Motivational Monday - Hoarding Life

 Good Monday, Labor Day, morning.  I'm not sure if this post will qualify as motivational.  It is more of a reflection of things that I have come to realize during this summer of working on decades of hoarded "inventory."   If, you as a reader, happen to glean a few points, tips or better yet, don't do what I did.

I have said this before, but I'm 3rd generation (probably longer) of what is now called "picker."  Growing up, doing this, no one called themselves that; "Junker, Pack Rat" yes.  Anyway, that...what I am trying to explain...is as much a learned behavior as it is genetic.  I looked it up, it's in chromosome 14 a part of OCD.  If you have 2 or more in your family that have hoarding tendencies....2 or more in a 20 mile radius???  ahhaha, it's not funny, even if I am laughing at myself, it is a mental deficiency and I understand now that my life experiences (trauma) is also it's fuel.  

I have been reselling stuff since I made Barbie furniture at age 9 or 10 out of recycled 2 x 4 scraps from my dad's remodeling our house.  Rocky helped me with the construction and I sold them to the neighbor girls.  I got "hooked" on "this -  line and sinker" when I attended my first auction.  I bought a saddle and didn't even have a horse.  I was still living at home, in town, not married - nor any prospects - I just knew, one day, I would live on a farm and have a horse.  I remember that day, my first auction so vividly; where it was, how I drove myself there, I knew nothing about auctions - but, I was quick to learn.  I started working at a law office where I was the probate assistant.  BINGO...that was it!  A client "gave" me my first estate...."Jacky, if you go clean out that old house, you can have everything in it."  He said the "magic words"....ahahah.  I have been buying estates, working auctions, went to auctioneering school, sold others and my own at auction, conducting estate sales, providing estate consultations, barn sales, my shop a "monthly market" here at the farm, setting up flea markets, selling at markets all over - even other states, hosting events, selling at shows, booths...you name it....even teaching classes on "What to Keep, What to Sell, What to Donate" for the UWSP.... all of this over 35 years.   We bought our farm in the fall of 1994.  I had a little rustic outbuilding I set up a sale in.  Our address was Town Hall Road, that's how I came up with the name Town Hall Trinkets, LLC.  In 1996 a tornado took it down, but Al built me another.    https://www.facebook.com/Town-Hall-Trinkets-LLC-729693193716630

You know how an alcholic is often times a bartender?  Well, a hoarder is often times a "picker" - not always...in my case it is true.  When I say "I have a 60' building or 2 .... full."  People say, "well you are an antique dealer, you sell it."  Well.....that may seem to "justify" my behavior - however, I did hide behind that.   Hey, this about healing.....

So,  COVID 19, has been a blessing to me, it really has.  It has stopped my being able to "do" other things and focus on "my" thing.  I won't lie, I've cried in my pole building, I have.  Not all was "Lord, help me, I can't do this" cries, there moments of that!  Others were, "are you kidding me, I kept that all these years to do 'this or that' with and here it is."  Often times, it ended up ruined too...sad face.  I am NO WHERE near done, but I have made a (word of the year) PROGRESSION.  A progression in my "healing."  Now, I'm NOT going to stop what I do....I just want to get a better handle on my own stuff.  

I write this today, because yesterday, Jon and Anna "mountain goated it" way to the back of one of my buildings.  I have a rough idea of what is back there, some of the stuff I was hoarding to "keep."  Anyway, Jon asks about this primitive goat/garden cart.  I had such good intentions for that:  of training a goat to pull it; finding the right place for it; can't let anyone else have it; keep it safe....a whole list of "justifications" for keeping it.  I NEVER did a one of those....ughh.  Jon says, "this would make a cute cart to store blankets in" (yes it would).  I said "you can have it, if you do that with it."  It should be and it is a "showcase piece," not buried in the back of a building.  This is only one story, I've have others with items I've had good intentions with too.  Sigh...

So, today, Motivational Monday, take an inventory of what you are holding on to.  Is "it" helping you?  Giving you, your best life?  Are you hiding behind a justification?  Are you pushing it way back somewhere, storing it for later use?  I can tell you without a doubt, if you don't make yourself "deal" you may end up with an overwhelming amount of a "hoard."  If you wait too long, some one/thing will get broken and ruined.  It all starts with one baby step in making a PROGRESSION to becoming the best you, you can be.  

Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.