I started thinking about this after posting to the thread concerning what to do with plastic tool cases. I have not used mine since the day I unpacked the tool and stored them on the top shelf of the garage. Junk can be divided into three categories using past, present and future as guidelines. Junk that I have not used in the past, junk that I am not currently using and junk that I will not use in the future. Oh, there is a third type of junk. Junk that the wife has stored, won’t tell me why she is storing it and refuses to even inventory it in fear I might suggest dumping it. We have junk from the beginning of our marriage that we don’t even know about. We have junk that is out of date and couldn’t use if we wanted to.
The only saving grace of junk is that someday we will discover that the junk has become an heirloom or the junk is now in high demand and we can sell it on ebay for a small fortune or someone is willing to trade something of value for the junk. The bottom line of present junk is it takes up space that could be used for future junk. Stuff I think I will use or need in the future but never use or need.
And please don’t quote the old nonsensical saying about one person’s junk is another person’s treasure. I have brought home treasures that very quickly turn into junk. Another person’s junk is more than likely your junk..they just had the foresight to give it to someone else to store for them.
-- I would drink a river of the kool aid before I took the smallest sip of the tea...
well DVK…without meaning to offend anybody, I’ll offer that certain ethnic traits seem to lead to the “pack-rat” mind-set (I’m thinking German or Swiss that tend to “tinker” and sometimes make $$$$$$ for their efforts). Lest anybody think I am profiling, I’ll raise my hand and say I belong to the group.
X had a shoe store going in the basement. 100’s of pairs of shoes aka junk, all from her kids, not even hers. I loaded them up and into the “going to the dump pile” only to be caught before I could exit, lambasted with tears and wailing…….back into the basement. Same for wool and fabric. A room with enough fabric to make a tent that would cover a small city, wool that would wrap around planet earth, who would think sheep could even produce that much wool. The junk was both past junk as it would never be used, present junk that could be used and future junk that might be used. She got it “hoarding” issues form her father who would collect everything including tires, old junkers, plastic, wire, sheet metal and road kill. The problem was that it wasn’t even his, but his friends junk and worse yet, it didnt go to his place…..it came to mine. Thus the “X” factor.
Although guilty of collecting all kinds of junk in the past,…………no more. Been clean for 2 years
-- "Good artists borrow, great artists steal”…..Picasso
congrats Moron…although clean for 2 years probably has some “more to the story”.
friend’s father died a few years ago…4 sons all Swiss pack-rats but even they knew what should go to the dump…long story short, 5 boxes out, 3 back in from mom.
I have solved this dilemma by waiting until my wife goes out of town to visit and then I strike! I get away with a lot that way. Mean? yes! Effective? definitely!
BTW DKV…have you ever seen the Saturday Night Live skit of Tammy and Jim Bakker with the Church Lady? One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.
Howie, I’m not afraid of the dark and I dont’ believe in ghosts, werewolves, vampires, etc. However, I CANNOT watch Tammy. She is very, very scary. I will however make an attempt to find the skit and report back to you. Not to speak poorly of the departed, but wow…scary
-- I would drink a river of the kool aid before I took the smallest sip of the tea...
I hang to the cardboard boxes the tools come in as well as the plastic cases just in case I decide to sell the tool. I’ll keep the cases but the boxes go out in the trash after I’ve decided the tool is a definite keeper.
As far as hoarding goes… I have minor issues. Like when I see free and perfectly good wood being given away, I have to bring it home and turn it into something useful or beautiful. My wife hates this about me but loves the good that comes out of it too. There’s a balance between collecting/hoarding, and doing something worthwhile with those things and I’ve been teaching myself one day at a time on how to find that balance.
-- JC Garcia, Concord, CA : "It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission..."
Been married 30 years,... all the kids are grown and never had a garage sale …. ever … never.
We live in a 4 bedroom 1920’s 2 story with full attic full of junk, an extra bedroom full of junk, closets full of junk, basement full of tools & junk and a garage full of tools & junk. There is junk in the trunk of my junk car.
Dan& DKV…you’ve both confused me. Is it “junk” you are having a problem with or “stuff” you’re having problems with. This is so hard to understand….....
Junk is junk. Stuff is so closely related to junk that 99% of the time stuff becomes junk. I don’t have the time or energy to determine the 1% to save. Trash it all. If you find out later you shouldn’t have thrown it away just buy another, wait the appropriate amount of time and then trash it again.
-- I would drink a river of the kool aid before I took the smallest sip of the tea...
bats, hardened caulking tubes, glue bottles where glue is petrified, stubby beer bottles where fluid resembles a sewage ditch, wrenches missing both ends, screw drivers with no handles but pliers are welded to it ? Tampon/Kotex parachuting harnesses some one might need some day ? expired 1956 ? directions cut out from a Betty Crocker instant cake mix box in case the next betty crocker cake box inadvertently didn’t include it ? (perhaps a secret) 1/2 of the toe nail clipper, a tube of crazy glue emulsified and permanently attached onto automobile bottom of cheap plastic truck glove box with calcified toothpaste attached to last years tax return, a half eaten Mars bar mashed into crevice of backseat, magazines stuffed to the ceiling and we cant find our cat ?
definition of any word and process is somewhat subjective
Getting into the basement as I remember was pure torture, as the shoes were a very good spanking of the shit I have endured. I do believe hoarding to be a genetic mystery as all souls define their own boundaries, some of which are not as desirable as others. A complete mystery how the power of images in your head can go from this
to this in a heart beat and you haven’t nor dare not, even opened a single drawer for fear the mystery is contagious : ))
-- "Good artists borrow, great artists steal”…..Picasso
Maybe you should just sell your house with all your junk in it. Then buy someone else’s house with all their junk in it which would then by your stuff….ha…problem solved
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