When you realise you might be a hoarder...

[tskeeter]

Apr 8, 2015 0:27:54 GMT -5 Ratchets said:

Oh my gawd, it's box after box of junk. Well stuff, but mostly junky stuff. I'm starting to wonder if we got the wrong shipment? There's some family in California right now opening their boxes and going "WTE??" LoL.

I have no idea why we have Hank Williams family photo album  ?  Not like "his" actual personal family photo album but an old book with pictures of him in it.  I bet that's a real hootenanny to read through.

VCR tapes.  We don't even own a VCR anymore and it seems like every movie can be downloaded within minutes on the ole interwebs, if one were so inclined.

Computer games on floppy disk.  Can you even buy a floppy disk drive anymore?  I bet Pacman runs around the screen at like light speed on a new computer haha.

A parts catalog for 1928-1949 Fords.  Probably bought it an auction real cheap "just in case." (this makes sense to guys who were raised in a rural area...that's my story and I'm sticking to it  

So many movie posters.  These may be worth a few $$'s but have to do some research.  I vaguely remember buying three boxes of them from a movie store about 20 years ago for $10 a box or something. 

A set of rear window louvers for a 69 or 70 mustang brand new in the box.  That's wonderful except I sold the car over 6 years ago .  That's got to be worth some good money on ebay though.

Old clothes.  I'm pretty sure I'll never have a 32" waist again without catching Ebola or something.

You get the point. I bet a lot of this stuff came from garage sales and auctions and was bought cheap with the intention of someday maybe being worth something. 

Rachets, if you bop up to Reno for Hot August Nights, I bet you'd find quite a few buyers for your Mustang louvers.  Especially if they are OEM new, old stock.  Nothing like a gathering of 7,000 muscle car/hot rod guys to make a market for old car parts.  Might even be able to get enough for the louvers to pay for a weekend of drooling on fenders.

[tskeeter]

Apr 8, 2015 16:14:00 GMT -5 Anne_in_VA said:

Y'all must know my DH. There's never been an item that came into his possession that isn't "valuable" or he'll need someday.  He recently came across a box of stuff that was never unpacked when he and his ex got divorced and he moved out. It has a bunch of things that will never be used, including a set of brass salt & pepper shakers that are turning green and crusty.  His man cave is full and he has stuff throughout the house. I keep trying to sneak things out of the house, but it's hard because he will see an item in the donate pile and exclaim we "can't throw that away!  I got that from XXX or XXX gave that to me". 

He spent over 7 years in Japan when his kids were little and we just recently gave his daughter's kimono that she wore when she was about 5 to her. We still have his son's kimono in a wooden box along with some other stuff from when the kids were little. They're 29 and 33 now!

Many people accumulate junk, trash, or stuff.

Your DH and I have GOOD STUFF.  You don't throw away or give away GOOD STUFF. 

[Deleted]

A few years ago, I went through a stage where I decluttered my house. It took well over a year. I started out slowly, only getting rid of the obvious, but as time went on I got more ruthless and was determined to only keep what I loved and what I actually used or needed. I eventually was able to get rid of things I didn't really want or need, but kept because someone I cared about had given to me. That was a biggie. When I got to the point that I could go through the books that were all over my house with the intent of only keeping what would fit on my bookcase, I knew I was becoming a changed woman. Lol! I'd NEVER gotten rid of books as an adult, I kept the good and the bad, and I read a lot, so I had quite the collection.

I'm still amazed that I had so much stuff stuffed in my little house. I learned that not only do I have the ability to pack a lot of stuff neatly into small spaces, but I also can remember exactly where all the crap I don't need is......... just in case I ever need it.

I went through every closet, cabinet and drawer in my house and I cleared out my garage and my shed. Not the attic though, attics are scary.  The plus side is that there's not much in the attic, because again, attics are scary.

I regularly had an overflowing garbage can on trash pickup day, and stuff stacked beside it. I didn't sell anything. I either threw it away or gave it away, even if it was just to the Goodwill. I'd also put random things (like furniture) on the curb a couple days before trash day and it was always gone that same day. I often wondered what my neighbors thought was going on over here.

It was a very long process, but it was worth it. It felt freeing or something and I've never missed any of the the stuff I got rid of. I love being able to get to what I want without having to move a bunch of other stuff out of the way. Between being over a lot of my furniture and my kids moving out, I actually ended up with some empty rooms in my house. No regrets on that either. What I never got to was my desk. Ugh! It's still a mess. Other than that, I'm still pretty good about keeping my packrat tendencies in check and being mindful about what I bring into and keep in my house.

