it ain't just a river in egypt

I was a little frustrated today. Okay maybe more than a little. Mum constantly tells me how much she wants to get her house organised/decluttered. If ever I ask about how this project is going, I get stories of the most recent way she has worked "really hard" towards this goal (latest example before I left to come here: putting a few years worth of old bills through the shredder).

Now I am here in a house that looks pretty much exactly as it did the last time I was here. The problem: she can't bear to throw anything out. Over and over again I am trying to help her pack a box with items whose boxes are coated thick with dust, so long has she owned them without even opening, let alone using, them. Every time the claim is the same: "no, I'm going to use that". And so it goes on. "I'll want to read that one day." "I just need the space to work on that." "Someone could use that."

Grrrr. HOW can someone else ever use it, if YOU never let it go? How will you get the space to work on anything, if you can't part with any of the stuff causing the clutter in the first place? Why do you keep telling yourself you will use/read/organise things when it is SO CLEAR that you won't?

By the end of the day I was through. I refuse to argue with someone who is so clearly in denial. Work out your issues and get back to me. You want to pack that box with unwanted items? I'll take it to the car for you. I'll even drive it to the Salvos for you. But until you pack it, I'm reading/sleeping/visiting/watching the Commonwealth Games. Holiday time is too precious.

There's the water - I can't make you drink it.