Corey Minor Smith
Chrissy Gruninger
After another avalanche of stuff fell on my head out of a jam-packed closet, I began to wonder if I had the beginnings of a real hoarding problem. I looked it up, and The American Psychiatric Association says that those who suffer from hoarding have difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their actual value. The resulting clutter disrupts the ability to use living spaces. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, commonly hoarded items may be newspapers, magazines, paper and plastic bags, cardboard boxes, photographs, household supplies, food, and clothing.
Sounded all too familiar.
I was determined to fight off this growing urge to keep it all and to take back my countertops, closets, and perhaps a drawer or two.
It was difficult to begin, but I started with the area in my kitchen I call ‘the bad corner.’ It’s called that for a good reason: It’s a shifting, messy tornado of papers, coupons, school forms, mail, all that. I sorted through it all, discarding most of it (out of date catalogs begone!), and the results were exciting. I no longer felt overwhelmed when I walked into the kitchen; instead, I felt organized and ready to take on the day’s incoming flood of paper.
overwhelmed when I walked into the kitchen; instead, I felt organized and ready to take on the day’s incoming flood of paper.
I gathered shoes from various closets and bagged them up to be recycled. I threw out reams of paperwork my kids had brought home from school. My non-hoarding husband was stunned when I offered up the idea that we could throw out several years (not a typo) worth of bags I’d been shoving into a pantry closet with other cleaning supplies.
I made a list of other ‘bad areas’ to tackle once or twice a month until the list is completed. Truthfully, I feel a little sick each time I embark on a new task, but I feel energized and proud once it’s done.
And finally, I attacked a core issue: My personal email inbox.
I had more than
57,000 unread
messages in my
inbox. No kidding.
I kept losing urgent emails in the clutter, so today, I set aside a little time, reviewed, filed, and deleted my way through the past two months of garbage, and then, slightly trembling, I selected the remaining files and clicked the trash can.
Boom.
The past few years have been about locking down, shutting out, hiding away. I know the pandemic is not truly over – but I feel like it’s time to think about lifting my load, literally and emotionally. My home has been my refuge, but it also felt like a bunker at times.
The joy of getting rid of things has caused an unexpected enthusiasm for other home improvement projects. I found a fun pendant light to hang in the dining room, and I picked out wallpaper for several rooms. The couch needs some reupholstery and so do the dining room chairs. Suddenly, taking on paint and a new backsplash in the kitchen seem like things I need to do.