[monochrome]

How? Just a few alarming observations from yesterday

Family of 5 - one college graduate, but many of her things are still here.

• 163 Coats (all types), not counting youth sizes saved for future grandchildren
  • a bit more than 1 per year per family member for an average of 23 years
• 3700 books (estimate by measuring feet of shelf space * avg. books/ft.)
  • 1. Inherit 3000 books
  • 2. Buy each other 5 books a year for 23 years
• 367 CD's by actual count, not including burned mixes
  • I can't even begin to guess - I've never bought one
• 127 DVD's
  • Christmas, Easter, Birthday * 5 people * 8 years
• 263 VHS tapes, including self-recorded
  • We actually watch the DVD's every year or two. They're all re-releases of classic old movies. VHS don't get used any more because the VCR broke and I refused to replace it, meaning my wife is replacing the old VHS movies with DVD's - You can't win.

I was afraid to start on shoes - but I did count 31 pairs of used athletic shoes neatly stacked on a shelf in the garage. When 3 children who play 2 sports each year for 10 years and their feet grow - - - At least my son's college gear is provided by the University Athletic Department.

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Last edited by monochrome; 03-30-2009 at 02:24 PM.

[Gooshin]

i can pack everything i own (not counting furniture) into my VW Golf and still fit a passanger in the front. I think thats pretty good.

However i go through my junk every 6 months or so and just throw shit out.

Its much easier to keep a clean residence when you dont have STUFF everywhere, and its VERY difficult not to packrat, because we all want more stuff.

[Jonson PL]

haha wait until you move again and again !! This is our third house. The rule of thumb is if a box has not been unpacked in 6 months it is not longer required and should be donated , thrown out.

We of course have never followed this rule and have boxes stored away that may have been sealed since the first move !!

Luckliy my wife is pretty good at letting things go - me I am a huge packrat and would never thorw anything away - For example it was only a few years ago my wife convinced to let go of my Assembler book (computer language) that I have not used since 1985 haha.

I gotta learn that rule too. I'm terrible at just not taking the choices, but instead saving things forever, for the time that some small thingy just might come in handy.

[Nowhere Matt]

For heaven's sake, it's downright ridiculous. We're clearing out the house since we're moving (sort of a two step thing, with us ending up overseas), and it's amazing how much "stuff" manages to find its way to our home. Spent the past few weeks selling, donating, freecycling everything in sight, and still a pile left to go.

Those of you who haven't bought a house yet, when you do, just say NO to buying things. I REALLY didn't need three sets of speakers, three separate video game systems, or 20 SLRs...

Dibs on "that stack of old albums I never get to listen to anymore and don't even own a turntable". Especially the ones that really belonged to your last girlfriend before you met your wife.

[pingflood]

How? Just a few alarming observations from yesterday

Family of 5 - one college graduate, but many of her things are still here.

• 163 Coats (all types), not counting youth sizes saved for future grandchildren
  • a bit more than 1 per year per family member for an average of 23 years
• 3700 books (estimate by measuring feet of shelf space * avg. books/ft.)
  • 1. Inherit 3000 books
  • 2. Buy each other 5 books a year for 23 years
• 367 CD's by actual count, not including burned mixes
  • I can't even begin to guess - I've never bought one
• 127 DVD's
  • Christmas, Easter, Birthday * 5 people * 8 years
• 263 VHS tapes, including self-recorded
  • We actually watch the DVD's every year or two. They're all re-releases of classic old movies. VHS don't get used any more because the VCR broke and I refused to replace it, meaning my wife is replacing the old VHS movies with DVD's - You can't win.

I was afraid to start on shoes - but I did count 31 pairs of used athletic shoes neatly stacked on a shelf in the garage. When 3 children who play 2 sports each year for 10 years and their feet grow - - - At least my son's college gear is provided by the University Athletic Department.

OK, you're making me feel better. What we did about CDs and DVDs was get some of the cases from Office Depot that hold like 150 without their cases and jus stuck them in there. Now we just have two big "binders" full instead of entire shelves.

