Hoarders

[Hound dog]

I had just started the Big Clean up Project..........house trashed after being in school for 4 yrs...last year nursing school was the worst cuz god forbid husband lift a finger to do anything except trash the place........when Katie and family showed up. That totally interrupted things for a month and I had all I could do to keep the place picked up....cuz now I had her junk added to the mix. Started again once she left for the dayton shelter. The xmas season kicked in........and there were a ton of family activities to do, on top of the fact I was making a lot of the gifts which takes time. Still managed to get a little done and keep what I HAD done from turning back into a disaster.

Then I got sick and it all went to heck and back. Within 3 wks it was back to the way it was while I was in school. In other words trashed.

I am just now healthy (relative term here) enough to start in again. Only once again the job seems overwhelming and I just want to hide instead of tackling it. Mostly cuz I know I'll be doing most of the work.

Hoarders is the best show in the world to motivate a person to CLEAN. lol

I am NOT a hoarder in any sense. But husband is a major packrat..........and will stack stuff up instead of actually throwing it in the trash. And he has this lovely habit of if the trashcan is full......he'll put it everywhere......but god forbid the man tie up the full bag and walk 10 steps out the back door, toss it in the garbage can, come back in and start with a new bag. Nope. Instead it starts gathering on the counters, kitchen table........and any other available surface. When I'm sick like I have been.......even the floor will do after other surfaces can't hold anymore. Top that off with 3 months of NO trash service.

Now that I'm properly motivated............as I clean I get madder and madder until the point where I'm livid. This is ridiculous. It simply is NOT that hard to throw trash away or take it outside. husband is the worst culprit. Travis will follow suit, although there are times when unasked he'll empty the can and put in a new bag.

You wouldn't believe the amount of soda cartons alone in my kitchen.......empty, that I made husband crush just now and take out. I told him soda is about to be banned from the house. I'm sick of dealing with the darn cartons.

Not a happy camper. Which means of course they're not going to be happy campers either.

This place will be cleaned up again so I can start the bigger cleaning again.........and I may commit murder if they start to undo what I do. The weekend of the 12th the girls are coming over to help me wash walls and with whatever big cleaning I haven't managed to finish by then.

Gonna be interesting with 3 lil boys in my house most of the time. Although Darrin is one heckova lil cleaner when he sets his mind to helping nana. lol

Ugh.

Don't have the umph to clean? Watch 1 episode of hoarders.......seriously.

 

[DaisyFace]

LOL! The "Hoarders" show is something else!

I always wonder how in the world those folks can even afford to buy that much stuff?

Glad to hear things are getting nice and tidy for spring at your house....

 

[Mom2oddson]

You do know that all the cleaning information in the DNA strand is in the little leg of the X chromosome that FALLS OFF when a boy is made - don't you? At least that is my theory on men.

I've been so busy helping my Mom move Grandma that I haven't had time for my house (other than dishes) in a month. husband thinks the place is clean. In his brain: picked up = clean. I have to put my shoes on the moment I put my socks on or the bottoms of the socks are black walking 10 feet across the room.

Good luck motivating your men. When you find the secret for doing that, please pass it on. I could use it!

 

[GoingNorth]

I'd like to find the solution to motivating ME. With the bipolar, though I was never a neat freak, I find it very hard to clean up after myself.

I finally gave up and hired cleaners to come out and do the floors and counters and other surfaces, the bathroom, etc.

I hate being this way, but at least this way I have a place that is liveable and not so filthy that it depresses me even further.

 

[Hound dog]

GN at least you know yourself well enough to do something constructive to solve the issue.

I did used to be a mega clean freak.....then toned down to minor clean freak as kids brought me down to reality........then school pretty much threw most of the clean freak out the window because I just didn't have time....not with difficult child junk and mother in law junk going on during then as well. It's taken it's toll. And watching episodes of hoarders............smacks me across the face that we're not that far from those conditions........not if it keeps going as it has gone. I keep watching it to keep me motivated.

