My house is full of clutter. Monday a contractor comes to do some measuring for some work that needs to be done. Today, I’m supposed to be cleaning/throwing stuff away. Instead, have spent the day on the computer.
I just posted this on Huffington Post.
Now closing the laptop. Bye-bye.
Ann Leary, author of The Good House
Author of The Good House
I’m Supposed to Be Purging
August 27, 2009 by 60 Comments
Comments
Speak Your Mind
I started the habit of just stashing things years ago when my children were small. Who had the time to put everything in its proper place. So, I had a drawer that I started to throw things into and then that morphed into another drawer and another. Then, by the time you are FINALLY ready to get organized, the thought of actually doing it is so overwhelming that you just go and pick up a book and read. Having said this, Ann, it’s really time for another book to read!!!!
Just read your article and loved it. I, like you, am a constant shuffler of paper and things. While I’m not as bad as the people on TV (I have no giant towers of newspaper that lead to my kitchen, etc.), but we do have all our kids stuff from when they moved out (I thought they take stuff with them-I guess not!), all the stuff from my late mother-in law and my late father in the basement, along with all our stuff. While your article gave me pause and an urge to start cleaning, instead, I plan on getting intimately acquainted with Tropical Storm Danny, as we are heading to Boston this weekend for my birthday, so I guess the clutter will have to wait another week!
“Organized by stratum” – love that. Sounds so much better than, “piles of crap.”
Oh boy Ann I wish I could be there to help you, I live mission organization. I just can’t help myself, all must be neat and tidy and in its’ place. My friends tell me it is a sickness, I tell them it is a gift. Loved your article on the Post, you are too funny. I am thinking next season you need to make a guest appearance on RM, you would be a natural.
Ann:
Pick me! Pick me! I must say that one of my few good qualities is being very organized and tidy. (The psychological term for this condition is anal-retentive, I know, but the term disgusts me–which is probably a symptom of being anal-retentive. And around, and around, we go, right??…..) I’d be willing to come to Connecticut and help you make fast work of this project. Problem is, you might never get rid of me. Or, worse yet, I might smuggle Lulu home with me.
Good luck with your cleaning/throwing out of stuff. Great post on Huffington Post, too.
Ann,
I have crap also. Since I live in Ma there is nothing on the TV only the late Sen Kennedy’s drive to Boston. Really depressing…If I hear “Amazing Grace” on the Bagpipes one more time I will own stock in Scott Tissue. (Long story, and not with a happy ending)Yes I cried on the premier episode of RM this season, that piece does me in every shot. Any way my sainted mother saved every freakin’ report card mother’s day card note from the Nuns, so after my crying jag from thatI went through my stuff pics from college that if my kids’ ever see I will never live it down Term Papers (only the good ones) and are you ready for this…A16 Magazine with David Cassidy and Tigerbeat just the outside cover no mag so I to am in the Nixon era. I thought us Leos were a strong have our S*#t together sort of group? Well happy purging…I’m not even looking at the stuff any more, I’m just throwing it out or shredding(I’ll keep the crap Mom kept). Have a great weekend end .
Wendy-
We will do our best to keep Danny at bay for you. I have tickets to the Sox game Saturday so I am particularly interested in kicking Danny up to the Maritimes. Be prepared for huge crowds assembling to remember and honor Sen. Kennedy this weekend though. I know he was much reviled in many places in the U.S., but he is revered here and we are all very emotional about his loss.
OMG — I think we were twins separated at birth!!
I am horrible — my kids & hubby just shake their heads at me ….and I do it all of the time …..the girls just are constantly amazed at my “organizational” skills …and yet …I am considered the organized queen at work …I may have a problem!! Mrs Jeckyl and Ms Hyde!!
But — at least I am no longer alone in my affliction …. that’s why we have offices, spare rooms, under the bed, in the pantry ..under the stairs ….if there is a spot …I have the will to shove it there!! However, one of these days, I’ll be trapped under it all after it caves in on me …a la Dorothy’s house on top of the witch …little feet (with a gorgeous pedicure however) twitching!!
