My husband is a pack rat!!!! I can't throw anything away unless I sneak around and pitch crap on garbage day after he leaves for work. If an appliance dies he has to parts all of it. How many cut off cords and nuts and bolts do we need? Boxes of magazines because he might need an article from it. Shit! we have the internet, I am sure I can find what he needs from there.

If I supply the booze and a dumpster who wants to help me turn this place upside down and get rid of it all?

My grandmother was the same way, to the point where she had a freezer where she put meat that went bad. Twenty years she stored stuff, and her house was a haven for decomposition and mold. About 6 years ago my parents sent her away for a weekend, raided her house and threw out almost everything. They got rid of all the mold on the walls, even the meat freezer - which had failed restart after a power outing, resulting in the inside of it being coated in black, hairy mold. They had to repaint a lot of the house, buy her new appliances and even do some structural work.

Intervene before it gets bad!

That could have been written by my wife. Solution? She relegates me and my junk to the basement. She gets everywhere else. Except now she's getting fed up with the basement too. I need more sheds.

Posted by Lexi My grandmother was the same way, to the point where she had a freezer where she put meat that went bad. Twenty years she stored stuff, and her house was a haven for decomposition and mold. About 6 years ago my parents sent her away for a weekend, raided her house and threw out almost everything. They got rid of all the mold on the walls, even the meat freezer - which had failed restart after a power outing, resulting in the inside of it being coated in black, hairy mold. They had to repaint a lot of the house, buy her new appliances and even do some structural work. Intervene before it gets bad!

oooooh not quite that bad. I would shoot him first. I know older folks get that way for some reason, kinda sad but I am guessing I know where it starts.

Posted by Myelin That could have been written by my wife. Solution? She relegates me and my junk to the basement. She gets everywhere else. Except now she's getting fed up with the basement too. I need more sheds.

Are you sure you are not married to me? The basement is what prompted this . I started cleaning the basement and realized after I started that when he put the hole in the block wall for the woodstove he never cleaned the concrete chips out of the drainage channel. OMG no wonder when it floods the water is not moving very well. He has 2 barns, each are double the size of the house and 2 floors and a detached garage and they are full!

TWO barns and a detached garage??!! He rocks!

Posted by Myelin TWO barns and a detached garage??!! He rocks!

WOW!

I'm a bit of a pack rat myself. Shutterbug gave one rule about it and she otherwise tolerates it.

"It has to be out of the way!" In other words, if she doesn't trip over it, it can stay.

Works beautifully with us. I end up doing a cleaning once or twice a year to cull the herd. Also, some of the stuff I've hung on wound up being used again and other people have benefitted from the collection. The garage was just done and now, I have the work shop to tidy up.

Posted by shellyl I know older folks get that way for some reason, kinda sad but I am guessing I know where it starts.

If Lexi's grandmother was alive for the depression** and/or time after (watching her parents having had to deal with it, I guess) would be a good cause for pack-ratting. Many people who lived through that kept newspapers (PILES of them) and aluminum foil, and pack-ratted everything else. Weird things. Used lightbulbs.

I used to do that until I realized it was stupid. So, I got rid of my HUGE wardrobe that I hadn't worn in years (Kept maybe 1/8 of the clothes I had before) and am still going through things saying to myself, "If I really need something like this, again, I'll buy another one."

It's hard ... some things are just so useful.

I think improving storage space helped me, and when I get on a cleaning/throwing shit out kick, it really takes over until everything is clean and/or gone : ) Good luck, shelly!


**Edit: I meant the FIRST depression, not the second one ;)

I once had a room-mate who saved empty toothpaste tubes.

Hoarding is a strange behaviour. There's something going on in the mind of someone who can't let go of general ephemera. Toilet paper rolls. Hundreds of them. Old lottery tickets, stapled together and referenced and cross referenced against the week's winning numbers, filed away but always within reach. Want to know the winning 6 numbers from the 6/49 back in August 14, 1985? I know someone who can help you. Newspapers, magazines stacked in towers, floor to ceiling, with narrow passageways allowing a person a slim avenue from bedroom to kitchen to bathroom. Labyrinthine and complex. The Kennedy assassination is in a pile on the other side of the room, along with the Rodney King riots, OJ's verdict, the Challenger explosion. Weird behaviour.