My issue is that when it gets to disaster point..........I am overwhelmed and have a really hard time digging in and getting started. Once I get started I'm great unless I get interrupted. Then I have to find motivation again and start over. Once it's back up to normal standards I don't have issues keeping it that way...........and I'm meaner than heck to the males if they don't tow the line. But still I do the vast bulk of the work. And it's downright exhausting. And not easy with chronic illness. I have to focus on 1 room first, then move through the house methodically. Heaven above help the person who messes up the room I just cleaned too. lol

Last night I tackled some of the most disgusting dishes I've ever seen........a mountain. Travis came down to fix him something to eat. Told him he used one thing not disposable he'd lose his hands. He made sure he didn't and he still has hands. lol

M2O when I get into full blown cleaning mode my family members MOVE including the males. They don't dare cross me. If they don't cooperate I start tossing stuff out left and right and they know it. I don't care how useful it is, I don't care who's it is, if I have to do all the work and pick it up it's tossed out. Enough of that and even the males have learned to pitch in and help.......especially with their stuff. Still not up to par, but some help is better than none at all.

 

[DammitJanet]

I have this same problem. I watch Hoarders with an almost morbid fascination because I can see me getting into that place. I also watch the animal hoarder show but that isnt me. TG! I have enough trouble with 2 dogs, I dont want a houseful. Tony would kill me first.

I have such an issue with getting anything cleaned. No one helps me on a regular basis. I know Im not good at it and I never was. I wasnt taught how to keep house but that isnt an excuse. I used to be better but since I have gotten sick it has gone to hell. Billy's room is right out of Hoarders. Literally. It is packed waist high in trash and clothes. The rest of the house isnt that bad but nothing has a place. People drop trash where they open stuff. And Lisa, I so know what you mean about the trash can. I swear, do they really think the trash can is going to empty itself and put a new bag in? And is piling trash on top of an already full trash can going to make it magically hold more? I dont get it. I actually took a sharpie marker and wrote on my front door "BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE HOUSE, CHECK THE TRASH AND EMPTY IT!"

Hasnt helped a bit.

They all commented on it and asked why I wrote on the door but they have yet to take out the trash! Argh.

And here is my infamous saying "One day, when everyone is gone, I will have my house back" sigh.

 

[Mattsmom277]

I have envy for you getting down to business and making progress with your house. I am home all day pretty much every day. I basically stay home unless I need to pay bills and buy groceries etc. I have no excuse to have a messy house. The kids do nothing, when difficult child was younger having him do chores was low on the Baskets scale, as in Basket Z. It became hard to make easy child do chores when I couldn't get difficult child to do them. Now, both of them do a whole lot of nothing. S/O is always so busy and he's so wonderful to always do dishes. I haven't done them in several years (really!) because he hates seeing my hands cracking and bleeding and itchy from out of control eczema. He will pull together with me to go a cleaning binge. We regularly get the kitchen, doorway, living room and bathroom sparkling. THese rooms get the most traffic and the biggest messes, but are also the most organized and easy to clean up. The bedrooms are my nightmare. I ignore difficult child's room. When he moves out I swear I'm having a crew come clean it, paint it, clean rugs (probably 5 times) and then going to keep the space empty just because I can (well probably I will use it as a craft room but gosh it will be nice to see it gutted!). easy child has begun to finally be better at her own room but does nothing about the rest of the house.

My bedroom is a wreck. There isn't enough room for all of the clothes and it drives me crazy. I have a walk in pantry that is large but it is a disaster and can't be walked in any more. There is so much stuff shoved in there for lack of place to put it. We have a storage room but it extends under the stairs and you need to crouch down to move around to get stuff. It is packed so if you need something it usually required hauling ALL of the stuff out and let me tell ya, its a ton of stuff. I can't crouch like that physically or my body spasms so I try to forget the existence of all that ends up stored in there. I have 2 hall closets for storage and they are bursting. My laundry closet has newly installed shelves, also bursting. I can't stand it. Any of it. I hate the clutter, I hate trying to find things. I can't figure out a way to organize this stuff.

I gutted a ton of stuff this past summer to have a garage sale. Didn't even bother with it, my brother took it all home and had a garage sale and that was that. It was out of my hair. It took 2 trips with a truck for all that I had taken out to sell. Not to mention the boat load for the garbage of things I couldn't imagine others wanting to pay for. And still my house is bursting with no room for anything. Argh!

I do have envy. I wish you the best of luck with your house purging and cleaning. I know it can be tough. As for me, I too watch hoarders. Watched just last night actually and decided this inability to be okay with getting rid of stuff because it still has life it in? It's crazy. So that's my message to myself this week. I have promised myself to take at least 10 items a day to a bag and to put them into the shed. When I'm done I can have a charity pick the stuff up. I must get control of the stuff. It is only stuff. It makes me miserable. It's got to go. I bet in all the clothes I love but no longer fit, there are 2 pairs of pants and maybe 3-4 shirts I actually wear. Why on earth am I keeping them all? Simply because I once paid for them, altered them, and loved them? They do NOT fit. They never will fit again. They are useless to me and others could use them. They got to go!

