<p>Report cards? In the garbage? Seriously?</p>
<p>My mother kept everything…except my old report cards.</p>
<p>Suggestion I read someplace…take photos of the “stuff” then toss it. A CD of photos, or pics on a shutterfly account take up far less space than The actual stuff.</p>
<p>Who else has every single beany baby every made stored in hefty bags in the garage?</p>
<p>At least most of what you guys keep are actual items with possible value to someone. My mom’s place is full top to bottom and side to side with food containers and papers. The paper is 6 inches to 3 feet deep everywhere and has newspapers and junk mail mixed in with important bills, envelopes with cash and checks. I wish we could just bag all the papers and throw them out but it really needs to be looked through and some things need shredding. Oh, and I had no idea how many sweepstakes mailing lists one person could be on.</p>
<p>Poet girl, my aunt has those in her basement. I’m pretty sure 3 sets- one for each kid. She is a slightly more controlled hoarder and keeps things instead of junk - because she still has her spouse to keep things under control.</p>
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<p>Maybe I am not a hoarder after all! Did get rid of those - tried to donate but local places wouldn’t take stuffed animals. Used them as party favors and for other assorted give-aways for several years.</p>
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<p>Really? Well, if that’s where we’re going, does anyone want my collection of TV Guides from the 1980’s? (And, no, I wish I was kidding, but I’m not. On the other hand, the chance of actually finding them . . . :()</p>
<p>Last night I thought I threw everything away. </p>
<p>Now I have had to come to the conclusion that I throw nothing of my children’s away. </p>
<p>We have shelves and shelves full of anime books, as well. sigh.</p>
<p>Haha - what a great thread! My mother was not a hoarder but this thread reminds me of when we cleaned out her place after her death - she must have had 100 of those freebie shower caps you get from hotels… who knows when you might need a shower cap, right? :rolleyes:</p>
<p>How about pokemon AND yu gi oh cards? I also have my kids teeth, and the dipstick from the pregnancy test…or maybe I tossed that the last time we covered this subject… :(</p>
<p>You can’t be a hoarder** and** move two times in a matter of months. </p>
<p>We’ve moved two times recently. We put our house under contract and were out 12 days later into a rental, then three months later moved into a home we purchased. Listing your house pretty much forces you to part with stuff. The realtor wants you to de-clutter, so anything that doesn’t stay at the house either has to go to the trash/recycle, to charity, or to a storage facility. DH was NOT paying for a bigger facility than necessary, so we were FORCED to get rid of stuff. Still, we had plenty to unload in a garage sale when we moved out of the rental. The biggest pain was getting rid of the stuff we couldn’t sell, knowing that the new house just didn’t have the storage space of our old house. Getting rid of all that crap was such a liberating feeling, though.</p>
<p>In all seriousness, my ILs are actually hoarders. While it has not escalated to being unable to use all of their once-spacious home, (laundry room, office, and one spare bedroom are full beyond using) it is beyond comprehension and common sense. They live on a wooded, suburban hill, no yard, just trees. They’ve installed one 2,000sq ft garage in addition to their 3-car. They’ve installed 5 other outbuildings (sheds, in local parlance). ALL of these buildings are full – some so full they can’t be entered — of various purchases, including: Christmas decor, a broken carousel horse, tractors and tractor parts, hobby horses, wagons, pedal cars, old TVs, ocean-oriented paraphanalia. INSIDE the house there are at least 14 display cases full of “collectibles”. The two decks are unusuable because of deterioration and the presence of 5 sets of lawn furniture. 5. My MIL also owns 42 birdhouses. They bought potato chips in a lot and store them in a building. </p>
<p>They go to an auction every Wednesday, and yard sales every weekend. The escalation has been gradual and over the past 5 years. This weekend my husband went to visit (his dad broke his ankle in an accident not related to the stuff) and discovered they have bought cases of take-out clamshells, 44 pounds of masking tape, over 4,000 paper cups…</p>
