How much of a pack rat are you?

[prolesunited]

I've been cleaning things out and I've realized how much crap I've accumulated again. I think it multiplies in the basement. I don't know why I have it and why I can't seem to get rid of it.

For example, boxes. I have boxes for almost everything I've purchased in the last five years — iron, crockpot, printer, vacuum cleaner, etc. Why?

Anyone else share this affliction? How do I cure myself of it?

[flamingyouth]

1. My husband had about 30,000 records and CDs

I have three rooms almost entirely filled with books.

To make matters worse, I have three cats and am a widow.

However, I've not yet started to wear support hose, and the neighbor children don't fear me. And I don't pile up my newspapers. ;)

[tigereye]

25. we have just about run out of room for bookcases

there are piles of books pretty much everywhere. And the records. And the tapes. And the CDs. And the DVDS. And my son's computer games. And the MP3s. And the NYTs. And the New Yorkers that we are trying to keep reading. It's media madness! And the toys. But you can see the floor.

Just don't start collecting string, FY. :)

[Rick Myers]

2. I've got a 10' x 20' storage locker!!!

PLUS the basement!!!!

I don't know how you get around it. :shrug:

[greatauntoftriplets]

3. Oh gods......

Don't even ask.

On edit: For starters, I have three loaded bookcases in my bedroom. That doesn't include a bookcase in another bedroom and built-in bookcases in the entry hall. Then there are all the ones in the basement.....

[alittlelark]

4. My husband has that disease, so does my daughter

my son and I are both minimalist (he's only 8, but I can see it in him).

It is a horrid disease that has cause our garage to be infested w/junk. I am not a big time organizer or neat freak so it always looks messy. On my own I don't have that much stuff - so I seem neater. My daughter seems to have a pathological attaction to everything she has ever owned - to the degree that her 20x14 room is STUFFED w/junk.

If you find a cure, let me know.

[eyesroll]

5. Scarily so...

We have so much junk in here it's unreal.
I don't know how we moved from a two-bedroom apartment to a three-bedroom two-story house and our possessions just exploded to fit.

[Kadie]

6. I collect, then I dump.

I go through these phases when I just can't handle it anymore and start tossing things or make a trip to the donation center.

But, then of course there is the storage shed. Otherwise known as the money pit. $70 a month to store stuff. I am not even sure what is in there anymore. Gotta go through that stuff someday.

[barackmyworld]

7. it's a horrible disease

I am a pack rat and I live in a DORM ROOM. I can only imagine how bad it will get as I age.

[Susang]

8. Why do you think I never invite any of you Chicago DUers over?

Serious, gut-wrenching embarrassment over the condition of our house. :-(

Michael and I did, however, just take about 15 bags of stuff over to the Brown Elephant in Wicker Park. Sales at their resale shop benefit the Howard Brown Clinic for HIV/AIDS. I was glad to get rid of it, especially to them. :-)

[prolesunited]

27. I have a whole pile in my basement

of things to donate. I hate screwing around with garage sales. Too much hassle, too little money. Might as well donate it. I just need to itemize it for a tax write off.

[Shananigans]

9. Ever heard of the 80/20 rule?

it goes something like 80% of the stuff we own is stuff that we don't really need. Junk or sentimental stuff... It says we should get rid of the 80 and just keep the 20 to make our lives more simplistic.

I think my life is probably 95/5 where I really only need 5% of the stuff I have, but just can't part with it. I love my stuff! Ya never know when you are going to need it!!!

[Kat45]

10. So bad that I can't have people over because there's nowhere to sit.

There's junk all over the couch and loveseat. Junk all over the dining room table. Still unpacked boxes all over the apartment from when I moved in here almost 4 years ago!

[prolesunited]

12. The house itself isn't too bad

But the closets, basement and garage are a mess. I have it strategically hidden.

[Kat45]

16. You're lucky you have those places to hide it.

My place has very little closet space. My basement is already pretty full with all my junk. There's still some room in the attic, but I can only use it to store things I never have to use because it's too much of a pain to get to.

