Helping an OCD, hoarder Mother move

I thought I would be introducing my children in the next post-which has actually been way too long since I blogged-however I must talk about moving my mother. My mother is an amazing 73 year old woman. She does have many demons (don't we all) that she has been dealt in life and must deal with. She is a maniac depressant and I believe with some (if that is possible) bi-polar issues. I am so proud of her because she has decided she doesn't want to be a hermit any longer and is lonely. She also has very bad rheumatoid arthritis. She should not be walking up and down the two long flight of stairs that she has. She is moving into a beautiful one bedroom senior living apartment building. That being said she is moving from a two bedroom with a full basement town home that she has lived in for almost twenty years. She is very overwhelmed by the job in front of her to decide what to let go.

I spent an entire afternoon a few weeks ago throwing away many, many magazines. I wouldn't have been so bothered except for the fact these magazines ranged back from the 1990's, 1980's and even quite a few from the 1970's. Now my mother is a very intelligent woman and yet I am left wondering WHY she would need to keep so many magazines from so long ago. Her excuse is there MIGHT be an article that she really needed from that magazine, but of course 30 years later she has no idea what would have been so important in that particular magazine.Another afternoon was spent shredding bank statements, duplicate checks, mail, etc from 1993 to the present. Of course not throwing away that would she might need for an audit or anything. More so than this issue is her total infatuation with rags, yes rags. This wonderful person probably has at least 150 rags or wash clothes in her house and for some reason they are very important to her. I have spent many hours being yelled at for throwing away several of these very special rags. While I have been able to just let her have the rags (until she moves and they don't all need to go with her) my sister-in-law has decided this is unacceptable. She has managed to turn this into the war of the rags. Why can't the woman have her rags (that somehow make her very happy) until she moves? I really don't understand.

Only to make matters worse my mother feels like she must check EVERY trash bag we try to get out of the house. We are really not trying to throw away anything that she really needs, but I don't see any reason to keep the large floppy disks that no modern day computer takes. If she had helped go through some of this stuff prior to us (my brother and I plus our kids)it wouldn't be so overwhelming that we feel we must just pitch a lot of stuff. She unfortunately has turned what might be a fun afternoon of reminiscing while going through items into World War III. I feel like I might have a true mental break down at any minute. Lord help me, PLEASE!