an unspoken battle

My mother is a type of person who accumulates stuff. In addition, she likes putting millions of accumulated stuff elsewhere in orders. I didn’t inherit these characters obviously—I can make a huge mess with much less stuff.
Lipsticks, powder foundations that I used in my college.(I am in thirties now.), trial sewing kits, seasonings, snacks or vitamins that are already expired a few years ago, magazines, newspapers, stuffed animals, toys, garment, and unknown documents--- those oldies occupied my mom’s house.
A space with one-inch depth in the wall of the toilet, for instance, small empty perfume bottles are on display. There are about 40 of them. Thinking about how to brush away the dust gives me a huge headache. When it comes to the drawers, well, I avoid opening them----I will faint.
Among all the rooms in her house, the bathroom was the most troublesome place.
First, there was a stack of free magazines sent from credit companies or airline companies. “Mom, they were boring and no worth reading.” “I know, but that’s why they are in the bathroom.” A big question mark pops out in my mind. Then, I found that she reads them during the bath. I just wonder how long it will take her to finish all of them-- a Lifelong-attempt.
Second, the chest in the bathroom is filled with too many towels. I bet there are 100 or so. Just for your info, she lives alone and who needs so many towels for only herself? More badly, whenever we traveled together, she often stole bath towels from hotels. “Mom, you have enough.” Her response,” I like the texture of them! Leave me alone!” We fought over this stupid towel situation once or twice each trip. This summer, during our trip, surprisingly, I didn’t see her doing so. I thought that she already got the meaning of “enough.” Yet, when I saw her unpacking her luggage after the trip, I caught her taking 2 towels out of the bag. “….” I was speechless and she was more determined than I expected.
Then in the other chests and some drawers, there were collections of hotel amenities, like shampoos, creams, toothbrushes, razors and so forth. Some shampoos and creams were actually collected from almost 2 decades ago. I am not joking! They were oxidized. I could not stand this and acted on. Knowing her determination, yet, I acknowledged that there were no chances to win this game through a straightforward approach. So, one night, after taking the bath, I throw those shampoos from the Stone Age into the garbage can, while she was asleep.
Then, the next morning, I saw those shampoos that I thought I’d thrown back in the chest. “?” First, I thought that I was half sleep, hoping that it was just an illusion. After taking shower and feeling fresh, I gingerly looked at the spot in the chest and they were there smiling off right in front of my eyes. I was in awe. I should have put the garbage out of the house…..
Then, after a few minutes, I busted into laugh, imagining how she panicked finding her collection of the oldies were missing, how frantic she tried to find them, eventually got her hand into the garbage can, pulled them out and put them back in order.
After all, we acted as if nothing happened. Up to today, the incident was never mentioned and will never be. Indeed, she won this unspoken battle over me.