Joletta from Calgary
There is a TV show now called HOARDERS……
These people can not walk through their homes. I am glad that I too – have one room for all the crap!
Maybe you need to get a dumpster!
Oh my God, Sandy, the dumpster is coming on Monday!
I do this once a year. This was actually a recycled blog post from a year ago, but it’s the same situation today. I have to get a small dumpster brought to the property to get rid of all the crap. I have received emails today, in response to the hoarding piece, about animal hoarding, which is really so sad. Mostly older women do this. Mostly with cats. I’m really hesitating about getting those kittens for the barn now. The only thing keeping me from being Edie Beale is my dear husband. I keep it all at bay for him. If he were to leave, the raccoons and cats would find their way in, and the catalogs would never find their way out.
Ann:
I don’t think getting two kittens for your barn qualifies you as a hoarder of animals. Inside our barn resides a couple dozen cats, and I don’t consider myself even close to Edie Beale. Nor are you. I protect, feed, pet, (wish I could cuddle with some of them, but they run like the wind when I get too close, except for my buddies, Morris and T., but they stick around only for some petting) and provide any necessary comfort for these creatures. Besides, you desperately need mousers. Please get your kittens. You will be sincerely happy that you did.
I am constantly battling with my husband about which one of us has more clutter in our disaster of a basement. At least the stuff I save is sentimental. He has a large moving box labeled “Old Stereo Equipment” and another large box labeled “Phone Parts.” This is in addition to the Rubbermaid tote full of old jeans that I am not allowed to sell at garage sales. He refuses to go through or throw anything away, because he might just need to build a radio with some sort of communication device one day when all of the houses in our sub suddenly disappear and we become surrounded by a mysterious body of water…
I can’t WAIT for your new book!!! Let’s hope they’re going to read it and love it quickly so they can get it out to us soon
I’m wondering if the desire to hoard isn’t at least partially related to the Great Depression, or other similar historical events.
My husband’s grandmother, who is 91 and was living in Hawaii when Pearl Harbor was bombed, saves empty cups from 7-Eleven, every grocery bag, peanut butter jar or plastic flower pot. Gifts from her always come wrapped in newspaper and are tied with yarn.
I know quite a few people of that generation who despite the fact that they have plenty of money, will do utterly ridiculous things in the name of frugality. I think the most extreme example would be emptying tobacco from cigarette butts and rolling them into new smokes.
I recall studying the concept of hoarding in in college, specifically in relationship to the elderly. I think it was a sociology class on death and dying. But the gist was that it was ultimately about control.
The strength of one’s need to control their life and environment fluctuates along with current events. When you have some horrific disaster like 9-11 or Pearl Harbor or a depression or recession, people panic and they want to control their lives as much as they possibly can. It’s a safety blanket.
Blah blah blah. Just my two cents.
Thanks for this food for thought.
Julia
I knew it. I knew I had found my people when I first got here. It is confirmed. I just found out about this hoarder show. Made my husband record it for me so we could watch together (also, I don’t know how to run the TV system he has in our house, I don’t watch TV so I just have him show me programs on his nights off). I now have a new mantra “I’m not that bad! There are millions of us, and I’m really not that bad!”
The terrible thing is, I am actually very organized, for the stuff I feel needs to be organized. Um, and also for the piles. I know where everything is, and at what “strata” it is buried. The thought of a dumpster makes me nauseaous, way too scary. ALSO, not my fault, entirely…. much of this is crap the kids left behind when they moved out (apparently all of those adults we gave birth to do this).
Best of luck with the purge. We do admire you so.
Here is the solution. Back yourself into a huge, expensive and lengthy renovation project on your house which requires the installation of a dumpster that stays in your yard FOR A YEAR. It became my friend. Several times I ended up on the second floor of my house gleefully dropping large items out the window into the dumpster just to hear them crash…sort of a rocker smashing up a hotel room vibe. Old tv’s, broken furniture, boxes of old New Yorkers and National Geographics…but not the pets or children. Although my daughter did get stuck inside the dumpster once when I sent her in there to retrieve a coffemaker I regretted letting go.
