My mother is insane (~5M of photos)

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > My mother is insane (~5M of photos)

Bulbous Goiter: Sep 15, 2003; Whatchu' Talkin Bout?

err ok thats just plain weird, that is a shitload of well..poo poo.

You should go through some of it and sell the poo poo worth lots to make $$$, sif your mum will know its gone!

# ? Dec 15, 2003 15:07

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 25, 2024 13:06

k\o\w: Sep 11, 2003; Cuz's Uptown Barbeque
Cabins & Resort
"This Is Hit!"

wow, I'm so sorry.

I'm kind of a packrat too, I really don't like throwing stuff away and I don't sell stuff just to get rid of it. this has given me motivation to clean up my room and ebay a lot of stuff. thanks :)

----------------
This thread brought to you by a tremendous dickhead!

# ? Dec 15, 2003 15:11

perpetuallotion: Aug 10, 2003

"what can we use to fill the empty spaces? how can we complete THE WALL?!!!"
jesus gently caress.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 15:14

SmirkingJack: Nov 27, 2002

Ok guys, if you take one thing from this thread, let it be this: if you haven't used it for six months, you probably won't for a good long time - throw it away. If you had forgotten you even owned something then you obviously haven't missed it in daily use, throw it away. If you think you might need whatever you come across, but can't forsee an instance in the immediate future where you would actually use it, throw it away.

If it ends up that you did need it, chances are it probably wasn't outrageously expensive so you can go buy a new one. It may seem like a waste of money but the benefit of having a nice looking, orderly living space is well worth the cost.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 15:32

Umrath: Aug 27, 2003; Please: Think about the Domokuns

It looks like you left a spot open in a few of those pics. What's your address? I'll mail you a box to cover it with.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 15:32

Victorkm: Nov 25, 2001

drat, those pictures remind me of the short story by TC Boyle, called "Filthy With Things" from his compilation Without a Hero

A couple who collects stuff just like your mother hires a "Professional Organizer" and she pretty much leaves them with nothing at all in the house. Good story, and I heartily recommend it.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 15:34

batphantom: Mar 24, 2001

BATSHIT INSANE

# ? Dec 15, 2003 15:35

TVs Ian: Jun 1, 2000; Such graceful, delicate creatures.

Wow. I'm saving this thread so every time my dad complains to me about having too much stuff, I can show this to him. At least I throw stuff out when it's unusable/empty/expired.

What you should do is every time she leaves the house (assuming she does), dispose of a box. Throw it out in the neighbor's garbage if need be. Even if you don't reduce the stacks, you can slow down their creep.

Or just wait until a stack falls on her, then get a dumpster big enough to hold the entire contents of the house while she's recuperating. When she comes back, claim you were robbed, and all her valuable glass doodads, expired food, empty packages, and old magazines were stolen.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 15:36

Poltergeist: Jul 26, 2002

Uh... wow. And I thought my dad was bad. Holy Christ on a cracker.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 15:44

Legios: Mar 15, 2003

That place is Stub-Toe city.

----------------
This thread brought to you by a tremendous dickhead!

# ? Dec 15, 2003 15:44

Twon: Jan 30, 2002; Knight of Mars Beater of Ass

quote:

Maldoror came out of the closet to say:
Send this all to Clean Sweep and see what happens. If they did it she'd probably have a nervous breakdown though. :(

That would probably be GOOD for her at this point. Maybe afterwards she'd start to get better. Dude, no matter how much you like your mom, GET HER SOME PROFESSIONAL HELP.

This thread is gayer than two men loving.
-- NotShadowStar

# ? Dec 15, 2003 15:48

Tr0m0s: Apr 3, 2003

What are her computer specs?

Txt sig krew

code:

\ \ / /  _  /  ___| ___ \  _  /  ___| | ___ \_   _|_   _/  __ \| | | |
 \ V /| | | \ `--.| |_/ / | | \ `--.  | |_/ / | |   | | | /  \/| |_| |
  \ / | | | |`--. \  __/| | | |`--. \ | ___ \ | |   | | | |    |  _  |
  | | \ \_/ /\__/ / |   \ \_/ /\__/ / | |_/ /_| |_  | | | \__/\| | | |
  \_/  \___/\____/\_|    \___/\____/  \____/ \___/  \_/  \____/\_| |_/

If you don't like my comments, leave or risk further subjecting yourself to them.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 15:50

Antimental: Sep 25, 2003; *sigh* if only I were a gay man

This reminds me of the time when I was about 7 or 8 years old, and my mom, my sister and I went to my aunt's house (aunt by marriage)... the one and only time we ever visited. She was exactly the same way as Knormal's mom, only she did not keep her junk in boxes, she had the junk laying around in huge piles that rivaled Mt. Everest.