 

[Blissful_Betty]

Great job Mattsmom277 for the small daily committment. AS you continue to follow through with the committment you will feel a sense of accomplishment... I love the flylady's method of setting a timer for your activities. It's great time management and you get stuff done. For instance, if your "time waster" of choice is reading, and you HATE doing the dishes... Set your timer for 10-15 minutes. Do 10-15 minutes of dishes and 10-20 minutes of reading. If you do that throughout your day, look how much reading AND needed mundane stuff you can get done in one day.

Good luck to you all in your house cleansing... for some it sounds overwhelming, but... you can eat a whale, only one bite at a time.

 

[HaoZi]

Some sites I found useful:

http://organizedhome.com/

http://unclutterer.com/

http://zenhabits.net/zen-mind-how-to-declutter/

http://www.lifeorganizers.com/

http://www.squalorsurvivors.com/ (lots of visuals and people who have been there done that and worse)

 

[Hound dog]

Janet I'm so sick of having other people's stuff stored in my house I'm ready to tear out my hair. First it was the yard sale stuff that didn't sell. easy child was always going to "take it back home later".........later of course never came. Then was Nichole's stuff when she and boyfriend split up that brief period......some of it never made it back to them.......and then got added to when they moved to dayton. Then katie arrived........and now all her junk is stored here too because they can't have it at the homeless shelter. ugh This is of course on top of all my own stuff.

With the girls help I want to sort through everything. What isn't easily sellable will be donated to Goodwill. Hopefully the katie thing will be settled soon one way or another and I can get rid of her stuff too. I have 2 livingroom sets in my familyroom. Seriously. lol One is mine from the old house. One is Nichole's from her apartment, stuff boyfriend's parents gave to them that is in good condition......but boyfriend wants all new stuff. They were gonna toss it to the curb, so I told them to bring it here instead. One is a really good sleeper sofa. Was going to give one set to katie if she gets a place.........but decided nope, she needs to work for what she gets. So when the weather warms I may give one set to Nichole's bff who works her fanny off, she'd really appreciate it.

I've got tons of clothes to go through. Bad part is that due to water retention I never know from day to day literally what size I'll be wearing.......makes it hard to know what to get rid of. sigh

 

[DammitJanet]

I also have a prize winning SO who wants to keep things because "we might need them one day" when I havent seen us use them ever! Please tell me why I have a broken chainsaw in my living room? Or his deer hunting climbing stand thrown over to the side in my living room but not even a couch in there! Of course, Im not blameless. I have 3 wing back chairs of my moms that have legs that have been broken by the boys rough housing on them. I dont want to get rid of them because "One day" I might be able to get them fixed. We all know that one day will never come though. I should hoover it up and just get rid of them but it would tear me up. I really cant figure out why her furniture means so much to me! I think I am going to just toss those chairs. yes. I am.

 

[Mom2oddson]

As I've been helping Mom clean out her stuff to make room for Grandma's, I've come to the conclusion that my Mom is a closet hoarder. If she didn't have TONS of storage space, she's be on the show. She has a drawer full of blank paper just in case. Another drawer filled with scotch tape. A closet full of artifical plants/flowers. And she refuses to throw anything away. And Grandma is just as bad. Grandma paid for movers to pack her junk drawer and move is across the country....paper clips, broken rubber bands, etc....

I hung up 37 items on Grandma's bedroom walls because she couldn't part with anything. And that doesn't count all the things we have suction cupped on the windows. Good thing the room has a bay-window. There isn't a flat surface in the room that isn't packed with stuff. Dust will never be able to find a way to the flat surface, it's that bad.

And Mom just tells me that it will be my job to throw things away when she's gone. Gee...Thanks Mom.

