Seems like there was a similar thread to this a while back.
Okay-I'll share:
My father is a hoarder and it has been incredibly destructive.
He filled a house up with stuff. Numerous storage facilities (I don't know how many).
He used the equity in his house to finance a second house which has since filled up with stuff.
About 5 years ago the neighbors called the city on him (for good reason) and I spent a week just to get to the front door. The article Sugarwood quoted describes the situation to a tee.
This was something that had brewed for a long time. As a college grad, I spent an entire summer fixing the house, and barely made a dent. When his method of fixing the roof became finding bigger buckets to catch the drip.... Man... that just sucked.
As far back as age 19- I realized the only way to clean house was to go behind his back.
I remember going back to my childhood house and digging through about 6 inches of dirt to get to the driveway. It really was like an archeological expedition- sifting through layers of detritus. The leaves had literally fallen over the years and become dirt. When I got to the bottom, I found a rotted throw rug from the 1970's which looked about as good as that dead lady Jack Nicholson found in the Shining's Overlook room 217 bathtub . My dad got out his garden hose, sprayed it down, as if to use it for a party 30 years too late. I found a phillips head screw driver with a broken tip- tossed it behind his back. He found it and put it back in his tool kit. I asked him what purpose it would serve. He said he could make and awl out of it. This was with city officials breathing down his back.
My recent garden tractor project- he really does have about 6-7 laying around. I can't count. None work.
Jesus...
Anyhow- he had a stroke and has advanced dementia. He talks of all his old porsches- and porsches he never owned.
and. yes- he had about 3-4 old longhoods laying around the yard. And a 914. And three mercedes. There 'might' be one 912 chassis that could be restored...I could always use the sunroof clip out of another 66 912, or maybe the entire roof clip somewhere else in the garage... but god- Then I will become him. He had more projects than could be done if he lived to be 200.
When I sit awake at 4:00 in the morning petrified- this is one of the issues that does it.
Tough stuff.
ugghhhh......
I find myself throwing out perfectly valuable stuff just to spite his demons- which I know reside in me.
Anyone want a 951 turbo short block for free?
Please come and get it
The funny thing is when Foxpaws mentioned Grady was doing the same thing, I didn't think of it like some embarrassing revelation like child porn. I thought it was normal. A normal life passage, like getting bad osteoarthritis or something. I just live in denial of this one day at a time until he dies, and then we'll take it from there.
I estimate if I quit my job entirely- it would take a year to sift through it all.
A rational person would just hand it to an auction company. But when it is a pile of crap lined with 1965 porsche parts, spoons, altec lansings, numerous marantz receivers, etc... It's a pile that deserves some care. Who knows.
(edit- Funny story) About 13 years ago- my dad asked me for $ so he could buy a truck to take stuff from house one to house two in the mountains. He said he would pay me back (and he did)...but that not the point. What did he buy? A U-HAUL BOX truck!!!!
