Momma was a packrat....

My mother had some issues… she had undiagnosed OCD for one thing….  (no doctor ever diagnosed it, but her obsessions were quite obvious to me….)

My mother washed paper plates and reused them.  Yes, she actually filled the sink with water to wash paper plates.  Needless to say she washed the plastic utensils, and plastic cups and reused those too.  (Ok, I admit it: I too, wash plastic utensils and cups and reuse them, at approximately the same rate I will use the same and toss them directly into the trash without reuse.)  Paper plates! Truly,… I might reuse one, if it’s not damp or stained, but I never wash paper plates……  (Please note that I live alone, and do not apply the same rules of cleanliness/sanitation that I would employ for others, be they guests or family. –That means that I wash everything and sterilize what can go in the dishwasher if I am expecting guests.)

Momma was a pack rat.  A collector of items. Various items; everything from dolls to dishware to stamps to….well name something, anything, and I bet I can find it in one of the hundreds of boxes of packrat crap that I still have.  It is overwhelming, yes.  I am a procrastinator, and until recently preferred to pay for a very large storage unit (climate controlled),…. where all of her pack rat crap was stored.  In the last 10 months I have begun the daunting task of emptying said storage unit.  This is no small undertaking, and it means that my home has become something of a warehouse.  It is full.  The situation was exacerbated this past June 28….it rained, and rained, and then the power went out….. the power company was noncommittal on when they would restore power.  The sump pump in my basement is electric.  There is no battery backup.  I spent a frantic 4 hours (until the flashlight batteries died.) getting everything in the basement off of the floor….and only a couple of inches, as I had limited resources to make platforms with…. And the rain let up, so I had no idea how much water might, conceivably come in to the basement.  The sump pit did overflow, there was water across part of the uneven basement floor,… and thankfully it was only a little water, and everything was dry 4 days later. 

But I digress…..

Momma was a packrat, but things are stuffed into boxes willy nilly…. none of it makes sense… Alzheimer’s did that.  Some of what I find may have made sense to mom, but it’s chaos to me.  And every box must be gone through, because you never know what you might find.   A lot of her collections I have sold in the past, either through garage sales or on the Internet.  None of it really brought in the kind of money she probably paid for it.  There are exceptions, but not truly significant.

For my mother this was OCD, she was obsessive and compulsive about her packrat crap, and always had an eye out for more things to bring home.  Before I heard of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder I described my mother as being “like an alcoholic”, because no one could get rid of her packrat stuff for her –she had to admit to having a problem and throw away her own stuff.  (She was NOT a hoarder! I have seen that, and we did NOT live like that.)  To a certain extent this behavior grew from her youth, she was a teenager during The Great Depression, and she was taught that you keep anything that you might have a later use for. So….

There are tons of kitchen gadgets, pots and pans, cookie sheets, cake pans including a bundt pan,…. jello molds (I do not eat jello), a large collection of spatulas…. So many spatulas that we (mom and I) once had some good laughs over the number of spatulas, many still in original packaging, we found while packing up a kitchen to move to another house. 

Dishes and glassware,… my parents entertained, back in the day.  At one time, before the mid-1960’s they entertained more than 50 people at their annual Christmas celebration.  (Yes, I still have the Santa suit.)  I have given away a few of the bar items, because I have no bar, nor do I entertain. 

What I have trouble comprehending are those folks who throw everything (EVERYTHING) away….. even winter coats that could certainly be worn for 3 or 4 winters…. And snow shovels –what is up with that? A snow shovel will be needed again, and they don’t take up a lot of space….buy a good one and keep it for years –that’s what I do.

I recognized the packrat gene (OCD) in myself many years ago.  That was when I stopped subscribing in magazines and newspapers…. I stopped looking at “free” things…  I will confess to being a book collector.  Anyway, admitting your addiction is the first step in the recovery process…. And I still have trouble discarding my own packrat crap….. but I am letting go of things, a little bit at a time.  The catharsis is when you let go of some item that you once believed you would keep until you die.

Anyway, if you are packrat or “collector”, do your heirs a favor and get rid of all your crap –the sooner the better!