Pack Rat - How bad are you?

[StanT]

When I moved from Illinois to Colorado, I threw out 1/3 of the stuff we owned. We had lived at the same place forever and had accumulated incredible amounts of junk. I should have thrown out more.

We've lived in our present house for 6 years and the basement runneth over. Since I'm remodeling the kitchen, I have a dumpster to clean up the mess. I'm going to go on a rampage and get rid of anything that doesn't get used. I have no idea why or how we collect this much junk. It's more than any 2 families could use.

How bad of a pack rat are you? Why do we collect this much crap?
Want to compare useless junk that is sitting around your house for no apparent reason?

[maleficent]

George Carlin says it pretty well

Actually this is just a place for my stuff, ya know? That's all, a little place for my stuff. That's all I want, that's all you need in life, is a little place for your stuff, ya know? I can see it on your table, everybody's got a little place for their stuff. This is my stuff, that's your stuff, that'll be his stuff over there. That's all you need in life, a little place for your stuff. That's all your house is: a place to keep your stuff. If you didn't have so much stuff, you wouldn't need a house. You could just walk around all the time.

A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it. You can see that when you're taking off in an airplane. You look down, you see everybody's got a little pile of stuff. All the little piles of stuff. And when you leave your house, you gotta lock it up. Wouldn't want somebody to come by and take some of your stuff. They always take the good stuff. They never bother with that crap you're saving. All they want is the shiny stuff. That's what your house is, a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get...more stuff!

Sometimes you gotta move, gotta get a bigger house. Why? No room for your stuff anymore. Did you ever notice when you go to somebody else's house, you never quite feel a hundred percent at home? You know why? No room for your stuff. Somebody else's stuff is all over the goddamn place! And if you stay overnight, unexpectedly, they give you a little bedroom to sleep in. Bedroom they haven't used in about eleven years. Someone died in it, eleven years ago. And they haven't moved any of his stuff! Right next to the bed there's usually a dresser or a bureau of some kind, and there's NO ROOM for your stuff on it. Somebody else's shit is on the dresser.

Have you noticed that their stuff is shit and your shit is stuff? God! And you say, "Get that shit offa there and let me put my stuff down!"

Sometimes you leave your house to go on vacation. And you gotta take some of your stuff with you. Gotta take about two big suitcases full of stuff, when you go on vacation. You gotta take a smaller version of your house. It's the second version of your stuff. And you're gonna fly all the way to Honolulu. Gonna go across the continent, across half an ocean to Honolulu. You get down to the hotel room in Honolulu and you open up your suitcase and you put away all your stuff. "Here's a place here, put a little bit of stuff there, put some stuff here, put some stuff--you put your stuff there, I'll put some stuff--here's another place for stuff, look at this, I'll put some stuff here..." And even though you're far away from home, you start to get used to it, you start to feel okay, because after all, you do have some of your stuff with you. That's when your friend calls up from Maui, and says, "Hey, why don'tchya come over to Maui for the weekend and spend a couple of nights over here."

Oh, no! Now what do I pack? Right, you've gotta pack an even SMALLER version of your stuff. The third version of your house. Just enough stuff to take to Maui for a coupla days. You get over to Maui--I mean you're really getting extended now, when you think about it. You got stuff ALL the way back on the mainland, you got stuff on another island, you got stuff on this island. I mean, supply lines are getting longer and harder to maintain. You get over to your friend's house on Maui and he gives you a little place to sleep, a little bed right next to his windowsill or something. You put some of your stuff up there. You put your stuff up there. You got your Visine, you got your nail clippers, and you put everything up. It takes about an hour and a half, but after a while you finally feel okay, say, "All right, I got my nail clippers, I must be okay." That's when your friend says, "Aaaaay, I think tonight we'll go over the other side of the island, visit a pal of mine and maybe stay over."

Aww, no. NOW what do you pack? Right--you gotta pack an even SMALLER version of your stuff. The fourth version of your house. Only the stuff you know you're gonna need. Money, keys, comb, wallet, lighter, hanky, pen, smokes, rubber and change. Well, only the stuff you HOPE you're gonna need.
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I have way too much crap that I'm not sure where it comes from... between books and paper and other assorted crap -- I don't need most of it - but at some point I wanted it... My apartment is pretty small, I moved in here a few years ago from a muchlarger place, and I'm not sure I've ever found a place for all my crap to go...

Lately, I've been using Freecycle to divest myself of a lot of crap I don't need - people there just crack me up -- offer it for free and people will take just about anything - and becomes their crap for them to do something with.

[Charlatan]

That George Carlin routine was one of the first cassettes I ever bought... that and Robin William's Throbbing Python of Love... I had them memorized and would do them as routines for my firends.


Pack Rats... I am a little bit of a pack rat... I have copies of every issue of Wired magazine since issue one. But I am realtively clutter free compared to my wife... She holds onto everything. My basement is a clutter of STUFF.

