QuoteReplyTopic: Obsessive-compulsive disorder and hair products Posted: June 03 2003 at 11:02pm
If anyone here has ever lived with an obsessive-compulsive person, you know how maddening that situation can be. My father was diagnosed with OCD decades ago, but it never interfered with his life enough to get him on medication. (Our house is just really clean all the time.)
My mother, on the other hand, is not OC, yet has one huge hoarding thing going on. Tonight I was going through the bathroom closet and found--literally--hundreds of hotel shampoo bottles. Some of them were even empty! We are talking close to a dozen Ziploc bags filled to the brim with little plastic containers, some of which had to be manufactured during the Nixon administration. Westin, Mirage, Hampton Inn, Fairfield, Ballys, you name it, it's printed on a bottle in that closet.
Anyhow, I don't think my mom is OC...she just really likes to save shampoo (and conditioner and lotion and gel and hairspray.) I think perhaps when you get into the hundreds it has crossed the line...but I am wondering, how hard is it for you to part with hair products? Do you toss them if they've been around awhile or do you cling to them until the plastic biodegrates? Do you feel compelled to save products that really didn't work? How many hair products can you count in your bathroom right now? And if you stumble upon a product you love do you replace an old product with it or continue using the one you had originally as well?
So many questions, but I'd like to hear your thoughts (as well as suggestions on how the heck to rid our bathroom of the bottles without upsetting my mother!)
Look for beauty, and you will find no intelligence. Look for intelligence and you will find both.Proud member of the Cult of All Soft
I don't think I'm OC, at least I've never been diagnosed with it, but I understand what you're describing. As a child, I would refuse to throw anything away.
Anyway, this post really came to mind since I'm cleaning and getting ready to move. I have all these little bottles of perfume samples, costmetic samples, and, of course, shampoo/conditioner/etc. samples.
I've been trying very hard to use things up. I always say to myself, it's ok, just use it up, and then you can go find something else to use. So far it's worked well for me. With the hair product samples, I try to come up with an excuse to use it, like if I'm going away for a trip, I'll take it with me to use.
Lyris...It's a tough one.....but I can tell you from experience that the best way is the "band-aid" treatment. Take a big trash bag,get your mom by the hand and have her help you pour them all into it and take them away to the farthest landfill you can find. or to the trashcan outside. That is, of course, if your mom wants to remove some of the clutter from her house. If she doesn't, then let her keep them. SOme people collect coins, other stamps, some matchboxes and yet others collect hotel products. It may be that the bottles mean more to her than just shampoo or conditioner. they are a mark of history, a reminder of someplace she has been and a memory made there.
As far as I am concerned....I am a total snake. Twice a year i have to shed my "skin". I go through closets, cupboards and cabinets. I take out anything that has not been worn or used in the past 6 months. I review and decide if it is worth keeping and then toss it in a bag for garbage or another for donations. My kids are in this too. They go through their toys, clothes...
So if a shampoo / conditioner /gel/spray is still in the cabinet as of June or December and has not been used. it gets trashed. It makes room for things that I can use.
This is an interesting post, Lyris. Your mom's little shampoo collection reminds me of these little baggies of samples I recently found among my beauty stuff. I had three baggies filled to the brim with Avon and MKay samples that had long since gone dry or hard. What in heck was I saving them for? I threw them all away, easily.
To answer your other question, I tend to save bottles of shampoo and conditioners that are three quarters of the way used, then throw them away en masse when I get the cleaning bug. I don't know why I do this, probably because I hate throwing things away when they're still useful. But then I hate clutter. It's easier to throw them away en masse than at the time that I should (when I take them "out of service").
At this point in my life, I'm pretty accepting of my various quirks. I can be a little odd when it comes to stuff like this.
My boyfriend is the type to turn his shampoo bottles upsidedown to use every drop. And I keep knocking the damn thing over in the shower! He probably wouldn't understand why I'd save 25% full bottles that I know I'll throw away later. It's kind of amusing to ponder the differences in people's habits. Cie la vie!
Tread lightly here. Think of how you would feel if some tossed out some of your things. I assure you she will not be happy nor will this one thing change anything in her life, except make her mad at you!
Oh yes, hell hath no fury like my mother scorned. I'm slowly trying to get her to see the advantages of throwing out all the useless stuff: I say, you're not "losing" anything, you're "gaining" space for things you'd really use. But wow what an uphill battle!
I should mention that hair products aren't the only things my mother saves (although certainly the most obvious and most extreme.) When I was a junior or senior in high school (which is only about five years ago) I found a can of green beans that EXPIRED in 1979. That means it was probably canned in the mid-70s! My parents hadn't even MET then!!!!
Look for beauty, and you will find no intelligence. Look for intelligence and you will find both.Proud member of the Cult of All Soft
Lyris, I am an on line shopholic(sp?) at one of the auction sites *guess which one*...anyhow, I have seen lots of auctions for 3/4 or even 1/2 way used cosmetics and/or hair products that sell all the time. I've seen things sell for $20 which is 1/2 way full (or empty).
Think about it...the person selling it cleans up space and makes a little bit of extra money, the person buying it gets to try a product that otherwise they wouldn't have tried because of cost...at a bargain price. If they dont' like it, not much money was spent! Just a thought!
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