Hoarding

There is something about the human condition where, when we see a disabled car or an accident, we slow down to gawk. Having lived in Chicagoland for over 30 years now, I have, sort of, trained myself that if I'm driving, I try not to look. It's incredibly hard, but my eyes must be trained forward and not fixated on the shoulder.

It's the same with television. We love to watch other people's misery. The huge popularity of reality television bears witness to this. We spend our time glued to the flickering LCD screen as people we'd never associate with in real life scream, yell, kiss, make up and out and generally live within the glare of a camera.

Spending my nights in a hotel room gives me ample time to watch enlightened television such as "Mythbusters" or the car wrecks of life that are hoarders. My last night in Prairie du Chien, I was up late watching back-to-back episodes of "Hoarders". I would not make time in my life, if I had cable, to watch this program, but, once on the hotel TV, I couldn't turn away until they repeated a program I saw already that evening.

Hoarding is a psychological problem. It is a recognized disease and usually manifests itself with obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression. Medication and psycho-therapy are required as well as the recognition by the hoarder that they have a problem and want that problem handled. Of the 8 people profiled in the 4 hours I watched, one had relapsed, one could not move back home until other issues were dealt with and one had other psychological issues come out which had been buried in the hoard.

It's easy to be on the outside and think, "How can people live like this?" In my years of doing inspections of properties for my job, I have encountered several hoarding situations. There have been houses where there was a trail from room to room with stuff piled everywhere. I look at floors, walls and ceilings when I inspect a property. I don't usually comment on what I see unless, for instance, I saw an item in a woman's sewing room that I admired. She was working on a quilt for a soon to be born granddaughter and her work was exquisite. Of course I'm going to comment on that. But I have been inside homes where I've actually thought, when I've left, "I should burn these shoes."

Now, I'm not the most tidy of housekeepers. There's dust on furniture and cobwebs in corners. I need to wash the bathroom and kitchen floors. But you can walk into my house and not worry about piles or a trail from room to room and there is, unless I'm baking, room on the kitchen counters for dirty or clean dishes or to empty grocery bags. I have been in homes where there is no room on counters or tables and I wonder how long some of those dishes have been dirty.

I watched, transfixed, as professional cleaners in hazmat outfits with respirators, went into some of these homes to clean them. I watched, again, it's like a car wreck on the side of the road, as people had melt downs when faced with the need to get rid of things. Families screamed at one another, came apart, applied a veneer of civility to the problem and dove back in. And I thought about my home and myself.

It's easy to use stuff to fill emotional voids. I think, at a basic level, we all do it at some point in our lives. It's not all the time if you are healthy, but it happens to the best of us. Plus, we want to surround ourselves with beauty or items that remind us of travel or events we have enjoyed. There is nothing wrong with collecting postcards of places you've been or music or Pez dispensers. It's when you keep everything and can't part with anything that there is a problem.

I love books. I love being surrounded by books. I have a collection of hand bells. People would buy them for me in their travels and I would get them as I traveled. I have a collection of the "Autum Leaf" style of  Jewel Tea china. I like the design of the pieces. I have lots and lots of music CDs. I have a stash of candles and my secretary display cabinet is filled with knick knacks which have meaning to me. As I watched people's lives going out their door and into dumpsters, I thought of what I have and came to a conclusion I have toyed with but never really voiced. I have too much stuff. Granted, it is nothing like the 28 year-old woman who had every piece of clothing she had ever worn for the last 15 years stuffed in bags throughout her house, but I do have a lot of stuff.

I would like to display my bells. I would like to use my Jewel Tea. One of my friends has suggested I upload all my music to "the cloud" and then I could get rid of the CD's. When was the last time I actually sat down and read "Just So Stories" by Rudyard Kipling? I can't honestly remember.

In the northwest corner of the living room is a bookshelf with cookbooks, cat books and my college literature books in it. In front of that sits a rolling cabinet with records in the bottom and a record player on the top of it. I don't remember the last time I actually played a record. I also can't tell you if the player works. I think it does. I have decided to start here and work my way through my house, using up, getting rid of, sorting, cleaning and organizing what I own. I have decided to divest myself of those things I don't use or which I have just because I can possess them, not because they have any meaning to me.

