Unless any of you are cleaning up after certifiable hoarders for the January challenge, I humbly declare myself the winner
This is FIL's workshop. FIL's not the neatest guy around to start. But add in alcoholism, which amplifies clutterbug tendencies by 10000% in its sufferers, and you have one helluva mess. Add in crumbling fiberglass insulation that squirrels have nested, eaten, peed, and pooped in, and it's one helluva dirty mess.
ILs' marriage is pretty rocky, what with the chronic alcoholism and all, and they spend much of their time sniping at each other - MIL, over how FIL never does anything; FIL, about how all MIL does is nag. One ongoing complaint for at least the past year has been the workshop. DH and I were heartily sick of it this Christmas break, so we put on our work clothes, walked out to the shop without so much as a by your leave, and started throwing shit in the garbage. After a while on Day 1 ILs joined us, and BIL/SIL jumped in on Day 2. This is probably about 10 hours of work. It's about 85% done, but we had to leave today, so this is all we got to accomplish. Note: the after pictures aren't staged since this is only 85% complete.
Before
During
After
The dramatic close-up where you can really see the unbelievable quantity of shit I'm talking about:
And no, there's not piles and piles of stuff somewhere to be put back. The very vast majority of what was in there was garbage (toys get ruined if you don't take care of them, boys and girls), so I am not exaggerating when I say we used 45-50 big trash bags, 5 curbside trash cans (we borrowed the neighbors') and had a very large burn pile going constantly for about 6 hours. Almost everything is back in its place except the odds and ends that need to be hung on peg board tomorrow. (And the stuff on the tables that needs to be placed nicely.)
This was just the trash pile at their driveway tonight. There were similar piles at 2 other neighbors' driveways.
Going to OUR storage unit this week and doing a little straightening will be no big deal now ;D
Wow, that is amazing. My mom's house is starting to look like this, so I am helping clean it, one room at a time. It is overwhelming and disgusting, but so worth it!
This was my grandfather when he died. He had a whole house he never went to (he was remarried and just left the house to sort of gather dust). He also collected extremely expensive antique duck decoys and the house was broken into several times. It was so cluttered that he couldn't ever tell if anything had been taken.
WOW! Just wow. I wonder how long it'll stay like that.
I get the award for last month.
Along with my aunt, mother and a professional crew, I cleaned out my other aunt's home in Maine to get it ready for sale. Picture a childless couple who owned a house in PA and one in ME as well as 4 fully equipt "camps" in ME. Plus, uncle was the last of his family and inherited the 3 houses owned by his relatives in the vicinity. And all their stuff. Late hubby was a horologist with over 1000 clocks and watches and a workshop full of specialize tools. Auntie who is now in the local memory unit was a crafter and collector.
There was so much stuff- some valuable both monetarily and sentimenally. But it was all mixed. As dementia took over, auntie started to hide things which turned this into a treasure hunt. We found over $10K squirreled away in random places like the bottom of a basket of dirty socks as well as brown paper bags full of uncashed investment checks. Uncle hid guns all over the place; my favorite was a small loaded pistol I found in a book titled "Principals and Practices for secondary Education". He had cut away a hold in the book to hold the gun. Ugh.
But it was the sheer quantity that was wearing. When they retired and moved north year round they moved everything with them. So there were 2 large tractors for mowing in the garage. There were six working vacuum cleaners and one that probably just needed a new belt. I filled a 20 x 20' box with bags for said machines- she must've bought them every time she shopped.
The bitterest find were the room full of boxes I had packed back in high school when they moved to ME permanently that had never been opened. At the time my mother suggested they donate the stuff inside but auntie wouldn't consider it. She might need some of the stuff.
I did find some pictures and home movies of me as a little kid which was cool- I lost all of the others in a flood.
I told my mother to get her shit together and start purging.
But... don't be surprised when it's back to it's former glory in record time. I've done the same for my grandfather and it didn't take him long to get it back to the original state. So sad - and frustrating!
Post by sierramist03 on Dec 31, 2012 11:48:24 GMT -5
This so looks just like my grandparents garage, basement, basically anywhere my Grandpa has. I'm glad you were able to clean it up now I'm sure it easy to know what to keep and throw. Good job!
Guys, FIL's not a hoarder. Lazy, yes, but not a hoarder. The shop had never been cleaned in the 30 years since it was built. Nothing else anywhere looks like that - his closet is neat, his car is neat, the garden shed is neat. While I have no expectations that it'll stay pristine, there's no reason to expect it to get like that again.
Guys, FIL's not a hoarder. Lazy, yes, but not a hoarder. The shop had never been cleaned in the 30 years since it was built. Nothing else anywhere looks like that - his closet is neat, his car is neat, the garden shed is neat. While I have no expectations that it'll stay pristine, there's no reason to expect it to get like that again.
My mom has hoarder tendencies (and a lot of the other issues you posted in your OP) and she and my Dad hired a company to clean out their attic. I can happily say that over a year later, it still looks good!
Post by mrs.jacinthe on Dec 31, 2012 12:05:52 GMT -5
That looks like my parents' garage. For the record, I'm just astounded that they let you just get in there and start pitching things - I've been begging to clean out the garage for years. Literally. Nicely done taking charge of the situation.
Did you find anything interesting in there at all?
Post by emoflamingo on Dec 31, 2012 12:06:17 GMT -5
We used a dumpster to clean out my dad's basement and took a flatbed trailer of crap to recycle. Desks, rusted bikes, etc. I'm sad that the entire house looks just as bad again. Why we have parts to cars he hasn't owned as long as I have been alive, I'm not sure. He says they're worth money, but not if they're not on eBay!!
Nope, nothing interesting. Old style soda cans were kinda fun to see.
And here, more proof that he's not a hoarder: HE was leading the charge on the trash instead of keep drive. That's why it's so bare - if there were things that could maybe be useful, he said, no, chuck it, I'll buy new if I ever need it again. FIL would sort through a pile, declare the remaining items a keep pile, then come back to it a few minutes later on second thought to throw MORE away. The only thing he wanted to keep that I quibbled with were rusty nails, but they live in the country, so there are lots of places to use those.
MIL acts like she's a saint in all this, but she's forever telling FIL "put this in your shop, we might need it later." It was sort of a game to see how much of MIL's junk we could get to the burn pile without her noticing. FIL would shoo me away with something "go, go, while she's inside, she'll never miss it."
Post by bunnymendelbaum on Dec 31, 2012 14:28:52 GMT -5
Sounds like my parents. My dad is not a hoarder, but his barn is a mess. He just starts and stops projects. My mom on the other hand we would have to physically restrain to throw anything away.