For the last two days I've been watching Oprah. Her program was a two part series on The Secret Lives of Hoarders. She showed a house, that was later revealed as having 11 rooms, that was filled with stuff. There was no clear spot to sit, or even lay down.
Over the course of the attempt at organization it was revealed that all that clutter resulted in mold, mice and other things. The woman of the house accumulated 75 tons of stuff, craft supplies, gifts, clothes. Eventually the house was cleared out and the woman received some psychological help.
It's frightening how this situation got out of hand. It's not as if it happened overnight, it's a gradual process and once the mess starts building, it becomes overwhelming. Instead of your owning your stuff, your stuff owns you.
I started looking around my own home. I'm not that bad, yet, but I can see how it can happen. We all have that supply of gifts, in case we need one. We load up on sales because it's a bargain. Tomorrow, I'm going to check out my garage, there must be something I can get rid of. The solution seems to be to keep on top of the clutter. Fill a trash bag a day, at the end of the week you have seven bags. And, the hardest part of all - stop shopping. I'm going to try because I don't want to end up like the Collier brothers.
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