It’s finally over — the Big dump has ended! A thousand and one useless items I’ve been hoarding for 30 some years got picked up and hauled away. I feel exhausted but relieved like I just ran a 5-mile marathon and can’t take another step until I stop and rest.
I’ve been trying to get rid of this stuff, selling some at yard sale where all of six people showed and four of ’em bought one thing each. Then I paid out $30 for three tables at a thrift market and made $50 after putting in seven hours of work (driving time included). In addition, I’ve given away hundreds of angel figurines, a cello and three printers — two of which still work but need a little attention and ink.
I also contributed my wife’s sewing machine and a sewing table I put together for her, but was never used after she suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2006 and things never really improved until I was forced to place her in a nursing home when she fell and struck her head again two years ago.
A crew I hired from a firm specializing in hoarding removal needed four days to clear away the stuff from my three-story house. The worst was in the cellar, where I herded hundreds of Xmas items I collected and stopped decorating with some seven years ago. Despite that, I continued to buy Xmas
stuff and Halloween goodies for my son born in 1992. Why? Because Target offered them for sale at 90 percent off. Ninety percent off, for Christ-sake! Hoarders just can’t pass that up. It’s like an alcoholic who can’t pass up that one drink that always leads to another.
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I used the third floor front bedroom for my kid’s toys and all the Halloween stuff. He stuffed things from the spare into that room, making it worse than a Vietnamese jungle at the time of the Tet Offensive. It was that bad!
And so was my addiction.
I admit. I’m a junkie. I collected stuff that ended up junk. I grew attached to ’em and believed, honestly believed that I’d use them someday. But that day never came.
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But, it all ended yesterday. The clean-up process never seemed to end day-after-long-day as I refused to look at the items being hauled off and thrown into a truck to be scrutinized for what was salvageable and what’s totally useless. Goodbye Star Wars games and figures. So long X-mas wrapping and stupid-looking framed pictures that no one really liked but were kept for some reason.
It’s over. Now all I got to do is get someone or a group of some ones from Merry Maids to sweep, vacuum and dust over the next several weeks to make the house livable again.
I’ll never go to a yard sale or thrift store as long as I live, so help me George Carlin and all the “stuff” he swore upon.
Contoveros 
Way to go! I pray you can keep it up. Only bring it what you really need and, as someone else, wrote…for each thing in…one thing out!
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Congratulations!
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Thanks.
It was a long time coming, but I am so grat4ful that the change eventually came along.
Michael J
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Congratulations! So funny to see you pray and give thanks to the great George Carlin, but honestly makes complete sense to me! Hahahahaha! But I’m so happy for you. I have family that are in a similar position and I pray on it all the time — maybe my problem is that I’m praying to the wrong briliance — Oh dear George…. 🙂 Thanks for making me smile. And again, peace and blessings to you!
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I related so much to his shtick on “stuff.” He was talking about me and all “my stuff.” He must have been a hoarder and knew we all want stuff and need to get more stuff along side the other stuff that we had in a house we got for us and our stuff.
He was a good Catholic boy at one time and a great Catholic philosopher when he got older and used the seen words we weren’t allowed to say on TV. He could make fun of the church but still come across spiritual, if you know what I mean.
Yeah, Carmen, you do know what I mean.
See you later!
On Tue, Sep 15, 2015 at 8:52 PM, Contoveros wrote:
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I absolutely do!!!
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Whenever you see “Save 90%” again, just remind yourself to say I know how I can save 100% – Don’t buy it … After we moved at the end of 2013 we have an unwritten rule 1 thing in 1 thing out… I still have a small hoard of home repair stuff, but have downsized considerably. My library was the worst thing to move. I needed 1/2 of a 20 foot truck for the boxes of books. Libraries are nice words for places to hoard books! Great job!!!
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I like your philosophy, “One in, one out!”
I forgot to mention all the books I boxed away. I still saved a lot, but now I got to put ’em away. Yes, I do think I’ll read ’em all, but who knows?
Michael J, relieved
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Books are the hardest, but with Google, Amazon, Scribd, and others I find it easier to let go of them. I think “Time Macine” what two books would you take with you?
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The bible would be one, but I’d want a list of many other books before deciding which to add to it. This reminds me of the old Twilight Zone show in which Burgess Meredith — the quiet, shy worker– wakes after a nuclear bomb explodes and finally has the time to read. He accidentally crushes his glasses, and the viewer is left to ponder whether he can read a word without the spectacles.
I don’t know about the second book. It’s like Solomon deciding who should get care of the one baby sought by two alleged mothers. I’d hate to cut anything . . .
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Or like Sophie’s choice … Do you remember the movie Zardoz?
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No. I never saw it. I thought it was a chick flick and so I stayed away from it particularly after seeing the actress get an Academy award and Kramer versus Kramer.
I’ll have to check it out now and see how it compares.
Michael J, missing Meryl Streep
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Sophie’s Choice is hard to watch because of the way the SS treats her. I was actually referring to a movie called “Zardoz” it’s a sci fi flick from the 70s.
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