She leaves today for a 10 day European vacation. While she is gone I plan on clearing out the basement. EVERYTHING MUST GO! The neighbourhood I live in has a community garage sale ever year and it is scheduled for June 4th... I will be having a very big sale this year.

She won't miss a thing and I will have beer money by the end of the day!

[Sage]

Hrm... I feel like I'm straddling the fence between packrat and normal accumulation.... I do have quite a bit of clothes sitting around that I keep meaning to take to goodwill, but at least the storage closet (about 6'x4') isn't packed to the gills. My problem is I'm really good at hiding the stuff I don't want to look at- the 2nd bathroom has all kinds of junk in the bathtub, but I can't see that stuff because I put a curtain up to hide it. So I forget about it! My in-laws, however... well, I don't think these people EVER throw anything away! My grandmother is like that too- my mom will help her clean out stuff in her house, and she doesn't want ANYTHING (and I mean ANYTHING) to be thrown out. My mom just puts it in boxes and takes it down to the basement with the intention of taking it out the back door so my grandmother doesn't notice it being thrown away!

[Carno]

I'm in college and I have moved every year for the past 4 years, so I only hold on to the essentials. I decided moving was a bitch so now I only keep what I use.

Plus I'm poor so I rarely have money to buy things anyway.

[lurkette]

I'm a bit of a packrat - I learned it from my grandparents, who lived through the Great Depression. It used to be that I would never throw anything away that might be useful, because the minute I threw it I would find a use for it. I've gotten substantially better - when we cleaned out our house to get it ready for sale we took at least three carloads of stuff to Goodwill. I am getting much better at not being so attached to material objects. I used to have boxes full of empty boxes that might be useful for gifts or for packing stuff. I've discovered that it's much easier to just go out and find something when I need it instead of hanging on to a bunch of crap I might need, someday.

[snowy]

I'm a packrat when it comes to books and clothing. I have so many books that my parents refuse to help me move them anymore.

I try to keep things to just the essentials (besides my book collection) as I'm in university and I move a lot. It's kind of hard to move a lot of stuff in a 240 Volvo.

[frogza]

I don't keep anything, drives my wife crazy. If I haven't used something for 2 or 3 months it's gone.

[TM875]

I never throw out ANYTHING! Those jeans from college that are ripped and torn? Still have them. That collection of car magazines that I had when I was 16. Yep, still have them. Hell, I have issues with throwing out empty soda bottles (they're all piled up on my desk). You never know when you're gonna need some of this stuff....right?

[maleficent]

Originally Posted by frogza

I don't keep anything, drives my wife crazy. If I haven't used something for 2 or 3 months it's gone.

Would your wife rent you out for a few weeks - and just throw out a bunch of stuff for me please...

[Tbird]

Im thinking the same thing, Maleficent! I could use Frogza at my house too!

I save a lot of useless stuff. Im trying to get myself to throw some of it out. I think at one point I had every painting or drawing my now 7 yr old did in preschool. A few here, a few there, they were even in the trunk of my car. MikeC had finally had enough and threw them out. I was horrified and didn't think I'd ever get over it! hehehe! But I did. I still have a drawer full of school papers and drawing she's done to put in a scrapbook, if I ever get around to it! And to make things worse my younger daughter started school last year and I've been trying to save a bunch of stuff she's made too. Plus I'm pretty artistic, I have beads, paints, and scrapbook stuff everywhere. If I see nice beads, for example, I have to buy them even if I dont have a use for them at that moment, because I make myself believe I'll never find anything like them again. Yes, oh Yes, I have serious packrat issues!!

[ngdawg]

Pack rat with a conscience here. I still have most of my fat clothes from over 5 years ago. I have 6 large boxes and a couple of clothes baskets full of clothes from the kids. A ton of children's books and tapes. Every surface of every table in every room is covered with something-bills, notes, cd's...my work takes up the diningroom and family room-piles of prints, stock paper, matboards, etc.
For years, the spouse recorded episodes of This Old House..now we have a cabinet full of vcr tapes and no VCR player. He saves the boxes things come in for at least a year after purchase, so the basement storage area now has a pile of the boxes from the newer computer. And we won't even get into how many bags of christmas lights we have and never use, but ya never know.....
A couple times a year I get into a 'if I moved' mode...all the 'no's get tossed-it's the only way i can even clear a path.

[Cuatela]

I don't keep "everything"...usually things I'm using or would use in certain situations (camo for paintball). The only exception is my collection of books. I have almost every Star Wars book published (close to 150), and over 100 other sci-fi books (mostly Star Trek and Battletech, also including the Ender's Game series and the various movie novels of Spiderman, X-men 1 & 2, etc.)

The computer is a different story: I usually keep all the pictures I make, take, or find. The only thing I don't keep forever are documents I know I don't need (paper for speech on a random subject).

[Cartuni]

I used to be not only a pack rat, but also a collector (pack rat with a “theme”). I think I had about ten collections going, such as antique furniture, blue pottery, animals-on-wheels, horse anything, weird art. Then there were the clothes I’d never wear again, half-finished art projects and supplies for ones I hadn’t started, boxes of pictures, gardening equipment (I grew flower seedlings in the house under lights), a gazillion books, etc. We had a big house with all the closets and cabinets stuffed to the gills.

