My name is Dani and I have a problem.
I am a packrat. More than a packrat, I have what is bordering on a pathological inability to throw things away.
What things, you ask? Well, I’m okay when it comes to throwing out dirty diapers and pizza crusts and apple cores and whatnot. But the rest of the clutter that migrates into our house on a daily basis, moves in and procreates in corners, in piles on end tables, crowding into bookshelves and spilling out of drawers? It’s taking over.
Some of it I keep because I think I might need it again some day. Stacks of magazines with interesting articles on parenting and astronomy; recipes I might want to try some day if I ever develop a taste for food I don’t currently like; things the boys might some day find interesting about art and classical music and politics. Newspaper clippings that are about people I know, or were particularly interesting, or I thought some day might lead to inspiration for an unspecified future writing project. Eight years worth of bank statements because once I needed to find one from the previous year. Containers of any shape or size, because you can never have enough containers in your life – even when they begin to take over your life. Flower pots, mismatched cutlery, coffee carafes, empty picture frames – because you just never know when they might come in handy. A full series of 1990 Topps baseball cards. Almost a dozen boxes of comic books. Somewhere in the neighbourhood of three million paperbacks.
Way too much space is occupied by things I think might make good crafts some day. We’d have to make a craft every day and night for the next six years to use up all the bits of flotsam and jetsam I’ve stashed away for unidentified future crafts. Meters and meters of fabric scraps, each scrap too small to be a quilt square. Ditto for scraps of wrapping paper. Construction paper with only one corner cut off, or one line drawn and then abandoned, saved for a rainy-day project. Socks with no mates, or socks with holes in them, that would make lovely sock puppets. Straws, popsicle sticks, shiny bits and sparkly things. Scraps of lumber leaning in the corner, waiting to inspire. Greeting cards from people I no longer remember, saved not for sentimental reasons but for the craft-able-ness of the pretty pictures.
Speaking of sentimental, that’s a whole other category of stuff that I’m destined to keep for the rest of my natural life. Simon’s soothers, for example. How can I throw them away? I think I still have Tristan’s tucked away somewhere. And every greeting card I ever got from the people whom I do care about, like Beloved and the boys and my folks. Photos. Who can throw a photo away, even if you can’t quite remember who the photo is of? And clothes that don’t fit anymore, or are ridiculously out of style, but were bought for me by my mom. I can’t throw those away!
Clothes are hugely difficult for me to throw away, or even recycle. My grandmother used to recycle my grandfather’s shirts by pulling the stitching out of the worn collars and cuffs, turning them inside out and restitching them. Now myself, I can barely sew a hem and certainly not an invisible one, but I have baskets of distressed clothing that I imagine could be resuscitated – if I only could figure out how. And since Tristan is so hard on the knees of his pants, there are many pairs of one-kneed pants just waiting to be converted into shorts. Or, you know, to sit in the drawer and take up space for eternity.
And even the undamaged clothes I find hard to part with. I have five, maybe six rubbermaid bins of clothes too small for the boys that are stacked in Simon’s closet. Some days I think I’m saving them for a potential future baby of mine. Other days, I’m saving them to sell on eBay. Mostly, though, I’m saving them because it’s less emotionally difficult than deciding to get rid of them. That’s without even mentioning the entire maternity wardrobe hanging patiently in my closet, from work clothes to weekend wear to underwear. I might need it, and if I don’t need it maybe I can sell it. Or maybe give it away. But not yet – someday, but not yet.
And then there’s the boys’ artwork. They love to colour, to draw, to paint. I simply can’t in good conscience bring myself to recycle their masterpieces, no matter how minor. They print colouring pages off the Internet by the ream, and each of them is a work of art, even the ones where they never actually got around to finishing the colouring. And now that Tristan is in school, he brings home workbooks and exercises in addition to artwork, and there’s no way I can bring myself to turf the products of his labour. We’ll need a new house to store it all by the time both boys have made it to university.
No wonder I can’t keep the damn house clean – I spend all my (albeit rather limited) dedicated housework time taming clutter instead of actually cleaning. But I’m not ready to part with any of it. Not yet, anyway.
Surely I’m not alone. What do you collect?
_Sometimes I’ll try to think of what’s the oldest item of clutter I possess.
If it’ any consolation, when I unpacked the boxes my mother put in storage fifteen years ago I dicovered, among other things, Mcdonalds straws, packets of sugar and vinegar, and a load of discount store purchases probably bought because “Hey what a great deal, I’m sure someone will love to have this someday!”.
Four-for-a-dollar placemats? Practice chopsticks with elastics on them? Spools of ribbon and wire?
