September 29, 2009

• The hoarding

  That title sounds like it should be a horror movie, but alas, it's just another of my disjointed commentaries.

  After an extensive (and exhaustive) search, I bought a new piece of furniture recently. It's a pretty solid pine bookcase that just about matches the buffet and hutch unit I bought earlier in the year and will certainly fit in with the bar I plan on getting somewhere down the road. I had to wait in all day one Saturday for it to be delivered, but it was well worth it in the end for I now have emptied all of the boxes of books in one of the middle bedrooms thus creating a spare bedroom plus I've gotten rid of an unsightly 70's looking piece of furniture that was begining to fall apart.

  When I decided to knock down my old house and rebuild, one of the things I wanted to avoid doing was filling the new place with the cheap second hand, home built furniture and useless knick-knacks that were the hallmark of the old house. Most of the home built stuff disappeared very quickly and a lot of the other cheapish stuff went to Tasmania with my brother long before I got serious about rebuilding.

  Generally, it's hard for me to dispose of anything because of a habit I picked up from my mother, may she rest in peace, who was a hoarder of universal proportions and if hoarding useless stuff was an Olympic sport, she would have won multiple gold medals. To give you an idea of how much of a hoarder she was, when I cleaned out her bedroom after she died, I not only found clothes dating back to when I was a kid, but an entire drawer in the wardrobe filled to the brim with packs of cigarettes - most of which hadn't been on the market in years.

  The packs of unfiltered Camels were a bit confusing though as I don't recall her ever smoking anything without a filter.

  I don't think that her hoarding habit was a conscious thing though. You have to bear in mind that she was born bang in the middle of the depression in 1932 so keeping something in case it could be re-used or over buying stuff in case there was a shortage would have been something that was instilled in her from an early age and judging by the stuff that was left behind by my grandmother when she passed away, it was something that she had picked up from her own mother. I figure if you were to look at the possessions of your own parents/grandparents (depending on your age), you'd probably find a similar thing going on.

  In some ways, I caught a little of the hoarding bug. For instance, there are a couple of drawers in the kitchen that should only be opened if you have a strong heart, don't fear for your very sanity or have someone on hand to counsel you should you be unfortunate enough to have to open them. It can be guaranteed that if I ever clean them out, the following week I am going to be needing an egg separator, apple corer or a cookie cutter in the shape of someones messiah.

  It has happened before.

  Every few years, I have a clean out of things. On the five year plan, I purchase an entire wardrobe of clothing since I tend to wear things until they are almost rags. In between times, I hit the linen closets and kitchen cupboards to consider what has and hasn't been used for a long time, bite the bullet and send it off to a new home.

  Lately, I've been eying my George Foreman grill that hasn't been used in 3 years and doing the math.

  I tend to have an attachment to certain things. Just from my desk in the office, I can see a few things that are only being kept because I either paid a lot of money for them years ago or I  know that as soon as I get rid od them, I will want to use them sometime in the future. For example, my old camera bags - as I get more equipment, I have to buy bigger ones but I don't want to dispose of the old ones. Not even the one with the broken zipper. Complicating things is the fact that I need a new bag to cater for a new lens I bought so that means I will have three spares lying around.

  Sentimentality plays a small role in why I tend to keep some things. For instance, I have a painting stuck on the fridge that was given to me by my friend Rebekah that her daughter Jessica did about a year ago when she was 2 years old. It's just a couple of blobs of paint with some glitter stuck to it. Exactly the sort of thing that you'd expect a 2 year old to do. In my filing cabinet is a drawing that was done by Craigs daughter Tahnee when she was about 9 years old. That's a drawing of her family but, oddly, it excludes her brother but includes the family dog and me - I guess she liked the dog and me more than him 11 years ago.

  Knowing how nice the dog was and the kind of person I am, it's understandable really.

  So hoarding, like most things in life, is a double edged sword. One of those damned if you do, damned if you don't sorts of things. Growing up in a house full of junk gave me an appreciation for being sparing in what I keep and throw out and having a touch of sentimentality makes me appreciate that there are some things that you keep just so you have a reminder of people before they grow up and become cynical about the world.

  Later days.

  Trivial fact number 202:- On 9 February 1942, soap rationing began in Britain - on that day 24 years later, the world was blessed with my birth.

  • 8:10 am
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