First Day in the Basement

     It was late wednesday night and both my mom and I were pretty tired from a full day, but I asked her if she'd be willing to go downstairs with me and see if we could just pick out 5 items to toss or donate really quickly.  We both decided that it couldn't be that hard to find just 5 items!  But upon reaching the basement and talking with my mom I came to the awful realization that so much of the stuff belongs to my dad, who is not yet ready to let anything go or even admit to having a problem.  I mean, yes, my mom and I definitely have a few collections tucked away down there, but the big items like stacks of furniture that will never be utilized are definitely my dad's collection.  And it's definitely difficult to maneuver around the furniture that we can't touch to get to our stuff.  

     I probably sound like I'm making excuses.  Maybe I am.  But it was very demotivating to be told I can't touch this and that because it would upset my dad.  Never the less, my mom and I had success down there! We decided to jump into our book collection, and I have to tell you, books (and clothes) are the hardest things for me to part with.  But soon, 5 books turned to 14 books!  My mom received a phone call at this point so she went back upstairs, but I decided to stay down there a little longer.  I found 17 more items!  And 9 of those items I decided to list on eBay, which I went ahead and listed that night. If I didn't do it right away I would never get around to it and that's not really getting rid of the stuff, now is it?  

One of the Coca Cola Mary's Moo Moos that I listed on eBay!

     So in total we donated or are currently selling 31 items!  And that all started with the goal of 5.  I'd say we did pretty well. :D  Motivation follows action!

Where do I start?

     Hi, and welcome to my blog!  I'm a little nervous to start a blog, especially starting one about something so difficult as hoarding.  But the first step is admitting I have a problem, right?  So here it is:  I'm a hoarder.  Most of my coworkers, friends, and even relatives don't know this because I am able to relatively maintain a few rooms of the house.  Of course these rooms are nowhere near glamorous.  They are very cluttered and disorganized, but the chairs are usually free of stuff and the kitchen is functional.  So where do I hide my hoard?  In the basement.  In the three car garage.  In the bedrooms.  Behind all of the closed doors.

     I guess I should tell you a little bit about myself.  I'm 26 years old.  I work full time and I'm trying to go back to school.  I recently moved back in with my parents, as did my 20 year old brother and my twin sister.  And of course we brought our hoards with us to add to my parent's already hoarded house. Oh, did I mention that my grandma moved from a very spacious house to a small apartment in an assisted living center, but didn't want to get rid of any of her collections?  So basically our family home is now the storage facility for 6 people.

     

     I'm a very private person, so posting those pictures was very hard to do, even harder than admitting to the problem!  And just looking at them, I feel very overwhelmed.  Where do I start?  I know I want to start in the basement, but it's a very large basement.  Which pile do I tackle first?  Am I going to be strong enough to make the hard decisions that I know need to be made?  If anyone has any suggestions or words of encouragement I'd love to hear from you!  Or maybe you're struggling with a similar problem?  I'd love to hear from you too!  Maybe together we can free our homes and our lives from all of the stuff.  Wait, there's no maybe to it.  We can do it.  It will not be easy, but we all deserve to live our lives free of the hoard.