Posted by shellyl My husband is a pack rat!!!! I can't throw anything away unless I sneak around and pitch crap on garbage day after he leaves for work.

We hate that. He might start hiding stuff from you

Posted by shellyl If an appliance dies he has to parts all of it. How many cut off cords and nuts and bolts do we need?

A lot, but I try to keep mine in the area underneath my (abnormally large) workbench.

Posted by shellyl Boxes of magazines because he might need an article from it. Shit! we have the internet, I am sure I can find what he needs from there.

I used to do that, but then.... the internet. Yeah. What you said. And recycling! You might be able to convince him to start scrapping it for $$$. Even as a pack rat, useful money > possible useful stuff.

Posted by shellyl If I supply the booze and a dumpster who wants to help me turn this place upside down and get rid of it all?

I'm in if I can keep some of the parts out of it.. I don't have enough extension cords and lcd screens and nichrome wire and.... ...maybe I shouldn't come.

Forget the dumpster.


Get 4 cinderblocks, and sit them beside each other, forming a little square.

Get an empty 55 gallon drum (you can buy one for about $5). Sit the drum on top of the cinderblocks.

Punch some holes in the drum (or use my favorite way and shoot it a few times )

Start burning!

I'm a pack rat, I have a hard time living with myself.

Posted by sheNANigans I'm a pack rat, I have a hard time living with myself.

but Nan.. You have awesome pack rat stuff..there is a difference!




Then again, I can't judge, they just delivered my vintage dual seat outhouse. My plans are to use it for storage & potting shed/projects. I'm adding shelves to store junk!

I constantly need to sift through my husband's crap... he collects anything and everything and there just isn't enough room sometimes!

Thanks guys ! He is not so bad I guess hehe typical guy from what I am seeing. OMG though I like things clean I hate having to dust off junk that has not even been seen in years.

Posted by shellyl Thanks guys ! He is not so bad I guess hehe typical guy from what I am seeing. OMG though I like things clean I hate having to dust off junk that has not even been seen in years.

Maybe offer to compromise... make him do the dusting in the rooms with his junk in it (should lead to a higher concentration in some rooms, but some rooms being clean), or use rubbermaid containers for things....

It's always interesting to hear about these things from a woman though... I keep thinking "yeah, of course, i mean, who doesn't..."

Posted by PorkChopExpress Forget the dumpster. Get 4 cinderblocks, and sit them beside each other, forming a little square. Get an empty 55 gallon drum (you can buy one for about $5). Sit the drum on top of the cinderblocks. Punch some holes in the drum (or use my favorite way and shoot it a few times ) Start burning!

LOL I have one of those but I have used it so much that it is ready to fall apart. Off to the recycle center and cram another one in the Jeep .

I am such an exploring pack rat.
do i need a rag that i found in westboro? no.
do i need a bunch of used toothbrushes. probably not.
do i need a christmas decoration and a piece of a plate from northampton.. well yes, ok, i need that...

Oh dear.

Hoarders are actually insane.. I don't know why filling your home with garbage isn't more socially unacceptable.

My mother is a terrible. She will go into absolute hysterics if I try to throw out anything in her house. I'll go over there for the weekend and see the same broken toys, piles of magazines, dead plants and giant piles of chaos that have been lying around unmoved for the last 15 years.

When my parent's kick the bucket, my brother and I are going to have the fun task of taking shovels and filling about 10 dumpsters full of worthless crap. There's rooms in that house that no one has even been in for the last 10 years because they're full of stuff floor to ceiling.

Terrifyingly, my mother isn't half as bad as her sister, who sports the classic floor to ceiling newspaper corridors and has managed to fill a 5 bedroom house with about 500 large rubbermaid bins full of crap.

It's serious mental illness. If it were my spouse I'd be sending them off to see a psychologist, not giving them barns to fill..

If anybody needs storage.... I'll cut you a good deal!

I have a few dead pack rats around my room. I really ought to get back in the habit of not living with my... umm... art work.