What I remember the most about the trip over there, aside from the fact that there was only one path to walk through house through the junk, was the bathroom. I had to go and my mom was helping me through the mountains of junk to find it, only when we found it, there was a BOWLFUL OF ROTTING TURDS in there. Needless to say, I didn't use the bathroom.

Also, she owned a clothing store here, and it eventually became the same way as her house. Although she lives in another state now, she still owns the building, and it appears that it the grass has not been mowed in the 20 years since she has been gone. It also looks as if some local homeless people have taken up residence in there.

Although my mother exhibits some packrat tendencies, she is nowhere near as bad as Knormal's mom or my aunt, which is why when I argue with her over keeping worthless poo poo, I eventually drop the arguement and move on. However, I can get away with throwing ancient, useless stuff away without her knowing it, which is a plus.

And as far as getting her psychiatric help, if she doesn't want help, there is nothing you can do, unless you have power of attorney over her. As long as she is not a threat to anyone, there isn't a whole lot you can do.

p.s. voted 5

# ? Dec 15, 2003 15:57

Canadian_GeeZus: Jul 21, 2002; P.E.I is for lovers.

WOW, your mom need serious help.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:01

P. Don't: Sep 22, 2003; A dooooom house?

Okay, lets assume you understand/agree with a few basic things:

There is something wrong with your Mom and her living conditions.
The situation is dangerous, both physically and for her mental health.
You love you mother, want her to have a long life and be happy. (So no saying, "It's her life - not my business.")
She is not happy in her current situation. Or more accurately, she is happy when she buys something, and depressed when she looks at how she's living, so she buys more to make herself feel better. It's an addictive behavior.
None of this crap is useful. She will not sell it "eventually". She'll probably never open 90% of those boxes again in her life.

That being established, there's some good advice in this thread. I highly suggest reading each post and writing down the best suggestions and doing them. One of them is this simple nugget:

quote:

Just take a box with you each time you go to class.

This is the way to tackle the problem; in small, gradual amounts. Instead of saying "it takes half a day to get to the bottom of one pile", and therefore not doing ANYTHING. Spend thirty minutes every day putting half a pile into your backseat and just drive off with it. Donate it, sell it, trash it, it doesn't matter, just get rid of it. Personally, I'd sell it and collect all the profits in an envelope marked "For Mom", and not tell her about any of it. When she finally confronts you about it, explain to her how worthless and unhealthy the junk was, how much nicer the clean space is that you've cleared, and then just hand her the big wad of money.

P. Don't fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Dec 15, 2003

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:02

Billy Enigmatic: Aug 27, 2003; I'm Jesus.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:03

BigBadBrewsta: Mar 11, 2002; "The State of Iowa: let us exceed your already low expectations."

-Raygun T-Shirt

Get your mom help for the love of God. That is so wrong I don't even know where to start. 5 pages of goons said it, now act on it! Christ!

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:10

Droopy Goines: Aug 2, 2003; Presented in DTS ES 6.1 where available.

This is both sad and awesome.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:14

Scary Monster: Oct 29, 2000

So that's where all that garbage on ebay ends up.

Does she intend to be buried with all this junk? Or does she expect to bring it with her to the afterlife?
Also, your house is dangerous. Imagine if she were a smoker.

----------------
This thread brought to you by a tremendous dickhead!

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:15

SweeneyTodd: May 30, 2002; Forums Barber

I know people are saying you couldn't get her to go to treatment unless you got a court to declare her unfit, or something, but with those pictures, you probably could do just that.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:16

epsilon: Oct 31, 2001

I'm gonna be on television Harold!!!

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:18

Tremblay: Oct 8, 2002; More dog whistles than a Petco

Write a letter to TLC, I'm sure that clean sweep show would love to do a three day special on your house.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:18

pioneer77: Sep 30, 2001; Gamecock Fan!

quote:

Absolut_Brian came out of the closet to say:
Sell some of that poo poo on ebay. Just open up some random box from the bottom of a stack and sell it. It's not like she'll miss it, and you make some money selling worthless crap to other nutjobs.

