The Blessing of Superstorm Sandy
My husband, Bill, is a bit of a hoarder. Everything he puts his hands on “looks good for something” and he keeps it. After close to 40 years in the same house, the basement was bursting at the seams. The attic and garage were in similar states but that is another story. You would never know from the rest of the house, which has always been pretty tidy, that this disaster was hidden below. It was stressful just knowing that much stuff was there.
Finding things amid the chaos could take hours. I needed a screwdriver one day and braved the basement. I decided right then – enough is enough. I called our Public Works people only to find out I had to wait several months before they would cart away whatever we got out to the curb. To put a positive spin on it, that would give us time to go through the junk. I didn’t relish the task because I knew every item would require a major “discussion” before determining its ultimate destiny.
Then came Superstorm Sandy. It was a terrifying evening with water crashing in windows and threatening our safety. Fortunately the waters didn’t reach the living areas of the house but the basement was completely flooded. I looked down the stairs and saw a freezer float by followed by a group of three duck decoys with a chainsaw on top. A bit surreal. We joked that the ducks saved the chainsaw in case there was a zombie apocalypse.
Once the storm passed, clean up began. We used a borrowed pump to remove thousands of gallons of water from the basement. If the basement was chaotic before, it was a pile of barely recognizable junk now. It’s very easy to decide what to throw out when everything is ruined.
The work was hard but it was more the emotional loss of his stuff that seemed to get Bill down. We spent a whole day just on things we could salvage so he could clean waterskis, duck decoys and other water-resistant stuff instead of dragging bag after bag of unknown treasures to the curb.
Eventually the basement was emptied and sanitized. We got a new furnace, electrical service and water heater. We moved the few belongings we had left back into the cellar. And we were actually relieved not to have all that stuff anymore.
It’s been a few years since that terrible storm and we see in spite of the disaster and chaos, she offered a blessing. Stuff just isn’t important to any of us anymore – even Bill. We’ve been working through the attic and garage. We don’t need a natural disaster to spur us on this time. The tidy areas of our home have gotten a good purge too. And when Bill gets something in his hand that “looks good for something” he has a good answer – toss, sell or donate.