Books, those are the hardest to get rid of. We did a sort of three step approach. First, we pulled all the "classics" (e.g. Voltaire, Swift, Dostoyevsky, Shelley, Pynchon, Eco yada yada). Then wife went through and pulled all the ones she'd either re-read or hadn't read and intended to. Then I did the same. We probably ended up with half our collection left. We'll go through those and see if any are worth $5+ used in which case we'll list them on amazon. The rest get donated or given away.

Clothes we're pretty ok on -- every fall we donate whatever we don't use.

[monochrome]

Yeah, we need to let go of stuff. When my wife's parents died - this is literally the truth - she and her siblings paid a used bookseller $100 to haul away 2/3 of the books and divided the "good stuff" equally between them. That means they KEPT 9000 books!

That's what happen when you marry into a family of history professors who lived in a 3-story, 15 room house for 40 years. Of all my relatives and parents and in-laws, I'm the only one who doesn't work for a University.

Sad thing is we give bags of stuff to charity every month or so and supply things to all the church bazaars in out town.

It still just keeps coming in somehow.

[jeenyus]

I just packed all my stuff and it fits in two plastic totes. I think all my stuff(except my snowboard) would fit in my trunk if I didn't have a tool box in it.

[reeftool]

We moved to our present home in 2000 after living in our previous place for 23 years. I think the next time I will just call Waste Management and have them drop off a roll off. No kidding. A lot of that "precious stuff" we packed up is still packed up in the attic and basement.

[KrisK10D]

when we moved out of our last house, I took stuff we were throwing away to the dump,
where you payed by weight. The total? over 3 tons

Just went through the same thing at my Dads place. Only 2 tons here tho. Still, it cost me over a grand to dispose of it.

I'm not as big a hoarder as my Mum was (even if my HDD disagrees ). I go through the wardrobe every year and donate that which I no longer wear and I've never been a 'girly shoe collecter'

My 2 weaknesses are books that I never, never throw out, and mail... I have a distinct paranoia about throwing personal mail out in the household rubbish. Damn you Hollywood!

[Dan]

How do we acquire so much crap?

INFLOW > OUTFLOW

It's a simple stock-flow problem. To reverse the process, increase the outflow and/or reduce the inflow. If done to a sufficient degree, the inequality will reverse and the stock will decline.

This is why everyone needs to know at least one person with a truck.

[ABCWinter]

Basement is full of tools, tools, more tools, tools again, tools, and tools.holiday decorations, books books and you guessed it more books, 2 freezers 1 small fridge. Washer and dryer and ornaments for outside and inside stored downstairs. Do not want to even think about the rest of the useless crap. Oh and a desktop computer that is never being used...

I collect ponies, the classics were my favourite, but went crazy on a spending spree on the new ones til the company decided to rerelease the same ratty pony, then changed to polly want to be. Money can be replaced, but the countless time I wasted on that junk, ignoring my children in the process, can never be brought back. Thankfully I have a very smart man who helped me see the light an quit the habbit before it was too late.
I plan to get rid of the rest this Christmas of the new pony crap I was suckered to buy. Sometimes we all have to learn our lesson the hard way. We all should learn from it and ask ourself, do we really need it. Most of the time the answer is no.

I bought both kids a Nintendo DS, and games. Now I look at it what a waste of money. Should have bought a camera for them instead. They would get much more joy taking a picture of their family and new baby sister or brother on the way. Get to print some out a make their very own scrapbook.

Abcwinter

[Jun Park]

I bought the strobes recently listed by pingflood so I have a feeling that at some point in the future, I'll be saying the exact same thing!

For heaven's sake, it's downright ridiculous. We're clearing out the house since we're moving (sort of a two step thing, with us ending up overseas), and it's amazing how much "stuff" manages to find its way to our home. Spent the past few weeks selling, donating, freecycling everything in sight, and still a pile left to go.

Those of you who haven't bought a house yet, when you do, just say NO to buying things. I REALLY didn't need three sets of speakers, three separate video game systems, or 20 SLRs...

[pingflood]

I did my best to try to get you to buy more.

[OregonJim]

I thought I'd be nice to my wife for Valentine's Day this year by cleaning out one of my "storage" rooms so she'd have a place to do her bead/jewelry work.

Well, I did, and guess what? I found another room behind it!

I'm sick of all the knick-knacks people give me on birthdays and holidays. Those things pile up
and then end up at goodwill.