Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
As many of you know I have been getting rid of my junk. A lot of it. Last week I removed twelve bags of junk stuff from the basement. It’s hard to believe I kept all these items, feeling like they were important. I wasn’t even going to touch the basement for awhile but something sparked my intense desire. I’ll try to set the stage for you as best I can. Keith was gone for a few evenings which meant I was on the coach watching my “girl” t.v.. This “girl” show happened to be “Hoarders” on A&E. It was horrible! These poor women were being held hostage by their things. Suddenly I wasn’t thirty something years old watching T.V. with my two dogs. Yeah, I could totally picture myself being 65 years old with tons of my crap all over the place. And two dogs? Please, I could see forty of them all over the place, fighting over bones. Yea, so horrified by my vision that I headed downstairs to clean my basement. Clean my basement at 10 p.m.! I just went to town tearing things off my shelves. About midnight I realized that I was insane and now I had to follow through on my project. I am almost finished with it, only a trip to Goodwill left. There are two lessons here. The first one, not to watch impressionable T.V. late at night. Number two, do not be impressionable.
October 16th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Andrea, welcome to my current world. Since being laid off again, this time being replaced by a dumb blond 25 year old, I have been decluttering the house. No small feat since Uncle Bill uses our house as his office and we have sample text books as well as old curriculum all over the place. Lindsey and I sometimes watches hoarders but it is very painful. My first moment of terror came when Bill’s mom and dad past away. Bill’s mom had a tendency to hoard. However, we felt it was disrespectful to get rid of everything. After filling one large dumpster and taking papers out to the farm to burn our families were still left to take alot of stuff home. Recently I started getting rid of stuff and according to my estimates on Its Deductible I am close to $5000 worth of donations. The recycling guy may not like me much either, I have been getting rid of alot of paper and old textbooks are being torn apart so they will take the paper inside. I don’t think anyone has use for old computer technology textbooks that were instructors copies. Of course I do try to get Uncle Bill involved somewhat but sometimes it is better to keep him in the dark. Say Happy Birthday to our little girl, it is hard to believe she is 5. Also congratulations on your new job. Community College teaching is the way to go. Bill is currently working with displaced workers and he has been re-engergized by their enthusiasm. Love to you all, MJ