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.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Don't judge me.

Receipts from 2005.


A 2004/2005 phone book.

Various socks. Some with mates. Some without. Most belonged to The Hubster, but there was one little one that belonged to Hopper or Scooter many years ago.

Dust hares at least 3 times the size of common dust bunnies.

A Sgt Grit catalog.

And a lung.

Ok. So the lung wasn't actually under the dresser. I coughed part of it up yesterday and the rest today - well after I finished cleaning our bedroom Tuesday night. 

It's the cleanest it's been in the 9 years we've lived here. There is finally a place for the sweaters that are only used in the winter months. There's a place for our shoes. We each have a place to hang our clothes. And the floor is bare and clean not only in the closet but all around the bed. The window is clean and the curtains are washed and rehung.
 
The one room in the house that I figured was the least pressing, because it was the one that had been kept up the best over the years still took 3 days to dig out. Granted, I was moving slower than normal with this respiratory bug Scooter so generously shared, but it's done now, and our bedroom is once again the sanctuary we intended it to be.


I'm so very thankful for its calming effects when I finally crawl into bed at night with my inhaler under the pillow and a cough drop in my mouth. Scooter is still coughing during the day, but her coughing has all but stopped during the night. I'm so glad. I hate when the girls are sick and don't get real sleep.

I'm very thankful that in spite of the fact that The Hubster, Hopper and Mom are all sick with this same crud that it doesn't seem to be hitting them quite as hard. I can't tell you how happy this makes me. 


Another thing that makes me happy? 


The pieces of my lung sitting in the jar on our closet shelf.




What? 



I never said I was going to get rid of everything!





10 comments:

  1. bahahaha @ lung in jar!!!!

    do you find you get itchy after stirring up the dust? I do, I HATE going through those boxes of old papers.

    I have to go through my wardrobe seriously I've given up folding and just shove it back in lol theres now a little pile in front of the door and things hanging on the door. I can't fit another thing in the bedside drawer....but the floors bare.....except for my avalanche in front of my wardrobe :)

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  2. I'm so glad you got your own room done! So many times moms will let their bedrooms be the last part of the house to get cleaned up. After all, no one from the "outside" sees that room so it can wait.

    Good for you!

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  3. Happy, happy, joy, joy! How wonderful to have your own bedroom clean and organized. I can tell you from experience, it's easy-peasy to vacuum/dust mop the closet floor and under the bed when there's nothing on/under it! I love having everything off the floor.

    Good going! Get enough rest now.

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  4. I wasn't GOING to judge you... until the whole keeping the lung chunks thing... now it's possible that I'm doubting your sanity.

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  5. I tell the boys all the time when I'm "GOING IN!" to clean their room. And in the end I always come out wheezing and sniffling.

    Can wait til I can finish off the other side of the basement and end the dust bunnies/spiderwebs forvever!

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  6. I have enjoyed reading your blogs. I have admitted that I am a pack rat on the verge of being a hoarder. (Does having 5 vacuums count as hoarding). I admire your determination to get a hold of your hoarding. It makes me want to do the same. Thank you very much. Keep on dejunking. Cindy

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  7. I've been working on the scary shelves and desk in my bedroom today. I think the oldest papers I threw out were from 1998. I got the shelves totally empty and most of the stuff off the desk. There are still multiple boxes sitting in the floor waiting to decide where to be put and several more to go through, but I am done for today. Thank you for your inspiration.

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  8. Oh PLEASE take a picture of the lung in a jar bwahahahaha, that's awesome!
    Way to go!!

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  9. Ewww!! Actually, it reminds me of when I took my tonsils to school in kindergarten for show-and-tell. Gross, right?

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  10. Yay school supplies! I too love them for the same reasons you do. I even bought crayons.
    And again, I collect things for future projects that I never seem to get around to. I have the very best intentions but,....

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