I almost put this in the other thread about the show but I didn't want to take something about a show and make it about something else.
I haven't watched said show much, it hit too close to home to watch!
So yeah, long story short -
I'm visiting home for a bit. The rest of my family just sort of adapted to it, but the home is basically a giant unkempt warehouse for useless items. Every room is full of boxes and giant bins and tupperware that poorly contains about 70% of the giant mess. Each of these containers is completely unorganized, containing items that have no relation to one another. She's always been into fabrics/sewing/crafts/other related lady-like hobby stuff. At the very least she keeps that stuff sort of separate from everything else. I always made up stories as a teen to keep my friends away from my house, and if they showed up and made their way in for some reason/somehow, I'd make up a story like "oh, sorry about the mess, we're renovating".
There's no dead animals or anything like that, it's mostly just a ridiculous mess and piles of "stuff". Although once many years ago she convinced my father to build an in-door bird aviary for a short lived bird breeding/cockateel & small bird obsession. That was crazy. (just a walk in cage along one wall, custom built, from floor to ceiling and was usually always kept somewhat clean apart from the seed casings making their way somehow all over the house). All that went away eventually.
But after all these years, coming back and seeing it exactly the same, perhaps getting worse....it's just crazy. I mean, imagine going away for several years, coming back to a place and being able to say "oh, there's a bunch of RCA cable in the 4th-from-the-top white box in the middle room, it should have some Ninja Turtle toys, Q-tips, some nails, a thermos and some lady jeans in it if you've found the right one".
It's hard to explain something so wild and expansive, i've barely scratched the surface because I don't know where to begin really. It's probably safe to say that it shaped certain aspects of all our lives in the household when I was growing up here. When i'm off on my own I at least like very much the idea of perfect, plain, empty rooms, pristine, clean etc. But even just visiting I find myself turning into a slob.. it's like i'm becoming part of it somehow. Scary stuff.
I thought about calling one of these shows before, but I think it'd traumatize not only her but the entire family, and embarrass them, etc. Plus I don't think they'd do a show in Canada, but I don't watch/know these things.
I just thought i'd share... I consider myself "normal" by some standards at least, and even after all these years I find it weird and uncomfortable still. I don't know if i'm supposed to do anything or just let it ride.
I'm sure there's other people who've had different brushes with this stuff around here. Not that i'm implying anything, it's just probably statistically likely amongst any group of people.