 

[Marcie Mac]

I live with a bunch of Horders and it makes me crazy. SO is a collector of "stuff" - probably shouldn't complain cause its "selective" stuff, but stuff none the less. We have the Yoda Stuff (about 2,000), the War Books Stuff, the Tools Stuff, the Wood Stuff, the Coins Stuff, the Dolphin Stuff, the DVD Stuff (he has well over 1,500 of those). Danny has a computer repair business and at any one time there are computers in the spare room, in my dining room, on the desk in the den or on my kitchen counter. They leave the premises when they are fixed, but its the spare parts everywhere. Jamie buys new clothes -constantly. At least X is no longer here - he had/has a love affair with sticky notes - anytime he heard a saying he liked, it was put on a sticky - that and newspapers and Trader Joes Shopping bags - just won't throw them away.

Not to mention the "stuff" from storage - I have mine neatly sorted in boxes and tagged in the garage for the flea market - SO keeps draggin little bits in the house - I keep dragging it back to the garage. I just hate living in all the chaos with "stuff" - Since I work out of the house, "stuff" becomes a distraction and I gotta keep getting up and trying to get some order to it.

Marcie

 

[AnnieO]

My Grandma would have qualified... But she had a bona-fide reason... She lived through the Depression. The biggest issue, after she passed, was the sheer quantity of toilet paper and paper towels...

A week and a half ago, we cleaned the downstairs office. It was B.A.D. To the point that if the cats got in there, they thought it was OK to pee on whatever was on the floor. Lemme tell ya - I took a second shower after that. I would not let Onyxx do anything till she took one - washed my own hands and then waited for her to be done. I mean it was HORRIBLE.

And husband doesn't get that you can't just throw stuff on the floor. It's not hygienic, he cannot find anything, I can't walk through it - and 90% of what was thrown on the floor is GARBAGE anyway. Hello, there are trash cans ALL OVER THE PLACE. But they'll overflow unless I nag about them. So they're always full.

If it's broken and hasn't been fixed for months? THROW IT AWAY! Not on the floor!

'S ok. If so much as one piece of paper ends up on the floor in the office, I have a sneaking suspicion that Onyxx and I will both go off on husband...

Oh yeah... If the stuff in the work room doesn't go to Goodwill this week, I'm throwing it away. I'm tired of Onyxx going through it and taking stuff she didn't want a week ago.

 

[crazym&p]

I just had to chime in on this thread to say that I know one of the doctors on Hoarders! The clinical consultant for difficult child's Trichotillomania Support Group is on of the docs on the show. He's awesome!

I also live with a few wannabe hoarders, but I keep them in check. I can not tolerate the "we might need it one day" ****. But with chronic depression, I have a very hard time cleaning up after myself. It's tough.

 

[LittleDudesMom]

You do know that all the cleaning information in the DNA strand is in the little leg of the X chromosome that FALLS OFF when a boy is made - don't you? At least that is my theory on men.

GREAT!!!

Here are my rules for keeping the house straight:

Bedrooms MUST be cleaned once a week on weekends.
Absolutely no food or drink allowed in bedrooms.
difficult child to check kitchen trash every day - if full - take it out (kinda tied to his allowance)
His "playroom" gets the "once over" before he heads upstairs every night - just meaning that there is no trash or food items.
The laundry basket in the bedroom and bathroom are there for a reason! Clothes will not get laundered by me if they are on the floor and you will be doing your own laundry if I find myself laundering something not worn but were too lazy to fold or hang! (That's why my easy child started doing her laundry at such a young age!!!!!)

Here are the general rules:
Touch it once! If it's in your hand, put it where it belongs - it saves time and clutter.
If it doesn't have a "home" in my house, it doesn't come in - in other words, if there is not a place to put it where it can "live", it doesn't come in (get purchased, etc.).

My mom's words that have stuck - "If you are driving home from work and see an old friend, never be embarrassed to have them follow you home. Which means, Never leave dishes in the sink!" I thought my mom was crazy when she told me this years ago. Now it's a mantra I live by. I never leave the house with dishes in the sink. Not because of folks seeing them when you return home with no clutter in the sink, your state of mind is greatly approved; at least mine is. Keeping things straight definitely keeps me more stress-free than I would be if I had to tackle a huge clean at one time or sit and look at mess - but that's just me......

But the biggest rule for keeping my house organized - do a little every day.

It's definitely a learned behavior - I was a mess when I was younger but I came from a super clean museum-type house. Over the years I've developed the plan!

I love the show Hoarders!