[Deleted]

Apr 8, 2015 16:59:25 GMT -5 bean29 said:

Apr 8, 2015 16:14:00 GMT -5 Anne_in_VA said:

Y'all must know my DH. There's never been an item that came into his possession that isn't "valuable" or he'll need someday.  He recently came across a box of stuff that was never unpacked when he and his ex got divorced and he moved out. It has a bunch of things that will never be used, including a set of brass salt & pepper shakers that are turning green and crusty.  His man cave is full and he has stuff throughout the house. I keep trying to sneak things out of the house, but it's hard because he will see an item in the donate pile and exclaim we "can't throw that away!  I got that from XXX or XXX gave that to me". 

He spent over 7 years in Japan when his kids were little and we just recently gave his daughter's kimono that she wore when she was about 5 to her. We still have his son's kimono in a wooden box along with some other stuff from when the kids were little. They're 29 and 33 now!

When my MIL was providing daycare for my kids she was at my house a lot. I would sneak stuff in the garbage can, and she would pick it out of the garbage and ask DH if he wanted it   .  I gave up for a long time.  I try to give stuff to good will now - I put it in my own car, but recently DH went to put something in my car and found my Goodwill Box.  I don't worry about only having a few items...I just drive by and drop off the stuff before I get caught.  Even stuff from my kids that they tell me to get rid of, DH will claim he knows someone that can use it and then it will sit in my house forever.  You just have to develop your stealth skills.

That's why I didn't try to sell anything, I was afraid it would hang around too long. I had a lot of things here from when DD had her first baby. I told her to either come get it or I was getting rid of it. She never came to get it so I ended up giving most of it to people that I knew who had family members expecting a baby. The rest, I put on the curb for whoever wanted it. Then, after everything was gone except the baby swing, DD got pregnant again! Oh well, it wasn't like I got rid of the baby stuff without her knowledge and didn't give her the option of keeping it all. At HER home.

[TheHaitian]

Apr 8, 2015 18:16:43 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

I've probably got you all beat right now. I have half a toy store stuffed in my house, and we're renting out the garage so I can't it all in there. Piles of brand new stuff still in the original packaging. I'm half tempted to rent a dumpster and junk it all.

eBay? Craigslist? Amazon? Garage sale?

[Value Buy]

How many disposable cameras can one have with all of them partially used, before you are recognized as having hoarder tendencies?
It seems since we have been house cleaning this winter we have discovered caches of them throughout the house.
We even have three underwater disposable cameras, all partially used from Carribean vacations.
Can you even get them developed anymore?

[Deleted]

Apr 8, 2015 18:16:43 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

I've probably got you all beat right now. I have half a toy store stuffed in my house, and we're renting out the garage so I can't it all in there. Piles of brand new stuff still in the original packaging. I'm half tempted to rent a dumpster and junk it all.

Find a flea market person.  That is assuming you really want to junk it.

[thyme4change]

Apr 8, 2015 10:42:16 GMT -5 lynnerself said:

How about several boxes of Kodachrome slides and a slide projector?

We had 20 boxes of slides, and no projector.  I was told it was my husband's childhood.  We sent them all in to one of the places that scans them (in India.)  It cost us ~$500 to scan all 2000 slides.  

As it turns out - it was more a chronology of my two brothers-in-law childhood, but whatever, everyone was happy, and we were able to vastly reduce the footprint of that stuff.  My MIL took all the slides back, but they were in a box the size of a shoe box.  Before that, she had an entire closet full of the carousels.  

[Deleted]

Apr 8, 2015 13:14:32 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Nobody go in my basement. There is crap down there from when my grandmother lived in the house, she died in 2004. DH keeps putting stuff down there insisting we will use it again someday.

It's not as bad as my parents' basement. If my DH is a hoarder than my dad is a hoarder on steroids. Their basement is crammed full of random stuff and there are itty bitty pathways thru it all.

I told my mom I am not going thru all that when they die. I am coming over with a can of gasoline and a match. Problem solved.

DH used to have this GIANT box of random papers in his spare bedroom.  He tried to haul it with him to my house and I told him we weren't getting married if that fire trap was coming along for the ride.  He insisted we had to go thru every piece of paper before he'd throw anything out. I  found stuff from GRADE SCHOOL.  DH was born in 1973.

Same here but it's me, in both respects, not DH. In my defense I have whittled down the grade school stuff to a file folder of about 8 papers that I good grades on. The rest was junked. The biggest pile of paperwork I still keep is my medical info relating to my hearing issues. That's a nice hefty paperweight.

