Hoarders and hatred and husbands!

Oh, I should probably not have a keyboard anywhere near me today, I am FOUL and dangerous! I cannot stand clutter and crap and junk that is stuffed and piled and jammed, covered in dust, toppling over, unknown and unimportant but heaped and crammed in every corner, on every shelf, under every table.

I am a minimalist at heart. Have what you need, a little of what you want, and nothing else. If you look at an item and utter the words "THis might come in handy if I am ever called to perform a repair on the International Space Station..." GET RID OF IT! I may be going out on a limb here but I do not think my other half will be repairing any space stations soon, althoug he is about to be launched into orbit, and he doesn't even know it!

Things go along for a while with me making subtle comments about how things really need to get cleaned up and he nods his sincere agreement, then goes off to stuff one more piece of crap into a corner somewhere. THen comes the day I open the newspaper, phone the man with the ad that says, 'Have Truck, Will Haul' and I get him to back up to the basement door and I just start heaving.

Chucking out junk makes me happy. Euphoric. It is an out of body experience of bliss and joy. I find my true spiritual calling in letting go of worthless filth, especially if it's Hubbies worthless filth. I sing as I fling. I offer up prayers as I kiss each item and hurl it into the back of the truck, as the springs creak under the weight.

About this time hapless Hubby comes home from somewhere to find all the things that keep his heart beating, being flung into a truck. He says the wrong thing, which is what most husbands do when faced with a wife who has gone off the deep end. He says, "Uh.. what are you doing?" And in a calm, reasonable, adult manner I respond, "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! AND BACK AWAY FROM THE TRUCK OR DIE, YOU HOARDING FREAK!" The truck man takes a few steps away because he's no fool. He's been at the scene of 'domestics' before and he knows a big one when he sees it. HUsband peers into the truck, at the growing pile of his precious junk and I can see he wants to reach in and take something out. I am ready for this. I have a tire iron. In my mind I am waiting, go ahead, just try it, just reach for the broken mud flap you've had in the basement since 1982, just take it. Let's see what kind of mechanic you are on Monday with your arm in a cast.

But Hubby is no fool. A hoarder, but not a fool. He sees the focused expression and the ninja stance, oh and he also sees the tire iron poised to strike. So prudently he does not reach into the truck. He enters the house to survey the damage. I join him there, crouched and ready to ward off any attacks of stupidity. He reahces for a broken broom handle, whoosh, the tire iron cuts the air and misses him by inches. "Hey, quit that!" he says. I utter a sound you hear in old Bruce Lee, Kung Fu movies...EEeyaaaooo. I leap in the air, whirl, grab the broken broom handle and in one swift and almost invisible motion, fling it out the door and into the truck. I am hoping by now Hubby has grasped that this is serious, I have clutter overload, I have pushed the panic button and he is in mortal danger. I have my breaking point...I flex, I bend, I give, I accomodate, I understand, and then I hit the wall! Then I happily take into my own hands the tasks and responsibilites abdicted and abandonned by others. But when those othes wander along to voice a complaint, things go very, very badly! Like, call the RCMP, I think wen eed men with guns to calm Uno down.

Whew! Had to get that out! Had to take a break infront of the screen because I am about to dive into the hoard and won't be up for air for a while. Those gasping sounds you hear, don't worry, it's not me. This idea that people will die if you remove their hoard, well it's a risk I'm willing to take! We shall see because this hoard is GOING!

Sounds like my place, but I must confess the majority of stuff is mine. My basement is on overload right now. I am convincing myself I don't NEED all the material I have, I don't NEED to keep my maternity clothes, I don't NEED to keep all the clothes my two oldest who wear the same size have out grown, those my youngest son has out grown znd those my baby has out grown on the chance I may need them again, I also don't NEED to keep all the papers I have in boxes. I have gotten rid of the majority of knock knacks, but now NEED to get rid of more stuff do my basement is cleaner! I hate going through everything and getting rid if it, I would much rather be cleaning my chicken buildings and barn to cleaning out my storage space!!

I am with SmokeyRiver on this one. My house has WAY too much stuff. But Seriously, I use most of it. My issue is with kitchen stuff. I have 2 of everything, and sometimes more. I don't know why any house would need 5 spatulas, but I have at least that many. My issue is with good stuff that could be used. I can throw away broken toys, but it is the good stuff that is my problem. Yeah, that is it, I just have way too much good stuff....

This is my cry for HELP!!!

Don't you people have thrift stores where you live? Pick one thing and give the other 2, 3, 4 to a store where needier people can buy them for next to nothing.

Uno, I had to laugh, as usual, reading this. Thanks for ending my work week on this note. You're awesome. I would come say that to you and give you a hug but I'm afraid you might whack me and throw me on the pile. Enjoy your purge. I did it on Easter weekend and while it was nowhere near as epic as you describe, it also satisfied me deep in my soul.

Nearest thrift store is 2 hours away. I do go to the city from time to time, but never manage to get the boxes to the thrift store. So, I keep 12 glass pie plates, cause they are too good to throw out.