Ann, congratulations on getting your book off to your agent. That must be a bit of relief, now to concentrate on something else…like purging? Add me to your helper list, the only trouble with all these helpers, I’m afraid no cleaning up would get done-more like a gab fest and we’d be in the way. I guess that job is best left to the one owning the clutter.
My problem is throwing too much out, I always want what I’ve discarded. I live with a collector of stuff, and of course I’m not allowed to even think about touching anything belonging to my husband.
Wishing you best of luck with the book, looking forward to release date.
: )
Candy & Betsy, can you come help me??? I’m not a hoarder, but I have piles of crap on every table, kitchen counter, the chaise lounge, love seat, etc. It’s awful. The closets are full. I can’t find anything in the piles, so when I need something I have to go through every single freaking pile! A few times a year I go through & throw out bags of crap & put away what needs to be kept, but then I just start creating piles all over again.
I’ve tivoed the hoarder shows hoping to get some tips, but haven’t watched them yet.
One of my best friends is a true hoarder, but she thinks she has a clutter problem. It’s really sad. It’s literally dangerous to try to walk through her house. There are piles 5-6 feet high everywhere, with a small path through them. You can’t even get into 2 of her bedrooms, her dining room, or basement. I know that if there’s ever a fire, she’s going to die because she’ll never get out because she also weighs about 450 lbs. It makes me so sad, but I haven’t been able to help her. She’s a compulsive shopper, and she won’t get rid of anything, even if it’s obviously trash.
I know that when she dies her brother is going to have to get a number of the big construction dumpsters and pay people to haul everything out to the dumpsters.
As to the animal hoarders, you’re not even close Ann. I was sickened on Wednesday when I looked at the front page of our local paper. A woman with 29 cats and a dog was apparently facing financial problems. So she thought it would be best if she killed herself and them so they would go to heaven together. She put RAT POISON in all their food! Somehow she sent a letter to her vet about it & they sent the police, and thank God they got there early enough. One cat died, but the others seem to be ok. She was taken to the hospital, but there haven’t been any updates on her since. ‘I’ want to give the damn woman rat poison. If anyone wants to read the article, here’s the link:
http://www.thereporteronline.com/articles/2009/08/26/news/doc4a94369fc70a1667435281.txt
Since she had all these animals in the house, and the house was overrun with cat pee & poop, she was a hoarder, so she was obviously mentally ill, but to think it was better to kill them all with her? Makes my blood boil.
Betsy, Your situation isn’t a hoarding situation. Animal hoarders start as rescuers with a few cats or dogs in their home. They mean well, but can’t say no when people ask for help with cats needing homes or they find stray cats. They just can’t stop themselves. It truly is a sickness just like the hoarders on the tv shows. Unfortunately it has worse consequences because we’re dealing with living beings, and they end up living in inhumane conditions. The houses are literally overrun with animals, they go to the bathroom all over the house, causing unsanitary conditions for the animals and the people. The food left out for them often rots and attracts insects and rodents, it’s totally disgusting. Many times the animals are sick and diseased, and the person can’t afford vet care, so it spreads, and they suffer and die. A lot of times when a hoarders home is raided, the stench is so bad the people have to wear masks and go outside often for fresh air due to the smell of dead carcasses.
An animal hoarder means well but goes off the deep end and ends up inflicting cruelty.
Just did some back blog reading, best of luck with the book, how wonderful you finally sent it off. Like I had said eariler when I was watching Julie and Julia, many times I thought of you and this blog. So you never did tell us, how many hits are you getting, or am I being rude to ask? Is that like asking how much money do you make or how much you weighting these days, ha.
Ann, totally off topic, but have you considered putting together a book of all of your observational “essays”…like Anna Quindlen did with her New York Times columns in “Thinking out Loud”…or like David Sedaris’s “When You Are Engulfed in Flames”…or like Denis Leary’s “Why We Suck.” I know you favor the fiction genre (and don’t get me wrong, you do it so well), but your observations are so keen and funny on life, love, marriage, children, animals, etc., that I think a book of those real stories would be so much fun to read. You’re really funny and it jumps off the page as if you’re just sitting there having coffee with your reader. We all laugh out loud when reading your blog. I think a book like that would be great. Something to work on while waiting for your latest book to hit the shelves? Just a thought. -Catherine
Ok, first, have you abandoned us for Huff Po?? I don’t mind cruising on over there, but at least can you ask them not to run free bible adds all across the top??? That just seemed to weird, although I guess I could click through and get a few for the guest rooms and that way people would really feel like they were staying at some country motel!
