My bedroom did not have boxes or items on the floor however it was no healthy place to be. First of all, it was a circuit for the mice to go through to get to the rest of the house. Mice typically get around  in a house by running along the baseboards or the edges of a room. I noticed that they came up from the basement through a hole in the linen closet then proceeded into the adjacent bedroom along the baseboards. Soon, on their journey they disappeared behind the dresser. Once they were behind the dresser, they were out of mind. If I could not see them, they did not exist. This could be considered denial but frankly the sight of them was overwhelming and my mental capacity froze.

Most of my clothes were hung in the bedroom closet but the few I wore were recycled from wear to washing to piled on the bed.   After a while my wardrobe widdled down to just a couple pairs of pants and a couple of tops. This simplified my morning routine because I washed what I was going to wear every morning to freshen my clothes. I was told by my boss that I smelled. My clothes took on the odour of my house.

Eventually I just kept my two ensembles in my living quarter, the cave I hoarded around. This left the mattress clear of clothes but it took on a whole new purpose. My dogs started using it as a litter box and over time their feces piled up.  The mice regularity reminded me that I shared my house with them as one day I noticed that the dog feces on the mattress had been chowed down on. Half of each feces had disappeared and there was fine brown powdered residue surrounding each poo.  I want to cry now thinking about this. writing about it and putting it out there to share with you makes it real but cathartic. I was so good at ignoring the conditions I was living it. Keep in mind, it took years to get this way. Each day I accepted a little bit more of the deterioration which over time and collectively resulted in a serious medical condition for me and condemnation of the house by the city public health department.

I need to tell you that admitting to this makes me a lot of shame. You will understand why I lived in these conditions as soon as I finish describing my house conditions. Next and finally I need to describe my living room. That is where I spent all my time.