I didn’t really get the sense that my father was a hoarder when I was young. While he had a lot of ‘stuff’, it was all useful or relevant to running the farm or legitimate hobbies like music or woodworking. However, after my mother left the farm in the 90s, he started just . . buying and buying and getting really, really weird about it. I was estranged from him at the time, so Not My Problem. haha.
I was so sure it wasn’t my problem.
But here we are. One of the clever solutions he found for Storage Space for all his Treasure was to buy whole-ass trailers - like the back end of an 18-wheeler? - and parking them on the farm. And. Filling them up. With stuff. There are. There. There are THREE of them. This one is attached (sorta) to the house and it by far the worst.
We started in here this morning. Luckily, we found a whole box of contractor-size trash bags right off the bat. We proceeded to fill 17 bags and haul out numerous other boxes, crates, boards, chairs, etc. This was just a ‘first pass’, getting the junk out of the way so I can figure out what to keep (very little) or what to put in a yard sale.
Honestly, it’s hard to get a sense of how much progress we made from the after photo, because there are still some bags and boxes stacked up to get hauled away. But THIS:
is about 60% of what we got rid of, and it’s almost certainly enough to completely fill the dumpster. Unfortunately, the dumpster got filled up by our bedroom project yesterday, and we’ll have to wait until it’s emptied on Monday to refill it with this delightful assortment.
After the fun of putting together a sweatshirt design for the high school trip and the drudgery of going to the market (but we were out of a LOT of things), I started in on the farm cleanup project. My Aunt traveled from Annapolis to help out. There are two rooms upstairs in my late father’s house, with a mini-room/stair landing in between. One room was relatively well kept, the other was CHAOS. He disassembled some of the furniture and set up grow lights and nursery stuff for starting flowers.* Everything that had previously been in the room; shelves, books, clothes, just got shoved back and gradually covered with a layer of potting soil, dead bugs, and dust.
Lovely, eh? Well, *cracks knuckles menacingly* Today’s the day. My son brought up a socket wrench to disassemble the remaining bits of the old bunk bed. Aunt L. and I dragged garbage out of the room and down the stairs in a steady stream. Once the room was largely empty, I started tearing up the elderly linoleum (check out those lovely seventies colors! Orange, mustard, and avocado green!). Under the linoleum was ‘underlayment’, which I was able to pull up with the help of a crowbar. By this point I had sweat running down my face in a stream and dripping off my jawline. The underlayment was held down with very small nails, all of which had to be pulled up. Dust, dead bugs, and debris were billowing through the air. The irony is that I had cleaned up very significantly in here a few years back, but of course had to leave his flower-growing stuff, because he was still trying to use it. Since that time, it had accumulated a metric ton of crud. At one point, while I was hauling a broken chair down the stairs, I dropped it on my foot. It hit my big toe with cartoonish precision, and I’m definitely going to lose that nail. It’s a horrid color right now.
We filled the dumpster just from one room, and we’ll very likely gather just as much trash tomorrow when we tackle a storage ‘trailer’ that he parked behind the house. There were so many boards just randomly nailed/screwed to the walls or the window frames. I removed enough rough lumber to build a kid’s tree fort.
I’ll try to get picture of the empty room tomorrow. The old floorboards under the linoleum are a nice, medium-width pine. I have no IDEA why anyone ever covered them over. It was my room as a kid, and it looked a lot nicer then.
May 13, 2022
* With reason, in that he used to grow and wholesale flowers to florists
End Result:
I’d guess the last time this room was empty(ish) was 1970. Yes, there is a hole in the wall. Yes, it does lead to an alternate dimension. But I have enough problems right here. As rooms go, it’s just ok. Much better than it was yesterday, tho, and I’m glad. Today’s adventure was the
(dun-dun-DUUUUUUUHHHHHN)
Trailer trash. Which I will put in a separate post.
INTP:*steps into sister’s room* Why are your clothes everywhere?
XXFP Sister: I’m organizing my closet and getting rid of clothes I don’t wear
INTP: Huh, maybe I should do that too *goes to check closet* *it’s full of clothes I never wear cause I wear the same set of jeans and t-shirts every week*
INTP:Hey, wait, why are you throwing my shit away?
XXFP:This is literally trash. Old recites from McDonald’s, a bottle of glitter you took from my trash, moldy lotion, expired make up from 3 years ago that you used once-
INTP: In my defense, I took the glitter before you put it in the trash
I admire people who can let go of things without hesitating.️ My husband & I both packrats, but I think we’re driven by different reasons. We recycle, ♻️ but keep a lot, too
It seems like saving possessions boils down to reasons like:
Necessity Usefulness Sentiment Value You “might” need it someday You’re a hoarder!
Sometimes it doesn’t make sense to save things because space is limited. As my friend Suzanne used to say, “If in doubt, throw it out.” When she moved from Seattle to Portland, she gave me her Christmas ornaments. She told me she wouldn’t need them. (She never bought another Christmas tree.)
In the US, people sometimes downsize & have less space when they move to a new home️. So all the extra stuff that won’t fit in their new place goes into a storage unit. I wasn’t surprised to learn more than 10% of households in the US rent a storage unit. We know a lot of people who have them.
Is renting a place to store your extra belongings a worldwide trend? Here, the average storage unit costs $89/mo. (79e / 10,285y).
Our youngest son moved in with us during the pandemic & has since moved out, but he left behind a bunch of his bags, boxes & belongings! We also have things that belong to our older son who moved out in 2002!
I’m a fine one to talk. My sister lives in our childhood home & I moved out decades ago. There are still boxes of MY stuff in the basement!
Many things I keep because they have sentimental value. ♥️ My husband is more of the “I might need this someday” school of thought. ♀️ I admit, he’s proven time & again the logic of keeping things that we’ve ended up needing.
Marie Kondo asks the question, “Does an object spark joy?”
Are you a hoarder? What are the reasons you save things you don’t use or need? ♂️ . . . PHOTOS: Maybe we love #Copalisbeach because it’s clean & devoid of unnecessary stuff! #oceanbeach #sandflats #lowtide #naturepatterns #sandpatterns #beachsunset #oceansunset #clamdiggers #Washingtoncoast #clouds☁️ #sentimental #sentimentalcircus #packrat #sparkjoy #storageunit #hoarder . . . (at Ocean Shores, Washington) https://www.instagram.com/p/CabvGN9rXb6/?utm_medium=tumblr
*** Day 7 - Less Glam Side #marchmeetthemaker *** I’m currently lay on my bedroom floor looking up at my box towers….
I am incredibly lucky in that my neighbours let me use their house to make my work in and all I do in return is mow the lawn, pay the window cleaner and keep an eye on their house while they are away.
They come 2-3 times a year so for the 2 weeks they are here all of my stuff moves back over to my teeny tiny bedroom. I never realise how much “stuff” I have until I have to pack it up carry it back home and cram it in here ha
I am incredibly grateful and they are lovely people!!! I think its my mum whos most thankful that I can lock all my mess away and she doesn’t need to navigate round my hurricane of a work space
