I'm back

I just returned from 5 days in Montreal where I spent most of my time cleaning my aunt's apartment before she goes into a nursing home. I tossed about 20 garbage bags but barely touched the clutter. My aunt is a hoarder par excellence and every inch of her living space is filled with things she feels she might use some day. She's on oxygen and can barely walk from her bed to the bathroom but still manages to accumulate "stuff". She sends neighbours to the dollar store and rummage sales to forage for her. Rubbermaid containers full of Christmas ornaments and potential gifts, St. Patrick's day leprechauns and shamrocks, knitting patterns from the 50s, paper napkins, cards and wrap for every occasion and much, much more line her walls from floor to ceiling. It's hard to convey the magnitude of the situation. She has plastic containers full of plastic containers and bags full of bags of every description - overnight bags, makeup bags, courier bags - you get the picture. The discouraging thing is that the next time I visit her she will have replaced everything I threw out.