This Mountain is HUGE! - Far Bigger Than Me.

22 October 2013

I am not sure this mountain wants to be climbed!

I went to the mountain today as Imelda needed dropping off at the hospital for his 15 year overdue hearing aid appointment.

I had a walk through the mountain with him before we left.  It struck me that this mountain is far bigger than I will ever be able to climb by myself.  It is fortunate that the TV company are enlisting the help of a specialist clutter clearing specialist.  The company specialise in helping to clear homes for probate purposes.  They are aware what is valuable and what is not.  However I doubt they have ever cleared a house with the resident very much alive and kicking off as soon as they suggest something does not need to be kept.

This will be 'interesting'.

The plan is to clear just one room where apparently the sofa and two armchairs live.  I say 'apparently' as I seem to remember they were under there somewhere but have no idea where.

Imelda was quite keen on taking a few boxes which had his paperwork in to another room as he did not want them getting mixed up in the anticipated confusion.  We took the boxes out. I went to survey the mountain while Imelda was getting ready.  The mountain is HUGE.  It is so, so, so very HUGE I am doubting our ability to conquer it - especially in only two days.  It all has to come out and then we can film the room empty.  Imelda gets a taste of what it could be like if he gets it clear and the kids come round and he sees it is possible to have his grandchildren in his house.  However once this is done we then have to get a percentage of the stuff back in.

Hell!

I need for the forecast to be good tomorrow so if you can send me some vibes for dry weather then please do.  Actually more for Thursday as tomorrow will just be planning the big clear.

I took Imelda to the hospital knowing he would be there at least two hours.  I then sneaked back to the mountain with the intention of 'having a go'.  The first ten minutes I spent wondering where the hell to start.  The next ten minutes I was debating with myself whether to even bother.  Finally I managed to sneak round the back of a pile and remove about thirty of my mother's old Open University books.  I think that if I remove them then any books found within the mountain will then be able to go in the resulting spaces on the shelves. I also pulled out an old mirror, 30 plastic dishes, a pile of papers from 2003 and some plastic boxes.

I had a look round.  I really cannot see how on earth we are going to clear it in two days.  I spotted another television in the pile.  That is at least eight televisions in one living room.  We are talking the box type TV not the modern flat screen ones which most people have today.  I cannot think of any reason why anyone would want to keep a broken TV like that.  You can't even give them away these days even if they are working.

TVs 1,2 and 3

 TV 4

 TV 5

 TV 6

TV 7

I had to leave before Imelda returned home and I was caught.  My car had a LOT of stuff in the back.  As I left the rain started to hammer down.  I just got inside the car in time.  It was pretty torrential.  I was not going to be able to go to the skip in that so I headed for home instead.

On the way down the main road I saw Imelda having just got off the bus.  The house is not far from the bus stop but the rain was hammering down.  He had no umbrella and the rain was torrential. Oh the dilemma! It would take him at least ten more minutes to walk to get home.  I could have easily given him a lift and of course would have done under normal circumstances.  However as I was clearing his house without him being aware of it, he would have found out by seeing all his stuff in the back of my car (no boot - the back seats were folded down to get the stuff in).  He then would never trust me again and would feel uneasy about leaving the house in the future in case I should try it again (I will).  So I let him walk home in the rain and now if he catches something terrible I will be to blame.  He did not see me.

I took a quick peek at his huge council wheelie bin while I was there so I knew whether we could use it on Thursday.  He has filled it with wood again.  This proves to me he has no intention whatsoever of throwing anything further away.

This is worse than I thought.  He has the chance to throw things out but obviously has no intention of doing so even though he promises me he does.

I feel like just giving up on this and letting him live in his own pigsty.  However, there is also my poor brother to consider who also lives in the house and of course, one day I will have to clear it.  I have the opportunity of some help now and so it would not be sensible to refuse it.

I fully expect him to start hoarding again the second the TV crew leave although I realise it will take a fair few years to build things back up to their current level.

I think I need to go to the gym and punch something.