Best suggestion/comment in this thread.

Half day project or not to get to the bottom/middle of the pile, it'd be worth
it... you could make a killing selling the stuff she hasn't seen in years.

I feel bad for you, but like you've said, you deal and she's not hurting herself.

I think I'm going to go clean my house now. Not because it's all that bad, but
after looking at those pictures, I have to clean something... anything.

Hope it works out for you and her and all this stays (relatively) harmless.

If ignorance is bliss, going to Clemson must be orgasmic...

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:18

akadajet: Sep 14, 2003

quote:

Mr. Antichrist came out of the closet to say:
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

First thing that came into my head. I don't think trying to manually clean that poo poo up is going to do anything. She'll probably get more/throw fits/not cooperate. What it appears that you need to do is get her some good ol' fashioned mental help.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:18

Sventek: Sep 12, 2003

quote:

Mr. Antichrist came out of the closet to say:
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Seconded.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:21

Horseface: Jun 29, 2003; Please put your hands together for Homosexuals the Gorilla!

quote:

P. Don't came out of the closet to say:
This is the way to tackle the problem; in small, gradual amounts. Instead of saying "it takes half a day to get to the bottom of one pile", and therefore not doing ANYTHING. Spend thirty minutes every day putting half a pile into your backseat and just drive off with it. Donate it, sell it, trash it, it doesn't matter, just get rid of it. Personally, I'd sell it and collect all the profits in an envelope marked "For Mom", and not tell her about any of it. When she finally confronts you about it, explain to her how worthless and unhealthy the junk was, how much nicer the clean space is that you've cleared, and then just hand her the big wad of money.

Yes yes, this is an excellent idea. Listen to this man.

That said, holy poo poo that's a lot of stuff. And I thought I was a bad packrat - I have three bookshelves of books, another for magazines, and roughly 100 game cartridges. But that's just loving loony. The refrigerator is :krad: though, don't sell the magnets.

At least your mom looks really nice. I kept imagining a cranky white trash :btroll:, but she looks like a nice person. Hell, she could probably rejoin the dating scene if she really wanted to.

EDIT:

quote:

epsilon came out of the closet to say:
I'm gonna be on television Harold!!!

hahahahaha

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:21

CatanZZZ: Jul 1, 2003; Hex squares n sheep

Holy Christ. I have mild OCD but it's exactly the opposite- I can't stand clutter. If I lived in that house there is no doubt in my mind I'd go insane within a month. I feel for you, hope you can get out quick.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:22

SmileyPonderosa: Dec 1, 2003; Barry White used to work. Shoot, even ABBA used to work, the way I was doin' my thang.

quote:

SedatedGodzilla came out of the closet to say:
Holy Christ. I have mild OCD but it's exactly the opposite- I can't stand clutter. If I lived in that house there is no doubt in my mind I'd go insane within a month. I feel for you, hope you can get out quick.

Same here. (Mild OCD, I keep everything clean) Looking at those photos almost got me panicking. It was physically painful. I normally manage to withstand uncomfortable situations with classic stiff Episcopal grace, but if I stepped into that house, I would literally scream and RUN.

Please, get your mom some help.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:30

Aslan of Narnia: Oct 6, 2003; If only TedTurner had monkeys, perhaps he could have saved Krypton from destruction.

Sory if these have been answered before..

Does your mother have some sort of mental disorder?

Do you have any problems with pests?

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:31

Pajamas: Dec 11, 2002; Have you any Performance Fleece??

Wow - your mom needs help. Amazing thread, through.

I don't think I'd ever get like this - I'm just the opposite. I throw EVERYTHING away. Just yesterday, I was cleaning out my kitchen cubboards and tossed away an entire garbage bag full of crappy dishes I never use (think pastel-colored Tupperware-like stuff that's been discolored red because they've been used to microwae spagetti)

My boyfriend's mom is like this. I haven't met his parents yet because his dad doesn't like ANYONE coming over to their house because it's stuffed with junk (though I can't imagine it's as bad as this!). His dad is trying to get his mom help, but she is extremely stubborn and doesn't want help.

