"Dave Smith" > wrote in message
...
> Vox Humana wrote:
>
> > Speaking of accumulated trash, have you seen the shows like "Clean
Sweep"
> > that help people clear the clutter and spruce-up their homes? I am
totally
> > amazed that people live in such squalor. I'm also irritated that they
keep
> > saying that the mess bothers them but a it doesn't occur to them that
they
> > could start on one room at a time and eventually clean up the place, and
b)
> > that when it come time to sell or dispose of the stuff, they want to
keep
> > it. I'm certain that most of them relapse almost immediately.
>
> It's amazing how much crap some people accumulate. My wife used to go to
visit
> an old lady and was stunned by the amount of stuff lying around, books,
> magazines, old newspapers, worn out appliances, and knickknacks. She then
got
> to know the daughter, and when the mother died the daughter moved into her
> house. That was three years ago. The daughter recently rented a storage
locker
> for some of the crap, and there was so much that she had to get a second
storage
> unit. It would have been easier to just take the stuff to the dump.
>
> The house is a sight to behold. I suppose the lack of lawn maintenance can
be
> attributed to the problem in mowing and trimming around three old cars, a
boat
> and trailer and two camper trailers, neither of which has moved a wheel in
at
> least 5 years, old lawnmowers, piles of brush, rolls of fencing, piles of
scrap
> lumber. It is an eyesore for the neighbours.
>
> Last summer we were invited up to her cottage. We were told that we would
> recognize the place by the old boats and cars in front. It's a shame
because
> it's a nice looking building from the outside, once you see past the junk
BBQs,
> paint cans, old tools and furniture. The inside is much like the house.
> Luckily, there is a sister in law who is a little neater than the rest of
the
> family and she tries hard to get rid of the junk, but it is still
cluttered and
> stinks of old damp papers and cats.

I try to get rid of things that I haven't used for a couple of years. I
can't remember ever discarding something and later regretting it. My mother
is about as meticulous a housekeeper as you could find. Never the less, she
doesn't like to throw thing away. Her basement was full of neatly stored
stuff that she hadn't seen for years. A pipe broke recently and a lot of it
got wet and most of the stuff had to come out of storage because everything
had to be moved. I spent three days going though all of it, begging her to
part with most of it. There were Easter baskets from decades ago, vases
from every florist bouquet she ever received, old jelly jars, parts from
appliances that were long gone, stacks of magazines that someone gave her
that she never read. She kept saying that someone might be able to use it.
I pointed out that no one could use it if it was packed away in her
basement. About twenty boxes of stuff went to the dump and the rest went to
Goodwill. I'm sure that she will never miss any of it.