My people

I've found a community of people to whom I can relate... Hoarders.

Now, I don't know that I'm such a packrat that I need psychological help, but it is bad enough that I don't invite others to my place anymore. I've been messy (not unclean, but rather cluttered) all my life but it got really bad in the past few years. Combination of too much to do, too little time, too small an apartment, "retail therapy" (especially online, which involves boxes, etc.) and just not caring enough to make eliminating the clutter a priority. Plus, I think I have something of a "depression era" mentality -- partially because of being raised to conserve resources and partially born out of living in Japan (where I developed the habit of saving for reuse because things were either unavailable, hard to get or expensive), among other reasons I'm sure. I save things "just in case" I'll need them later or because I want to recycle them or sell them on eBay or whatever. For the one thing I do reuse, I've probably held onto ten things I haven't yet reused. It's bad. I recognize that.

After the bar (and here I am procrastinating again), cleaning, exercising and getting a handle on some of the things that are out of control in my life will be a priority. I will address these issues. Not just try, but do it.

I may look like I've got it together to my friends, but if they saw my messy apartment, they'd know otherwise.