<p>So. If you look at a full closet and weed out what you don’t need so everything fits, you are good to go. If you empty another closet and put THAT stuff in a box in your basement, you should feel like that’s a flag. If you put the box on top of another box already in the basement, that’s alarm! We are sick with worry about their safety, and about what we will do when they are gone (burn down the house? raze it? sell it for $2)</p>
<p>I seem to collect and hoard those Rubbermaid type storage totes. I think I could seriously restock a full aisle in Target. I have issues…</p>
<p>I can go there. i collected picture frames for a while, and I have enough to open a small shop When scrapbooking became all the rage, I went over board. It’s a good thing I don’t sew as I love fabrics and buy some even though I don’t sew. If I did…</p>
<p>I can see a lot of myself in that tv show, Hoarders. Too much.</p>
<p>I cannot watch ‘Hoaders’, as it make me gag, especially the ones with animals. My allergies are so bad that it would prevent me from that. Everytime I do ‘surf’ past it, I go in the basement and find something to throw out.</p>
<p>PS - anyone need any Sports Illustrateds from the past 2 years? S1 is reluctant to part with them and has a stack in his room.</p>
<p>The difference between true hoarders and those who save everything, is the organization of the items. When keeping things causes more problems than benefits, I think it crosses that line to “hoarding” not so much its dictionary definition but in that it is a problem. But there are people who keep everything and their homes are neat, and they can come up with anything one might need. I know I can’t keep it up, so I regretfully throw out items that I know I could find use for and will pay for in the future, to keep my place from looking like one of those TV homes. </p>
<p>I do have corners and areas, that do build up that way, and my boys’ rooms have definitely gone that route a few times more from not bothering to clean up, sort and discard than any desire to hoard.</p>
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I’d take them… DW would kill me though. </p>
<p>I have a hard time getting rid of books…</p>
<p>There was a hoarder in my town who recently died in a house fire caused by an overheated extension cord that was buried under a stack of newspapers. The guy couldn’t get to most of his outlets because of the junk, and was living in the basement because that was the only place left that wasn’t filled. The Fire Department was unable to enter the house through the doors because they were blocked.</p>
<p>The house was falling apart, he had no running water because it had been shut off for non-payment years before. His situation was known to the town but he refused any help. It’s sad.</p>
<p>H is heading to hoarder territory. He has “piles.” If I throw stuff out while he’s away, he never notices that it’s gone. If he is home – have mercy. I tried to drag a little shelf to the curb with a “free” sign on it. NOPE. He will part with things only if he can give it to someone he knows personally. Problem is, we don’t know that many people who want his old stuff.</p>
<p>He likes suitcases. He buys them, uses them, then fills them with stuff, thinking I won’t notice. I cleaned out a spot in the garage a few weeks ago. Oldest d is coming home for the summer and needs a spot to store the tv, frigde, etc. Came home from work one day to find it filled with suitcases, all containing his treasures. </p>
<p>I am quickly coming to my wit’s end. I know he’s eyeing those soon to be empty bedrooms that belong to the kids.</p>
<p>I think hoarding is going to become more and more of an issue as the baby boomer generation ages. Many of us were raised by Depression-era parents who had the “save everything” attitude and passed it on to us. </p>
<p>I hate to get rid of things. You really have to be vigilant in today’s world to stay on top of all the paper that comes into the house, all the items relating to hobbies, all the mementos of the kids, all the clothes and accessories. It is easy to acquire too much and hard to live an organized life. My D has learned from my errors and lives a very pared-down life. So far, she doesn’t let stuff accumulate.</p>
<p>We have a lot of books. The children’s books and packed up waiting for grandchildren. I do have a lot of books. I believe that is should take a fair number and give them to charity. You know those books: the beach books, the mystery books that we good to read once…but I don’t have to get rid of them all. I visualize a library, like the one in Blenheim Palace.</p>
<p>I do have 9 sets of dishes. And 6 sets of silver…But I am not a hoarder. My husband’s brother’s wife has 10 sets of English china, 6 of French…and 10 full sets of sterling. I heard that she finally threw out decorating magazines from 1970 onwards…now THAT is hoarding.</p>