Second, sorry, I can’t relate to this one. I am the opposite. Anal. Neat freak. Never leave the house in a condition that if I died someone would find any disarray. No dishes in the sink, all laundry put away. Bills stacked and organized. Even the dog has caught on. If one thing is out of place she will bark at it until I correct the position of a lamp, a vase, the recycling. Even the barn is neat and tidy (and swept, often). Maybe I have OCD???? I luvvvvvvv to throw things out. I buy those huge thick contractor garbage bags by the dozens! When my parents stay, they follow the rules. Just because it is an empty flat surface, doesn’t mean you can leave your junk on it. (they called me a control freak!, but I let them come back anyway).
Hmmm, do you think they will find the gene for this, and I wonder if it is a dominant or recessive one.
Catherine, I’m working on a proposal for just such a book now! Can’t say much except that if you like animals, you might like it.
Excellent! I like animals and I like good writing. Sounds like a winner to me.
Look! Even the governor of California is trying to de-clutter right now!
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090828/ap_on_hi_te/us_california_garage_sale
Dear all:
) and the ones who pile things to include the floor whereby there is no living space. Huge difference.
There is a tremendous difference between people who have pets and lots of them and love them, feed them, take them to their check-ups and enjoy the lights out of their existence, and the poor folks who are not all there and hoard animals unable to care for them. Huge difference.
There is also a tremendous difference between the people who like to have their stuff around them, and know there things are at (for the most part
I despise the attempt to make everyone fit into a tiny set of parameters as to what is normal and what it is not.
Lake likes things neat. I do not, particularly, although my things are clean. So what?. I could drive somebody nuts if they were like Lake and likewise.
I’m in the ‘almost anal retentive’ camp. I like order and am a purger of things, to my husband’s dismay. We only get the Sunday newspaper but on Saturday, they deliver a lot of the circulars, etc. One Saturday I had flipped through them and was walking outside to put them in the recycling. My husband had just gotten home and asked “Is that today’s paper?” I said, “No, it’s tomorrow’s.”
Has anyone seen “My Mother’s Garden”? Just heard about it on Rosie’s blog. Funny, Ann’s blog has the same topic.
I have been an empty nester for 3 years now, and I must say I’ve done good and clearing things out – I used to save everything.
I grew up with a mom who saves everything. It would drive me bonkers. But then I think about it, my grandparents lived through WWII, through horrific bombings and a lack of everything. They viewed throwing away food as an abomination. I’m sure they raised the kids with austerity when it comes to material goods, making sure they took nothing for granted. My grandfather was an ascetic, judging by his living habits. My voluptuous, spirited grandmother was not nearly so restrained. I think my mother took after the former. Either way she is a fine lady.
Gloria
Lake53:
We should live together! Our house would be so organized and clean! The visual created by your story about your dog barking when something is out of place made me laugh out loud. Everything in my house is obsessively organized, too. One of my hard-and-fast rules is: Take your shoes off at the door. Everyone. Some people get a little huffy about this (for instance, my two stepdaughters, who won’t even visit their father here in our home because they are “too uncomfortable and it’s too sterile”. Fine. Don’t come, then. It’s me who will have to clean up the mud and dirt and squashed bugs and poop. Living in the country means living with all types of critter poop in your yard and on your sidewalks, as all of you who also live in the country will attest.
Poop. Most disgusting material on the planet.
My son loves to tell the story about when my husband and I were on our honeymoon years ago and my son and some of his friends moved a few items in the kitchen just fractionally out of place. They all predicted I would unconsciously move everything back into place the second I walked through the door after arriving home. And I did!!
I also have a magnificant reputation at our local recycling center because all of my recycling is separated into categories and all plastic and glass items rinsed clean. Hey…at least someone appreciates my compulsions!
