View Full Version : I'm not a hoarder! ... am I?
Today I went on a rampage, and realized I've been sabotaging my own organizing efforts. Over here, a huge bag of aluminum cans for the scrap metal place. Over there, recyling. In the closet, rags - useful! - but a pile as high as my waist! And in this closet, stuff that I can definitely sell at a yard sale or make $5 selling to some store. Some day. Other than today.
I really can't believe the amount of junk that started coming out of the house as I decided I don't need to somehow punish myself with martyrdom by living with this garbage til it finds a home. Crap Be Gone!
... now it's all sitting on the front porch. >8)
Crap Be Gone... Perfect mantra - thank you!! WIll shorten to CBG
I like CBG! Let's get cranking with the tattoos and bumper stickers!
CBG! No, it doesn't sound to me like you're a hoarder. It's just a major PITA to get everything where it needs to go. This kind of recycling here. This kind of recycling there. Donations here. Trash there. Stuff that is going to family or friends. Stuff that needs to be listed on Craigslist. Stuff that needs to be listed on Ebay. I pretty much always have 1 (small) closet devoted to crap that is going elsewhere. It makes you think long & hard before bringing something into your home. It's infinitely easier to obtain crap than it is to get rid of it!
My thought is if it actually gets or goes to those places...if it is still there in two months...I would say you have strong hoarder traits..
I am following this rule for myself....and only allowing myself one month to post something for sale if it isn't sold it is gone to charity..
@kib, I would say if you were really a hoarder you'd have an intense emotional reaction to being faced with parting with that stuff. I'm sure not for every person, but many - and so then it never leaves.
Nice feeling to have it gone!
ApatheticNoMore
5-6-11, 10:10pm
Recycling is a pain in the @## no doubt about it. Well given that I am not going to drive stuff to the recycle center every day, there will always be a pile of it. Oh electronic and other toxic waste is a pain too, it has to be driven to a whole other place than the recycling place. And then there's the recycling you can get money for (CRV) that needs to be taken to yet a 3rd place.
Aside from my general More Than I Need, I always have bags full of recycling and a pile for the thrift store. Plus the electronic waste cited above, scrap wood and metal, items best saved for Freecycle...If I could just toss stuff without a second thought, the place would be noticeably neater. I'm beginning to really resent the effort I put (and have put) into recycling (and now yard waste). I hope there is a point to it, and it isn't all ending up at the landfill as someone suggested in another thread.
It makes you think long & hard before bringing something into your home. It's infinitely easier to obtain crap than it is to get rid of it!
:+1:
And when I become reluctant to bring things into the home that I can not easily get rid of....I am amazed at all the stuff that I thought that I needed, that I don't.
And, I start looking at things in a totally different way. When is the best time to get rid of an article? For example: I have a blue jeans jacket. I bought it w/ babysitting money when I was 14. I embroidered a rose on it. I redid the rose last summer, as it was falling apart. The denim is at the perfect faded/worn stage that I could sell it at a resale shop or Etsy for big $$. If I wait a couple years, it may be too worn to get good money from it. I'm thinking I will sell it after the next time I wash it....
I have told organizing clients to give themselves a pass on just throwing stuff in the landfill instead of recycling when they're getting started. Believe me, I am a firm believer in reduce, reuse, recycle, but sometimes you just have to get through the logjam before you can get back into a reasonable process/habit of being able to recycle on a daily basis.
CBG! No, it doesn't sound to me like you're a hoarder. It's just a major PITA to get everything where it needs to go. This kind of recycling here. This kind of recycling there.
Wow, you're making me appreciate having curbside recycling!
I vote non-hoarder! I have about ten boxes of stuff that I have no intention of keeping. It's just that getting it to work, friends, paper recycling, city recycling, Goodwill, etc. requires time and organization. I figure I'm doing good to have it in the queue at all... but I am looking forward to having all of it gone!
I think it's just your good intentions getting in the way. It's good to recycle, etc, but as the PP says, when you are starting out, sometimes you just have to let it go to trash.
I think it's just your good intentions getting in the way. It's good to recycle, etc, but as the PP says, when you are starting out, sometimes you just have to let it go to trash.
Only when it is really trash. Sometimes the pain of getting rid of what we no longer want, cures us of getting new-shiney-better because we will have to find a home for that too at some point.
We have discussed this here before, but considering how one is to get rid of a purchase at the end of it's useful life, is a great motivation for never aquiring the thing at all.
That being said--none of us want your used cotton underwear. If you are not going to braid it into a rug or compost it, just throw them away.
I have noticed that "lasting value" isn't even enough for me to buy something new, now. I am in the situation of having several quite "valuable" things to unload and really, how much value are they when I am not using them? I do look at potential acquisitions differently but I am still not where I want to be on that track.
Good point about the used cotton underwear. I would bet that most of it from people on these boards is so full of holes by the time it is released into the universe that it may even be unrecognizable. maybe birds would like strips of it to build nests..? But nope, I am not going to shred my underwear to hand it off to nesting birds.
Ahh, silliness....
While everyone should decide if they are hoarding by keeping things which are no longer useful for awhile, perhaps a story about my family home will put hoarding into perspective. Someone from my dad's side of the family has occupied this house since 1915. It is quite large with three stories and six bedrooms and plenty of storage space!
As one of the current occupants of the house, I have decided to reduce the contents of the house over the last three or four years. For example, I threw out four steamer trunks dating to the early twentieth century with the help of two strapping men from a local clean out company. They were stored in the basement for a period of decades stretching back to the 1950's at the least. They were obsolete as soon as transatlantic air flight became common.
Another example of something that stayed too long is a set of literary journals likely purchased by my grandfather before he and his wife moved into the house. The publishing date is during 1910. At this point, I am wondering if they have any historical significance. They are actually in good condition but I am the only one who has read them.
We have kept the trunks, the books and other things long after they ceased to be useful decades and even a century! It does kind of put hoarding into perspective.
Sincerely, Bicyclist
Another example of hoarding: my best friends house. I love her, but I CANNOT visit their house anymore.
Their house has a path through it, with the rest of the house is boxes stacked to the ceiling. The stacks of boxes are so high, their two kittens climbed them and got into the attic and peed all over the insulation up there. So the house REAKS of cat pee, and you can barely move through the house. To sit down in a chair you will first have to move 2 or 3 boxes of stuff out of the way (good luck finding a place to put them).
My friend slept on a couch for 2 years because she couldn't get to the bedroom where her bed was.
THAT is hoarding. You just have let the recycling build up, which is easy when you don't have curbside pickup. I didn't recycle for 2 years because I was in a tiny condo that didn't offer recycling, and had no where to store it until I could bike it down to the station, so I understand.
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