Hoarding and the remote control

Have you ever watched that TV show Hoarders? It's one of TLCs new reality programs that profiles the lives of individuals trying to dig themselves out of mountains of stuff. It's a surprisingly depressing and shocking sort of show that makes you want to clean your house from top to bottom. I kind of feel like a temporary hoarder right now. Over the last few months we've accumulated a lot of items from Craigslist to furnish our new home. Simultaneously we have kept all of the inherited furniture that has served us so well for the last three years. What this has meant is that in our living room (in addition to our regular furniture) we have 2 couches, 2 coffee tables, 2 dressers, a vanity sink, a banister railing and a mountain of receipts from Home Depot.

I had a moment tonight at a dinner party when I realized that it had gotten really bad. I caught myself telling the story of how we had stopped watching TV lately because about two months ago we lost our remote control somewhere in the house and still haven't found it. The fact that our current living room layout requires us to climb over a dismantled wardrobe to get to the TV, has meant that we have reduced our evening indulgences in television programming to zero.

While (as you can see) we haven't yet tackled the furniture, we have begun to downsize other aspects of our lifestyle to prepare for the move to a smaller home. Unfortunately this has not always been successful...

For those of you that know Brendon, you must be well aware of his obsession for bikes. This year Brendon's fleet of two wheelers grew to 5. You add my 2 and we are a 7 bicycle family. A few months ago I made the request to let one of his babies go. Brendon whimpered a little but committed to selling his titanium road bike. It took almost three months to sell but two weeks ago a lucky buyer picked up the treasure and took it away. Brendon came into the house to share the good news and wave a good wad of cash in my face. And then he paused. And I paused. He had listed the bike for $500 more than he had come home with and I knew that he wasn't willing to go lower. He gently turned my gaze toward the back door and low and behold, there was another bike. Yup, we are now (still) the owners of 7 bikes. Apparently the trade was too tempting to pass up. Anyone looking for a fancy single speed? Also, if you see anything else you like in the images above, let me know. I'll cut you a great deal.

Bike A: SOLD (Brendon carried the bike to the roof at sunset to get this shot.)

 BIKE B: Acquired in a trade. Interested anyone?