How to Clean Up a Mess in 4 Easy Steps

My mom embroidered this picture for my grandparents back in 1980 for their anniversary. I love it so much.

I've shared several posts here at Fabric Mutt about my grandmother who passed away a few months ago. While I loved her very much, there was, sadly, a dark side to it all. Despite our many attempts over the years to change the situation, my grandmother was a hoarder. Who can say what really started it -- her childhood during the Depression, her obsession with antiques, her refusal to throw anything away. Whatever the cause, by the time we moved her into an assisted living apartment and were faced with the task of cleaning out her house, it was an absolute disaster.

The front bedroom in my grandmother's house -- after my sister had cleared a path down the center.

Grandma didn't live in a large home, but she managed to fill the two-bedroom house, basement, garage, and attached studio apartment/laundry room to the brim with decades worth of junk and treasure. There were layers of dust and grime, bug infestations, and even exploded cans of food hidden among the layers of objects and memories. It was enough to make us sit down and cry to look at it. My sister started working on the house last December, and just last week we finally finished going through it all. I wanted to share some advice for those of you who may face a similar situation in the years ahead (and I seriously hope you don't have to). Here are a few things we learned along the way...

My brother-in-law, sister, me, and my husband on that glorious last day of work.

1. Get help. Don't even think about tackling something like this by yourself. Find friends and family members you can trust who are willing to help you go through items. Do some research and choose a nearby estate sale group to assist you like the one we found. Realize that this is not a job that you can finish in a weekend; it takes time, patience, and much coordinating of schedules to get it done. Also be aware of your own limits. My mother knew that she would struggle emotionally with going through some of the items at the house. We worked out a system where other family members tackled those things so that she didn't have to.

Those blue rubber gloves were my best friends, even when holding treasures like these.

2. Use caution. A hoarder's house can be a very dangerous place, and you have to arm yourself accordingly to clean it out. We rented several dumpsters and had them emptied as often as necessary to deal with the mounds of garbage that needed to be removed from the property. All of us wore rubber gloves to protect our hands while we worked. When the dust levels got bad, we put on masks to spare our lungs -- especially important for my sister and husband who both have asthma. Be sure that everyone is up on their tetanus shots. My sister was stabbed by an old needle, and I had a run-in with a rusty circular saw blade. Keep first aid supplies close at hand in case you need them.

Anything looks gorgeous in jadite bowls, vaseline glass containers, and vintage measuring cups.

 3. Be picky. Have a goal in mind when you go through the house. Our plan was to remove important or meaningful family mementos (photos, letters, pieces of my mom's needlework, etc.), legal or financial documents, and money (my grandmother loved to hide it in odd places all around her house). Everything else was left for the estate people to go through. As we worked, we set aside any special items that we wanted to keep. I made a rule for myself that I wouldn't save anything unless I had a pretty good idea of where it was going when it came home with me. Most of the objects I kept will be living in my sewing room: original Ball jars, jadite and milk glass, a typewriter, silk maps that my grandfather carried with him during WWII, a few old wooden soda crates, and so on. I'll use most of them to hold sewing notions or decorate the walls.

My new fabric cabinet which once belonged to my great grandfather. It's topped with an old typewriter we found in the studio apartment behind the house. These are by far my two favorite items that I brought home with me.

4. Learn from the past. Anyone who's spent time cleaning the house of a hoarder will have a hard time wanting to ever bring anything into their house again that isn't a consumable item. All of us feel that this experience has taught us to make some better choices in our own homes about what we keep and discard. Now that we've finished going through my grandmother's house, my mom and I have been spending time purging our own home of items that can be thrown away or donated. Hoarding is a sickness, but it doesn't have to be contagious if we're willing to put a stop to it.

For the last decade of her life, my grandmother never left her house more than a handful of times. She couldn't leave her treasures unprotected, she said, and it broke our hearts to watch her become a prisoner within the walls of her own home. It could have all been so different. She could have been out spending time with her family, playing with her great grandchildren, and making some wonderful memories during her last years here on earth. Instead, she spent her days guarding dusty mounds of glass, paper, metal, and wood.

I have drawn my own line in the sand. It ends here. And may I add that this includes fabric hoarding. It's time to break it all out of the cabinet and start using it. What am I saving it for? Why not enjoy it while I can? I need to stop stashing and start sewing.

I'm reminded of an old quote by Jonathan Swift who said, "May you live all the days of your life."

How I pray that we do.