WATCH OUT FOR GIRL THREADS :spooky:

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:35

Atmos: Jul 23, 2003

when she dies (forgive me for being so blunt) you will likely just have to ignite the place. honestly, unless you hire a team of 10, there is no way to get the place cleaned up

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:37

Pho: Oct 5, 2002

good thing you both live in a constant state of denial regarding her suffocating case of OCD

bet it smells nice in there

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:41

Ditch: Jul 29, 2003; Backdrop Hunger

It's fun to be tolerant because "she's not hurting anyone", but she has serious mental issues and needs help. She has no savings and could hurt herself badly tripping and falling into random glass. If there's a fire, she dies.

Get her help if you love her. Tolerating real mental illness is destructive.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:43

Wonderlust: Mar 26, 2001; Here there is no why.

Ha ha, *this* is one of the reasons why I still hang around this place, because of freaky poo poo like this.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:45

Robot Hobo: May 18, 2002; robothobo.com

quote:

pliable came out of the closet to say:
edit: oh poo poo didnt see this, "On somewhat of a tangent, we live in Folsom, CA, home of the famous Folsom Prison." Rocklin reprazent :).

Roseville born, Loomis raised, Sacramento resident here.
West siiiide.

drat. I should stop teasing my Mom about her packrat tendencies.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:47

netwerk23: Aug 22, 2000; I spelled 'network' wrong.

I just wanted to post in this thread, as I am otherwise at a loss for words.

Hay dood good going
This thread was a good idea
Plastic bear vomit

FYAD is the cool place to hang out. You can find most of the cool people there. In FYAD you can just chill and do whatever and totally relax. "Take it easy" is the FYAD motto, for example, that's how laid back it is there. Show up if you want to have a good time. Another good reason to show up is if you want to hang out with friends.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:52

Bo-Pepper: Sep 9, 2002; Want some rye?
Course ya do!; Fun Shoe

Knormal. In the midst of the advice about your mother, I wanted to offer a thumbs up on the understated writing in your original post. I enjoyed it.

"Chairs in the rafters." God I loved that line. Sure the pictures made the process easier, but you could have easily gone paragraph after meaty paragraph with each picture. And no matter how interesting the topic was, we would have gotten bored.

There's not enough appreciation for minimalism anymore. If it isn't overwraught, it isn't done!

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:54

PurdWerfect: Aug 29, 2000

This thread is incredibly interesting. It would be amazing to go through stuff and see what's there. Sure, a lot is useless crap, but some of it's got to be interesting/valuable/rare. (i have my eye on the Wallace and Gromit figures in one of the pics if you ever decide to start randomly mailing stuff out. The fridge magnets too.)

As for your Mom, I hope things work out okay for her. I can't help but feel that a fire would be amazingly painful, but also an incredible catharsis of liberation from all that stuff. (Get the birds out first.)

Or you could stage a robbery while she's at work. "OMG Mom, the prisoners took us off! You missed an address in the garbage!" Then put the stuff in storage and start selling it off. After all, you're looking at your inheritance there.

As a final question, does she ever give any indication, however slight, that she knows this is a truly odd way to live?

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:56

Dark_Helmet: Jul 12, 2002

I have watched shows about this on Discovery and TLC. She has a problem, but it is very hard to overcome. She most likely knows that she has a problem, but she can't explain why she does it. If she saw a doctor, they would probably put her on medicine and try to slowly come out to the house and make HER throw some stuff away. Good luck.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:57

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 25, 2024 13:06

Dvlos: Aug 26, 2003; "I came here to argue with you about a freaking television show!"

Plz post pics of your mom, someone on the forums definately wants to hit that...

Also is your mom 4 feet tall? Someone at my wife's job told us they were giving away a NEW child's desk, and drawer.. She emphasized that they were new, and in mint condition.

When we went to their house to pick it up, this midget lady that looked like the psychic poltergeist fatty, pops up and let's us into her house, the house contained: Garden hoses (4) in the kitchen, along with cats (8) and laundry hampers (5), the living room had boxes of cereal (10), a small TV, clothes (15 kilotons), and some boxes (40). Upstairs was her computer desk smooshed in the middle of a narrow hallway, I couldn't see the rooms because they were overflowing with clothes, the common bathroom had wet toilet paper rolls on the floor, and there was a garden hose thrown over the computer going down the stairs, the other end seemed to be connected to a pair of jeans.

This shorty but forty, said her husband left her after the second kid, she's been single ever since... Let me know I would like to know if this is mere coincidence or a height/traumatic related psychological phenomenon.

# ? Dec 15, 2003 16:57

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > My mother is insane (~5M of photos)

«‹›15 »