I just have to face it, I live with a family of hoarders.
My husband will occasionally throw stuff out when he has decided that he no longer needs it. This normally occurs around six years after he last looked at or used the item in question. I am all for hanging onto stuff that is valued for its memories, I still have the first outfits my children were ever dressed in, their coming home from hospital clothes, their first shoes, my wedding dress, my first teddy, favourite books, my first drivers licence... sentimental stuff that you can look at and say "remember when" or "gosh were they ever that small?". I get the need to hang on to that... that is not the stuff we disagree on.
I just can't see that we need broken toys, or toys with bits missing. Do we really need the last unchipped plate left out of what was once a complete set, out grown or out of style clothing, worn out computer mice, decade old fishing magazines, off cuts of wood? If you have brought new golf shoes, well then why can't you throw the old ones out? If we no longer have a VCR, well then why do we still need the videos? I put stuff out to go to the tip, Mark takes it and stashes it in the shed, because one day we just might need it.
I fear my children have inherited this squirrelling gene... every scrap of paper, piece of packaging, broken crayon or dried out texta is a treasure to them. They collect rocks, sticks, leaves and shells. Sorting outgrown clothing and removing it from their wardrobes is a drama, and I would not even attempt to sort out their toys if they were within a ten kilometre radius!
So the battle lines are drawn... we do not live in an enormous house, we do not have unlimited storage and despite protests it is not possible to keep everything! I feel like I am just drowning in stuff... and I hate feeling like that, it frustrates me and makes me crabby and snappy. Saturday was spent with me sorting out piles of stuff, I refer to it as junk but the rest of my family disagrees, and everyone else removing items from the rubbish piles and hiding them from me. But.... I will win, they will go to work and to school... and I will clean and sort and un be known to them THROW STUFF OUT!!! I may be surrounded by squirrels but I will not go down with out a fight!
2 comments:
Wow - I can relate. After growing up in a family where my dad kept everything, it seems I have married into the same situation. The last thing he wanted to keep - a few old vinyl shower curtains to use as drop cloths. Seems I'm going have to switch out the shower curtains when he is not around so that we don't gather an enormous pile in the basement.
Thanks for sharing your experience and letting me know that I am not alone. :)
I hear you on this one Jodie (I say sheepishly as I look around to my craft little room off this room which just has things EVERYWHERE!!). But we do seem to be drowning and I think it's a general thing all round. We have limited storage too and sometimes I think it's not that I don't want to throw things out or declutter, it's where to start. Sigh. So glad to hear I'm not alone either.
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