Hoarders Here we Come!

The other day Mitch and I sat and watched the program Hoarders. It is basically a show about people that have a real severe case of OCD where they can not get rid of things or they compulsively buy too much. They have usually been turned into the health department or turned in for some other public code violation. These houses are bad. I mean mounds and mounds of stuff on top of more mounds and mounds of stuff. So disgusting that it is hard to imagine anyone living in these homes.

When I was a girl my Mom often used this phrase in reference to us needing to clean our bedrooms, "you need a scoop shovel in here it is so deep". Well, I am here to officially say that I have never needed a scoop shovel to clean anything in my house! On this program they did use scoop shovels, and industrial sized dumpsters and face masks. It was really sad actually, because most of the people featured really did have a mental disorder that was the underlying factor to this utter filth.

Mitch watched with me in utter dismay. He kept making comments like, "how could anyone live like that?" "Why don't they do something about it?"

The comment that I jumped on was "our house could never get like that." Oh, really? I told him that our house could be the beginning stage of a hoarders episode within one month. That is why I am constantly asking them to pick up, dust, vacuum, doing laundry, taking mounds of stuff to the garbage and continually sending things to the DI(local thrift store).

I have actually been part of a couple of clean up efforts in my life that were close seconds to the Hoarders show. I learned all those years ago that anyone can get their life in a mess. It is a constant, every single day effort.

Today I have been doing some basic housecleaning. Things that no one notices unless they haven't been done in a long time. Dusting for example. Does anyone ever come in and notice that the house is freshly dusted? Not unless it was so dusty before that you could write in the dust--or there were cobwebs hanging all around.

What I discovered while dusting is that I ignore my piano room. It is a small sitting room as you walk into the house. We use this room for reading, playing the piano and housing the Christmas tree in December. I realized that in February when I took all the remaining Christmas decor from on top of the piano I never replaced it with the normal decor-which is a bunch of family pictures. It is now the end of September--I have had nothing on the piano for eight months!!! Should I put the pictures back up or leave it empty until Christmas again? Maybe some spooky Halloween decor?

I also discovered that when my children dust they really do a poor job!(surprise) The end table looked like it hadn't been dusted in months. I am wondering if it was dusted by me in February and not since. I also discovered that my children like to stash things instead of putting them away. My #3 child is the worst at this. I found a complete (dirty) outfit stashed behind a row of photo albums, empty pop cans under the chair and an electric fish tank stashed behind the chair. All of these items had been given instructions to be put away. I usually add to that command---"in the appropriate place." Somehow I think that my children have misunderstood what exactly the appropriate place is!

So here I am at 2:26 in the afternoon, still in my gym clothes that I put on at 4:30 a.m. I have been cleaning and decluttering for hours. However, if you walked into my house you would never know that I had done a thing today.

Just trying to keep one step ahead of the authorities! Please don't turn me in the next time you visit!