What is it about husbands? Mine is diligent about making sure I git rid of my stuff, but is frantic if he thinks I might have tossed any of his old stuff. The idea of having a dumptser handy sounds like a good idea, better than having to go to the dump, and love the vision in my mind of the things being thrown out the second story window! I live in a tall house and it sounds like sooo much fun!!!!!
Ann, love what you wrote about clutter. However, when we were growing up there wasn’t much “stuff” out there. My family had one car and one TV. Then we got another TV and another. We started with one phone in the kitchen with a really short cord that led to nowhere except two feet in front of you. Technology!!!! I remember when my dad went to Radio Shack and bought my mother an extension cord for the receiver. Oh My! My mother could walk to the sink, stove and to one half of the dining room. She was thrilled; you think my father purchased her a diamond. By the time I was in high school we had five phones and then when the cordless phone was invented we got those and my father kept the old phones….”Because you never know….”
Look at our mail. Even the mailman just brought mail. Today my mailbox is stuffed with so much crap. I usually get only one or two pieces of real mail that rest is all advertisements, catalogs, brochures, scams to win prizes and questionnaires to fill out so that I can get 1,000 coupons in the mail. Keeping on top of the mail is a full time job and lately my answering machine is getting “junk phone mail.”
There is so much to buy in the stores today. They have entire stores devoted to just kitchen gadgets, shoes, baby furniture, baby clothes, teen clothing, pet supplies, etc. When I little we had a Macy*s department store that carried clothing for the entire family as well as shoes. They had a furniture dept., a toy department, baby department, electronics, a jewelry department… they had it all except food and automobiles. That’s where we shopped. I remember the first time I went to a huge Caldor’s in CT and saw they carried much more ‘stuff’ like arts and craft supplies and for cheaper prices!!! I realized at that moment my parents could buy more stuff for cheaper prices. And I could pester them about 10 things I desperately needed instead of 2. There was nothing exciting for me to buy at Macy*s.
At the beginning of this summer we cleaned out our basement and my children were like, “NO! STOP! WAIT! What????? I need that!!!” My reply, “A plastic shopping cart that comes up to your knee?” My daughter’s reply….”You could save it for your grandkids.” I am in my very early 40′s thank you very much. Where did my daughter get that response…from my husband, her father who always throws things out…usually. We have both of our children’s beautiful fire-engine red tricycles because, according to my husband, they were very expensive and they are in excellent condition. Ann and fellow bloggers, how many miles do most toddlers put on tricycles?!!!!!! How many times did you have to buy new tires for your toddler’s tricycles? Yes that is why they are in excellent condition. My husband is determined to keep the tricycles for “our grandchildren.” That is where my daughter got that statement!!!!! Must deprogram my entire family with hypnosis. We still have a huge plastic playhouse in our backyard that I can stand inside of. A family of rabbits now resides under there and stays very dry!!! We also have a swing set that is in dire need of rustoleum.
I have a bar with three chairs that looked beautiful in my home in NY. When we sold the house I told my husband to leave it with the house. He disagreed with me. He loved that bar and said he would make it work in our new home. Well it didn’t work in our new home, but we kept in the living room anyway. Personally someone with a real eye for style would have cringed when they saw that bar set there…so out of place. When we got a new wall unit the bar had to go. My husband wanted it in the basement. I kept thinking, “Why??” This is a very agreeable man. He is kind and sweet and was so easy going when we made wedding plans. My friends were jealous of me because they were disagreeing so much with their future husbands. I swear I could have told my husband we were getting married in a swamp, on the moon, on a subway platform, in a subway car and he was cool with it all. This bar with matching chairs and those tricycles mean a lot and so they exist in our basement. If our basement was finished the bar might look better. I can’t put my foot down on these things because it wouldn’t be right or fair. He hardly has any clutter.
Those tricycles are stored in the same area as our Christmas decorations. Every year my husband trips over them at least once, as he carries a box upstairs because he forgets they are there. My son said, “If daddy falls down do you think he’ll get rid of the tricycles then?”
