09 October 2009

Horders

Oprah had a show on hoarding. Well, actually she had a show about A&E's show Horders.

These shows terrify me. I'm compelled to go clean a closet or something. I'm not even a little bit at risk for hoarding but these shows scare me more than a horror flick.

My messiest place is my office. And most people would actually GUFFAW if they heard me say that & actually saw it. I have Monica's Closet and a few disorganized files but it's enough. It bothers me.

When we closed the Moody House with the parents, it was challenging. My m-i-l is a shopper. Her favorite channels are the shopping channels. She loves to browse second hand shops...she would go weekly if she could...and Christmas is just her heaven.

She had a room that she called the pantry. She had soups from 1991 (this was 2007) and who knew that water expired? She brought up ten boxes of canned/boxed goods when they moved up here with us....this is not counting what was in the cupboards where they stayed.
She was also a collector of dolls and that was a challenge. I have a few of them and so does everyone else in the family. But to her credit, this was also an accumulation of 25 years in one house.

Then let's travel a little further next door. My s-i-l is a terrible housekeeper. The kitchen counters are rarely visible. The dining room table almost always have laundry on it. (someone please explain that to me. The master bedroom is between the laundry room & dining room table.) There's always clutter and you're never really allowed in her office.

We don't use the bathrooms unless we really have to. We don't sit on the floor. It's not gross but it's definitely unclean.

As I watch these shows, I see glimpses of my b & s-i-l and it's scary. The show just featured a family that ate on the bed because it was the only available space. I can totally see that happen next door a la the grandparents in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Family.

I'm afraid that once the parents pass away, we might be on high alert for hoarding next door. It scares me terribly. I hope that I'm wrong but I have an eerie feeling that I'm not.

1 comment:

Not Your Aunt B said...

That's my husband's concern kinda too. That his grandmother will die and his mom (who is a bit of a hoarder) will get even worse inheriting all her mom's stuff (who is a hoarder too). At least he isn't. We wouldn't be married. I can't even sit through an episode, it makes me cringe so.