After reading in Dehoarding Diary about the viewable on the net movie “Seven Dumpsters and a Corpse” (only 1 pound or equivalent), I decided to watch it this morning while folding the washing.
I lived in Switzerland for seven years and can understand a lot of Swiss-German, so it was actually quite pleasant to hear Züritüütsch as a form of nostalgia, even though I never attempted to speak it (only High German) as most expats learn a more standard form of German to speak and learn to understand the different dialects.
Like watching a car crash, it was compelling viewing of what I never want to be or leave for my loved ones to clean up after me. And yet, there are boxes and boxes of my belongings hidden away (in the cellar or in storage) full of paper, photos, clothes and mementos that I would feel uneasy about someone else having to deal with. A waste of time for them or else they would have it all hauled away (and maybe something valuable would be thrown out accidentally).
It needs to be sorted sometime this year (let´s not be hasty!).
Since I was married and moved to Europe in 1996, we have moved to four countries, continuing to accumulate belongings, moving them all each time (as all the moves were paid for by someone else) and also gaining two children. I know we have so much more stuff that the average German living in an apartment our size. Our neighbour´s cellar compartments are not overflowing to the roof like ours (yes, you can see in through slats) nor, I would hazard a guess, have they rented extra storage like we have.
It´s vaguely shameful and a symbol of so much else in my life. The apartment we live in looks presentable most of the time, but it´s what lurks beneath that is truly scary.
Filed under: What I´ve been watching
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