Are you amazed at all the junk you have collected?

fuzzybuddy

fuzzybuddy

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Location
The Sticks, Northeast PA.
I was in my shed today. I found stuff I didn't know I had. I found parts to things I threw out decades ago. And I found stuff that I absolutely don't know what the hell they are. If I threw all the useless stuff away, I'd have space for the stuff I really use. Why are we such pack rats bringing junk to our nests?
 

I have collected way to much over the years also. Having a touch of OCD I drive myself crazy organizing and reorganizing the stuff. I have been trying to get rid of the useless stuff. I think what really did me in were garage sales. About ten years ago when they were really popular here I would spend hours on Friday and Saturday going to them and never came home empty handed. Just couldn't resist a good bargain. Sometimes I would resell on Ebay but very often the item never hit the auction block. Just to good to sell, I would tell myself. Now I'm paying the price.
 
Just yesterday my daughter was inspired to pull some junk from the back of the porch...it's enclosed and not visible from the street...otherwise we'd be white trash central. Among the treasures were two strollers and younger son's beginner bicycle...younger son is twenty one this year. I put stuff curbside and it disappeared overnight.
 

I am actually trying to reduce my footprint way down. Over the last few years I have thrown away, given away, sold lots of stuff I never used anymore. I still have a ways to go but I am making progress. The less the better, I do not want to be owned by my stuff. It is a hard thing to do, I did pass lots of stuff onto the kids. Let it sit in their attics. heheheheheheh
 
I had a similar experience last year. I had a leak in my loft and it prompted me to clear out the loft. The amount of stuff up there was ridiculous. I tried to sell some of it off, but wasn't that successful. Then I set about clearing a couple of rooms in the house and it was ridiculous what was being dumped. I spent ages ferrying stuff back and forth to the recycling centre.
 
I gave up accumulating stuff about 20 years ago, when I moved into my last "real" apartment and never got around to unpacking boxes and hanging pictures on the walls.

I have moved so much since then that I haven't been able to accumulate much, and then for one year I lived in one room with a lot of "treasures" in a rented storage space and my car's trunk. I still have two plastic storage bins of family heirlooms that I can't bear to have out or throw away, so they sit in the bins in the closet. I am hoping to move again soon and don't know whether I will toss the bins with the stuff in them, in take them with me.

I can hardly afford basic necessities nowadays, so have no way to start accumulating any more "stuff."
 
My electronics collection is turning into a museum. I have things like a word processor and speakers that date back to the seventies...
 
Just checked my shed this morning. Wish I hadn't. Those five old cans of partially filled paint. Better hang on to them. :rolleyes:
Ah, that old hand tire pump should go, but maybe I can get parts to fix it.
Many of those plastic flower pots everywhere. Those can go. No, the wife said she may use those. She told me this three years ago.
Ah ha, the wooden ladder with the missing rung. But yet, if I replaced the rung and painted it, it would be like new again.
So I stood there, scratching my a--, head, and decided to try cleaning it out next year. Door closed, problem solved.
 
OMG... Junk? We got Junk... I have 40 years of junk in this house... My late husband had 40 years of junk here and my present hubby brought 40 years of junk here when we got married. PLUS... we are selling our vacation home and bringing 10 years of junk.. from a fully furnished 4 bedroom home here. Our relator suggested calling the Salvation Army and just donating the contents to them... We are drowning in junk.. anyone want some?
 
We have been trying for 2 years to cram the contents of 3 houses into our one new house. No easy feat with so much 'man' stuff and sentimental things belonging to my late wife.
 
We've been actively "de-cluttering" for the past few years and have made good progress. That which I can't sell gets donated to the Salvation Army. I'm using an app called "Close 5" on my cell phone to sell stuff. You take up to four pictures, write a short description and post it with a price. Like a reduced version of EBay (the company owns Close 5). Next on my list is disposing of a bunch of my dress shirts and ties that I used for work.
 
Reading through these comments, reminded me of what it would be like if my husband was 'in charge', but he's not because I'm the queen of packing and we've moved lots of times. Even so, when we moved from a 12 acre hobby farm where we had our two horses for 20 years, it was incredible how much stuff we had. Not junk really because I've gotten rid of all that as the years have gone by, but things like chain saws (we had 3), tractor and all the implements, garden stuff, old books that I'll never read again, bags and bags of clothes, multiple cookie sheets, ornamental odds and ends......I feel so much lighter now that all that is gone. We humans are like packrats aren't we?
 
