February 27, 2022 – jaquintinwriter

Topic: ‘hoarding‘
Questions:
Do you hoard or collect things so that you don’t run out of them?
And if you do and later on find that you don’t need them after all,
what do you do with them?

Until recent times I’d have to answer ‘no‘ since I don’t consider
stocking up on everyday items, especially due to harsh winters,
a problem known in today’s world as ‘hoarding‘.

The chest freezer was full; the panty had a sufficient food supply
and in some cabinets could be found some ‘just in case’ items.
I don’t recollect excess storage of any one item other than fabric
or yarn purchased on sale.
Organization was great – all items had a set place with room for
limited expansion.

Fast forward ~ comparison:
During the last decade, divorced and suffering from severe anxiety
combined with chronic depression thanks to nasty circumstances,
I started not to care about my surroundings.

A new attitude:
‘I’ll get around to it tomorrow’ turned my life upside down again.
True ’twas impossible to stuff one’s belongings from an actual
3BR house into a one-bedroom apartment’. Reality is there wasn’t
enough room and thus started the problem.

My child tried to convince me that what I was surrounded by was
considered clean clutter.

Mind you years prior I’d donated items to two local senior centers,
sold clothing at a consignment store, given away perfectly good
stuff to acquaintances and sold items on my eBay store.

As I have no individual who desires any of my hand-me downs,
I opted to hire a cleaning professional. As luck would have it the
Pandemic reared its ugly head and thus a postponement of much
needed assistance.

One day a wakeup call and no choice other than take a risk with
masks worn.
With kitchen, living room and bathroom near complete along
came variant Omicron – another delay.

It’s a daily battle to abstain from idea ‘leave it for tomorrow’.

I’ll be thankful when this process is finalized and believe me I have
no desire to return to the scenario I allowed the creation thereof.
I hadn’t reached the 1st level when I realized I had no choice than
ask for help. Me, myself and I couldn’t handle the work.

The saddest lesson I’ve learned in life is ‘never expect anything
from anyone’ in spite of how good you treated them thru the
years.

For those of you who have no idea, there are 5 levels of hoarding
and the internet has a wealth of information to educate oneself
with regard to this topic.

https://lifeafter50forwomen.com/2022/02/27/sunday-poser-69/