My dad was pretty bad too. We moved here (MA) in 1980. The man died in 2003. When cleaning out the house, I found boxes in the basement that hadn't been touched since we moved here. Unfortunately 2 boxes were full of moldy books that had to be thrown out. I was pissed about that. I was happy about salvaging the old drapes though. Good drapes, nice and heavy for cold winters. Now I don't know where they are. I might have given them away. I give everything away. Drives DH batshit. He has 8 boxes of shit in the basement, NOT stuff, it is shit pure and simple, that he won't get rid of. Although I did make him unload a box of books. Now I need to figure out what to do with his Transformer action figures and Star Trek stuff. He refuses to clean out his junk room. which has 4 more boxes of crap and 4 boxes of comic books. He swears the comics will make money when he sells them but it's difficult when you WON'T SELL THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So far the only thing they're good for is being a scratching post, when she isn't using the door frame, that is.

My mother was simple. She had already unloaded most of what she had as she didn't want to burden us. I got a cat.

[bean29]

Apr 8, 2015 18:36:32 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

How many disposable cameras can one have with all of them partially used, before you are recognized as having hoarder tendencies?
It seems since we have been house cleaning this winter we have discovered caches of them throughout the house.
We even have three underwater disposable cameras, all partially used from Carribean vacations.
Can you even get them developed anymore?

Yes, I think walgreens will do it, but it will not be cheap. You may want to try one of those services you send the stuff out to.

[CarolinaKat]

Apr 8, 2015 18:16:43 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

I've probably got you all beat right now. I have half a toy store stuffed in my house, and we're renting out the garage so I can't it all in there. Piles of brand new stuff still in the original packaging. I'm half tempted to rent a dumpster and junk it all.

You can rent out a just a garage?

[Bonny]

Apr 8, 2015 16:22:30 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

We have a room in the basement that is stuffed with boxes that TD never unpacked from his move from Saudi.......in 1993!  There is enough crap in this room that we need a dumpster to empty it out.  In fact, I'm going to suggest that when we have to hire a dumpster for when they do the roof, we make serious inroads into emptying out that room.

Hell, you can't even get to the water heater!

When the hot water leaks over all those boxes you'll have an easy solution!

[CarolinaKat]

Apr 9, 2015 9:25:24 GMT -5 Bonny said:

Apr 8, 2015 16:22:30 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

We have a room in the basement that is stuffed with boxes that TD never unpacked from his move from Saudi.......in 1993!  There is enough crap in this room that we need a dumpster to empty it out.  In fact, I'm going to suggest that when we have to hire a dumpster for when they do the roof, we make serious inroads into emptying out that room.

Hell, you can't even get to the water heater!

When the hot water leaks over all those boxes you'll have an easy solution!

My parents had the fridge water line break and it flooded several boxes of Dad's 'treasures' (aka crap from his teaching days that no one wants). My response to throwing out the soggy textbooks and teacher aids: 

[zibazinski]

This summer while DH is back to work, I'm getting one of those things that they come and leave in the driveway and come back a few days later and pick up. The comptroller 's kid and I are throwing out the huge amount of paper files and clutter at the office. He doesn't know it yet. 

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

I want to ask what is it with men and wore out shoes/sneakers.

DH had a GIANT pile of them that he insisted we had to keep b/c they were "work" shoes and he didn't want to get whatever new pair he was wearing ruined.

You need EIGHT pairs of "work shoes?!"

I threw them all away despite his protests. If his system worked as he claimed he wouldn't have eight pairs of nasty shoes lying around.


My dad hoards flashlights. There are tons of them all over the house, none of them work.

[wyouser]

Left college in 1974, moved here, bought a house. End of story! Slides, 8mm movies, cassettes, 8 tracks, VHS tapes, LP's ...all there! Shoot, somewhere in the attic I think there is a circa 1965 black and white " tv." with the vacuum tubes. I hate the concept of moving!

[midjd]

I want to ask what is it with men and wore out shoes/sneakers.

That's DH with boots. I will say he gets his money's worth out of them, but once he has worn them to within a shred of their life (soles flapping, lace hooks broken, etc.) he puts them away in the front closet because "they're still good for mowing the lawn."

I did finally manage to purge down to three pairs -- the ones he wears now (that are about to be retired), his most recent "lawn mowing" boots, and a pair of steel-toed boots that he wanted to keep in case he ever gets a job where he needs steel-toed boots again. 