I'm going to read up on selling things on eBay and those records contained in this cabinet are gone. If I really want the music on them, I'll make a note of the artist and record and buy it in CD form or add it to my "wish list" for birthday or Christmas. There are collectors out there for whom this stuff would be worth something. It's time to be rid of them. The record player can be donated to the next group that calls asking for donations.

In that space, I'm going to actually buy a cat tower for the girls to look out the window. I will go through that bookshelf with a critical eye. I don't want anything piled on top of it anymore. I have dozens of cookbooks, yet I eat ice cream sandwiches for supper because I'm too tired to cook. That corner shall be redeemed.

There are no illusions this will be an overnight event. It could be but I think, in my radical purge mode, I'd get rid of something I truly want. Step by step, inch by inch, shelf by shelf.

I'm not a hoarder by the clinical definition. I have stuff. Some of this stuff is representative of who I am. Some of it filled a void I have learned to fill in other ways. I'm reminded with this coming in spring, that pruning a bush makes it blossom better, fuller, happier. I look at this project to take a long time but, when I fully feel it's done, I will be better and happier. If you are interested in the records or books I will be selling, leave me an email. I pass no judgement on the state of your hoard but I'm happy to move those from my house to yours.

Beverage:  Irish Breakfast tea

Deb

Remember When?

I have addressed the Christmas cards for all the cards I currently have. I need to go to the store and get another box. I thought I had it counted out correctly but I'm short. My October dream of making my own cards didn't get done. I'll get to it but I'm using up some old cards I've had for a few years.

Also being used up in this are old stamps. We used to save some, when Carole was little, because my ex had a friend who collected stamps. He had a rather large collection, all identified and mounted. A stamp collection, as collections goes, doesn't take up that much room. My grandfather collected stamps and coins. I remember going to visit him and he'd have his collections out because he'd just found a stamp or a coin he'd been searching for. We were allowed to look but not touch.

Now that Carole's on her own, I asked about the stamp collection. She's not interested in it so I've been using the stamps to mail what correspondence I do as well as the bills I don't pay online. Most of our collection is from when stamps were between 30 and 36 cents. That means I have to get a sheet or two of 1, 2 and 10 cent stamps.

The stamps on the left required licking. You remember that, right? Stick out your tongue and apply moisture using that appendage. You mouth would dry out in December between licking stamps and licking the back of the card envelope. I realized that all stamps today are peel and stick. You can't find current denominations of the lick and stick variety. I'm not going to decry this. It's an advancement that is most welcome. I remember when the first peel and stick stamps were introduced and how some people said that was a travesty. Now, I don't think we'd have it any other way.

Beverage:  Gingerbread tea

Deb

Something for me.

This morning was bill paying time. I seem to be missing the phone bill but I'll bet it's in the pile to my right. I have paid everything else and have enough for a bit of travel this upcoming week. I even, and I hope you're sitting down, added 2 creditors to my online bill payers. For some reason, I got enough ahead on my electric bill that October's amount was $1.47. My water bill was the same way. I only owe $4.45 this month. It kind of seemed silly to send a check for each amount so I paid them online. Me! I did it!

So, I have a bit extra and I can order that one item for one more special person on my Christmas list. Plus, I can order my annual Campbell's Christmas ornament. Of all the things I did last year, this is one thing I squeezed out of the budget. This year, it's easier to justify the purchase.

I've been doing this since 1980. I have one big plastic storage bin that is nothing but Campbell's ornaments. I might be missing a year that has broken, I'll have to check. But I have not missed getting an ornament since 1980.

It used to be that you had to send 2 soup labels plus a nominal amount, something like $3.95. I don't remember when they dropped the label requirement, but the price hasn't gone up all that much. I paid $6.95 for this year's. I don't live in Michigan, so I don't have to pay tax on the purchase.

The blue of this year's ornament is quite distinctive. They have had clear glass, white glass, red glass, gold glass and I think there's a green glass one in the collection. I have enough that my whole tree could be Campbell's Soup ornaments.

I don't actively collect much anymore. I used to go out of my way to get the small hand bells you see at tourist locations. If one strikes me as unusual, I will get it, but I don't go out of my way to add to the collection. But, this ornament is one thing I do actively get, every year, without fail. Ordered today, it should be here in time to adorn the tree in December.