I actually wish I was not a "collector". Would certainly make my life easier!

I TOTALLY get where you are coming from. When I lived in the states I lived in a 2200 sqft house. When I moved to Canada, I moved to an 800 sqft house. Talking about purging!!! It was funny because I had a neighbor moving in tat the same time and was grabbing alot of what I was hauling away. I was even throwing out dressers that I didnt want to haul up here. However, like Smokey, I have kept all the baby clothes from my kids. As they grow out of things it goes into a container. I do this because I have three girls. I am NOT buying new clothes for each child when what I have is still good. Once I am done having kids, I will pick out the best dresses and the rest is going to good will. At first my husband laughed that I was keeping all these clothes that the kids were growing out of. But now, after three, he totally understands my thought pattern. However, between sizes newborn all the way to child size 8, I have only four cotnainers.

It boggles my mind, the crap we need, or think we need, to live. OUt on the plains of Africa some woman lives in a hut made of mud and animal dung, owns one pot, two tin cups, a piece of fabric to wrap around her body and a half starved goat. And she lives. This is her life. What horrible mutation goes on as you swing towards the Western Hemisphere and we spend hours of our lives working, to purchase garbage we pile in our basements and then build outbuildings to store?

Something is so terribly, horribly, embarrassingly wrong!

I have laid awake at night pondering this...I have no answers.

Life has got to get simpler. Cleaner. I have to be able to see the things that matter, small things, quiet things, that cannot be seen or heard over the physical and psychic screaming of this frantic, mindless, blind clutter. Honest, it is seriously messing up my mojo. It makes me want to scream, tear my hair out and run into the deep quiet woods. Where I will sit in the moss, look at the blooming forest plants and breathe...just breathe...where the world is not made up of plastic and glass and car parts.

I need life to be deliberate, not haphazard. I need my foot steps here to be considered and taken with care, not bought, tossed and piled in storage. I want to live on purpose, not buying into some societal push that is all about more more more. I want peace, but things are in pieces.

(sigh) This is what happens when I go off my meds. I'm not on meds. Maybe I ought to be?

The lesser of two evils it would seem Uno ? I think we should all live on the fringe a bit and then we might actually see what is important and what is needed in our daily lives to truly make us happy .My dear mother kept a lot of what most people might throw out and it was because you never know when you might need one !( item ) She felt guilty throwing out anything made of glass with a screw lid .....might be useful as a ??? .....We actually go through items every few months just to get rid of what we don't need ,and I have already said that if we get another house it will be just as big as what we need and for what we have ,no larger ! Everything in it's place and a place for everything .........the rest goes !!

I have set a goal that by the end of summer I haveade it through my "collections" and purged at least 3/4 of what I have. I have also informed my children that they will be pairing down there items including clothing. My one son has 10 pairs of home jeans and around the same for good. I have already gotten rid of 5 huge garbage bags of material as I had been sewing gymnastic suits and had a huge collection of material for them that I purged since I no longer am sewing them. My lOcal thrift shop which is only 30 min from me asked me to limit the bags/boxes I bring to 5 as they only have a tiny sorting area. So it is taking me much longe than I really wanted. I have a system if I have not used it more than twice in a year it is going even if I figure I will use it more

Whenever we move (which is too often) I say our stuff is like that expanding insulation. Even though bags of things go to second hand stores, and the next house is bigger (to accommodate our expanding family) what we have seems to fill the house and we wonder how we ever fit into the previous smaller residence! But I do have a bag that I continually put books, clothes, etc., into, and when full, it goes to goodwill. Unfortunately, my husband sounds a bit too much like Uno's

My husband hordes his old worn out shoes. I can't figure this out. And the cohart jeans with the crotch worn out of them. I am dying to throw them away, but yet he clings on to them.

I however never horde anything. I treasure things...

Oh, and I have several rubber spatula's in my kitchen. But I have good excuse for them. Some I use for stirring stronger flavored things, and some I will only use for deserts... They're silicone and I find that the smell of strong flavored foods goes into them...

Sure Silkie, make up excuses for what is obviously and out of control spatula habit.

Ugh, I am so NOT a gadget person! My kitchen is a veritable wasteland, surprises me that I am able to produce food at all, which I do sparsley, I admit this.

My most hated kitchen gadget is the garlic press. Stupid, infernal ridicolous machines! Then you're jabbing the garlic out of the holes with a toothpick. What sort of twisted mind invented that? I have owned more than one in my time and they were all junk.

Solved the problem by walking out into the driveway, digging out a flat rock, washed it, peel garlic, set it on cutting board and WHAM! Smashed garlic. Works like a darn and best part, when I'm done, if I want, I can throw it back out onto the driveway. (but I don't, I have a favorite rock I keep for this in fact, it sits on top of my antique garlic jar, with the moldy garlic inside.) I think a lot of the worlds problems could be solved by hitting them with a rock.

Silkie, my husband does not own crotchless pants (careful, g-rated site here people) but he does buy clothes he never wears. He has clothing, not lots, but some, that still have the tags on years later. New clohtes are very, very scary. Approach slowly and do not make eye contact. I will never understand it.