What, no takers?!
You are OSOOO not alone. I plan on doing some serious spring cleaning this weekend. I have tons of useless stuff that I can’t just can’t part with! But it’s time!
-Anything that can possibly been sold on eBay for a profit.
-I still have my wisdom teeth in a container from when they were pulled in 1986.
-My first pacemaker
-Hospital bracelets
-Receipts and such from vacations that I am going to scrapbook some day ie..the first time Hubby and I went to Ottawa together in 1993
I too am a packrat..trying so hard to purge every few months (only to replace what I has gone)
I have a two year old who draws in school and at home. He paints. He doodles. Some of the art work is kind of neat. But we live in a teeny tiny house with no closet space to speak of. So what to do? Digital camera, click, click, save it to flickr. Only the most precious pieces of original art get saved, the rest, no matter how hard it is, gets recycled.
Of course, then there’s the whole thing about taking the time to take the picture, downloading it, uploading it to flickr, labeling or tagging it, dating it…blah. In the meantime, I have similar clutter to speak of, including baby art work.
Claudette – that’s a brilliant idea! This weekend, I’m opening a flickr account devoted simply to the boys’ artwork. I love it! Thanks!
Pictures go up on the fridge when they come home, for a few days. I keep the best pieces of art and then cold-bloodedly recycle the rest. When the girls aren’t around. And in order to stop being overwhelmed by excess craft stuff, every once in a while I gather up the beads, the pipecleaners, the greeting cards and yarn that I figured would be used at home but never are (at home colouring is king) and send half to my younger daughter’s JK class and half to my daycare provider. I still get the crafts made with the stuff sent home, but some of it ends up in other mothers’ houses. *grin*
There is no way I’m like you. Nope NO WAY! Clutter follows me home. And when it arrives it dives into conners and rooms I don’t go in very often. Then every once and awhile I get mad Fight it into a box and stick it in the attic to deal with another day.(I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do when the attic is full which should be any day now)
Nope I’m a clean freak. Yup that’s me.
(OK In my dreams)
The mothers in my neighborhood when I was a kid had a neat system. Every year they would have a street wide garage sale and ‘clean out’ the basement/attic/broom closet/toy box and put all the stuff up for sale. Of course, because it was a neighborhood thing, everyone got to see everyone else’s stuff, and of course, most of the other people’s stuff was WAY to good to be sold to outsiders and therefore was bought by another mother from said neighborhood and stored in their previously clean basement/attic/broom closet/toy box just down the street. So now every ‘clean’ basement/attic/broom closet/toy box is just refilled with some other semi-useful stuff. The bonus was that, within the next 2 years, the mothers would be cleaning out their basement/attic/broom closet/toy box, find that same stuff, and, of course, put it back on sale again to be re-purchased by…you guessed it…the original owner/mother. In fact, last year I think my Mom bought my son my old Hungry Hippo’s game that’s always been missing 4-5 marbles. Or is me that’s missing the marbles….oh well….I’ll tell Beloved to sign you up for Clean Sweep on TLC.
I can honestly say I am a recovering pack rat. I was just like you but then did a sort and purge at our last house. I couldn’t believe the stuff I had in boxes that had been trekked back and forth accross the country and for what? To get tossed.
We have to do a clean sweep this weekend to prepare for the finishing of the basement. You can expect a lot more backs at the curbside this Monday. Because even when you think you have stopped being a pack rat, all of a sudden your basement or garage is full again.
it’s creeping me out how alike we are…seriously…
the baby clothing that is too small that will never go on another child of mine again…you guessed it…sitting in countless rubbermaid boxes in the basement.
and the artwork. seriously, don’t get me started.
We are twins separated at birth.
I am the polar opposite. I make drop offs to goodwill at least once a month. As soon as I deem something not used enough, out it goes. It drives my husband crazy as he seems to think that I deem his stuff “not used enough” all the time.
But I have saved all my back issues of Victoria magazine. I got rid of them once and then missed them so much I ended up rebuying the set from a used book seller. Sad but true.
You should lok at FlyLady.net; she knows what we are all going through and has a plan to clean up the house and purge through the stuff, while acknowledging that we are all busy people. her plan centres around tackling small projects, 1 room per week, 15 mins per day. it’s great and no demeaning towards us pack rats. Howevere, I did have to purge TONS when we moved last year. The prize was when I found abox of my university notes (neatly pacakaged and labelled); I had never unpacked them in 14 years and they went straight into the garbage – but it did tear my heart apart.
Good luck!
I am the opposite end of the spectrum. I purge. I like to get rid of stuff. I trash it, I donate it, I freecycle it. It’s a curse because often I end up having to buy it again.