[tskeeter]

Apr 9, 2015 11:08:53 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

This summer while DH is back to work, I'm getting one of those things that they come and leave in the driveway and come back a few days later and pick up. The comptroller 's kid and I are throwing out the huge amount of paper files and clutter at the office. He doesn't know it yet. 

Zib, those sound like business records and the like.  Do you know what records the business is required to keep?  Do any of the records have any personal information in them?  SS numbers, bank account numbers, or anything else that could be used to help steal someone's identity?  Or personal information that either your DH or someone else would not want disclosed?  Having a notation in the margin of a document that calls someone a nut case get back to that person probably wouldn't be ideal.  Hiring one of those truck mounted document shredding places may be better than using a standard commercial trash container if what you are disposing of is something other than old newspapers and magazines. 

[zibazinski]

 Good thought

[CarolinaKat]

Apr 9, 2015 10:39:54 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

Apr 9, 2015 8:17:35 GMT -5 CarolinaKat said:

You can rent out a just a garage?

You can if you live somewhere with a reasonably high cost of living, but very temperate climate.

Oh, so there's a person living in there? I was picturing you renting it out to someone to park their car or store their stuff...

[lurkyloo]

We just moved 15320 pounds of stuff cross country, not counting what went in the car   There are boxes that we never unpacked from nine years and three moves ago.  I took four carloads to Goodwill, gave away a bunch more and we trashed a ton of stuff (literally or nearly so).

 Where did it all come from  

[alabamagal]

After living in the same house for 26 years and raising 3 kids we just moved in Jan.

After unpacking what we needed we had 40 boxes of stuff in the basement. About 1 box per kid is DHs stuff.

We are slowly going through it.

In our area there are 2 charities that come by monthly to pick up unwanted stuff. They were happy to take VHS tapes and 2 TVs. The TVs were 40" pre flat screen working. We had no use for them. Couldn't even lift them.

[lexxy703]

Apr 9, 2015 14:12:26 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

Oh, so there's a person living in there? I was picturing you renting it out to someone to park their car or store their stuff...

Yep, we call him our garage gremlin.

How exactly does that work?  Did you redo the garage to have a bathroom & kitchen or does he come in the house for that?

[shanendoah]

Sum Dum Gai - I actually have over half a game store in my basement - from a store that closed in 2000, in a different state! I didn't move any of it up here. It came up with C's business partner. But when he took a job in Canada back in 2006(?) it got moved from his garage to my basement. For the games that are still in existence, we're one or two or more editions away from what we have. In addition, we have a ton of stuff that the former business partner got with company "points" while he worked for WotC.
C is working hard on getting rid of it. The problem is the hundred thousand plus Legend of the Five Rings cards. They technically belong to at least 5 other people who live up here and another friend who still lives in NV. And I don't even want to go into Warhammer armies and dragons still in boxes...
This summer, we did sell some Magic card booster boxes for over $2k, and we've sold some Yu-Gi-Oh booster boxes, but who wants Harry Potter CCG cards in FRENCH?

[CarolinaKat]

Apr 9, 2015 15:44:58 GMT -5 shanendoah said:

Sum Dum Gai - I actually have over half a game store in my basement - from a store that closed in 2000, in a different state! I didn't move any of it up here. It came up with C's business partner. But when he took a job in Canada back in 2006(?) it got moved from his garage to my basement. For the games that are still in existence, we're one or two or more editions away from what we have. In addition, we have a ton of stuff that the former business partner got with company "points" while he worked for WotC.
C is working hard on getting rid of it. The problem is the hundred thousand plus Legend of the Five Rings cards. They technically belong to at least 5 other people who live up here and another friend who still lives in NV. And I don't even want to go into Warhammer armies and dragons still in boxes...
This summer, we did sell some Magic card booster boxes for over $2k, and we've sold some Yu-Gi-Oh booster boxes, but who wants Harry Potter CCG cards in FRENCH?

I'm sure there's someone on e-bay...

I know in all likelihood, in my mass purging of things that are in my house/once belonged to some random family member, I have thrown out something that I could have sold for money. But the time it takes to separate, research, evaluate, list, manage, and ship is not something I have the bandwidthfor right now. It just had to go. What you have seem to be fairly straight forward things that could be sold online (those which are yours, you need to get the other things back to their owners).

[shanendoah]

No one wants 100+ back issues of White Dwarf. That may not be true, C figures he'll list them as a single batch on eBay (which might make them worth enough for the shipping), but will otherwise divide them up in batches by date and put them on craigslist for pick up. We're not mailing that many magazines.
There is a lot of throwing away the needs to be done. C has been working on it and doing a pretty good job. And we are letting friends know that if there is anything in our basement that they want, they need to get it.