I live in a one bedroom apt. but I have 5 closets with boxes with junk in them. I moved in here almost 4 years ago and have not unpacked those boxes. I have a lot of stuff and just am not really sure what is in all of those boxes. One of these days I'm going to tackle that job of going through all the boxes. But I procrastinate, and I procrastinate about procrastinating and so on.
 
Years ago we moved from a small house into a larger one. I remember thinking at the time that we would have more room and not be so crammed. Boy, that didn't last very long ..
 
Ruthanne said:
I live in a one bedroom apt. but I have 5 closets with boxes with junk in them. I moved in here almost 4 years ago and have not unpacked those boxes. I have a lot of stuff and just am not really sure what is in all of those boxes. One of these days I'm going to tackle that job of going through all the boxes. But I procrastinate, and I procrastinate about procrastinating and so on.
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Why don't you just take the unopened boxes to the thrift store? If you haven't opened them, then maybe you don't need that stuff. I tried to do that a bit but my husband knows that I have a 'clear the decks' attitude so he kept a watchful eye on what I was doing when we moved last time :playful:. Silly man because despite him complaining for the past fifteen years how I 'tried to get rid of his fishing rods', he actually wound up selling them at our last garage sale and it wasn't me that put them out on the table! And in that entire time, he'd only used them once!
 
Well, I think there are some things in those boxes I may want to use yet, like drapes I never put up yet. I'd have to get some good curtain rods first. I want to sort through all the junk first. Yes, some of it can go to the thrift but some I may still need.
 
Pappy said:
Just checked my shed this morning. Wish I hadn't. Those five old cans of partially filled paint. Better hang on to them. :rolleyes:
Ah, that old hand tire pump should go, but maybe I can get parts to fix it.
Many of those plastic flower pots everywhere. Those can go. No, the wife said she may use those. She told me this three years ago.
Ah ha, the wooden ladder with the missing rung. But yet, if I replaced the rung and painted it, it would be like new again.
So I stood there, scratching my a--, head, and decided to try cleaning it out next year. Door closed, problem solved.
Click to expand...

Very well done, Pappy. Poetry about trash.:applause2:
 
When the man who lived next door to my parents died, his widow asked my father & brother if they would clear out the accumulated junk. It was enough to fill 5 large 'skips' (dumpsters ?).
I'm not that bad, thank goodness, but I have boxes of bits that I'm sure will be useful - one day.
 
I have the world's largest collection of chargers and other assorted hunks of wire with varied devices on the end of them. I'm sure the equipment to which these belonged originally are long, long gone but I can't bring myself to throw any of them out because...altogether now....I.MIGHT.NEED.IT.SOME.DAY.
 
jujube said:
I have the world's largest collection of chargers and other assorted hunks of wire with varied devices on the end of them. I'm sure the equipment to which these belonged originally are long, long gone but I can't bring myself to throw any of them out because...altogether now....I.MIGHT.NEED.IT.SOME.DAY.
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:yes:
 
There's always a way of getting rid of junk...

When I was living in Florida, I bought a new 'fridge/freezer.

I put a note up in the charity shop offering the old, but fully functional, 'fridge to anybody he could use it.
... nobody wanted it.

I tried to sell it in the Penny Saver, but not one person called up.

I asked the Council if they had a service where they collected and scrapped it.
They said they could do that, but it would cost me $20.

I stuck it at the bottom of the drive with a large FREE sign on the front.
Nobody wanted it.

After a week, I changed the sign to read '$10 bargain.'
That very night, somebody stole it...

:p
 
Hanfonius said:
There's always a way of getting rid of junk...

When I was living in Florida, I bought a new 'fridge/freezer.

I put a note up in the charity shop offering the old, but fully functional, 'fridge to anybody he could use it.
... nobody wanted it.

I tried to sell it in the Penny Saver, but not one person called up.

I asked the Council if they had a service where they collected and scrapped it.
They said they could do that, but it would cost me $20.

I stuck it at the bottom of the drive with a large FREE sign on the front.
Nobody wanted it.

After a week, I changed the sign to read '$10 bargain.'
That very night, somebody stole it...

:p
Click to expand...
:lol1:
 
Ruthanne said:
Well, I think there are some things in those boxes I may want to use yet, like drapes I never put up yet. I'd have to get some good curtain rods first. I want to sort through all the junk first. Yes, some of it can go to the thrift but some I may still need.
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Well if you do manage to part with some of it, you might find that you feel lighter and a little freer. At least that has always been my experience and I love it. My mom hangs on to stuff and I think she's frustrated by it.....but can't let it go, so she's frustrated....(vicious cycle endlessly). Anyway, good luck with your boxes.
 

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