]

I have one tiny closet of clothes, most of my life I wore scrubs, I have some nice tops, wear only if we are going out. OW t-shirts, shorts and jeans. Our house is a basic rancher, we both came from huge places.

My neighbor's pastor has a auction in October to help their camp for kids, I have purged tons of stuff to them, get a tax write off. I take car loads to her house, they pick it up. Still have more to go. Hauled to much stuff from AZ when I moved, mainly tools.

I was raised in a two bedrm house with a attic, which my dad finished and 8 kids, Most of us shared the attic, good old sloped roof walls.
It was crowded cluttered, I can't stand clutter.

This winter was to be our clean out the basement fix it up, winter , well Baltimore took over.