Did you see, Life Laundry BBC2 Wed?

[Rhiannon]

What an emotional rollercoaster it was. The woman with the most untidy cluttered house in the world had to sort her life out. It's really tidy here in comparison! R

Yes, I couldn't believe that someone could actually live like that. Sounded like she'd had a hard life though.

My God yeah, I thought our place was bad! Didn't it look lovely when they'd finished though?

Her bedroom nearly made ME cry! Lovely surprise when she came back into the house.

Unfortunately my mother is like that. We lived in a huge house which she slowly filled in 18 years, and is now in a small 3bed house. She has stuff crammed in all the attics (she had them boarded), out houses/shed and even stuff in storage. When I went to see her in the summer to get some records my sister said I could have I found some lps I quite fancied - sound of music, the King and I, carmen. "No I couldn't have them, have to wait like I did". They have been in that shed for 18 years,and I can never remember them being played. I feel so sad she has to cling on her junk, and most of it is junk...chewed by dogs mice or woodworm or mould. So I was crying last night watching the TV.

message withdrawn

I haven't seen this programme but my MIL is an incredible hoarder. I think it's more that she has never had a clue about keeping house (she's a terrible cook, too) than deliberate hoarding. When my SIL went along to meet her prospective in-laws for the first time, in the 1980's, she glanced at a newspaper beside an armchair and the headline was 'JFK Shot in Dallas' - over 20 years old!!!

MIL piles stuff up into tottering towers and then carefuly places a teatowel or tablecloth over it, which stabilises the mass so she can stack another two or three feet of goodies on top. I swear each room in her house is about three feet smaller all round than when they moved in!! DH's DS has been in and cleared some of the stuff out, so MIL can close her bedroom door now. And also the replacement conservatory now has double doors so we no longer have to climb out of the window to go into the garden.

Sounds exactly like my mil. ANd unfortunately I think dh is going the same way. What a prospect

Ikwym, Copper! My DH would go that way if I let him. When I see his DS's and DB's houses, they get more and more like MIL's every time. Not so much with old newspapers but shelves bowing under the weight of ornaments and stuff piled up instead of being put away. The other thing they all have in common is that they cover the furniture with bits of material. Not throws but left-over curtain fabric, or an old towel or head scarf etc.

It's going to be a laugh a minute clearing the house when MIL pops off, although she shows no signs of doing so yet. She's 82 and strong as an ox!