If you are interested in getting one of your own, you can find it here at www.CampbellShop.com. I'm actually eyeing the reusable bags. I have a few but it seems like it's never enough for those days that I do my monster shopping. Then again, it's getting close to Christmas and birthday time and people will be wanting suggestions. Reusable bags would be a great idea, not that I'm hinting.

Beverage: Irish Breakfast tea

Deb

Sunday in the Kitchen with Deb

When the cooking bug bites, it's best to scratch where it itches or itch where it scratches or get out the mixing bowls, I'm gonna run outta room today.

It started with yesterday's muffins. It was a new poppyseed muffin recipe and it turned out very good. It made a lot and they are now frozen to be grabbed when I'm late for work. I've always had a problem with muffins making more than the recipe says they will. That's technically not a "problem", per se, except I wonder if I'm doing something wrong when the recipe says, "Makes 12" and I have 16. I think I finally have the "Mix just until blended" understood, after several score years of baking.

The only thing that frustrates me is the lack of the small 2 - 3 cup bowls like the metal bowl you see. Cereal bowls just aren't the same for mixing in small quantities. You need to beat the eggs and add the milk to the beaten eggs before adding alternately with the flour. A cereal bowl sloshes the beaten egg milk mixture over the sides because the sides are sloped. In a mixing bowl, the sides are vertical. That mix you just made isn't going anywhere unless you get really rambunctious with your whisk.

This morning, I had a hankering for pancakes. That's another item I can freeze after I've had the two I want for breakfast. So, I wandered over to the cookbook shelves, yes, there are two of them, not counting the stack on top of the bookshelf and all the little flyers shoved on top of the cookbooks AND the box in the office with all the recipes I want to try, and I pulled out this book.

I'm a sucker for cookbooks. I have far too many of them. I love to cook, but it's just me and unless I'm absolutely positive it can be frozen to eat later or will make tasty lunches and suppers for the next couple of days, I don't want to cook and have food left over. I just tossed something that was white and green and fuzzy and had integrated itself with the plastic container in which it was stored.

I don't remember where I got this cookbook. The copyright is 1939 and the side is tabbed with regions of the country with distinctive cuisines. New England, Pennsylvania Dutch, Mississippi Valley, Southwestern, Wisconsin, are some of the tab names. It reflects a time, the end of the Great Depression, where making do with what you had or could get was how you lived. Yes, I have a Joy of Cooking, a Betty Crocker Cookbook, a Fanny Farmer Cookbook and dozens in between, but I thought, "Let's see what pancake recipes are in this."

I found several sections but this page was what I wound up making, the recipe at the bottom and adding whole wheat flour to the pancakes.

They came out very well. I also added a tablespoon of maple syrup to the batter which I'll need to remember as that was superb.

As I had butter softening for cookies to be made later I had to get my big Jewel Tea mixing bowl down. This is the "Autumn Leaf" pattern.

I collected this actively for a long time and have a small collection of pieces. This large mixing bowl is fairly heavy and it's kept up on the top shelf to be brought down when I'm out of bowls.

Tonight, I made a pasta, sausage and pea combo which is good but would definately benefit from a light covering of Alfredo Sauce. I can't make that. Some things, I've just given up on. I will stop by Dominicks tomorrow and pick up a container of it. I made enough pasta sausage that I will have that for at least 3 meals.

I am thinking about meatloaf. I haven't made meatloaf in ages. I have a great recipe for Italian Meatloaf. It has a layer of shredded mozzarella in the middle. I could make that, carve it into quarters and freeze it. Right now I'm not going anywhere for Thanksgiving. I could have meatloaf and sweet potato dressing and a salad and something chocolate for dessert. I could. I could seriously do that. I'm out of cracker crumbs however, to use as binding for the meatloaf.

Alfredo sauce and saltines now on the list. Might as well pick up some bananas and another box of Cheerios while I'm there. I could make those chocolate banana muffins! I haven't had those in ages. Or banana bread or use up this can of organic pumpkin or get some apples and make sauce or...

I stop for the day when there's no usable counter space. Tomorrow, I have to do dishes again.

Beverage: Grape Juice

Deb