I’ve watched Hoarders and thought, “thank god that’s not me.” But tonight, as I’m sitting in my apartment, I feel like I’m living in my own version of it.

My apartment is being painted today and tomorrow and it is currently a total disaster area. I hate it so much.

I am sitting on the one piece of furniture that isn’t covered by a tarp or stuff. And sitting here with just piles of stuff around me is making my anxiety hit an all-time high. It’s so messy, that I sat at work late tonight JUST BECAUSE. That is how bad I did not want to go home.

And as nice as the apartment looks half-painted, I cannot stop focusing on how much stuff I have.

My long-term platonic manfriend came over to help me move furniture last night (LOVE HIM) and even he said, “dude, you have a lot of…stuff.”

AND I DO. I fully blame moving in to a larger apartment because everything people stored for me, could now come here. And, living in an apartment, you don’t have a ton of extra storage so stuff just…collects and sits there.

Or you hide it (like me) in drawers, corners or other places. And then you move or paint or something happens and you’re confronted with all of this…stuff.

Painting is supposed to be done tomorrow (please for the love of god be done so I can have my home back!) and I plan to declutter and purge stuff from this place like crazy as I put things back together. And the control freak in me is panicking that we can’t get started now.

Friends have volunteered to help me get rid of stuff and I plan to take them up on it. I cannot wait to just unload stuff and start over. Time for a fresh start! Please let it be end of day Friday already, please.

Any big weekend plans? Have you ever been confronted with all of the “stuff” you have in your home or apartment?

Last night, I witnessed my own Christmas miracle. Not to be confused with my birthday miracle that happened when the free dryer magically re-appeared.

No, this is a legit gift from Santa and the other “big guy” above.

In fact, I’m so happy right now, that I want to scream it from the rooftop.

And I can do that, without having to take the stairs!!

Wait, what am I jabbering on about?

Oh just that my apartment building elevator is FIXED.

FINALLY!!!

*insert the sound of angels singing*

No sh*t, my elevator has been out of order since the end of August (one week after my birthday to be exact).

My building is five floors and I’m on the fourth, which means, my a** has been hauling up four flights of stairs one to three times a day since then.

I’ve done those stairs drunk, hungover, loaded down with laundry, carrying groceries and dragging suitcases. No kidding, it almost gave me a heart attack a few times.

But now, NO MORE.

Yes, I feel like my legs are like two blocks of steel and I can easily do short bursts of stairs in other buildings, but now, I’m ready to ride that elevator, all day long!

Sure, dragging groceries and suitcases sucks, but the worst part is making my friends take the stairs. No kidding, I haven’t had many people over since the elevator went out because I felt bad making them walk up the stairs. I’m not a walk-up kind of girl. Now, party at my place!!

I’m so happy right now.

One of the crown jewels of Chicago apartment living is an in-unit washer and dryer. Seriously, I dream about it. So until I have this crown jewel to show off to my family and friends, I have to use the communal washer and dryers in my building.

It’s better than going to a laundromat but it’s still a pain.

Until, someone in my building introduced me to…free dryer.

Yes, a dryer among our communal ones that didn’t require coins to work. You just had to jimmy the coin slider (sans coins) and it would work. So, for the last 2 years, I’ve only had to pay to wash clothes, never dry. That’s a dollar savings (which makes long-term economical sense).

Then, I was doing laundry last night in prep for Seattle when I realized a painful truth. Free dryer was gone. That b*tch sold out and now takes coins.

In a matter of 10 minutes, I went through all stages of grief, starting with denial. I don’t want to say I got rough with free dryer, but yeah, I Ike Turner’ed her around a bit in case she was holding out. But deep down I knew, free dryer was gone.

So now I have to make sure I have coins to wash AND dry. I know this falls under the #firstworldproblems scenario but still. When you get used to something like this, it is sad when you know those good days are gone.

Fingers crossed that whatever broke her to begin with, breaks again. Until then, I pour some detergent on the ground to honor you, free dryer. I’ll see you with dryer sheets in the big laundry room in the sky.

Oddly, the “hogger” I once wrote about is STILL obsessed with using that dryer. I think she knows something I don’t…for now.

Sigh. Do you have any fun, sad or commiserating stories about laundry rooms?