Today I had a professional organizer help with organizing my house - all I can say is AMAZING

I have 20+ years of boxes, clothes and junk I've just brought from house to house with me and well it was just getting too much for me. I suppose I was inspired by watching "Hoarders" although I didn't think I was anywhere near what they were like on the show (she said I was a level 1 which was alot of clutter but manageable).

I've got 25 bags of stuff I tossed away and she said I was one of her best clients - no whining and I worked hard the entire time (we have more time tomorrow). I told her 20 hours of "Hoarders" watching made me realize that whining about the stuff I'm tossing will only keep me cluttered.

It just felt really good to unload that stuff!

For those who are wondering 'just how bad' - mainly the basement and my office. The rest of the house is about 80% presentable (Evita started her shedding season - hair is EVERYWHERE!)

BTW I was a bit worried about her - she signed all her emails as "Blessed Be" but turns out she's got a liberal view of Christianity like I do.

She really helps people and LOVES her work. I am too embarrassed to invite her to stay with us because our house is always a mess. Much easier to keep things clean and tidy if you have good storage and no clutter. Some day...

For the serious OCD hoarders, and for the people who have a sentimental attachment to every scrap of paper they've ever touched, and so on.

Lots of her clients are scaling down to smaller living spaces because they are getting older, a spouse has died etc. If they have no family to give things to then it is a very emotional process. She hasn't had to deal with any serious hoarders, at least not like the mentally ill people on the TV show. That seems to require professional mental health folks as well as the organizer.

When I read your post I thought Evita signed her emails "Blessed be" and I thought, damn! That's a smart cat!

but it reads like you think she's a fundamentalist (as in "Have a blessed day.")

and second, I thought she could be a fundie but turns out I was wrong about that too.

I should ask her about that - interesting. Although I know nothing about Wiccan or Neo-Pagan, I do find them interesting

I'm not either; I'm Roman Catholic (Retired). I found out when I was with a woman who wanted to get married in the UU fellowship and the minister there tended to say it. Not the warmest guy we ever met, but that was probably unconnected to Wicca (and also not connected to us eventually failing to get married.:))

:hi:

which is certainly the first time I've ever been so described!:hi: back

But I do feel a certain kinship with them.

I'm also a UU, and there are many pagans who belong to UU congregations.

That's one of my favorite things to do -- get rid of crap. I am pretty good about keeping up with it but I've got one big closet that's my area-of-shame dumping ground and then there's an area in the garage that's been a disaster since we moved in 12 years ago.

Glad to hear it went well. Can I be nosey and ask how much she charged?

:D

Is it by the job, or by the hour? I could use that service... my problem is eBay has convinced me that every little thing in my house would be worth $5 or $10 if I just had the time to list it. But I will never find the time...

:D

I don't need to watch Hoarders - It's my childhood. My mom and grandma were terrible hoarders.When my mom died in 2002 it took me six years to clean out the house (family home for a couple of generations) and I still have crap to go through that was about five different households packed together. Between my parents, my grandparents, and my grandmother's previous marriages there were a lot of stuff. I still haven't gone through the stuff in the attic. My grandmother oulived three husbands.

I found a box of deeds with a piece of parchment in it. It was a Land Grant from the Republic of Texas, signed by President of the Republic of Texas, Anson Jones, in 1845. Still has the ribbon and the seal.

I found a newspaper that referred to "The recent unpleasantness at Whitechapel." I thought about Whitechapel. What is Whitechapel? Then it occurred to me that Whitechapel is where Jack the Ripper was killing prostitutes. That was in 1882!!!!

The diff between my mom and the people on the TV show is that Mom had no problem with falling down in her junk, living with trails through it, and she had no problem with being a packrat. She got so nasty and bitter that I just let her rot in her junk until she was too sick to take care of herself, and then some.

The people on Hoarders realize that they have a problem and are willing to do something about it. Mom used her hoarding as an excuse to impose on other people's boundaries and run over them and control them.

we took her to a shrink (M.D.) who yelled at her and told her she would never live long enough to sort through her junk. She kept saying she would get to it and he kept telling her she wouldn't live long enough. Doing anything was always just too much of a big deal for her to do.

Most of the time it's family members that are threatening divorce/total cut-off towards the hoarders in their family. And alot of those Hoarders get really nasty on the show. They've done follow-up and found that about half the hoarders go back to their old ways, it's really sad.

For me, my house was not like anything you saw on TV or what you described but my fear was that in another 20-30 years it could be. And since I have no children, I was fearful I'd be a crazy old whackjob spinster falling over my junk everywhere. I just felt this cleanout was good karmic soul cleansing for my life and my future.

Even then, when facing homelessness, they often go ballistic when someone handles a bag of their garbage or some stupid knickknack.

Intellectually I understand that they are mentally ill, but if I were there I would have a hard time not grabbing them by the shoulders and shaking them while screaming WAKE UP AND THROW OUT YOUR WORTHLESS CRAP!!!

I only have things around I truly love or need. It was a very freeing feeling. And my house is so much more organized. I've told my husband we need to have a "place for everything and everything in its place" especially as we get older (and I'm only 46) because life is so much easier when you know where everything is. (Doing it now before we are really, really old so we will have more time to commit to memory where everything is!!!)
Enjoy the peace in your "new" space!

including myself who watch hoarders and then feel a need to go clean part of their house.

I cleaned out my bathroom closet and found a box I never unpacked from when we moved almost two decades ago, I was ruthless with myself throwing out most of it, saving things like decorative bar soaps but actually moving them to the shower so they'd get used.

I can't handle too much at once, but I can watch the show then clean under the kitchen sink in an evening, and throw out all the egg cartons piled up there that I might use to start seedlings. Then take a break for another week.

I'm nothing like on the show, but I don't know if I lived alone if I have that potential.

with stuff between hubby and what i got from my mom. if i ever went on my own, i am hiring that person you used, lol and getting rid fo it all

there is a freedom to having the space and just enough stuff to fit in a box.

except my books.

I don't like clutter.

I have helped clean out houses that were filled with junk.

My sister is a hoarder, still is.

really a hoarder, but I am too lazy to go through everything I have. And when I do go through anything, I don't have the sense to get rid of anything. You know, I really will need that one day!

PA is beautiful in the late spring and summer. :-)

If you haven't used it in a year, might not need it anymore.

I have some boxes of books and fanzines I need to do something with.

Just 3 boxes in the corner, not to bad.

What does it mean? Are you going to alphabetize your underwear or something?
dc