I am afraid i am like your husband and my DH is you I even have an area in the basement that I refer to as "my store"

Oh and as for the garlic, I just use one of those hand graters

Uno I agree with you about garlic presses. Stupid things for sure!!!
I chop mine finely or grate it with different sized graters depending on what I want it for. I use lots of garlic and WILL NOT every use a press again!

uno wrote:It boggles my mind, the crap we need, or think we need, to live. OUt on the plains of Africa some woman lives in a hut made of mud and animal dung, owns one pot, two tin cups, a piece of fabric to wrap around her body and a half starved goat. And she lives. This is her life. What horrible mutation goes on as you swing towards the Western Hemisphere and we spend hours of our lives working, to purchase garbage we pile in our basements and then build outbuildings to store?

Something is so terribly, horribly, embarrassingly wrong!

Our entire culture has become based on the message of "more". Hard to blame people for succumbing to advertising that is so effective. I am also afflicted from having grown up around my Depression era Grandparents who kept stuff as long as it was still good. We are striving to cut back though.

I have a chest that belonged to my Great Grandfather. It's not large, about the size of two of those old wooden egg crates. It was where he kept his clean set of clothes. Yep, two sets of clothes. The ones he was wearing and his clean ones.

When I was a kid, my entire wardrobe occupied two drawers and one half of a closet. My kids have about twice that and I think that is probably less than most people these days.

I guess we could be said to have a touch of the hording thing going. Although we are trying to improve. We have been steadily purging for a while now and, with the youngest growing up, we are finally getting rid of the clothes and toys as he outgrows them. Last year my big purge was to throw away all of the baby things (high chair, car seat etc). Pity because they were still good but, with the regulations these days, you don't even dare give the stuff away. Something breaks and someone would be suing your butt off.

Found this and had a good laugh re-reading all the posts!

Took this pic the other day, forgive the angle, only way to fit them all in. Looks like we have company. WRONG! This is just a portion of the vehicular hoarding that happens here. We have more trucks that are not in the photo. And only three people live here! To my eternal sadness, the local thrift store will NOT accept dropped off trucks.

Is everyone having a successful purging summer?
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

There is the Kidney Car Hotline....
Thanks for providing the other side's perspective for me.
My husband hates clutter. He tosses everything, including things I need. It is not unusual for me to be looking for a part of a larger object, only to find he tossed it as garbage. It can get very expensive and frustrating sometimes, for both of us.
What's interesting is, he doesn't toss his own clutter. Perhaps I will have to do that -
Better get at my own first though...

I have five garbage bags of clothes waiting to go to the local triift store and a truckload of garbage for the transfer station. I still have to sort my shoes.

Preping for oldest's graduation we hauled away a carload each of garbage and thrift store donations. We're actually starting to see the effects. House is easier to keep clean and whatnot.

Amazing how much better you feel afterward.

First BOTH of us are pack rats. It can be a bit much sometimes, grin. When the pressure gets too much, hubby throws things out...as in, I had only the first coat on the kitchen walls, and still had the pantry to do and he throws out the paint tray. It has a small chip out of it, you see. I usually just put one of those plastic liners in it and keep on painting. The metal one down cellar, threw it out too, rusty you see. I have now learned to just go buy a cheap one and hide it after I'm through, if I can. We are storing stuff for the kids who are holding on to stuff because they have almost enough for the down payment on a house. We have some of my Aunt's stuff. We have nearly all of my Mom's stuff. I am her executor, and thankfully, my brother doesn't want any more stuff out of Mom's house. Now, that torn coat goes. The books that are too dusty to read go. That half tin of paint thinner, used it. Gave the table away. Salvaged the leather top off the broken coffee table and turfed the rest of it. Measuring cup with the numbers worn off its pyrex sides, gone...well, not gone, used as a feed room scoop. The two broken lamps.....cannabalized one to fix the other, tufted the rest on recycling day. Fixed lamp works great, I can read at night or play on the computer without turning on the overhead light. Tool box....for some reason hubby respects that and I can put my tools in it without them disappearing into the vast maw of his shop....they are actually in the house where I use them. Radio that doesn't work, turfed it. Gee, I feel better already, grin. More stuff still to go though.....cardboard boxes, yup, empty, down cellar for fire starter...much better than cluttering up the livingroom. Stapler, took that for my office. Pictures of Beckie, nope, can't have um, out of my cold, dead hands, grin...mine, mine, mine.

.

I have hoarding tendancies (I think) but hubby is a thrower outer, so we balance each other very nicely.
Moving hemispheres twice and never actually owning the place you live, really helps with the tendancy. I just don't want to have to move a lot of junk and having a complete clean out twice in 10 years really puts you back on track!!

So I am able to push down the 'collecting' cause I HATE packing and moving more than I like collecting!

Vehicular hoarding I could do without And then you add son's collection. They just can't get rid of anything on wheels, and mourn over any vehicle they once had and no longer do. That one was for sure a keeper It sure takes up a lot more space that the in house hoarding, which I just throw into boxes and into his den.