(*stretches*)
Finally sitting in the AC, freshly out of the shower and blessedly clean, glass of wine at hand, dinner happily bubbling away in the crock pot (tortilla soup), brain fried on Benedryl.
We spent the day today helping clean out Marie and Alex's house. My lasting memory of that house is gonna be one huge itch, the terrible compulsion to itch myself until I've removed skin with my nails and am all bloody, from cleaning out the basement.
They were hoarders. If they could possibly reuse it, they would save it. Glass jars of every size and shape; scraps of wood and wallpaper; cans of paint so old they have separated into their respective components; thirty empty sherry bottles; a couple of half-eaten boxes of molding cookies...I won't post a detailed inventory of the home-canned stuff still lurking in the root cellar...let's say it nearly made me hurl, and I have an extremely strong stomach.
Towards the end of his tenure there, Alex's memory problems meant he'd buy the same items over and over again... almost 40 tubes of caulk, for example, hidden in drawers and in the garage and in his massive toolbench and in the bathroom and in the bottom of his closet... Easily twenty pounds of nails and screws and bolts in boxes and bags scattered in and around his toolbench. Cleaning said toolbench took 9 person-hours to clean out.
Scattered in there were some treasures- Alex's collection of drafting tools, his prism set for working with lasers, some crystal that was inexplicably hidden- but the crap:treasure ratio was dismal.
So today was sorting, throwing away, recycling, hauling garbage, moving furniture... we did it all today. Three trips to the recycling center and the hazmat collection point were required because Alex had an unholy love of solvents and bug poisons. Five of those dumpster-bags are lined up on the front lawn, full of crap.
Today's lesson? If it's not a family heirloom and it's not used in five years, it *will* get donated or sold or tossed out or otherwise disposed of. I pray to God I never inflict this kind of crap on my children and children's children. Ethan actually agrees with me on this one!
We spent the day today helping clean out Marie and Alex's house. My lasting memory of that house is gonna be one huge itch, the terrible compulsion to itch myself until I've removed skin with my nails and am all bloody, from cleaning out the basement.
They were hoarders. If they could possibly reuse it, they would save it. Glass jars of every size and shape; scraps of wood and wallpaper; cans of paint so old they have separated into their respective components; thirty empty sherry bottles; a couple of half-eaten boxes of molding cookies...I won't post a detailed inventory of the home-canned stuff still lurking in the root cellar...let's say it nearly made me hurl, and I have an extremely strong stomach.
Towards the end of his tenure there, Alex's memory problems meant he'd buy the same items over and over again... almost 40 tubes of caulk, for example, hidden in drawers and in the garage and in his massive toolbench and in the bathroom and in the bottom of his closet... Easily twenty pounds of nails and screws and bolts in boxes and bags scattered in and around his toolbench. Cleaning said toolbench took 9 person-hours to clean out.
Scattered in there were some treasures- Alex's collection of drafting tools, his prism set for working with lasers, some crystal that was inexplicably hidden- but the crap:treasure ratio was dismal.
So today was sorting, throwing away, recycling, hauling garbage, moving furniture... we did it all today. Three trips to the recycling center and the hazmat collection point were required because Alex had an unholy love of solvents and bug poisons. Five of those dumpster-bags are lined up on the front lawn, full of crap.
Today's lesson? If it's not a family heirloom and it's not used in five years, it *will* get donated or sold or tossed out or otherwise disposed of. I pray to God I never inflict this kind of crap on my children and children's children. Ethan actually agrees with me on this one!