Facing my Stuff

It was our turn for our basement to flood. It seems that almost everyone I know has had it happen, so yes...our turn.

If I were to do my "sweet and sour" about this experience it would be:

1. Sweet: we needed new carpet downstairs anyway someday, so why not a kick in the pants?
2. Sour: EVERYTHING from the basement had to be evacuated to either the garage or upstairs. I'm getting a little overwhelmed by the boxes and clutter. You see, the majority of the stuff downstairs was purposely kept downstairs while waiting to be dealt with someday, and in some cases they are boxes of "stuff" that have been shuffled around for 15 years.

Oh yes, at the start of the summer, although I had several big events planned, I kindly prayed that I would somehow attack and conquer my "stuff" by the end of summer. Careful what you pray for.

So now it's upstairs ruining my life.

My girls wondered aloud if we were unknowingly on an episode of "Hoarders". So last night as my self-therapy I watched an episode for the first time and I was horrified. Yes, horrified at hoarders and horrified that I might have become a closet hoarder in utero, so to speak. Seriously, those people need a backhoe.

These are the sound clips that scared me most:

"It wasn't always like this. I guess over the years you collect more than you realize."
"Billy Bob, you can't get much money for your Barbie collection that includes Barbara Streisand. Just let it go."
"I didn't know there was a dead cat under all my stuff." No, seriously, there was a 10 year old dead cat they pulled out. On TV. In my face.

HOARDERS TV SHOW-DON'T WATCH IT- UNLESS IT'S HALLOWEEN

FOR THE RECORD THIS IS NOT ME

I've got my work cut out for me upstairs while the downstairs gets overhauled. Bleh. My goal is a bag of trash and a bag of D.I. items out of the house EVERY DAY. I'll take pictures of things I think I have to keep to remember, just do whatever it takes to free up my closets. My other goal is to not find a dead cat in my stuff.

Meanwhile, Josh has been completely displaced from his flooded bedroom. He moved into the upstairs family room for a mere 24 hours when he realized he couldn't be in the middle of everyone ALL the time. I have to hand it to him, he came up with a pretty good solution.

As you can see in the background, the girls thought it wasn't fair that their bedroom didn't flood... so they set up their own tents as well. It's a whole little community in my backyard now.

THEN I watched a second episode of Hoarders. In this episode, the family had to move into tents into their backyard because they couldn't live in their house anymore. And I felt real peachy...because it hit too close to home... I secretly wanted to have a tent in the backyard, too, to get away from the mess.

My only solace is that in a few weeks- please don't let it be months-, we'll have the work done and we can live in more than 1400 sq. ft. (plus or minus with our outdoor living spaces). School has started today and already I'm attacking and dejunking stuff with the stereo screaming and it feels good. I'm facing it. And it's not going back the way it came out.

We'll be better off for this trial, I can feel it already.

2 Corinthians 8:2
How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.