Hoarders

Have you seen the new show on A&E titled The Hoarders? Kari & Devin, the couple that watched our house for us, had taped a couple episodes on our DVR. I had never heard of the show before so I thought I would watch it one afternoon. After I watched it I knew Gary had to see it as well. After it was over we were both a little quiet, we didn't know what to say. I am so glad they happened to leave that show on there because it really opened my eyes to what was around me.

Unfortunately there are a few people in this world that have actually seen our bedroom and basement. Now that is not a picture of it, but it could be someday. Whenever we did any renovations, all the extra "stuff" got piled into our bedroom or the basement. When we have people over to stay or for dinner, it is quick and easy to just toss it up or down the stairs and forget about it. Over time it can really pile up. Now I can't blame all of this on work we have done, we both have tendencies to want to save things.

Now a lot of you have seen Gary's warehouse. Some call him a "pack rat", a collector, and some say he is creative and that is how he should be. We kind of laugh about it because our son-in-law says that when we go, "the warehouse is being sold lock, stock & barrel".

When my mom moved out west I ended up with a lot of her stuff in my basement. After she died I needed to go through it. but as you can understand it was hard. I had a nice talk with my brother Grover one day and he let me know it was ok to throw it out. Anything that had any real value had already been divided up amongst the family. I have some great memories of the the things that were important to us, I didn't need to keep it laying around. So that weekend I got rid of a lot of it.

Well, the day after I watched this show I went down in the basement and I stayed there for almost 2 days. I think Gary was getting a little nervous! We haven't looked for or needed most of that "stuff" for the past 5+ years. I would love to get a dumpster here and just throw it all out. I was cleaning a drawer out in the kitchen and for some reason we had 8 ice cream scoops. I didn't buy them, they just started accumulating. I told Gary he had to pick out 2 to keep. He grabbed the 4 oldest ones ("antiques he called them) and walked out of the room. He said he likes old tools and wants to keep them.

Watching that show before you clean is like watching the Tour de France before you go on a bike ride. It really gets you charged up and in the mood. It was disappointing because after 2 days you could hardly tell I had done anything in there. The pathway is more noticeable and I threw out 3 giant garbage bags of junk.

The best part of this whole story is that right now, for the next month, Gary is in Utah and I am home. I have a few more episodes taped that I can watch before I head downstairs to the basement or upstairs to the bedroom. As long as we leave my fabric alone I am ok!