whelmed? or over-whelmed is the question.

Is there such a word as “whelmed?” Well of course there is…a quick peek at the definition of the word led me to look it up with the search word “whelm.”

whelm[(h)welm]VERBwhelmed (past tense) · whelmed (past participle)engulf, submerge, or bury (someone or something).”a swimmer whelmed in a raging storm”synonyms:befall · happen to · come upon · hit · strike · fall on · overwhelm · overpower · overcome · be visited on · engulf · sweep over · take by surprise · surprise · catch unawares · catch unprepared · catch off guard · betideflow or heap up abundantly.”the brook whelmed up from its source”

…so, yeah… checking the etymology has influenced me to add the word “whelm” to my vocabulary.

But I digress… I set out a few minutes ago to unburden myself for having been “over-whelmed” by searching through my storage room to try to sort out the things stored there to decide the appropriate disposition of my “stash.” Books, the ubiquitous multitude that actually is “whelming” to me. Over-whelmed is a bit strong, as (so far) I have managed to emerge more or less unscathed when venturing into one of my book areas…where even my cats are hesitant to enter alone. (Technically they aren’t allowed in there anyway.)

The particular room I am referring to right now was once the master bedroom. It is the storehouse for much of my listed inventory of books for sale, also books that are “my own,” which means they are titles that are in my personal library and not necessarily for sale at this time, and dolls and dollhouse everythings listed on my ebay store.

Several years ago I had space indoors at a giant Flea Market, and maintained both Books and Dollhouse shops. While building my book inventory I acquired books from numerous sources, noteably the life-long collection of a woman who was a retired elementary school principle and teacher. Her husband was also an educator, and between them they had an enormous collection of books. I paid a good price for the collection, and have recouped much of it in sales through various online book venues.

The Flea Market shops, and another antique shop store that I had, didn’t amount to much in the way of sales. So when I decided to get out of the flea market business I moved all the merchandise, books, dollhouse stuff, “much miscellaneous” as the garage sale ads always say, back to my house.

So now I am pretty much whelmed…not really over-whelmed yet, just enough to make my children nervous about someday having to dispose of the “stuff.”