Then we decided to live on a sailboat. I’d say 99.5% of my stuff was sold or given away by the time we moved. The pictures and two nice antique pieces were stored at my parents’ (for my daughter some day), and I kept a few of my favorite collection items.

Now I live in about 200 sq feet, and I love it. It was a very cleansing experience, and I actually love finding the best use of the space I have. I can still shop, but usually when I do buy something, the former one has to go – no room to store an old comforter, for example. I have the minimum cooking items, dishes, clothes, etc. I buy used paperbacks, and donate them when I’m through reading them. My only real packrat habit is buying DVDs on ebay, but they’re small (and I don’t keep the cases).

I have found immense satisfaction in knowing exactly what I have and where it is. I’ll never go back to packrattiness. Oh, and for the record, I do have a couple of junk baskets – I don’t think any human can exist without a junk drawer or two.

[Grasshopper Green]

I'm not too much of a packrat except for books...I usually don't get rid of books unless I know I won't reread them. I have one small box of my son's baby clothes for sentimental reasons, and my high school yearbooks and some photos. Our storage space is almost entirely my husbands stuff or our Christmas decorations. He is the packrat of the family.

[Redjake]

I act like I am saying good bye to a loved one who is dying of cancer when I have to throw away anything. My room used to look like a flea market but recently we moved all my "laying around" stuff to another room and threw away some of it.

[RoadRage]

I've recently had the misfortune of moving 170 miles west, and I (and my back) now know why packrats shouldn't marry each other.

Fortunately for me I'm in the freight-hauling business and have bosses willing to loan me use of a company truck for the move (instead of coughing up for a professional mover), otherwise I would have had to make three trips in a 16' U-Haul type truck at $0.50 per mile and $39.95 per day to move out of a 3 bedroom home. I think we must be a rarity for having a yard sale in our first month in the new neighborhood.

I save stuff that I think could be valuable at a yard sale, a bad habit Mom forced on me. My wife is a teacher and will save almost anything of sentimental value. For those not familiar with packrats, this is a major source of conflict, as many things I think would be great on the table produce much yelling. "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU JUST SOLD THAT (piece of junk attached to some memory of hers made by a student whose name she can't remember) FOR A DOLLAR!!"

[Pip]

Hello, my name is Pip and I'm a packrat. I can't throw away anything that has a sentimental value or some possible future use. The weird clothes I bought for a penny at the Salvation Army to wear at a masquerade seven years ago still hang in my closet. I dropped out of engineering college four years ago but Modern Compressive Flow still stands on my bookshelf. Every ugly t-shirt, every comic magazine, every piece of cheap jewellery I've ever owned can be found somewhere in my home. I even have a box where I put all my movie/theatre/travel tickets.
I wish I was rational and unsentimental.

[Demeter]

I dislike clutter & gave up saving things 'just in case' years ago.
So why is my place full of crap?
People give me crap for birthdays, christamas, etc. If I wanted crap I'd go buy crap & put it everywhere. (Apologies to people who send me crap/gifts - new rule - if you have to get me something - donate it to a charitable organization instead.)
I'm moving soon, and, like StanT I have a dumpster to get rid of it all.
I hope no one comes to visit & says 'where's that yellow butterfly lamp I bought you?', 'cause when I say, 'it's at the dump', I'll probably get slapped.

[fresnelly]

When my Grandmother's health was in decline and she moved into a long term care facility, the effort it took to deal with her accumulated goods was very stressful and heartbreaking for both her and my Mother. First she moved from her house to an apartment, then to a smaller managed care apartment and then finally into a single room.

At each stage, she had to get rid of a number of items and it was always difficult. When you try to save essentials; pictures and personal documents are an easy choice, but at 86, with most of your intimate friends and family gone, everything you own seems to take on greater importance.

Being forced to shed all of your storied goods and momentos is a lousy way to approach the end of your life.

The sooner you can start paring down the better. You really can't take it with you.

And the next time you see some appealing knick-knack that you want to buy; treat it like a Picasso painting. Realize that you don't have to own it in order to appreciate it.

"A place for everything and everything in its place." may sound preachy, but it's a great motto. If there isn't dedicated shelf space for it, I'm not buying it.

[Mariiska]

I guess I'm a little bit of a packrat--for some reason I just just attached to some of my stuff that I've had for years and can't stand to throw it away.

[cheese]

i use to be a huge pack rat. untill last august. i was moving out of my apartment and putting EVERY thing i owned in storage because i was shipping out to boot camp.

i threw out EVERY thing i had not used in the last 6 months. and alot of other shit liek my bed. figured i had NO use for it. when i go home on leave next week im prolly gonna go threw the rest of my stuff and get rid of more of it .

my mother is an insane pack rat... she has Undeveloped rolls of film from '79. once she tried using a cupon that she foudn in her purse, it had expired 12 years ago...