Everyone has ‘stuff’ because our world makes it too inviting to buy more ‘stuff’. I do make a rule (big deal) to throw things out in the late winter/early spring when it gets really rainy and we are all cooped inside our house and have no place to go. I force the family to march down to the basement, start going through things and make a pile. We do this again in the summer. It helps, but the real question is, how did those things get to our house in the first place and why do we continue to buy things!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our basement looks like a warehouse.
Christine
PS I found a box of my maternity clothes and there is this one outfit that I just love…….. I have issues…………..
Kristin, I missed your birthday yesterday. I’m sorry. I spent all day at work dealing with problems with my computer. I hope it was a happy one.
Ok Alan, I also need you to come to PA to help me get organized.
And I also volunteer to come help you Ann. It’s amazing how much easier it is when it’s someone else’s stuff.
Hey, we could have traveling organization parties! Wouldn’t that be great?
If you need motivation to purge, watch Hoarders on A&E…..
Talk about motivating…
To pick up on Annie’s idea–instead of a bloagapalooza–a “dumpapalooza” or a “crapapalooza” !! We could take turns going through the piles at each others’ homes….of course, we would start with our blog hostess, Ann; but from there we could rotate around, gab, de-clutter, do what needs to be done,while having a great time. Just so no one thinks I’m one of the neatniks here ( I envy each of you–it is a gene I don’t possess, not even a mutated one), I would need to add my own address to our rotation. And-if you are at all like me, and you don’t have to admit to it, by the time we are all the way around, we would have to start over…..endless fun!
On a side note, and my husband can’t believe I’m the same person–my classroom is neat, tidy, with everything in its place. You could eat off the desks (even mine) and the floor in the room and easily find whatever you need. I tell him that’s why the house doesn’t look like that–oh it’s clean and sanitary, just “cluttery”; I use all my energy at work. He just doesn’t get it, I guess.
But I know my friends here do–thank you my soulmates!
Barbara
Hi Elizabeth, I am with you, and thank God, a kindred spirit, I thought I was going to be all alone. Maybe we should start the Ann Leary Blog Buddies Organization Betterment League (soon to be known everywhere as AL B BOBL), we could charge into people’s houses, organize, clean and throw away! Although we will have to steer a wide berth of Lupe’s house!
Loved all the comments, it is such a personal things all of our stuff becomes. And check this out:
Just spent a lovely evening with my new beau, and his house is stark. Yes furniture, No, stuff. As is turns out, he had to watch his Mom sell all her stuff, twice in her life, and start all over with nothing. (it’s too personal to tell of all the tragedies, but needless to say, it had a big impact on the kids). Just goes to show, we all work in different ways, and Lupe is right (she is always so wise, isn’t she??!!)
Does hoarding shows on Tivo count as a “Hoarder?”
Make sure you take pics of the dumpster!
Lake:
I like you !
Yes Barbara, Crapapalooza!!!!!!!!!!! Perfect! lolol Wouldn’t that be wonderful? I’m in. I tell you, it’s always easier to sort through & organize someone else’s stuff than your own. Helping them I mean, not just throwing it out behind their back.
I don’t have the gene either. When I was growing up, when my Mom said we’re going to clean up, my sister and I would always ask ‘Who’s coming over?’ lololol The place wasn’t a disaster area, but keeping things neat & tidy just wasn’t high on the priority list. So I come by it honestly. But now my sister is a complete neat freak, but maybe it’s because she married one, & it rubbed off.
OMG Alan, as always you make me laugh, but your organization name made me laugh so hard I honestly thought my forehead was going to explode! It still hurts. I’m a very willing volunteer as one of your patients/clients. Pick me!! Pick Me!!
I can only imagine what an impression that made on your new beau. How sad for his Mom and the kids. But he knows that things aren’t what have value. It’s really people and experiences. Not trying to make light of it, but I think too many of us, including me, put too much value on ‘things’.
