My own episode of Hoarders.

School is out. I finished my first semester at LSU with the worst grades I have ever made (3 C's & 1 A, but I got a 95% in that class!), but still managed to keep my GPA somewhat decent. Can't even tell you how shocked I was that I got a C in Biology. I was expecting the worst. That means I must have made an A on the final since I failed 2 of the 4 tests. Meanwhile, my dear Kyle made the Deans list at his school with his 3.6 something GPA. I am hoping for better next semester...

So after school ended I hopped on a plane headed to Arlington, VA to help my mother clean out her parents house. My grandparents are now living in Arizona since my grandmother has dementia and needs taken care of. They are selling their house in VA and we had to get it ready for an estate sale. And OH MY GOSH, I can't even tell you HOW MUCH STUFF my grandparents had. We found things from the 1920's that the previous owners had and Nana didn't get rid of. She didn't get rid of ANYTHING. EVER. NEVER. Let's take a walk through the house of Nana Anne and I'll show you what 60 years of hoarding looks like.

Mine and Kelli's first job was to clean the hallway closet. This is what one shelf looks like when you never throw away greeting cards. 

 Thousands of them. It took the entire day to clean out the hallway closet.

The front room. The table has never been cleared. 

Kelli's task. Nana had so many trinkets we had to go through. Throw away the crap and keep the sellable stuff. 

Every drawer was fuuuuulllllll.

"WHYYYYYYY MOTHER?????????"

I had the liquor cabinet. Bottles of half-full liquor from the 60's and every cork from all those bottles. 

 

You can't really tell but I did clean it up. 

My mom gave it all to the 90 year old neighbor because she was having a party. 

These expired in the 70's. 

She kept a USED bib from a lobster place that had grease stains on it. Folded up nicely in a drawer.

I think my Mom & Kelli are just as bad as Nana. They brought their own Circle K cups from home (yes, brought them on the plane) because they don't have the styrofoam cups at 7 Eleven. "The plastic ones sweat". The women in my family are obsessed with Diet Coke. Except me and San. And maybe Kristi. 

Every room was stacked full of furniture. The stuff they didn't take home was sold. 

And if all that furniture wasn't enough, Grandpa John collected Corvairs. 6 of them. 1963 and 1964 corvairs. Some here, some at the cottage in Maryland.

Hi mom! They also sold Grandpa's Cadillac. 

My dad came up to drive the U-Haul back to Arizona full of stuff to take home. My sisters made out pretty well on vintage furniture. 

Chris's new ride.

Here is the house. Just to remember what it looks like. 

The last time I was at this house I was 10. I don't remember anything about it. 

 These were the bags that didn't fit in the giant dumpster. This was only from our week cleaning up. My other sisters have been there in the past few months and had an equal amount of crap to throw away. 

Here is Kelli taking pictures of herself.

And here is the dumpster filled to the top.

5 days worth of garbage that my grandparents have been living with for 45 years!

And more of Kelli. She was the only one I had to take pictures of, except for the El Salvadorian behind her. They got more done in 2 days than we did in a week.

I was testing out the lighting on my camera. Still can't get it right. 

My mom took us around DC to see the sights. We went to the Arlington National Cemetery to see Uncle Bills grave. He was killed in Vietnam. 

Look at the graves. Dead soldiers. Sooooo many.

I spy the White House.

Hey stupid guy get out of my picture!

That's the Pentagon, but you can't tell. Grandpa John worked there for years. He used to run there to go to work. Nana felt her house shake when the pentagon got hit by the plane.

 We sit in trees and take pictures of each other. Ha. 

We got the house all cleaned up and they had the estate sale the next week. Next it's the boys turn to clean up the cottage. That's going to be a lot of work, and that's why the boys are going to do it.