My dad is a hoarder, although thankfully it doesn't seem to be with ALL items. Also, my mom helps keep the hoard down and I help sometimes also. I will throw away magazines over a year old- he has never noticed or said anything. Just today while my son is mowing the yard, I cleaned off the front porch. I couldn't really throw anything away except for some weathered cardboard boxes. I did at least take the other stuff to his storage shed. I hope he doesn't mind. Some of the stuff is rather odd. He works in A/C and has about 10 or so of the Freon bottles in the yard. He also has some old A/C parts from their old unit- I think these are still here because you can't just throw them away anywhere. I have noticed in the past that I would think along the same lines, but with a difference. I HATE clutter. Ok, I hate clutter that is out in the open. It can be in a closet or drawers or such, but even then it has to be limited. I also organize my closets at least once a year and get rid of some stuff. When I do that though I find myself hesitating. For example, just recently I sold all of my History of Us books (I had 7 or 8). I wanted them out and I wanted them to stay. I was wishy washy on what to do. I asked myself how often I read them- not often and I probably have read most of them over time. I decided to sell them, but when I did I got a somewhat sad feeling. I got over it though. I also sometimes hold on to some magazines. Sometimes I plan on passing them on. Sometimes I keep them for recipes and such. However, if it has been a long time, I get rid of them. Anyway, It isn't a really bad thing with my dad, but why why does he need a dozen (maybe more) jacket/coats, especially here in Texas.
My husband says I'm a clothes hoarder. Oddly enough, I only have 3 shirts that I wear (and one nice shirt for special occasions), and one good pair of jeans, one skirt, and one pair of jean capris. That's all I wear. I never have money to buy clothes but once a year, and I had to skip that this year, so...that's all I have until next year. However....I have 3 totes of clothes stuffed to the brim in the closet!! 1 bin is clothes that I wore in High School and when DH and I got married (almost 7 years ago!!!!!) another bin is full of little girl clothes I bought years ago, and were too cute to throw away (thank goodness we're REALLY having a girl this time!), and another is...oh man...high school clothes...again. LOL. I am a size 22/24 now, but was a 16 in highschool. Not much of a stretch and I"ve only gained 5lbs so far in my 27 weeks of pregnancy, so I keep them around to wear later. I can look at every single shirt and remember where I bought it, who I was with, and so on. Memories. Can't throw them away because it would seem like I was throwing away those memories. I imagine that's why some hoarders do it, or that's how they might feel. Others I think go by the train of thought that they might "need this one day" and never get rid of the items. For me...I guess it's both! LOL
I go through spurts of house purging. When I do it I go room to room and toss/give away/donate anything that hasn't been used in 6 months. Clothes I only keep if I can pass them on to a younger kid. I hate clutter and with a large family it seems that everything multiplies rapidly...so every 6 months it is house purging time. My in-laws can be hoarders and before they moved you could barely walk through their house. It was awful! Since they moved and had to throw out 3 LARGE dumptsters of stuff their new house is sooooo much better but I am starting to see the hoarding again. :roll:
I really struggle with keeping/getting rid of "stuff". No matter what it is. Well some things I'm not really attached to... mostly "not fun" things... clothes, dishes, etc. I can get rid of these things fairly easily. Fun things.. esp books and the kids toys.. I have a very hard time letting go of. I grew up very very poor, I had very little in the line of toys and very few books. On top of not having much that was "mine", we moved often and each move seemed to purge everything down to nothing. I do not want my kids to ever feel that. Because of that, I do struggle with getting rid of those things. I tote toys up and put them away... but rarely get rid of them. Books are the same way. I'm trying though, and hubby and I were just talking today about how the kids are hard on toys and break lots of them... some of that issue is age and boys, but I think some is because they have soooo much that they don't have respect for what they do have... so we need to find it in ourselves to weed out the toys, keep a smaller amount for each of them and hopefully pass on our kids over abundance to some less fortunate kids. I'm in the process now of going through our books, I'm listing them all in book collectorz, doubles of paperbacks are going on paperbackswap, schoolish are going to be listed for sale, anything left at the end of a certain amount of time will be given away... to who I have no clue..lol I know no other homeschoolers, and shipping it all to like book Samaritan would cost an arm and seven legs.
Have you ever watched the show 'Hoarders'? It's on Netflix. It really is eye opening. They really do have an emotional connection to their things and often use their things to push people away. I'm glad my mom is such a neat freak that her hoards have to be hidden away. She has a walk in closet FULL of clothes she never wears, some she have never worn (they were her moms) a storage shed full of stuff, under the bed, you can't walk in her walk in closet, ever drawer and cabinet int eh house is crammed full of stuff.... it's crazy...
My husband is HORRIBLE with keeping what I perceive as junk.. It's piled up all over his dresser, the end table by his chair, and he has a bucket next to his chair full of JUNK.. He repairs ipod,iphones,and ipads so he has broken screens,extra cables, odds and end parts.. GRRRRRR! I. Hate. Clutter!!!
I do semi-hoard fabric, but even that I have been known to give away (some) here and there. I go through scraps and pieces I don't think I will use again and take them to "sit and sew" sessions and give them to whoever wants them. However, I have Christmas fabric that I have barely touched and I am very reluctant to give that away at this point. I guess I just need to make everyone on my list a Christmas decoration this year or next year. I could have a very low cost Christmas if I did that- I already have enough fabric to make quite a few things.
