Confessions of a Pack-Rat
July 16th 2007 19:25
I have to admit that my boyfriend and I are both huge pack-rats. It drives his mother nuts (but I don't really care about that) and clutters our home beyond belief.
We bought a house last September, before that we had a small one bedroom apartment, and before that we had a medium two bedroom apartment. Some of this random stuff has followed us through 7 years together. Granted the last time we moved it was a big rush due to being out of state for a wedding the week prior, but some of the stuff I'm finding is just inexcusable!
My boyfriend is a computer geek. It's his hobby, his job, and what everyone asks him to do in his spare time. I am going through a spare room today, with boxes that had random junk shoved into them. I have found 7 old trackball mice (one of which he asked me to keep!), 13 a/c adapters that I have no idea what products they belong to, countless broken headsets/microphones (computer games), random sound and video cards, a couple things of RAM, a charger and battery for a cell phone he had before he met me (remember...7 years here), sega game controlers, a few disk drives and 2 sets of non-working speakers. The worst part however is the cables. Why do we need 25 power cables, 15 monitor-to-computer cables, countless usb (of different sorts) cables, and other things that are so outdated that I have no idea what they are. And this he will not let me throw away.
I tend to keep things of a more sentimental nature. Random Christmas presents, a rock my baby sister painted and gave to me, books books and more books, old journals, high school papers, and I'm not sure if I should mention the huge box of unorganized pictures. Oh yeah, old pills (what are you supposed to do with those anyway?)...lots of those.
I haven't started my half of the room yet. I do know I have many christmas knickknacks that I'll never use, 2 plasticy type dolphin lamps (grandmother), cat figurines, and a Lava Lamp (that seems to be in working order). Oh yeah, books and movies. I don't have a vhs player, but I have tons of tapes.
I hate getting rid of this stuff, I want someone else to get use out of it. Can't have creepy craigslist people coming to my house and you never make any money on ebay with this sort of stuff.
What do I do? How do I get through this?
We bought a house last September, before that we had a small one bedroom apartment, and before that we had a medium two bedroom apartment. Some of this random stuff has followed us through 7 years together. Granted the last time we moved it was a big rush due to being out of state for a wedding the week prior, but some of the stuff I'm finding is just inexcusable!
My boyfriend is a computer geek. It's his hobby, his job, and what everyone asks him to do in his spare time. I am going through a spare room today, with boxes that had random junk shoved into them. I have found 7 old trackball mice (one of which he asked me to keep!), 13 a/c adapters that I have no idea what products they belong to, countless broken headsets/microphones (computer games), random sound and video cards, a couple things of RAM, a charger and battery for a cell phone he had before he met me (remember...7 years here), sega game controlers, a few disk drives and 2 sets of non-working speakers. The worst part however is the cables. Why do we need 25 power cables, 15 monitor-to-computer cables, countless usb (of different sorts) cables, and other things that are so outdated that I have no idea what they are. And this he will not let me throw away.
I tend to keep things of a more sentimental nature. Random Christmas presents, a rock my baby sister painted and gave to me, books books and more books, old journals, high school papers, and I'm not sure if I should mention the huge box of unorganized pictures. Oh yeah, old pills (what are you supposed to do with those anyway?)...lots of those.
I haven't started my half of the room yet. I do know I have many christmas knickknacks that I'll never use, 2 plasticy type dolphin lamps (grandmother), cat figurines, and a Lava Lamp (that seems to be in working order). Oh yeah, books and movies. I don't have a vhs player, but I have tons of tapes.
I hate getting rid of this stuff, I want someone else to get use out of it. Can't have creepy craigslist people coming to my house and you never make any money on ebay with this sort of stuff.
What do I do? How do I get through this?
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Comment by Wendi
I was watching an organization show on t.v. once that presented a great concept: Every time you bring something new into the house, eliminate something of similar status. For example, if you buy a new shirt, get rid of an old one. If you buy a new video game, trade it out for the old one... this way, the clutter never has a chance to become overwhelming. Of course, I haven't learned to apply that to my own life yet *smirks*... but it sounds great in theory.
Congrats on the progress with sorting through boxes. It can be such a daunting task!
W
Comment by charliesgirl_992000
Histeries, Mysteries and what not
Lifes little slices
Mystical Creativity
"good luck!!!!"
Tammy
Comment by life-stuff
Life Stuff
It's good to know that I'm not alone, and not that I think of it - my mothers house is jampackedfull of stuff. It also took weeks and a dumpster to sort through my grandmothers house after she died in April.
It's sweet that you're saving all the kids stuff. My mom told me I just have to be 'brutal' going through stuff, especially pictures. I have hundreds...
Wendi -
That is a really good theory, though I'm not sure I could use it right now. We're trying to decorate the house and such. But maybe clothes wise we can try it. Hrm.
Comment by charliesgirl_992000
Histeries, Mysteries and what not
Lifes little slices
Mystical Creativity
Take great care! Tammy