There are some great programs on the network A&E.  My personal favorite is “Intervention.” Recently a new show was introduced called “Hoarders.”   It follows two individuals who suffer from OCD and anxiety that is centered in the “stuff” of their lives.  One collected animals to the point that she was facing prison time for animal cruelty because she had more cats than she even knew she had and they were dying of starvation.  Yet, she loved them dearly.  Another hoarded TRASH.  Honest to goodness garbage.  Others it is their treasures from their childhood or dead mother.

Watching these shows usually makes my skin crawl at the environment these people exist in.  You can’t really say they “live in” because a human being can’t really live in that state.  They merely exist.

I am pretty sure that at some level my father is a honest-to-goodness hoarder.  My Mom keeps his disease at bay by pitching things when he is at work. LOL.  The man can not bring himself to throw away an empty pack of cigarrettes.  He places them on the table DIRECTLY above the trash can but that extra 12 inches space seems entirely too large for him to cross.  So, my Mom throws it away when she sees it laying there.  It is that way with pretty much everything else.  I dread and hope I never see the day when Mom passes before Dad and he is in that house alone.  I am POSITIVE his home will look like those poor, sad people on “Hoarders.”  And what’s even more sad is who do you think is going to be sorry sap that has to go in and try to clear a path for my father to go to the bathroom?   Yea, that’s right.  Me.  The only daughter.  (a position that has SOO many perks but also so many draw backs).

With all of this said, it seems I got the opposite of the hoarding gene.  I can not stand clutter.  And it seems the older I get the more I seem to “see” the clutter.  Recently I have been a woman on a mission.  We are about to have a yard sale to “declutter” our home as well as make some extra dollars.  I am pretty sure I am probably selling stuff that at some point down the road I will wish I still had. But, I do not care. It is just STUFF.

The most precious things in life aren’t things!