Sharon

 

[trinityroyal]

LDM, this is all great advice.

husband suffers from "we might need it someday" syndrome and has a tendency to keep things. Fortunately he's quite organized and tidy about it, and it's mainly contained to the basement and garage. (And it does come in handy when I need a purse sized power inverter and voltmeter to take to work with me - yes it has come up, and yes, husband did have them on hand...sigh)

And both Step-D and sister in law assume that "since we have the room..." we can just take in and store their stuff forever. At various times sister in law has stored cars, furniture, a range hood and other things at our house, and Step-D assumed that she could keep all of her things from her university apartment here until she was ready to retrieve them. When I told them both the rule -- if it sits idle in my house for more than 6-odd months and it's not mine, it becomes mine and I get to do with it what I want. Most of Step-D's furniture has been deployed around the house (shelves -- come in handy to store husband and the children's things). sister in law's have been appropriated, given to Goodwill, or (the cars and the range hood) moved to her own or mother in law's house.

On the whole, I'm ruthless and the family knows it. They tidy up their things or at least keep them out of my way, because they know I'll throw things out or give them to charity if I find them lying around.

I grew up in a house of hoarders (literally -- tunnels between great big piles of stuff), so I promised myself never to let it happen in my home.

 

[AnnieO]

Bedrooms MUST be cleaned once a week on weekends.
Absolutely no food or drink allowed in bedrooms.
difficult child to check kitchen trash every day - if full - take it out (kinda tied to his allowance)

How do you enforce this?! I have pretty much given up. Really.

For four years we have had the kids living with us, and for four years, every school day morning (and many others): "Jett, is that your bowl in the sink?" ... "Yes" ... "And it's supposed to be... Where?" ... "Dishwasher"... Obviously he knows. He has to take extra steps to GET to the sink PAST the dishwasher. I'd make them do dishes by hand, but really... For the level of cleanliness, I'd rather a machine handled it.

Walk into the laundry room last night - canvas hamper on the floor. Hmm... Onyxx's is mesh, mine hard plastic and it never leaves my room. Jett did his laundry last Friday. I walk upstairs. "Jett, where are your dirty clothes?" ... "In my hamper." ... "Really." Hand him his hamper. He goes into his room... And pulls them out from under the bed. Leading to a room cleaning and a lecture about lying...

I sort of ignore the kids' rooms until I can't stand it anymore...

 

[Hound dog]

Only one I've had an issue with eating/drinking in his room is Travis. Now that the mice moved in this winter that has stopped. I had him set one of those large traps in his room (cuz mom I don't got mice) and it caught 6......was not only enough to motivate him to stop eating in there but to clean it of all the trash as well. lol

My mom was a clean freak on the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) level........but we kids did the work. Cleaned the entire house twice a day every day. No joke. While I've never kept it on that level as that is just extreme, and trust me it was, my house was always clean and I'd never bat an eye at visitors. Then years ago katie came to live with us.....and that girl is a PIG to put it nicely.......and was impossible to keep up with how fast she could trash any room.......and the other kids started slacking off and it started going downhill from there. Although nothing like she did it, it was mostly clutter and failure to pick up. Then went to school and whammo.

There once was a day when you could literally eat off my floors without fear. lol

Oh well. It WILL be that way again. I have no issues tossing stuff that is not used. husband and Travis do.......but I just pick times when they're not around and toss it anyway. Which they both know. lol

Although I will admit I have a huge rubbermaid tub full of oh about 5000.00 worth of beads. I used to do beadwork when the kids were small on a large scale. Hanks upon hanks of new beads in every color. I want to donate them to the counsel for native americans we belong to so that someone who doesn't have much money can use them to make regalia. husband nearly strokes whenever I mention it. Still think I'm going to do it. I like to bead, but my eyesight is making it very difficult to do anymore. And at least someone will get good use out of them.....and will make someone happy.

Unlike husband's stamp collection that fills several large rubbermaid tubs.......is worth a ton........he never does anything with except to make a huge mess I can't touch because I might ruin something........... Man I wish he'd sell the darn things and just get rid of them. ugh This collection is many many generations old.........but it's also a royal pita and no one else in the family has the slightest interest in taking it up as a hobby.

Since I tackled and got the kitchen cleaned up the other day.......Travis has been making sure the trash gets taken out and a new bag put in the can. He and husband have been careful to pick up after themselves. I think they've realized Momma is NOT kidding.

 

[Star*]

I am an organized - packrat. I live with a pig. (scratch that star it looks awful) okay I live with a packrat with no sense of cleanability, little sense of cleanability. A Beverly Hillbilly. Go with that.

