Clutter Chronicles

In today’s conversation we catch up after several months between recording sessions and hear that Mary no longer has an out-of-control need to keep things and we find out why.

Mary tells us about how she could turn on a dime and ready office space at home for her husband and the strategies she is using with boxes to help calm the chaos.

Mary talks about the healing conversations between she and her husband now that the shame, that dirty rotten scoundrel, is beginning to lift. And we discuss the invisible lifesaver that has been critical to her healing.

Up until this point it's been just over four months since Mary and I began recording our conversations and she is making great progress. When we get together, we usually have a lot to talk about so record several sessions at once. Last time Mary recognized what her stuff has been doing to her and the floodgates opened. Today, we continue that conversation and learn that the stuff is beginning to lose power and the power is now shifting to Mary.

Last time we talked about how things were going with Mary’s space loving spouse and the tricky dynamics involved with her stuff. In this conversation Mary recognizes what her stuff has been doing to her and the floodgates open.

We check in on how things are going with her spouse. With him loving space and her needing to fill it up, it can get tricky.

Mary describes what it was like to say goodbye to her mother’s things and the trust required to let them go. We also heard how the dog purse went over at the vintage store.

In today’s conversation, we change things up and little. We’ve invited a woman named Barbara, who Mary met because she was wearing a blouse she had made out of a vintage tablecloth. Mary thought she might be the perfect person to sell some of her treasured family linens. But it was really hard for Mary to even put them in her car, let alone have someone take them.

We discuss our admiration for Amanda Palmer’s "Art of Asking" TED talk, what it’s like to ask people for help and how our podcast project is like science fiction, turning hoarding inside out.

Last time we heard about Mary’s recent breakthroughs, in this episode Mary is now able to get glimpses about what she would do with her time instead of marshaling her stuff.