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May 23, 2010

HELP! OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE....


If there is a name meaning the complete opposite of 'hoarder', then on reflection, I might have to lay claim to it.....

That does not mean the Geri dwelling is cleaned from top to bottom every day - on the contrary - but it does mean that I can not save 'stuff'!!!

In fact, clutter in any shape or form, makes me seriously anxious. And anxiety is bad. Starting with a nasty niggling feeling; slowly increasing to a heavy oppression; and quickly followed by the inevitable 'can't take anymore' (!) explosion of frantic clearing out of cupboards, drawers and neatly filed away boxes - boxes that have already been sorted umpteen times throughout the years, but 'need' sorting again. 'Stuff' that past muster a couple of months ago, is rifled through yet again - and thinned out even further..

All old school books and reports (way back to infant times and handed down to me by my mother when I left home) have slowly staged their way to the dustbin. Old dolls; bald teddy.... binned. Come to think of it, I never had any reading or picture books whilst living at the parent's house. The only books I - and as far as I know my brothers too - ever saw in the house, before we bought our own, were borrowed from the school library... Our father was in the Royal Air Force and we moved house within England and overseas, at least once a year. Books were too heavy to pack and transport. Ornaments and pictures too. We never had either of these adorning our 'living quarters' whilst I was growing up.... Hmm, perhaps therein lays a clue......(?)

Anyway, back to the clearing-out phobia. Bank papers older than 3 months; college books; other documents (divorce papers) and old business licence (memory of independent, working days)... all gone. Well why keep them? It's all PAST life.... And it is truly, genuinely perplexing to me, that people 'hang on and hang on' to old memorabilia - stuffed away in old suitcases in attics and cellars etc. and doomed never to see the light of day again until they pass away and other folk have to clear it out....

Photographs: Ah yes. Well those at least, I saved - by giving them all to my children as soon as possible after they were settled into homes of their own. I also gave them their own school reports and drawings and little school made clay pots and animals etc... but unfortunately threw away a lot of their old toys. Things they would like to have now, I am sure.
And I genuinely regret 'clearing' those out, since I feel now that they were not mine to clear.

Don't know when it all started. Don't know why. But the feeling experienced once the clearing out is done (again) is like a huge distressing weight lifted from my mind. Physically too, I literally feel 'light headed' and full. As though I have just eaten a good meal.

But there it is..... And it is amazing to me that I still have any 'stuff' left to throw away. Well, there is always the stray advert or magazine coming through the door. Despite having a NO junk mail/NO local newspaper sticker, above the letterbox!

Okay. I know this is all a bit OTT. Off Key. One sandwich short of a picnic. Ten pence to the shilling, etc..
But at least I will never keep a whole 'clachan (hamlet) in a valley', on a shelf in my garden house, like my eldest daughter does!!!!!! Heh-heh!

4 comments:

Grannymar said...

I 'emigrate to Australia' about once a year, anything I would not bring with me goes for recycling or dumping. Now it is time I started again for this year.... Where did I leave those black sacks?

Geri Atric said...

Grannymar ~ Oh that does me good - a kindred 'anti-clutter' soul!

Got rolls of black sacks...
Ping! *Light-bulb moment* - have just realized something; the black sacks (and empty boxes)are the only things I do 'collect'. Just say the word and I'll send you a stack..!

Kate said...

I remember throwing away my marriage certificate after my divorce - only to have to get another one years later to prove my marriage - yes and I've still got my school books, my mum's school books and a mystical blend of crappy ornaments and things made by my kids.. then there's my dolls and my Mum's knitting patterns...I'm just a lost cause!!!

Geri Atric said...

Kate ~ Yup - completely lost! But your house sounds a very warm and friendly place. A home full of tangable memories.
I wish I could do it too - but I can't. I just need to know exactly what is in the house and where it is, at all times.
The feeling of knowing that I can pack up and be ready for moving within 24-48 hours, is a comforting thought....
I know I'm nuts!! But by the time I had turned 18 and left home for good, we had moved house 33 times and I had attended 13 different schools (9 primary - 4 senior). We'd move to a temporary house first, for a couple of months - and then get an RAF house allocated for another 8 or 9 months (1 year being the length of a posting), and then move on again somewhere else.. I guess at some point, I just sort of developed a 'travellers soul'!