Fotzlid

i am a pack rat. i always hang onto stuff way past the need for the item.
i do, however, go on periodic cleaning binges where everything gets tossed that i havent used since the last purge.
the GF makes me look like a rank amature in that department. she was mad at me for a few days after tossing a pile of 3 year old Time magazines awhile back. she insisted she was going to read them.

talking with others it seems like once a pack rat, always a pack rat.

has anyone conquered this horrible affliction?

TotalMILF

My MIL is the WORST pack rat I have EVER seen. She's in the antique business and her house is filled, floor to ceiling, with crap. Some of it is worth something, but most is not. She insists that she'll somehow be able to sell all of this stuff, but there's no way. I think once you get to a certain point it's hard to know where to begin the clean-up process.

I, on the other hand, HATE clutter. I routinely clean and tidy up and donate/throw away anything we don't need or use regularly. When my uncle and grandmother passed away we lived in their house for a bit while we were settling in as newlyweds. The problem was that nobody had really cleaned the place in like, 80 years. When xepherys went to annual training I took the whole two weeks, rented the biggest dumpster Waste Management had to offer and stuffed it to the point where they almost didn't take it back. I also made about four or five car trips to Goodwill during that cleaning spree.

You have to stay on top of it. Make a rule: whenever you bring something into your home, get rid of something else. There are a few exceptions, like food (duh), but it's generally a very easy rule to follow and it keeps clutter at bay.

There's also a book that my Dad is trying to get my mother-in-law to read: Clutter's Last Stand: It's Time To De-Junk Your Life! He swears by it and has made impressive improvements to the interior of their house because of the advice in the book. I'd recommend it, since it's the only thing that has been able to de-clutter my parents' house in my lifetime

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"I'm sorry, all I heard was blah blah blah, I'm a dirty tramp."

BadNick

I can relate to your talents ...I refuse to call packratitis an affliction since I sort of enjoy having lots of stuff around ...though you do have to have a large enough living space to handle it without overpressuring others so I'm glad I do.

This idea might be the real problem IMO
You probably have never needed about 99% of the cool stuff we packrats collect. So I don't think of it as keeping it past the need for the item. I just want to have the stuff so I can play with it when I choose to.

However, the other side of me has often been able to come in and clean up other pack rat's clutter very effectively. I've done this many times for family and friends with the only stipulation that I get to keep any cool stuff that I think the other packrat doesn't "need" anymore.