Tuesday, September 6, 2016

A Ton Of Crap

I, like many people, have sat on my couch for many hours gawking at tv shows about hoarders, thinking to myself "OK, I need to get rid of some stuff, but thank God that's not me." Well, I think it really is me.

As I have said in previous posts, this move has been rough. The full gravity of the situation has finally set in.

The first try, we just weren't ready. We loaded the truck with as much as we could, and knew that we'd have to come back. We threw out about a half ton of junk (literally), donated numerous car loads of books, clothes, and other items to Goodwill, and sold a bunch of furniture and odds and ends. When we came back the first time, we got a small truck, and filled it fairly full, threw out a bunch of stuff, donated some more, played chicken with a deer (we both lost), and drove back to the new place. Even without the accident, we would not have been able to finish this time either.

We drove back, with a pickup truck...filled it...still not done.

Our poor landlord--she has been so gracious, but we just needed everything to be out and get them the keys so they can sell the house. So we decided to drive back on Friday (not excited to drive on Labor Day weekend) and work Saturday and Sunday, pick up mom's car and drive back for good. I suggested the we drive back on Thursday and miss some holiday traffic, and have an extra day to work. It was a good thing we did.

We walked into the kitchen so hear water running and see it all over the kitchen floor.



The ceiling was dripping from several places, the corner cupboard was full of water, there was water all over the floor. We ran upstairs to check the upstairs bathroom and there is a little water on the floor, but not a whole lot. We turn the water to the toilet off. There had been water in the basement, it was still trickling down the main pipe.

PANIC.

We finally got ahold of someone at the Water Works to help us figure out how to turn the water off to the house. It kept leaking for a day, but we finally got it stopped.



So, once we got that cleaned up a little, we were able to get down to business. The trailer we rented the previous weekend for trash was still there and we kept chucking stuff.

We only had a little bit upstairs and then some stuff in the basement. I thought we'd have it knocked out in a day. OMG! When will I ever learn.After working all day Friday, all day Saturday, and most of the day Sunday, we finally got everything cleaned out and cleaned.

I don't know what part was worse: the embarrassment from other people seeing how much stuff we had, the realization that we are really no better off than any of those people on the tv shows (except that we don't have poop or rodents), or the realization that we donated several truckloads work of stuff, sold a bunch of stuff, and still threw away over two tons of old magazines, papers, books, and other crap.

Well, we finally have everything out of the house and are done there for good. We also have a new resolve to keep getting rid of stuff, and really and truly decluttering.

I have a new appreciation for what the people on Hoarders go through. It's truly emotional. You feel disgust with yourself, helplessness, hopelessness, and so many other things.

While I am relieved that it's over, it's not really over. We have stuff at my dad's house till we come back, because after we were already there we found out that mom's car won't be ready for at least another week.

Today we just relaxed. We've earned it. But as I sit here surrounded by boxes, I am anxious to get some order established, and to keep the purging up.

Here's to new beginnings!








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