timely

There was an article in the New York Times last month about hoarding, and today's Topical Currents on WLRN is doing a segment on hoarding right now, too (Joseph Cooper handling the subject with his usual idiocy - man, get him off the airwaves, already).

How apt that this subject is in the media right now, as I deal with an apartment overflowing with things, both mine and the stuff I've just inherited from my grandmother.

I actually checked the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization's scale for rating the severity of one's mess, and I would like to point out that my crap doesn't extend beyond level II disorganization (out of 5 levels, where level I is a "normal" household). Nana was not really a hoarder, either. She packed a lot of stuff into her place, but she found a place for all of it, and the public spaces in her home were never unlivable.

My problem right now is that I have to cram most of Nana's stuff that I want to keep into a space that was already inadequate to hold my own stuff. It's not that I don't want to get rid of anything - I do want to! It's just so hard to sort and organize and figure out what needs to go and what can stay. It forces a lot of hard choices that I am usually not willing to face on a daily basis. Give up a hobby I love and all related paraphernalia? Or give up boxes of shiny trinkets that remind me of Nana and my family history? I just spent like, two weeks weighing and choosing from among Nana's things. That was hard enough on my heart - I need a break before I do more of it.

But I don't have time for a break. Our living situation right now is untenable. Our apartment is a disaster. Johnny would be fully within his rights to throw up his hands and walk out on me, and the fact that he hasn't is a testament either to his complete insanity or his deep well of patience with me for which I am eternally grateful (or both - he did know what he was getting into when he married me). There was a time when I thought the amount of my stuff was manageable, if I could just organize it better. It's past that now, tho' - now some things 100% need to go. Which things? That's a good question and I'm glad you asked.

It's overwhelming most of the time, to the point where I sometimes don't know where to begin. But nothing will ever get done if I don't get off the couch and get back to work, I know, so I'm off. Wish me luck.

(Now my mom's house, on the other hand... level IV+. And that's gotta be dealt with ASAP, too. *Sigh* I honestly don't know what I am going to do, there.)