A Weekend With A Hoarder

Sorry, Mom...

A little over a year ago I spent a  few days at my mom's house helping her clean out and organize her garage.  A year later it was well on it's way back to being jam packed and disorganized.  although I sighed and rolled my eyes, I had been expecting this.  So this weekend I went back up to mom's to help her organize her garage once more.  But then ended up staying an extra day to get her started on her guest house which is ten million times more packed and disorganized.

For anyone who has ever been to mom's house, you know the actual living space of the house is very nice, organized, spacious, comfy, etc..  But all the closets and two of the bedrooms are packed full of stuff and disorganized.  The garage used to be packed.  There are three storage sheds on the property that are packed, and a barn that is packed.  And the guest house (The Cottage) is so packed it can barely be used as a guest house anymore.

Mom is awesome, but she has too much stuff!

We arrived at mom's on Thursday afternoon.  There was no work to be done this day, we were just planing to visit and relax.  I made minestrone for dinner and everybody seemed to like it.

Friday we worked on the garage.  It didn't take us very long because although things piled in the center of the garage were out of place and disorganized, the shelves were still pretty well organized.  So we sorted through the center stuff and put them in their proper places or got them out of the garage all together.  A few hours of work and we were done. 

"Well, that was fast.  Maybe tomorrow we can get started on the cottage?"  I asked.

Mom laughed incredulously.  "You're not gonna like it.  It's really bad over there."

"I've seen the cottage, I know what's over there.  We can do it.  It'll take a while, but it's not impossible.  It's all about organization."

"Well, if you want to, it's up to you."

"Let's do it!"

So we spent the second half of Friday watching The Howling (mom's favorite horror flick) and Little Big Soldier starring Jackie Chan.  I made roast beef sandwiches for dinner, everyone ate and enjoyed them except for my brother who is a vegetarian.

Saturday came and we spent five hours over at the guest house organizing one single closet.  First, we took everything out one by one and designated if it was going to stay in this room or go in another room or somewhere else altogether, if it was to be donated, or thrown away.  Once the closet was empty, we decided it was going to be used as the "gift closet"  Only things that were gifts or gift packaging are to be stored in this closet. We have a very large family and my mom buys gifts for just about everyone, so an entire closet just for gifts is needed. 

By time we got the closet done we were tired and ready for dinner.  I made Pad Thai for dinner and made sure to cook the noodles, veggies, and meat all separately so my brother could eat some as well.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it.  We watched White Chicks this night and it was funny. 

I originally was set to go home on Sunday, but decided to stay an extra day to continue to help mom with the guest house.  So Sunday we went aback over to the guest house and started where we had left off.  We sorted through the main bedroom and got it completely organized.  Mom was so happy when we were done and she saw that it looked like a normal ol' roomy bedroom once again.

Next we moved on to the second bedroom which was designated her sewing room.  We spent several hours going through bin after bin of sewing stuff.  It was difficult for her to decide to part with some of it, but we did end up with three empty bins and a good chunk of organized space by time we were too exhausted to continue.

There is still a lot of work to be done at the guest house, but I got her started and there is a definite system in place, so all mom has to do is stick to it.  Hopefully I will be able to go up again soon and help her some more.  The plan is to have the entire guest house organized and roomy for guests for the holidays.

This evening I made pumpkin soup for dinner and we watched football and Once Upon A Time.

 Mom drove me home on Monday.