I cant, I wont, I refuse. I think I am slowly turning into a +hoarder. My roommate Brain and I have this thing where we like a clutter free house.
We actually have two extra bedrooms in our home which was supposed to either, one, get turned into our offices, or two, get some roommates. Neither has happened.
Our office is usually the kitchen table. It's not like we use the table to have meals together. So we have our computers on it, mine on one side, and Brian's on the other.
But through the years, things just seem to accumulate. I can actually remember when my hoarding started, we were having a party and decided to throw everything in one of the bedrooms and just close the door. Gone, out of sight, out of mind. Our house was clutter free, just as we like it.
And so it began.
Hmmmmm where to put this broken TV? Ill just stick it in here and then deal with it another time. Now, what to do with this broken computer? Ill just stick it in there till I have time to fix it. What about this glue stick, you never know when we will need it, Ill just stick it in there. Junk after Junk. It piled up. My rationale at the time was, 'why pay for storage when I had these 2 empty bedrooms.'
And it just kept going. Furniture that was too good to throw away, clothes that I would hold onto to give to my nephews, extra cable wires that I may need in the future, and my old weight set that I bought in 2011 and only used once. (mental note, I have to remember to get that so I can start working out again, aghhhh who am I kidding).
All of it, I mean all of it, found its way into one of the bedrooms. Oh, did I mention that the other bedroom we turned into another storage unit? Well, we had another party and we had more stuff to get rid of. I found myself saying “don't throw it away, we may need it.” Isn't that the first sign of being a hoarder?
As time went on, it got to the point that even when we needed something, we couldn't find it. It was just easier to buy it new then to look through the 2 storage rooms. (that's what we ended up calling them after a while). Anytime we couldn't find something, “did you look in the storage room?” At this point, you couldn't find anything in there, it was so cluttered from floor to ceiling of boxes and stuff.
I realized at this point that we did cross the line to +Hoarderism (is that a word?).
I kept thinking when +Christmas rolled around we would have to buy all new Christmas stuff because the decorations were buried so deep inside the one of the two storage rooms it would take days to try to find it.
It was at the moment that I raised the white flag and surrendered too the storage rooms. Time to clean 'em out.
I told Brian, my roommate, that this Saturday we both needed to be home to clean out those rooms. He agreed. We would separate into three piles, something I saw on 'selling my house' or one of those stupid reality shows. Or maybe I saw it on +hoarders, but whatever, Three piles.
1. usable stuff
2. no longer usable stuff
4. go to charity stuff
Only the best of the best would get saved and remain in the house.
So when Saturday came around, we were ready to go. We started opening all the boxes, dust was everywhere, books were found, lots of books, bins of clothes that we even forgot we had. It was pretty gross. We were actually wearing one of those dust masks just to give you an idea on how bad it was. I truly felt like I was on an episode of hoarders.
I told Brian that I thought we were becoming hoarders, Brian said that we are just collectors, there is a difference.
I tried to explain to him that collectors keep things because it makes them happy not because they are worried to throw it away of fear of needing it again. Plus, collectors usually have things organized to show off what they collect, like +hummels, this is NO collection of things.
Brian wasn't having any of it. He rather be in denial then admit he has become powerless over this stuff. Isn't that the first step of change in +AA? Maybe we are +Addicted hoarders. I can see it now,
"Hi, I'm Jay, and I am an +Addicted- Hoarder"
"Hi Jay" the folks in the church basement chime in.
I looked at Brian and said, “do you think people aren't coming over as much because our house +smells?”
He said “no it doesn't smell”
“yea, but the neighbor down the street with her 100 cat 'collection' didn't think her house smelled either. Then the men in the +White-Coats came and took her and her cats away and we never saw her again. I mean look at us, were wearing dust masks, that outta tell us something"
Brian in denial again.
Our Saturday turned into all weekend. The task was much bigger then we both anticipated. We made a few trips to the dump, we found those dumpsters for used clothes for the +Starving-children in +Ethiopia or some other starving country, (see, I care) and put our books in the 'we got books' bin. Slowly but surely, we were getting rid of stuff. But I got to tell you, it didn't look like we even made a dent. It looked exactly the same. Junk all over the floor.
By Sunday night, we were both pretty tired. But we still had so much more to go through.
As we looked at the time, it was 9pm at night. We had work in the morning so we picked up everything, put it in boxes and back in the storage rooms it goes.
“Hey Jay, there it is, do we need this 'glue stick' anymore?” Brian asked
“yea, you just never know”.
Hey, look at the bright side. Not one cat. Isn't that one of the requirements of being a hoarder, having dead cats?
