Follow Up: Anatomy of a Hoarder (guest post, written by a client)
I am SO happy with how many readers are interested in my progress! (Thank you all) There has been a lot of progress since the original post.
Kara and Charlotte, from the Metropolitan Organizing team, have been tremendously helpful & supportive; I would not be where I am without them; they're gems!
I am beginning to settle in and develop my own maintenance routine. I know it's a learning process and right now I do the "pick up and put away" whenever the mood strikes me since clean up is a quick 10-minute process. (Nearly instant gratification!)
Things look just as good as when Kara & Charlotte finished. Having the housekeepers come every-other week gives me immense satisfaction. My favorite things are getting into a sparkly clean bath tub, seeing all the vacuum streaks in the carpet, and having someone help me change the bed linens.
I had a plumber, electrician and a contractor here doing various tasks. We have moved mountains since October 26th!
Even my two kitties have become more social! We've had tons of people in and out of the house the last two months and they are immune to all strangers except the yard man - Bailey HATES the yard man because of the leaf blower!
Kara assigned "homework" that I am slowly beginning to work on: going through a gazillion photos is waaay more time consuming than I expected. I'm purging though! I've kept roughly 1/3 of what I've been through so far - the rest went into the shredder. Really, how many photos does one person need?
I'm looking forward to another visit from the Metrozing team in the spring. There are boxes to go through and more fine tuning once I get a rhythm and routine.
When I first made contact with you I knew I was desperate to take action to get my house in order. However, I had no idea how desperate I was until the process was finished.
I look at the before photos, cringe, and think, "That's not me!" I have trouble remembering living that way because I didn't let it define me as a person despite my being surrounded and crowded by STUFF.
Now that the house is purged and organized, it's a relief. That one-time familiar feeling of desperation is long-gone. However, I must confess, the process of sorting, purging, cleaning and organizing was very hard work despite my being 100% committed to the process. (Anyone considering a large project like this needs to be committed because it requires maximum mental and physical effort - it's NOT easy.)
I’ve finally finished the grieving process; I’m ready for a visit from Nate Berkus!
Ladies, thank you for everything! This has changed my life more than you can imagine and best of all, you helped me “manage my modern life” and it’s a wonderful feeling!