[ikojo]

11. OH I am horrible. I cannot bear to throw anything away.

So, in that spirit I am freecycling a bunch of stuff, primarily old clothes and magazines (of which I have an abundance). Freecyling is awesome. Your things find a good home and they are, hopefully, kept from the landfill.

[starroute]

13. Total pack rat here

I buy these old-fashioned pumice sticks on a handle for scraping deposits off the toilet bowl. Yesterday, one of them finally wore down to the point where the last nubbin of pumice split and fell away from the handle.

My son came along as I was wiping the prong of the handle clean of pumice crumbs. "Why are you doing that?" he asked. "So I can put it away in the basement?" "But why do you want to keep it? It's just a handle." "Maybe, but it's a *really good,* solid, nicely shaped wooden handle. You don't find handles like that around just anywhere these days. I'm sure I'll find a use for it some time."

Yes, I actually said that. I'm a hopeless case.

[GOPisEvil]

14. I threw out tons of crap when I moved, and I STILL have too much stuff.

x(

I'm getting better at tossing stuff though. I'm certainly better than I used to be.

[miss_kitty]

15. i have lived in my teeny apartment for 20 years come December

i went to Europe for 4 months 12 years ago and had a big clean/reshuffle then...i keep thinking i did that a few months ago, but i am wrong.

i got cancer a couple of years ago and my place REALLY went to shit. and the poop storm of paper major illness w/o insurance foments is staggering.

i save my boxes too, always thought I'd move again.

now i have been buying organisational things-clear boxes with covers, shelving. my sister and her friend gave me a bunch of excellent clothes, and my sister made me throw out the rags.

i do beading, and i paint and draw and am a serious gardener. i have mass garden tools, art books, garden mags, a large easel, paints, brushes, drafting tools (landscape design) a drafting table, beading and metalwork gear and just normal furniture. and 500 sq feet. i actually collapsed the drafting table the other day. i cleaned out my back hall a couple months ago, when i found out my brother would love to have the sub-woofer i had stored in the closet back there for over 19 years. i am constantly grinding up old paper work. i decided to throw out my school work (oh yeah i am a student too).

sometimes, if you can enlist a good friend who is organised, or good with spatial relationships, they can help you kick starting your clean-up. a keep pile, a donate pile and a throw out pile. get rid of the latter two the same day you clean, so you can't change your mind. tackle a small space. don't make yourself think it all has to be done at once. only start a big job when you have time to finish it.

i am revving up for another clean-i have magazines i picked up in england that take up a lot of space, but i don't use them. and i am sitting in the center of a pile of crap it seems.

my mom and my sister were/are really good at stowing stuff. i, quite simply, am not.

good luck!

[Lefty48197]

17. I am the leader of the pack rats.

.

[prolesunited]

18. Well, you must make

a more convincing argument than that if you want to be the leader.

[MissB]

19. I still have both of my

EPTs for each of my sons. You'd think it'd be okay to toss those at some point, eh?

[prolesunited]

23. Umm...

You peed on those, right?

[Lefta Dissenter]

20. www.flylady.net

will change your life forever, if you let it.

I PROMISE!!!

[MissB]

21. That site is evile.

completely, horribly evile. Or, at least, Flylady is evile.

[wovenpaint]

22. Does this happen to you?

As an artist, I collect stuff and more stuff for that future project. (keyword being future) Then after looking at it for YEARS, finally decide to toss it after all....only to end up looking for the damn thing the very next week - before remembering that I JUST threw it out!
Argh!

[LiberalManiacfromOC]

24. I'm a pack rat too.

I found things from 5 years ago just last week.

[hyphenate]

26. When I moved cross country

I had a 24' trailer, and STILL ended up leaving stuff behind at my mom's in California. A lot of it is mostly tossable, overall, but some of it will sell on ebay. I just have to have the ambition to get it sorted and posted for sale. A lot of it is collectables for just that reason. I also have a lot of things like books, tapes, my writing, records, cassettes, etc. Someday, I will organize it. Someday.

[jukes]

28. there's a pathological disorder

connected w/ a severe dread of throwing stuff away.

i have a roll-off dumpster dropt in my driveway 1ce each year, & ruthlessly fill it w/ ANYthing i can't find an *immediate* use for. only way to keep it in control.