Maybe Brian was right, maybe we are just collectors, nothing wrong with that.
We actually have two extra bedrooms in our home which was supposed to either, one, get turned into our offices, or two, get some roommates. Neither has happened.
Our office is usually the kitchen table. It's not like we use the table to have meals together. So we have our computers on it, mine on one side, and Brian's on the other.
But through the years, things just seem to accumulate. I can actually remember when my hoarding started, we were having a party and decided to throw everything in one of the bedrooms and just close the door. Gone, out of sight, out of mind. Our house was clutter free, just as we like it.
And so it began.
Hmmmmm where to put this broken TV? Ill just stick it in here and then deal with it another time. Now, what to do with this broken computer? Ill just stick it in there till I have time to fix it. What about this glue stick, you never know when we will need it, Ill just stick it in there. Junk after Junk. It piled up. My rationale at the time was, 'why pay for storage when I had these 2 empty bedrooms.'
And it just kept going. Furniture that was too good to throw away, clothes that I would hold onto to give to my nephews, extra cable wires that I may need in the future, and my old weight set that I bought in 2011 and only used once. (mental note, I have to remember to get that so I can start working out again, aghhhh who am I kidding).
All of it, I mean all of it, found its way into one of the bedrooms. Oh, did I mention that the other bedroom we turned into another storage unit? Well, we had another party and we had more stuff to get rid of. I found myself saying “don't throw it away, we may need it.” Isn't that the first sign of being a hoarder?
As time went on, it got to the point that even when we needed something, we couldn't find it. It was just easier to buy it new then to look through the 2 storage rooms. (that's what we ended up calling them after a while). Anytime we couldn't find something, “did you look in the storage room?” At this point, you couldn't find anything in there, it was so cluttered from floor to ceiling of boxes and stuff.
I realized at this point that we did cross the line to +Hoarderism (is that a word?).
I kept thinking when +Christmas rolled around we would have to buy all new Christmas stuff because the decorations were buried so deep inside the one of the two storage rooms it would take days to try to find it.
It was at the moment that I raised the white flag and surrendered too the storage rooms. Time to clean 'em out.
I told Brian, my roommate, that this Saturday we both needed to be home to clean out those rooms. He agreed. We would separate into three piles, something I saw on 'selling my house' or one of those stupid reality shows. Or maybe I saw it on +hoarders, but whatever, Three piles.
1. usable stuff
2. no longer usable stuff
4. go to charity stuff
Only the best of the best would get saved and remain in the house.
So when Saturday came around, we were ready to go. We started opening all the boxes, dust was everywhere, books were found, lots of books, bins of clothes that we even forgot we had. It was pretty gross. We were actually wearing one of those dust masks just to give you an idea on how bad it was. I truly felt like I was on an episode of hoarders.
I told Brian that I thought we were becoming hoarders, Brian said that we are just collectors, there is a difference.
I tried to explain to him that collectors keep things because it makes them happy not because they are worried to throw it away of fear of needing it again. Plus, collectors usually have things organized to show off what they collect, like +hummels, this is NO collection of things.
Brian wasn't having any of it. He rather be in denial then admit he has become powerless over this stuff. Isn't that the first step of change in +AA? Maybe we are +Addicted hoarders. I can see it now,
"Hi, I'm Jay, and I am an +Addicted- Hoarder"
"Hi Jay" the folks in the church basement chime in.
I looked at Brian and said, “do you think people aren't coming over as much because our house +smells?”
He said “no it doesn't smell”
“yea, but the neighbor down the street with her 100 cat 'collection' didn't think her house smelled either. Then the men in the +White-Coats came and took her and her cats away and we never saw her again. I mean look at us, were wearing dust masks, that outta tell us something"
Brian in denial again.
Our Saturday turned into all weekend. The task was much bigger then we both anticipated. We made a few trips to the dump, we found those dumpsters for used clothes for the +Starving-children in +Ethiopia or some other starving country, (see, I care) and put our books in the 'we got books' bin. Slowly but surely, we were getting rid of stuff. But I got to tell you, it didn't look like we even made a dent. It looked exactly the same. Junk all over the floor.
By Sunday night, we were both pretty tired. But we still had so much more to go through.
As we looked at the time, it was 9pm at night. We had work in the morning so we picked up everything, put it in boxes and back in the storage rooms it goes.
“Hey Jay, there it is, do we need this 'glue stick' anymore?” Brian asked
“yea, you just never know”.
Hey, look at the bright side. Not one cat. Isn't that one of the requirements of being a hoarder, having dead cats?
Maybe Brian was right, maybe we are just collectors, nothing wrong with that.