My mom died unexpectedly about 3 weeks ago. I'm sure a lot of you will offer your condolences, so I want to say "thanks" to everybody right off the bat, because that's not what this thread is about. It's about the sometimes amusing things we've discovered as we've gone though Mom's house cleaning it.
You've probably seen an episode or two of Hoarders or similar shows. Well, Mom's house wasn't quite that bad, but it was bad. She had a small path to get through the living room, and the rest of the floor was covered in junk. Her bedroom was almost as bad. In the room where her computer was, you couldn't even move the office chair because of the cords trailing across the floor. The basement was really the only clean place, but that was only because she never went down there.
She realized she had too much stuff and needed to organize it. But her solution wasn't to get rid of the stuff she didn't need (which was most of it). Instead, she bought more storage containers and sets of shelves to put stuff in or on. In fact, she had just ordered new shelves and organizer thingies which were still arriving as we were at the house cleaning two days after she died.
I tried to help her go through things a few times, but just walking into her house would sap my strength and make me want to go home and clean my own house. I could never have just pitched things while she was alive. Not the way I am now. She would have had a story, a memory, or something associated with each thing.
Most of the multiples of things we've found were scattered around the house. A few pens here, a few there, and eventually we gathered hundreds of pens, pencils, markers and highlighters. Most of which still work. There were refrigerator magnets on her fridge, freezer, dishwasher, filing cabinets, and even on the insides of the front and back doors. Some of them were stuck so that I had to get my nails under them to get them off, and they took some of the paint with them. We found at least 50 pairs of scissors. A dozen sets of nail clippers. 20 or more hairbrushes. Bunches of notebooks with only the first 2 or 3 pages written in, like she had started to write something down, then lost the notebook under a stack of papers and started a new one.
Her books were haphazardly thrown wherever they would fit. She had a diabetic cookbook next to a book called "The Carb-lover's Diet." I threw out dozens of magazines and pamphlets. We found 8 copies of a booklet called, "The Idiot's Guide to Diabetes." Yes, she was diabetic. But we also found many dessert cookbooks. Most of these books looked like they'd never been opened.
Her fridge and freezer (a large chest freezer) were full top-to-bottom, but we ended up throwing a lot out because it was either spoiled or freezer burnt. I don't understand why she had a 10-lb bag of potatoes in her fridge with only her in the house. It's like she was still shopping for a family of four.
Today, I was working on cleaning the bathroom. I found enough travel-size shampoo and conditioner to outfit a large hotel. About half of the hairbrushes and combs we found were in the bathroom. I kept finding bottles and containers of things that were empty: baby powder, conditioner, hand soap, hand lotion. But for whatever reason, Mom hadn't thrown them out. I found at least a dozen disposable razors, some used. But the worst thing I found in the bathroom was an enema bag.
It's been kind of an adventure cleaning out my mom's house. We've taken two trips to the dump so far, and we'll probably have to go a few more times.
You've probably seen an episode or two of Hoarders or similar shows. Well, Mom's house wasn't quite that bad, but it was bad. She had a small path to get through the living room, and the rest of the floor was covered in junk. Her bedroom was almost as bad. In the room where her computer was, you couldn't even move the office chair because of the cords trailing across the floor. The basement was really the only clean place, but that was only because she never went down there.
She realized she had too much stuff and needed to organize it. But her solution wasn't to get rid of the stuff she didn't need (which was most of it). Instead, she bought more storage containers and sets of shelves to put stuff in or on. In fact, she had just ordered new shelves and organizer thingies which were still arriving as we were at the house cleaning two days after she died.
I tried to help her go through things a few times, but just walking into her house would sap my strength and make me want to go home and clean my own house. I could never have just pitched things while she was alive. Not the way I am now. She would have had a story, a memory, or something associated with each thing.
Most of the multiples of things we've found were scattered around the house. A few pens here, a few there, and eventually we gathered hundreds of pens, pencils, markers and highlighters. Most of which still work. There were refrigerator magnets on her fridge, freezer, dishwasher, filing cabinets, and even on the insides of the front and back doors. Some of them were stuck so that I had to get my nails under them to get them off, and they took some of the paint with them. We found at least 50 pairs of scissors. A dozen sets of nail clippers. 20 or more hairbrushes. Bunches of notebooks with only the first 2 or 3 pages written in, like she had started to write something down, then lost the notebook under a stack of papers and started a new one.
Her books were haphazardly thrown wherever they would fit. She had a diabetic cookbook next to a book called "The Carb-lover's Diet." I threw out dozens of magazines and pamphlets. We found 8 copies of a booklet called, "The Idiot's Guide to Diabetes." Yes, she was diabetic. But we also found many dessert cookbooks. Most of these books looked like they'd never been opened.
Her fridge and freezer (a large chest freezer) were full top-to-bottom, but we ended up throwing a lot out because it was either spoiled or freezer burnt. I don't understand why she had a 10-lb bag of potatoes in her fridge with only her in the house. It's like she was still shopping for a family of four.
Today, I was working on cleaning the bathroom. I found enough travel-size shampoo and conditioner to outfit a large hotel. About half of the hairbrushes and combs we found were in the bathroom. I kept finding bottles and containers of things that were empty: baby powder, conditioner, hand soap, hand lotion. But for whatever reason, Mom hadn't thrown them out. I found at least a dozen disposable razors, some used. But the worst thing I found in the bathroom was an enema bag.
It's been kind of an adventure cleaning out my mom's house. We've taken two trips to the dump so far, and we'll probably have to go a few more times.
Comment