Pandemic brought on a double spring cleaning

Call it a schedule, habit or tradition, but most of us have certain things we do around the house certain days of the week or certain months of the year; and that applies for the males of the household as well as the females, both wearing “clean-up” hats around the homesite.

Some ladies set Monday aside as laundry day religiously, and other days of the week for more mundane chores like dusting, vacuuming, mopping, etc. Me, I wash clothes when the hamper’s full and all the other cleaning when it needs it, just to stay a little disorganized, adding spice to my life.

Menfolk, taking care of the exterior of the home and yard work, more or less perform these activities also when necessary, but as it turns out it seems all households see a lot of cleaning activities come spring, aka “Spring Cleaning.”

However, spring cleaning got an extra boost this year because of COVID-19, which required a lot of folks to be sheltered-at-home. Being stuck in one place for an extended period of time resulted in boredom for some, so it was like, “Hallelujah, let’s clean house!”

Most all ladies have a “Honey-Do-List,” so now was the perfect time to act on it, which meant all the home improvement businesses in the area got slammed with customers.

Everyone has a closet or two they stash stuff away in to deal with later, or even a two-car garage that ends up being a one-car garage because of accumulated stuff and years of neglect.

Instead, “Fill your life with adventures, not things. Have stories to tell, not ‘stuff’ to show.”

So, when one starts dealing with this extreme cleaning they might question, “Am I a hoarder of items or a collector of items?”

Hoarding is the persistent difficulty or parting with possessions, regardless of their actual worth, so they stack up, leading to clutter that disrupts the ability of using living or work space. It’s a disorder that may be present on its own or as a symptom of another disorder such as obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

One sign of compulsive hoarding is buying things because they are a bargain, or to stock-up. Hmm, is this what a lot of folks did at the beginning of COVID-19, like clearing the shelves at grocery stores of toilet tissue and other paper products, as if the end of time had come and one thing NOT to run out of was toilet paper? Wow!

Hoarding is not the same as collecting.

Many people collect items, such as books or stamps, and this is not considered a problem. The difference between a hoarder and a collector is how items are organized. Collectors’ items are orderly and accessible, whereas the hoarder’s items are very disorganized and take up a lot of room with items largely inaccessible.

“Look around. All that clutter used to be money!”

Regardless of the conclusion, after multiple trips of stacking bags and boxes filled with unnecessary items in the front yard it’s plain to see a trailer will be needed for a trip to one of Beaufort County Recycle/Convenience Centers.

During these extraordinary, times the convenience centers have become just that: “CONVENIENCE” centers.

So it’s very distressing to learn that two of the county’s recycle centers are being considered for closing.

The center on Giblet Road in Pritchardville is one targeted to be closed, while growth in that area is soaring by leaps and bounds. More homes being built, more people producing more garbage, minus the Pritchardville convenience center will force monumental usage of the Bluffton recycle center on Simmonsville Road.

My thought is, if Beaufort County can find green space in that area of growth for parks and leisure trails, surely they can find a few acres to construct a new and improved convenience center to serve a new population of people coming to that area.

One way to curb over-usage of these convenience centers would be to closely sort out stowed-away items and donate to thrift stores in the area, such as Calhoun Station, Palmetto Animal League Thrift (PALS), God’s Goods Thrift, Off Island Thrift, Goodwill, etc.

In closing, I acknowledge I have my share of accumulated items in my home that pose no bother or health-hazard to me and I say, “I’ve taken care of young ’uns all my life, so guess what, when they come around complaining about all the ‘stuff’ I have in my home I’m gonna’ quit worrying about trying to sort out, straighten out, or throw out any of the ‘stuff’ that’s accumulated over 70-80 years. I’m just gonna’ sit-back, enjoy life and enjoy all my ‘stuff’ while I’m alive and kicking, then they can take care of it or throw it all out when I’m gone ‘cause it sure won’t matter to me then!”

“Life without ‘junk’ is like an unsharpened pencil…

POINTLESS!”