Are you sure you’re not related to my husband? Because the man knows how to pack away. I ask him to clean the garage and his idea of cleaning is taking everything and piling it up neatly. My idea of cleaning is to go through everything and get rid of things we don’t need. Like 4 vacuum cleaner hoses that don’t belong to any vacuum. He thinks they will come in handy some day. I’d like to smack him with those hoses. Instead I wait til he’s out of town and get rid of things then.
Ooooh, oh, me too! (waving wildly). I have just about every collection you have, except the baseball/hockey cards and comic books. How pack-ratty am I? My mother was visiting last month and she decided to clean out a kitchen cupboard for us. She counted up the old margarine and yogurt containers, which we are unable to recyle. We had 87 large yogurt tubs, with lids, a stack taller than my 7 year old child! And another 25 margarine ones. Happily, I was able to donate them to our kindergarten teacher. But we’ve collected another 5 since then.
Seriously, preschools and kindergartens might be glad to take some of your craft scraps and supplies. I should clean out my craft cupboard too.
You said, “I’m saving them because it’s less emotionally difficult than deciding to get rid of them.” That’s true for me for so many things: my old clothes, kids’ clothes, the kids’ artwork, old toddler toys, books, photos (even the bad ones), our old kitchen calendars with notes of what we did each day…
I subscribed to FlyLady’s emails for a while, but never really got into a routine of cleaning and de-cluttering. I think she is right about what needs to happen, but it’s hard work and I haven’t been willing to follow her system. Still it seems to work for some people.
Good luck! Recognizing the problem is a good start, right?
Did you visit my house when I was sleeping? Seriously, it’s sorta freaking me out… 🙂 However, I am in the midst of de-cluttering and forcing myself to throw away and donate. We have 1000sq feet, and a 4th child on the way. Now is no time to keep all those damn McD’s toys in the toy box, and year worth of magazines- out. It’s cathartic actually, I’m starting to feel better about not being able to move into a bigger house.
It’s great to see that there are legions of us out there! I could have written this post myself – just ask my husband. He calls me the squirrel – I’ve got piles of stuff “squirreled away” throughout the house.
I have bags and boxes of clothes, the kids and mine (aha – those skinny jeans are all the rage again – who cares if I can’t get them up past my ankles?); tons of shoes; old texts and assignments (hey, I worked hard for that A+ in Negotiation skills!). Old binders. Old skates. Wrapping paper, ribbons, gift bags, boxes. So much kid and baby stuff, but alas there is hope on the horizon. My sister will be having her first child in July and we’re already packing tons of stuff for her.
I’ve got staging in the basement – the deep corner for items for the garage sale we’ll have one day; then about 5 piles leading up to it that I’m not quite ready to part with.
I, too, take digital pictures of Abby’s art work. The really special stuff gets saved, but the rest goes.
My husband is the absolute anti pack rack. That can be pretty annoying itself. You can’t take your eye off anything or it might end up in the garbage. It’s not his fault, he is a product of his upbringing. His Mom is a serious pack rat. We’ve tried everything to get her to clean the place up to no avail. She will from time to time clean a bit up, but it quickly gets replaced with some other collection. So Mike is the total polar opposite of that.
Craft stuff. I have several cupboards full. For my journalling, you see. Honest.
My first post ever was about hoarders and tossers. I’m a tosser. I have no problem getting rid of things, whereas my husband and kid are both packrats.
Maybe if you have a garage sale, or even donate some of the items, it would feel better. Then you aren’t throwing anything away, per se. Set a goal of something you’d like to purchase with the money and think of that-not what you’re losing!
Wow, it’s so good to hear that there are many more of us. I’ve never heard the term packrat, but it’s obvious I am one.
My problem is not finishing one job at a time and having the whole house in chaos, then being too tired to complete it.
My method of staying tidy is to invite people over, it’s always a good incentive.
“I spend all my (albeit rather limited) dedicated housework time taming clutter instead of actually cleaning.”
Me too. I’m slowly making progress on it by doing 27-fling boogies and similar exercises (flylady.net helps motivate me sometimes).
Mine is lots of papers . . . old greeting cards, phone numbers with no name attached scribbled on envelopes, thank-you notes I wrote and sealed into envelopes but never mailed, expired coupons, catalogues I’ll probably never order from, handouts from the doctor about various vaccines or medical conditions, etc. etc. Along with lots of old clothes and toys and other miscellaneous stuff.
Oh, and the food. Lots of food. Although that’s getting better now that we have to be so careful and intentional about what food we have in the house.