From the entry way to my cave

I said I would get into how bad my living conditions got. It is important to differentiate between the hoard and the mess. The hoard is collecting items, bringing things into the house and not throwing anything out, the result being a plethora of items, too many to have a place to be put away or belong or to be organized. The mess is a result of the hoard. The hoard happens for different reasons than the mess and I'll explain that in later blogs.

I should mention that I survived and moved on from that house, but barely and I mean barely because the conditions I lived in almost took my life. I went from that house to six months in the hospital, then to a assisted living facility to a town house where I presently live but continue to struggle with hoarding. . But more about that later. I want to get the unpleasantries out of the way first and describe the horror I created to live in. As I mentioned before a description of my house is important to my story. It is important to understand the disparity in which I lived and to understand how I got there to understand the miracles that happened after.

I'll start from the back door entry and work my way to the cave, my four by four foot area in the living room where I existed. I couldn't enter the house by the front door because the front entry way was cemented in by layers of newspapers that I took from my mailbox,  threw on the floor, layer by layer and eventually on piles as tall as I am.

The back entry was mostly always clear. Once in the door there was three steps up to the kitchen. The stairs also was mostly always clear of litter.  Once in the kitchen the first thing that you would notice was that there was no fridge or stove. I lived without a fridge and stove for about three years. I had them removed by a couple of guys I found by a  "haul your junk" listing in the yellow pages. Yes yellow pages was used when most people did not have an electronic device to keep in touch with the whole world in an instant. Come to think of it there were many phone books in the cement piles (not sounds like cement pond) at the front door.

Because I had no fridge or stove I did not prepare food in the kitchen and there was no food or mold on the counters. There were a few boxes on the floor filled with items that I was going to put away as soon as I got organized. The floor was filthy as it had not been washed in years. There was a few boxes on the counter as well. That is about it for the kitchen except the floor and counter was splattered with mouse turds.  That is why I got rid of the fridge and stove, because I heard mice scratching inside the stove.

Next was the dining room and that is where it starts to get bad.