Court, as a fellow tivo show hoarder, I’m going to have to say yes. I have 3 (from back when I was still working 3 jobs and had money!), and I watch a lot of tv (My name is Tracy and I’m a tv addict). There have been a few times when because I have so many shows saved, and so many scheduled to record on season passes, that even the one with 184 hours of recording times won’t let me record something! I record on the 2 in my bedrooms and transfer them to my living room one. Some shows, like Rescue Me, I then save to vcr (yes, I still have 3 from the old days!) until the season dvd comes out.
hmm, that reminds me, I keep forgetting to look into how to expand the memory on the 184 hour one…… I know you can add memory cards or something…
Yeah, I know I’m sick. Deal with it, I know you love me anyway.
I’m with you…
Except I can clean and organize other people’s areas…just not my own.
Hope you are well!!
Dear Ann,
I hope the purge proves to be a productive one! I am really intrigued (almost obsessed)by this subject and I’m not only fascinated by your post, but all of the contributions that it has inspired from the rest of us!
I am a lousy house-tamer, but I must have a certain degree of cleanliness and order around me to function happily, so owning less stuff helps me, as less time is spent on cleaning and tidyng. I HAVE helped a few folks in my life to declutter (at their request,of course) and I’ve found it really rewarding—it was a simple way to help someone with immediate and measurable results. And I’m NOT a paragon of purging, so I’ve been told I’m not scary or judgemental as far as going through someone’s stuff is concerned.
I think “Hoarders” and the British series “How Clean Is Your House?” are sooo interesting for two reasons: the high-minded me thinks it’s a riveting view of the relationship between people and their stuff. The lazy, sloppy side of me watches them and thinks, “I’m not even CLOSE to becoming a Beale,” but I am inspired (terrorized?) to keep on tossing in order to never, ever go there!
So Elizabeth and Lake, you can sign me up as a worker bee!(And Tracy, I’m all yours!)
I’m off to declutter some room on my bookshelves for (YAY!!!!) two upcoming Ann Leary books!
All the best to you ALL!
Lynne
Psst, Tracy…to give credit where it’s due, please note that it’s John (aka Lake 53) who’s been keeping you (and the rest of us) in stitches with his recent postings here on the subject of clutter vs. neatness, not me. Given the paucity of men here, it’s probably easy to mix the two of us up, though I’m pretty certain that John’s new beau would much prefer to be spending his time with John rather than with me (seeing as John and I play on slightly different teams…).
As to the subject at hand, I tend to live a largely uncluttered life, which is primarily the result of: (1) not having a spouse, kids, or pets; and (2) occupying a relatively small house (I live on one side of the duplex that I own). That’s not to say that there isn’t a fair share of “stuff” taking up space for long periods of time in places it doesn’t belong, But on the whole, I’m not much of a hoarder…and certainly a rank amateur compared to some of you!! And while not hyper-fastidious, I am pretty organized and something of a neatnik, which I guess puts me toward the John-and-Elizabeth end of the neatness-hoarder spectrum.
(A confession here: I hate to dust. I don’t mind doing the dishes or sweeping the floor or doing the laundry or vacuuming the rugs, but I hate to dust. It gets done occasionally, but it is without a doubt my least favorite household chore. So when the Clutter Squad gets to my house, you can help me dust first. Then we’ll throw stuff out.)
I’m with you Alan, on the dusting. As a matter of fact I’ve often heard that dusting is right up there on top of the least liked household chores.
Elizabeth, do you like to dust? Does anybody here like to dust?
: )
Alan, thanks for the clarification, I was getting confused too! So, now I have changed my monicker from Lake53 to just John. Hope that sorts everything out for everybody.
Ok, now I have a confession. Yes, I am neat, and organized, and generally clean (unless you show up un-announced and I am working in the gardens, then all bets are off, totally covered in mud, bed head deluxe, and one of those 30 year old t shirts which by now looks tie dyed with stains and pit marks! Most popular visitor comment: what rock did you just crawl out from under???). So, the truth is, I am a bit of a hoarder. I do keep all pictures, paperwork, christmas and birthday cards, tax returns, diaries, notebooks, and receipts for all the stuff that I do have. They are all categorized and placed in very very large green tupperwear storage boxes. Current count: 16. Location: Basement shelves. Last time unearthed: well, actually last weekend as some of my houseguests wanted to see some travel photos! So, guess I have a split personality when it comes to this topic!
