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Post by Warrior Kimmy on Feb 4, 2015 19:12:15 GMT -5
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Post by emeraldine on Feb 4, 2015 20:19:54 GMT -5
Dear Kimmy, oh my goodness, the PILES, the PILES! I think the piles should be the symbol of all those squalorees who have not yet admitted to themselves that they have a problem. (That therefore excludes all SooS members.)
As you're Australian, like me, you might remember a funny column Jonathan Biggins wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald about his years working as a cleaner while he studied acting. He developed a technique called " faux tidying" , I.e. tidying by piles. He'd go into someone's horribly messy house and, because they were not there and could not tell him where things should go, he'd simply scoop adjacent objects into little piles and dust or vacuum around them. How many of us once did that and pretended to ourselves that our housekeeping was OK?
I dread the piles more than anything else. Vacuuming, doing laundry, taking out the bins, all that is fine by me. But the piles demand decisions, and the clearing or creating of spaces for keepable items to go. And that is the stumbling block.
My piles are mostly full of papers. What's in yours?
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Post by TML on Feb 4, 2015 23:10:59 GMT -5
In terms of horrified reactions - If someone faints and clutches pearls too much I always wonder if they are just putting up a front. There are cleanies and I have known them but I am not sure of the percentage. In my life I can think of 3 real true cleanies. Lots of struggling cleanies. More what the heck life happens people. A whole pile of please call before you come over people. Plus those who squalor or hoard.
I read once it was 1 in 10 people (households) for squalor/hoarders. When I think of that there must be 3 or 4 other squalor/hoarders in my neighborhood.
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Post by ohblondie on Feb 5, 2015 8:16:29 GMT -5
emeraldine ...love this..."faux tidying" I think I did that for years. Neaten the piles, box up the stuff that was too overwhelming - then clean around the piles/boxes. That worked great til I got too many piled up boxes....
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Post by cyn on Feb 6, 2015 12:21:48 GMT -5
I'm still "faux tidying" because I'm just beginning to figure out why I don't/won't throw things away. I'm uncovering stuff I'd packed up decades ago (and moved from 3 different homes) and only *now* am I seeing it for the garbage that it is. Like old pens: why did I just now have to toss 100 of them?! And even my packing up of stuff is disturbing to me: I found a picture of me & my father (RIP Dad) stuffed into a box with a pile of nick nacks. WTF?! I'm glad I'm getting better (whatever was wrong, I have no idea) but it's making me wonder why I have so much crap. And all those moves, moving all this stuff: why???
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