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.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

A Tisket a Tasket. A Revisited Blue Basket.

The antibiotics are starting to kick in. I'm so very thankful. While I'm still a bit weak and still quite tired, I've felt better today than I have in a week. I think going back to bed for a long nap after I'd been up for an hour or so helped, but I still didn't have much energy. Working on the dishes wore me out, so we ordered pizza when the kids came over tonight. I'd planned on making burritos, but it looks like that will be on the menu for next weekend when we get to spend more time with Bugster, Bubster and Frank.

It took awhile, but Scooter and I cleaned off the love seat and cleaned out her blue basket again. I haven't spent much time worrying about the love seat and all she had piled on it, because the major dehoarding has been a bigger priority for several weeks. I could live with Scooter's obsession with little pieces of paper, the clothes, and the toys that she would pile beside her while she sat until I had the opportunity to go through it with her again. Once again, there was an entire basket of laundry she had collected and 3 shopping bags of paper trash along with assorted toys.

I know I shouldn't have allowed it to get this bad again, and I should have helped her keep things under control, but I had so many other things on my mind. This just wasn't one of them. However, I will make it a daily after school chore for her to put things where they need to go instead of piling them on the love seat beside her from now on. Surprisingly, she had very little in her blue basket. However, she had gathered several empty sports drink bottles and had them heaped in it atop her toys. We don't normally drink a lot of sports drinks, but with this summer having been so warm and us working outside so much, we have had more than usual.

Instead of buying several new bottles at a time, we bought the powdered Gatorade at the grocery store and I'd make it up at home. Once I stirred it up, I'd fill the clean bottles half full and stick them in the freezer. When we needed something cold to drink to help with the fact that we'd been working so hard and sweating all electrolytes away, we'd fill them to the top with some that had been freshly made. It has really helped to keep us hydrated and keep us from being overwhelmed by the heat.

In the meantime, we've found that Scooter likes to hoard empty sports drink bottles and itsy bitsy pieces of paper as well as medium sized pieces of paper and large pieces of paper.

I wonder, if she's trying to tell me something.

3 comments:

  1. Going through her stuff on the love seat can also be a good time for the two of you to just be together alone. As long as going through her goodies is not a big fight, then it sounds like some nice quality Mom and Scooter time.

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  2. Hmmm, security maybe , she is hoarding as you are dehoarding . Maybe the changes are a little unsettling . You will both do fine though. Glad you are feeling better

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  3. It is normal for her to "hoard" things as you are "dehoarding". It's how they resist change and maintain control of what they know. It will pass, keep up the good work. -J

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