OUR UNTOLD STORIES – Seeing Carpet

23 May 2016

Overwhelming, never-ending
Expensive, isolating
Lonely, excluding
Hefty, frustrating
Everywhere, time-consuming
A drain on your energies

No one else in the world understands this loneliest place on earth,
My house held hostage to a shopaholic gone mad who buys and buys and buys and buys
Trapped in your head and trapped in your home
A punishment for an unknown crime

An enormous, heavy secret
You try to run away from all the time but you can’t
A magnet that draws you back

But you keep going
Taking baby steps
Towards decluttering one room
Towards having a decluttered home

Taking the first two big steps, admitting the problem and doing something about it
Clearing, and maintaining, some clear space
Finding your MOT certificate

Celebrating feeling able to invite people over
Being able to have family sat at the table
Being able to sleep in my bed

Going shopping and not buying anything you don’t need
Not worrying about where you’re going to put the shopping down
And when you put something down it stays there

Not feeling dread when you turn the key to go back into your home
Knowing there are no avalanches waiting
Knowing that there is a home for everything and everything is in its home
Knowing you’re not alone

Success is seeing carpet

Written by Hoarding Disorders Newbury Support Group as part of Our Untold Stories. For support, you may like to visit hoardingdisordersuk.org or call Jo on 07950 364 798