The Portal to Hell hall closet: You know it’s bad when you catch yourself thinking, “Maybe I could just SELL the apartment… in “as is” condition!” I felt paralyzed for the past 2 days. I just couldn’t deal with it. Then tonight I found the gumption to attack the pile covering the living room floor (all the junk I hauled out of the closet). I am heartened to realize that it is not as impossible to deal with as I thought. It’s now almost in 3 piles — to throw out, to keep, and to give to my building’s super, who does a lot of handyman work. It looks like I will be keeping 1 medium-sized box of stuff, which will only take up one shelf in the new closet. I’m keeping things I will need in the near future like paint, paint pans, paint brushes and rollers, sanding paper, drop clothes, eye shield, face masks to wear while sanding. I found that I have plenty of N95 and N100 face masks. Hmm, will come in handy in an ebola plague…. If I can find more gumption tomorrow, I could be rid of the pile tomorrow. I think I now have an inkling of what it might be like to be a hoarder, as in, just the thought of attacking the clutter is so overwhelming you can’t face it. Also, every time I put something in the trash bag, I would feel guilty like I was throwing away something valuable.
