Name changed for this as it’s so embarrassing.
Five years ago me and my daughters literally moved into our house with the bare minimum. I’m talking a bag of clothes each. We had to start from scratch, we slept on the bedroom floor for a week before we got beds type of thing. We were so excited every time we managed to buy the most basic things.
Anyway fast forward and I managed to get a full time job (minimum wage) that was physically and mentally exhausting but which I loved and my girls were both doing well in their new school. Things were really looking good for us after an horrendous time.
Very slowly we started hoarding. We didn’t notice at first, it started small, I’d see a “bargain” and buy it or something that I knew my daughters would like. Charity shops were my downfall, I’d come home laden with my hauls. The stuff piled up. And piled up.
My mental health started to go downhill and I was that exhausted that the housework started to slide. It slowly got worse and worse, but I couldn’t deal with it and just closed my mind to it all. My work was becoming more exhausting and I was working 50 plus hours a week and trying to get help for my daughters who had developed complex PTSD.
Twelve months ago I was at the doctors for a minor reason and she asked how I was doing. And the floodgates opened. I fell apart. Told her everything.
She was lovely, put me on antidepressants.
About a month after being on them I looked at our home and realised what an absolute shithole we’d turned our lovely place into.
It was disgusting. Bags of rubbish in every room. There wasn’t even a space clear any more. It was worse than anything you’ve ever seen in the newspapers.
I knew I had to do something but I didn’t know where to start. So I just had to grab some bin bags and start filling them. It was disgusting and took ages. But every day I’d fill 5 bags and throw them in the boot of the car to take to the tip. It took me months and I had to be brutal and get rid of everything that wasn’t essential (this was really difficult, I kept putting stuff to one side thinking we’d need it one day)
As I cleared a room I gave it a really deep clean.
It’s taken me a whole year and I honestly don’t want to try and work out how many bags I’ve shifted but I’ve done it. My house is clean again and I’m so fucking proud of myself I want to shout it to everyone but obviously I can’t because I’m so embarrassed that I was in that position in the first place. So I’m telling you lot.