Call Me Monk

We are doing a lot of cleaning right now to get the new room ready to move Tori into so her brother can go in her room which will remain the nursery. As we are doing this, we are trying to go through things and determine if we REALLY need to keep them. There are a lot of things that we are finding, that are making me realize I think I have a little bit of hoarder in me.I find that I have far too many things that I have had for far too long that I should by all rights, get rid of.

Part of my little hoarding issue I think leads to my bit of OCD. I try far too hard and worry far too much about keeping things in pristine condition. I wash t-shirts more carefully than anyone should ever wash a t-shirt. I worry about the littlest stains, scratches, dents and dings on everything that I own. I worry when the dog slobbers even a little on something that will never get ruined from such minor abuse. This is where my inner Monk comes alive.

I have some things that are decades old. I don’t know why I have them, they will never be worth anything, but damn they look nice still. I have a t-shirt that is 5 years old from our honeymoon in Hawaii. I have a t-shirt that is 7 years old from when we started dating. I have a jacket that is close to 20 years old by now I think. I have to learn to let go and realize that it is ok for things to wear out and be replaced. I have to let go of clothes that I have from high school. I have to learn to let go of silly note books that are full of old writing that I don’t even know what they are anymore. I don’t have to keep Tori’s toys in perfect condition. SHE IS A KID! SHE WILL BREAK THINGS! IT HAPPENS! I need help.

I also need to get the hoarding thing out of my system for boxes. Boxes for stereos. Boxes for appliances. Boxes for all kinds of things. We own a house now. We are most likely not going to be moving before whatever items I am keeping these boxes for wear out or need to be replaced. Not only that, but if and when we do move, I am going to be hiring movers to pack everything anyway so new boxes galore. We have too much stuff.

Other things that are moving me toward Monkdom … well, I don’t know if I totally want to go into those because my arch enemies would be able to use those against me. I can’t give them that power over me. Let’s just say I am getting more and more phobic about the weirdest things as I get older.

Well, I need to go sanitize my keyboard now and start making my hermetically sealed suit for when the new baby comes. Nah, I am really not that bad. Yet.

 

 

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I Think We Are Hording

It was another rather productive cleaning day at the Richardson household today. We went through a lot of boxes, threw out enough things that I am worried it will be too heavy for them to pick up on Monday. We set aside 3 boxes of stuff to go to Good Will. We have a number of things that will be going into a garage sale somewhere at some time in the future. There will still a large number of things that “we” wanted to keep.

We kept things that we wrote in high school, the early years of college, and random other things that we decided that would be fun to keep. As we were doing this though, I thought to myself “WHY do I need to keep these? I didn’t write such good things then that I am going to make money off of them. I don’t think I will ever be famous enough that people will want them after I die. So that means, when I die, someone will just throw them out anyway. Why am I being so nostalgic now?

I say it is because I need to give myself a sense of accomplishment. Give myself the feeling that I did something. Have things to give to Tori in HS so she can just copy the work. I am pretty sure that none of the teachers I had will be still teaching when she is in high school.

Another good reason to keep this stuff is so that I can remind myself of what and who I was when I develop Alzheimer’s or some other disease that needs a memory reboot. I know that is kind of negative but it is a reason to keep stuff.
All of this  leads back to me being a hoarder. Hoarders make excuses like alcoholics. We find anywhere to keep things. We walk over piles, we pretend we don’t see the … wait a minute. I made the jump to “we” from “hoarders”. I have to go now. I have to head into the basement and start going through my newspaper stacks from 1984-95 and see if I can try to get rid of any of them.

Until next time, remember … “I find pack rats and hoarders fascinating. You know, they tend to be closet romantics.”