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serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on January 22, 2018, 07:03:49 pm ---The first thing that crossed my mind when I read your initial comment about the living room was: hoarding. Or, at least she seems to be on the way to it.
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I have a friend who out-and-out hoards: she'll find some piece of junk and think she can find a use for it, and her house is very messy, too, but her mental health otherwise seems fine. This friend's stuff is mostly papers (not newspapers, but pieces of paper), so it seems less about hoarding in the sense of collecting new things than it is about never going through or organizing the old stuff. I mean, I have that problem to some degree -- my office needs straightening up, and I've always got my stack of unfinished New Yorkers, but my living room is neat and the other rooms are only mildly messy. And I think degree matters. In her case, the sheer scope of the mess was alarming.
I think things like this can often be tied to mental health. As you and I have discussed, Jeff, merely accomplishing some household straightening task can improve your mood. But also, if you literally almost never leave the house, you're home all day surrounded by major disorder and yet you don't do anything about it, that's a sign of almost debilitating depression.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on January 22, 2018, 07:58:35 pm ---I think things like this can often be tied to mental health. As you and I have discussed, Jeff, merely accomplishing some household straightening task can improve your mood. But also, if you literally almost never leave the house, you're home all day surrounded by major disorder and yet you don't do anything about it, that's a sign of almost debilitating depression.
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Agreed! I just reacted to your mention of the "living room you can hardly walk through." That brought to mind photos I've seen of places with huge stacks of newspapers and other stuff that threatened to collapse and bury you alive.
Sometimes when things are left go for a long time for whatever reason, it can be difficult making a decision on where to start. I haven't really done any housework since my dad went into the hospital now a little over a month ago (!). At least I was able to decide that this weekend I need to start with the bathroom and the kitchen.
I have a hallway that you can hardly walk through, but that's because one wall is lined with computer paper boxes that hold part of my model train collection. At least the hallway is tidy! :laugh:
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on January 23, 2018, 10:31:44 am ---Sometimes when things are left go for a long time for whatever reason, it can be difficult making a decision on where to start.
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I know what you mean. My office is like that.
CellarDweller:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on January 22, 2018, 07:58:35 pm ---I think things like this can often be tied to mental health. As you and I have discussed, Jeff, merely accomplishing some household straightening task can improve your mood. But also, if you literally almost never leave the house, you're home all day surrounded by major disorder and yet you don't do anything about it, that's a sign of almost debilitating depression.
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It definitely is a sign of something. My grandparents' house was a complete hoard, there was one room that was so full of clothes, we couldn't walk into it. It was all grandma's doing, but her hoard was due to her extreme anger towards my grandfather. It was her revenge.
Front-Ranger:
R.'s mother fell yesterday and couldn't get herself back up. She wasn't wearing her Medic Alert bracelet so she just had to lie on the floor until R.'s sister came for her usual daily check-up. Now, she's in the hospital. I had to give R. a stern talking-to because he was going on about his problems with his mom, his inability to make a decision about moving her out of the house, and going through a mental inventory of her belongings and what they would fetch. I tried to refocus him back onto his mom and sister. I don't know if it worked but he did go over and visit her in the hospital yesterday evening.
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