The Pit and the Paranoid -- (This shit would scare Edgar Allan Poe)

[vanillafluffy]

Cleaning house has been a recurring topic of conversation lately. J, who sometimes makes me think they do things differently on her planet, advocates completely emptying each room and cleaning it from top to bottom before putting back whatever is going back. I think she's insane, and you can tell her I said so. Of course, the fact that she hasn't been inside my house in about 15 years means she has NO FRACKIN' CLUE what she's talking about. Because where am I supposed to put it all? That might work for someone with a huge house and not much stuff, but I have a modest-sized house and A LOT of stuff.

BigRed, who came by last year, or was it the year before? Fairly recently, anyway. She thinks lots of boxes are the answer. Boxes labeled for various rooms, and donations, and a great many trash bags. I think that many boxes would decimate whole rainforests. I've tried boxes; they pile up, you look for things, can't find them, things get shuffled around---no.

A little help, THAT would help. I'm always astonished when I watch Hoarders and the subjects have a bunch of friends and relatives comes out of the woodwork to help liberate them from their crap. I'm nowhere near that bad, but my friends stay away in droves. I *almost* wish I was bad enough to be on one of those shows. Almost. Because I'd be notorious forever after, and I'd really rather not be. A crew of a half-dozen people and a pro for three days, fine. Camera crew, not so much...I'm paranoid enough to worry about future employers seeing it, or worse yet, that lot next door. They don't need to know the layout of my place, or what I've got in here. And never does anybody else I haven't invited in.

Start small, counsels BigRed. The master bathroom is the smallest room in the house; I've been working in there. It feels frustratingly miniscule and futile. I have so many things I want to do, so many ideas, but there's SO MUCH to do before I can begin to implement any of it. And then what? I'll have a decent place to live, that's something. I just feel like it's all a million miles away.

Don't mind me. I'm just tired and discouraged.

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Comments

[adventurat.livejournal.com]

*pets*

If you don't have a team to help you, start small and do what's doable. You'll get there.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Good thing there's no time limit.


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[dine.livejournal.com]

man, can I relate! there's no way to organize stuff when there's no *room* to do so. a lot of my junk is just that, junk - but it's hard for me to haul it all to the dumpster to get it out of the way, and with crap piled up I can't reach the storage/organizing units I already own to put them to use.

I hope you're able to keep making progress, even if it's hard and depressing - I'm with you!

the advice folks have given to start small and keep going is good, and I'm going to try to adopt it myself as it's clear continuing to ignore things won't lead to improvement

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Exactly! It takes so much energy just to get it bagged/boxed up, never mind hauling it down to the curb for pick-up, to the thrift store for donation, or giving it to whoever might want or need a particular item.

What's crazy is, when I was working, I always wished I could be at home, cleaning. Been out of work 2.5 years, and have accomplished very little, over all. Blergh.

Good luck with your stuff!


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More room? Yes, please!!!

[kukkurkurat.livejournal.com]

I am so with you! It is frustrating how I cannot manage even to do a little more laundry now when I have the working washing machine. I mean MORE than the bare necessary to keep me clothed at work. Ok, I have managed to give away stuff but it is little with so small impact that I do feel overwhelmed most of the time. So... yeah. I know your troubles, intimately.

Re: More room? Yes, please!!!

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

At least now you've GOT the washing machine and don't have to go out into all the icky weather to do laundry. That's a good thing, right?

But yeah...I do something and gaze at the results with pride, then I look around and feel foolish, because it feels like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic...and I'm sinking fast.

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