Hoarding????

My husband and I don’t go out much. Blame it on what you will: little kids, a bad economy, not many choices on the shoreline, but we tend to stay home and watch movies. There weren’t many movie choices on Easter eve. I turned my attention toward the premium channels and shows we had never seen. There it was under A&E: Hoarders. Hmmmm –this might not be a good idea. We couldn’t resist, we had to watch and see what was going to happen.

My husband is a neat freak. He comes from a family of neat freaks. I don’t think I am a neat freak until I get around people that aren’t us and then I realize that I am neater than I ever was fifteen years ago. The show follows two people with this hoarding problem and how they try to get help. Before I hit “Play” on demand, I giggled to myself that I have hoarding tendencies-but I was wrong. These people don’t just have spoiled kids with a playroom that could keep an empty preschool happy for years. These people don’t just have bookshelves and bookshelves of books because they were raised by a college professor and a lawyer. These people refuse to throw away tax book guides from 1988 and have skunks running around the basements. Yes, I said skunks. I could not believe what I was watching-my books and my children’s toys were nothing. The next day was Easter, and after a wonderful sermon on rebirth and starting over-we purged our already clean house just to make sure we weren’t “hoarders.” Of course, hoarding might be relative. I'm sure someone with the opposite problem of O.C.D.thinks the house is a mess if there is one dish in the sink.

I am not a psychologist, and I don’t know what I’m talking about, hence the title “Quack” in my blog. BUT I think something is going on with these people that they aren’t showing us in the editing process. We watched three episodes, and all three times when the professional cleaners were called in with the dumpsters, they flashed their faces like they were trying very hard not to crack up. One of them politely said, “M’am, a rat chewed through this shoe,” and she still wouldn’t let him toss it. It took another woman four hours to look at one box and she started screaming for them to find something she had to have that minute. Does this happen in any other country? Seriously?

I did notice that when it was time to throw something away the hoarder always had a reason and a story behind why they should keep it. Now, don’t go off on me, but that was pretty cool. I could tell/make up a story about any object in my house too, and I’m going to start writing them down.

Here we go:

“No! No! Don’t throw away the Snoopy glue stick-when I was in Kindergarten, I begged my mom for a Snoopy lunchbox and we finally found one and I have to have that glue stick because of Snoopy, even if it is used up.”

Or this:

“No, I must keep my 2007 Wonders of the World wall calendar because some day I’m going to visit all of them and then I’ll need to make a special scrapbook for the kids and I’ll want to cut those pictures out of that calendar.”

I’ll stop with the stories-but now I have good places to get material from.

I think that this hoarding might be like my memory. I don’t need things because I remember it all anyway. I also have a European attitude in the sense that I would take time with friends over having things any time when given the choice. Some people must need to have the physical presence instead of the mental one. I hoard a lot of memories…

We have to remember when we watch these shows that these are real people suffering from a real problem. The point is that they are trying to get help in addition to entertaining us in a bad economy. If one person watches this show and decides, "hey, that is me-I need help," then the show has done it's job. I definitely look at some of my daughter's autism tendencies a little differently now. If she has a Mickey, she needs a Minnie. Then we need to add Donald, Daisy, and the rest of the gang as well. The next thing you know the toys have piled up and she has moved on to another show. When we see it early, we can help it quicker. On the flip side, when you go on television or the internet, you give people the opportunity to judge and poke fun. I'm a victim of it too, but it doesn't slow me down. It's life.

A few more tips if you don’t want to be like these people:

1) Pick a day to “purge.” Make it monthly, annually-whatever. Neighborhoods have tag sales and Goodwills have donation places. Then you don’t have to feel guilty if you just toss it. (One more little disclaimer-if it is trashed, throw it out. Be respectful of donation centers and what people would want to buy or re-use.)
2) Subway kid meals come in really cute reusable bags. We fill them with markers and little toys. Great for organization and if it gets ripped, no big deal-just don’t hoard them.
3) We print out pictures and labels that the kids color and cut out and then tape to the bins that toys should go in. This takes all kinds of time and keeps everyone busy for hours…
4) Take care of the toys and things that you have-then you buy less.
5) Keep a notebook and jot down the stories as you clean!
6) Don’t be afraid to tell the kids “No!” or “You can’t have that many toys, spiders and skunks could hide in them.” LOL that was funny……

Now the only place in the house that looks like a “Hoarders” episode is the attic, but I’ll take care of it soon enough. Must get a special notebook for the occasion and make sure we can name the skunk something other than Flower….