My best to you all, in neatness and in clutter. And yes, Ann, let’s see a picture of the dumpster, 10 yards? 20 yards? 40 yards???? Ooooh, so satisfying!! This is like clutter porn!
I hate to dust! My house has forced hot air, which tends to add more dust to my house every time the heat goes on. When we first moved in, no joke, I was dusting two or three times a week. It was riduculous. Then we had the air ducts cleaned professionally and that made all the difference in the world. Too bad those professional cleanings couldn’t remove the dust from my house permanently!!!!
Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry John! I was thinking John but typed Alan. All you men here look alike.
But you both do your share of cracking me up. You just did it again Alan with the part about John’s beau. lololol
I hate to dust too! Why bother? It’s just going to get dusty again soon?
AH HAH John! Gotcha! No, I wouldn’t really call that hoarding. You’re not keeping junk, and what you’re keeping, you’re keeping well organized. And when your guests wanted to see them you were able to find them easily.
In going through the mess on my coffee table last night, I found a credit card bill (which I had already paid on line, thank God!), and a $5 rebate check!!!! whoo whoo!
I watched the two episodes of Hoarders that I had tivoed yesterday. So sad. I have an interest in the subject because of the friend I mentioned in a post way up above. I know that if there’s a fire in her house she will die because she won’t be able to get out fast enough through the narrow path through her house.
While I think it’s good that they’re addressing this problem, I think they’re only skimming the surface. Unless they’re providing intensive therapy for the people, they’re not really helping them. They’re also not really helping the viewers who are hoarders. Yes, they’re saying that hoarding is a form of OCD, but they’re not showing that it needs to be treated with therapy and sometimes medication. Just bringing in a cleanup crew and getting rid of all the stuff doesn’t work; the hoarder will just bring in more stuff. They need to get to the root of the problem and treat it.
Just my two cents.
Alan, so let me understand this: you’re funny and articulate, you’re brave enough to take on all of us chicks in this blog AND you’re straight? Will you marry me?
Catherine — if he does marry you, you must include in your vows that he is OUR man of the blog, before YOUR hubby!
Oh — he’s cute too — there are pictures somewhere in the archives!
Oh, now I’m all flustered…and flattered. Catherine, thanks for the proposal; they certainly don’t come my way every day. I say, hold that thought; anything is possible! (By the way, do you dust?)
Yes, I like to dust! I find I receive immedate results from it. But I must say that our new house has geothermal heating as opposed to a forced-air gas furnace in our previous home. The difference in the dust creation is astounding!! Seriously. Only the rooms used several times a day–bedroom, bathroom, den, living room, kitch–need a quick dusting each day. (Again….anal personality….) The guest rooms and bathroom rarely need dusting or even deep cleaning, unless a guest is expected. And I like those Swiffer dusters.
Lake53 is now officially John. Got it. (I hope to remember this tomorrow!)
Alan, I’ll add my name to the proposal list. I love a smart man who makes me laugh. I don’t dust though, sorry.
Catherine . . .the post is Young Writers from May 17, 2009 — he’s in a photo with some guy named Denis.
Caroline, thanks for the photo info. Alan *is* cute!
Alan, I’m off to the store to buy some Swiffer dusters.
(Just kidding…I don’t want you to think I’m some nutty stalker.)
I say we all marry Alan and move to Utah!
-Catherine
Okay, Tracy, I’ll put you on the list, but in all fairness, Catherine did ask first. And did you mean smart or smart-assed?
Oh, and Caroline (and Catherine), there’s a better (i.e., less unflattering) photo of me in the May 3, 2009, blog entry entitled “A Reading, New Friends, Dorothy”, standing alongside Our Lady of Perpetual Clutter. She’s the babe on the left; I’m the bemused-looking guy on the right.
I checked it out. Nice picture of the “babe” and the “fox”…keeping with the Wayne’s World lingo.
John, I keep meaning to tell you I laughed out loud at work over your “clutter porn” line. I don’t want you to feel taken for granted with all the marriage proposals going out to Alan. I think your posts are very funny and articulate too!