[CarolinaKat]

Apr 9, 2015 15:57:09 GMT -5 shanendoah said:

No one wants 100+ back issues of White Dwarf. That may not be true, C figures he'll list them as a single batch on eBay (which might make them worth enough for the shipping), but will otherwise divide them up in batches by date and put them on craigslist for pick up. We're not mailing that many magazines.
There is a lot of throwing away the needs to be done. C has been working on it and doing a pretty good job. And we are letting friends know that if there is anything in our basement that they want, they need to get it.

See? There's that researching part I can't get around to....

Most of the stuff i"m dealing with are (but not limited to) dolls, 'pretty' breakable objects that serve no purpose other than display, antique cookware, china, farming implements, old clothes, costume jewelry, stashes of 'things that might be useful later' and 50 billion pieces of furniture. 

Then there are the documents. 100s of years worth of documents. Everything from a 1900s check register, to an album full of people Dad's obviously related to but we don't know who they are, old receipts for agricultural sales, old report cards, recipes (nope not making head cheese ever). They're stuffed everywhere and in every corner and I get bitched at every time I throw them out.

[OT rant]

Also all of this crap that used to belong to family member so and so has also killed any interest I've ever had in my family ancestry or where my family came from. I can't bring myself to give a damn that I have something that belonged to this person. They're not here, I've never known them, and I don't want their CHINA! It's bunches of things that are no more special because they belonged to someone that shared some scrap of DNA with me.

I've basically notced a pattern: if I was forced into anything as a kid then I reject it as an adult. I think this is extension of that.

[/OT Rant]

[cronewitch]

Apr 8, 2015 9:06:03 GMT -5 NancysSummerSip said:

I am not a hoarder. I am a collector. So there. There is a fine line, yanno. I'd tell you where that fine line is, but I cannot find it underneath the stuff in my house.

Three is a collection, more is an obsession. I have known a couple of obsessed collectors and you couldn't enjoy the collection because of the over crowding. My aunt collected bells her china cabinets and curio cabinets were so full you couldn't see everything. Her daughter in law boxed up most of her things and packed them away. Now her displays are enjoyable to view with only the best ones on display. She has barns full of boxes of stuff she will never see again since she can't lift a box she is 87 and not well but her house looks much better with her collections out of it. Her guest room was filled with stuffed animals, extra clothing, garage sale finds, gifts she didn't need and so full you could barely walk around the bed. Mom stayed with her and only had room for one suitcase and nothing to hang. I wish she would have sold as much stuff as she bought so she would have money instead of stuff. Hers is good stuff her kids will sell when she dies not junk and not dirty just too much stuff.

[cronewitch]

Apr 8, 2015 12:04:49 GMT -5 lynnerself said:

Now that we are retiring in 3 months, I keep telling myself we will deal with this stuff. And attack all the unfinished projects.

I think I may be deluding myself.

That was my retirement hobby so I found a place that takes donations from your porch. Click schedule and how many boxes like 6-10 front porch and they come empty your porch. I give myself about a week to find 6-10 boxes of stuff for them even if I have to give them stuff I still like. Much of my clothing is gone and old gifts I didn't really want, kitchen stuff like coffee cups that weren't favorites. I have all my extra stuff in one room now so living, dining and kitchen are looking bare. I will need to add some shelves to keep the stuff I want to keep but I have shelves in the basement but they are full so either get rid of basement stuff or upstairs stuff not buying more shelves. I found nice plastic shelves I can take apart and move basement is full of Christmas stuff like big white reindeer and lights. I don't want to decorate so this week and next week lights are filling my garbage can big lights that cost a fortune to run, nobody would want them. In the fall I will donate all the unopened boxes of lights or put the by the road to be stolen.

[Deleted]

When you choose to redo every single fricking room in your house - one room per week - and have 2 days to pack up all room contents and store in another room.  Then you have two days to unpack the stuff, put it away and pack up another room.  By week 3 you decide to join a nudist colony and give away all your clothes, many of which you haven't worn in 5 years anyway.  I am not sure what part of my tiny brain ever thought I would need floor-length evening gowns with appropriate backless, strapless undergarments and SIX JEWELED EVENING BAGS!  We found, among other priceless treasures, something like 5 pairs of binoculars.  Disclaimer here: we are neither perverts nor birdwatchers.