le nubian:

1) I TRIED to spare you! Not real hard, but I tried.

2) The temptation to commit arson was very strong. Especially considering that time in my life was one of my own low points for "dealing with shit". More than once I just sat down and cried. I cleaned up as best I could, because I couldn't afford to hire anyone, and then I sold it to a vulture investor. I made $75 profit on that house, which I'd owned for a decade. If I could have sold it for a comparable price to other houses around it, I'd have made $10,000. C'est la vie.

3) My point! Everyone judges housekeeping ability by what they know. I'm just expanding your field of reference.

I am not Zen, but I totally endorse this sentiment and actually have an amazing story to prove it. The story involves a Pulitzer nominee and a buried Barcalounger.

Oh! I was reading through old COMMs just yesterday and came across this one!

le n., it was my damn house, and she was renting it.

Hey, that's what happened to my house! I didn't have to see it though, being very far away. Spent thousands of dollars to get it presentable again though.

Is "non-litterbox cleaning" the cleaning of other parts of the house that aren't the litterbox?

Exactly. At least litterboxes are designed for excretion, and the minimising is built in. But I'm not Hec. I read your guyses gross stories of your gross beasts. I know what they do, and I have no doubt they would have extra poop stored up to mix with extra pee as soon as I was on the clock.

Seriously, our outdoor dogs knew to crap in the flowerbeds Everything was so simple and perfect. The worst thing that happened was that I had to pretend to not be watching dog sex every now and again (I have no idea why my mother kept asking me to chaperone the dog. I was clearly not interested in *no* puppies)¹.

Oh, thank god. I had to google permission to spell it chaperone. Chaperone it is ::scrolls upwards::

I've never had the misfortune to even be in a hoarder's house, much less own one and have to clean it (seriously why aren't we allowed to give up more? Right--she gave up)² but my best friend and I used to visit a declining old woman (watch me learn she was really 60) during our lunch hour, and there was always a risk of...things. Things that smelt so bad we couldn't in good conscience leave them for another, more past-the-age-of-majority caregiver, or even the Meals on Wheels person and there was a lot of stifled squealing and gagging as we poured stuff down the toilet (if the toilet wasn't the problem) and sometimes cutting the visit short if we were too shaken to make conversation (it's not like we had to make different conversation from the visit before, but still. She did deserve us putting some effort and sincerity into it.

I hate saying it, just in case, but I do remind myself when I'm being helped by a nurse/pedicurist/massage therapist/anybody who works close that it's really unlikely that I'm gonna be the worst they've ever seen, or even the worst this week.

Then again--someone is! Cheering thought, isn't it?

My mother does apologise whenever she plays JEW or any variant, but if it's in the dictionary I don't mind if my opponent plays it. We're just tools of the lexicon in these games. Win however the rules reply.

¹: Hey Steph--it happened again. 1 in 3 might have been cautious.
²: ::shrug::

(seriously why aren't we allowed to give up more? Right--she gave up)

A valid question, in my opinion. Her life no doubt improved after she gave up; she went home to her grandma who thought she was an angel and she probably got time and breathing space to get her shit back together. Or not, I don't know, but it had to be better. I still have a few of her old possessions, just in case I ever hear from her again.

I think we can give up. But by giving up, she seriously inconvenienced Zenkitty. Couldn't she have given up 6 months prior and left a serviceable house? Walk away but don't leave feces a foot deep.

If it had just been boxes of papers, I think Zenkitty would have been pissed, but she probably wouldn't have sat on the porch step crying.

Old hairballs are of the ick, but in the "can happen to anyone (who has a cat. I presume tropical fish owners don't have that issue)" category. My mom's house got so bad that she giggled about how clever the dog was to cover her own crap in the layers of animal hair that lined the floors so that it was much easier to clean up when they found it. If they found it.

Yeah, in general, I think it's really difficult to "give up" without it being a huge burden for someone else. So in general, I'm of the "take care of your own crap" mindset. I say this as someone who has had to clean up after more than person who "gave up" and another person (my late grandfather) who didn't have a choice because dementia had rendered him incapable.

That's what keeps me from saying "Fuck it," because there's no one around me to carry the load, so I'd have to deal with it anyway.

I think we can give up. But by giving up, she seriously inconvenienced Zenkitty. Couldn't she have given up 6 months prior and left a serviceable house? Walk away but don't leave feces a foot deep. If it had just been boxes of papers, I think Zenkitty would have been pissed, but she probably wouldn't have sat on the porch step crying.

I did wish she'd left before she made such a huge mess, but maybe she only got the strength to move when she knew I was coming back. I strongly suspect she just couldn't face me. It happens when it happens. I know the timing of my choices/breakdowns has inconvenienced other folks, so, y'know... karma.