It's beyond - save it for a rainy day, we may need that, it could come in handy. His mind works differently. It's like - HOW flipping poor were you growing up? You can't be a child of the depression. I get you grew up on a N.D. farm and never had much but WOW. Then we went to the homestead and one drive through the farm and it was small wonder that the battle I tried to fight every day on the D.A. Ranch was a no-win proposition. His Mom's house? Neat as a pin - but the woman threw away NOTHING. The farm? Still had things from WAY BACK. Rafters in the barn FULL of - Way back. My Mom washes Tinfoil - so I have a small idea where I get some of MY packrattedness, but she was a child of the depression - and I'm a thrift store junkie, plus I raised my son without any government assistance, and refused to accept child support. Also after having a marriage where we moved 44 times in 10 years? Yeah - I had to throw everything out so many times and leave so much behind all the time? Now it's mine and I'm not getting rid of it. When Dude and I finally did get our own place? We managed and we did take things from the curb-side K-Mart. It's hard to toss stuff out or even pass it up when you see a "good" lamp in someones discard pile that you know with a little elbow grease and maybe some paint can be a treasure or better than what you have in your house, so you pick it up, take it home, fix it up -ahhhhhh but what to do with the one you have at home? How to part with THAT treasure, so many memories of way back.

So now? Dude is gone - and with rooms empty? In my mind? It's a new 'thing' like my day is empty, my schedule is empty. It's like uncluttered means un-needed. So when I decided that it was getting to the point that I was just shopping to shop and not out of necessity - I stopped. I started selling things on Craigslist - or giving them away. I had a yard sale and went to the flea market. I did pretty well too. My house now has an echo. I have a few more rooms to work on - and DF has gotten in on the emptying out as well - we're old, we're moving and we have to understand that WE are moving ourselves - we have no friends, no kids, no help - and WE have to load it, we have to move it, we have to load it into a truck. We have to get it there, we have to Unload it, we have to move it INTO a new house, we have to unbox it and we have to put it up OURSELVES.....so our motivation now? HOW MUCH do you actually WANT to move or keep?

It's been a great motivator. Anything that got put into a box for a yardsale? WAS CLEANED first - then priced - then boxed. People that came to the yardsale commented 100 times how everything was washed, cleaned - nothing smelled or had dirt on it.

ANYTHING that was sold on Craigslist - had a manual printed or a web site with it to get a manual.

Anything sold at the fleamarket? Had batteries to TEST it with - NOT INCLUDED. (same at yard sale)

I had a theory about my yard sale too - and ran it for 3 days - made over $800 - and had NO furniture or clothes. Start on Friday - at noon putting stuff out - INVITE early birds. Then Advertise heavily the week before and get your signs out - Then by 11:00 on Saturday - EVERYTHING OVER $2.00 is 1/2 off. My stuff went like hotcakes. Everything left by 12:00 on Sunday? Went to a drug and alcohol rehab shelter for write off -they came and got it.

My house has an ECHO - and I love it. I sold 1/2 my books to a bookstore for credit on new books/trades - and gave those as Xmas presents to family cause I'm broke.

I put my clothes from loosing weight on CL - 3 times and asked for donations to local charities - (suppose you could take a tax write off but I don't make enough)

I gave all our sports equipment to a local kids shelter - and craft stuff to a teacher down the road. (I mean seriously it's just sitting there and they loved it!)

And I still have tons of stuff that I will be selling before I move - and what is left? Will be the drug and alcohol rehab people's - I'm not moving much.

As far as what I want? I did this math - If I haven't used it or touched it in over a year or I can't wear it? Or it doesn't have a value over $50.00 - I sold it. If it didn't sell in a month? I gave it away/donated it. If it was clothes that didn't fit? I washed them/bagged them and offered them for a donation - trying to think I was going to get back into jeans sz. 5 when I was 22? Depressed me. GET RID OF THEM.

Sentimental things? I got a tupperware chest - and put them all in one box - attic time.

I am still working on my office and closet -

But the living room and dining room are done....and the kitchen? Ready to go. OM I couldn't believe how much junk I kept thinking 'When I throw that party" - PHooey - it's gone. I have just what I need for me and DF to cook and that's it. It's nice now. No cluttered cabinets.


Hound - I hope you adopt one rule - DON'T keep anything you may use. or haven't used. OM I got rid of stuff and I swear I don't miss it.

GOOD LUCK -


So when