So im sorta a child of a hoarder but ive also done some stuff aswell, its nothing like whats on tv, but its still a problem as we want to move. My mother keeps saying she wants me and her to get the junk out first but shes having trouble terterming whats trash compared to me, nor can we really afford some team to clean everything up.
What would be the best course of action here, because 2 people is not working.
I have a two rules that help me:
I never move between rooms of the house without carrying something back where it belongs. Every trip should make my house a tiny bit tidier.
When I pick up something random and it doesn’t obviously belong anywhere, I drop it into my “probably should give this away” bin.
When the “probably should give this away” bin fills, I’ll rescue one or two things I changed my mind about, and give the rest away to empty the bin.
And of course I create an official “place it belongs” for anything I rescue from the give-away bin. Sometimes the effort choosing a place for it is the little nudge I need to get rid of something.
There’s a lot of wisdom here. OP may appreciate it even more after they’ve dug themselves out, because this mindset will allow them to keep from letting it get so bad again…if they can teach it to their mom.
Thanks. It has helped me, at least.