Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Somebody's Gonna Come Undone

Aaron skipped off to work early this morning, so it became my responsibility to take out the trash and recycling before the sun came up.

Do you know what I found in the garage?

Fourteen bags of recycling Aaron has refused to recycle.

Fourteen bags.

Aaron's hoarding is officially out of control. He's holding onto 14 bags of class worksheets Griffin and Darwin have brought home over the past year. And better yet - he's sorted the recycling so that all the worksheets are together so he could keep them.

He has, thankfully, gotten to the point that he will admit it's become a problem but he REFUSES that it's actually an issue and claims he doesn't need any professional help - or any help at all.

He just needs "more free time."

Dude. If you have free time to sort and hide 14 bags of paper, you have free time to actually look at it, recycle it and work on something else.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I have an Aaron here as well and he seems equally unable to part with trash.

Maybe there's something about that name that turns a man into a pack rat?

Pat said...

I think that is s sweet. I don't remember my father or husband wanting to keep my or my son's drawings and school work. Maybe you can do a 1/2 & 1/2 intervention. And you shouldn't be carrying garbage!

tonkelu said...

It's not sweet when his hoarding consumes the entire basement (literally- seen it with my own eyes) and an entire bedroom (rendered useless because it's full of floor to ceiling boxes and stuff). Sorry sweetie, but I think it's ultimatum time. As in, he needs to get his shit together and get professional help or we rent a U-Haul the next time he's out of town and cart it all off to an undisclosed Goodwill. Scratch that I cart it off to an undisclosed Goodwill. The bedroom and basement are massive safety hazards, not to mention what would happen should, gawd forbid, there be a fire.

Also, kudos to you for realizing that being pregnant does not render you an invalid.

teaginny said...

I'm assuming you took your opportunity and recycled it!?

Michelle said...

That is a little nuts and something that would best be dealt with professionally. Good luck.

Anonymous said...

Oprah done shows about this. I think there's a recent book called "Stuff" (I heard the author interviewedin NPR) about hoarding. It can be a form of OCD, which sometimes responds to SSRIs (drugs like prozac, paxil, zoloft, etc.) Hoarding is an expression of deeper anxieties about loss and helplessness, however, and the problem will not go away unless Aaron admits that his behavior is irrational and that he needs help.

-victoria