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Old 04-22-2019, 10:53 PM
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Default To hoard or not to hoard

Yesterday's question got me thinking of another question......some of us have moved quite often, some of us haven't moved in years.

When we put our house on the market our realtor had to bring in junk--err, clutter---err, stuff to fill our house. We joked quite often that we were minimalist due to the lack of stuff in our house. On the opposite, my parents recently moved after living the same house for 20+ years. My parents had two yard sales to downsize some of their stuff because their new home was quite smaller. Now that they've been in their home these past 6+ months, I listen to my mother complain every single day that her house is too small for all of her junk, err--hoarding--um, knick-knacks? Her clutter drives me bonkers!

So what about you?
Are you (your SO, your children) a hoarder? Or do you keep to the bare minimal when it comes to your home?


**And just for the record, we are NOT talking about our digi supplies, because if we are all being honest, we are hoarders in that department!

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Old 04-22-2019, 11:38 PM
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I have SUCH a tendency towards hoarding, but my husband is a "throw it away if you don't use it daily" kind of guy, and after having to get rid of stuff for 5 moves, I have seen the error of my hoarding ways. It's way too much work to keep stuff, even if it's out of the way.

I read Marie Kondo's book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and the idea of being surrounded by things that spark joy really spoke to me. While I'm no minimalist, I do a pretty good job of not buying things I don't need/have space for and of letting go of things that have no purpose in my life anymore. It feels really freeing to not be surrounded by stuff.

My grandmother, on the other hand, had to move to a new house (while keeping her old house) because of all of her stuff...like once she pulled out a church bulletin from the 60's out of a box in her living room. There literally was not room to live in her house because she can't bear to part with sentimental things. So I have a genetic disposition to hoarding and also a living reminder not to. : )
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Old 04-23-2019, 04:17 AM
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My husband is a book, usb, jacket and stationary hoarder (the last one is simply because he gets office supplies from the university he works at). As to jacket, it refers to any winter clothes really, because he is soooo sensitive of the cooler weather. He'd rather be drenched in sweat and laughed at for wearing so many layers of clothes in the warmer weather than risking it to feel cold. I hate it, because, it means he has more clothes than me in the wardrobe and a whole lot of laundry for me.
My son is a prospective hoarder as I see it. His little study desk has lots of little pieces of papers and stuffs, that I see as junks, but he sees them as mementos. So, every now and then I have to force him to clean up his desk to make space for his school books!
I used to be a hoarder, too, growing up. However, living alone far away from home and constant moving taught me to keep only to the essentials. Even now, living in an apartment gives us limited space, so I try my best to not hoard.
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Old 04-23-2019, 06:51 AM
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Toys R Us may have closed, but it's alive and well in my basement. My younger daughter and I were going to go through it all (or at least start to) over winter break, but we all had nasty colds. Maybe this summer we can clear out some of the clutter. I don't need to hoard physical stuff like I did when I was younger.
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Old 04-23-2019, 09:43 AM
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Moving definitely helps clear things out! I keep more than my husband but nowhere near a hoarder. I have some decor (or junk Wendy LOL) but try to keep things clutter free. It does get easier as the kids get older. They have less stuff and are better able to clean up after themselves.
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Old 04-23-2019, 11:09 AM
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I am getting better and better at getting rid of stuff. When I was younger I wanted to keep everything but slowly but surely I have started really being able to let go of things.

Part of what drew me to digital scrapbooking way back when was I did not want all the stuff around me.. I love the idea of paper crafting but I really don't like how much room it takes up!

There are still some things I haven't let go of but I'll get there soon

A few years ago a forest fire went through my hometown and several of my friends lost their homes. One of my friends has documented the process on FB on how losing everything really helped her evaluate what is important and what isn't. There are so many things we have that we really don't need.

As a spin off - I keep telling my husband if he wants to buy me a gift for our anniversay I'd love just ONCE for a housecleaner to come in and do a deep clean on the house because I feel that would help me SO much and then I'd really want to keep up with not having stuff all around.. sigh he doesn't think it's romantic enough but I'm wearing him down on that too!
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Old 04-23-2019, 11:47 AM
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I love to get rid of things if they serve no purpose or have no beauty. Unfortunately, I live in a house with a bunch of hoarders so I don't get to do that very often.

We are currently going through my grandfather's house as he prepares to sell it & move into an assisted living facility. His house was not hoarders-level where you couldn't walk through or anything like that but he has HUNDREDS of books, HUNDREDS of knick-knacks, etc. It gives me the heebie-jeebies just looking at all of it stacked and piled and tucked everywhere.

HOWEVER, he did let me have a vintage collection of Shakespeare plays in miniature paperbacks that I can't wait to display in my house. They are functional AND beautiful which is the best of both worlds!
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Old 04-23-2019, 03:09 PM
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I’m a hoarder... grew up with the saying drilled into me, you never know when you will need it... and once you get rid of it, you will never have it again. I’m also very sentimental and have a really hard time getting rid of things with meaning... also I bought things I like, I still like it. My hubby is a hoarder of technology. My basement is the worst... 12 yrs of Jake stuff... thinking oh, I will sell this... put it on eBay, etc. it’s my goal this year to purge.
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Old 04-23-2019, 09:23 PM
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This is a GREAT question!!! It's a subject that I just spent a month dealing with...

We just finished clearing my grandparent's house and my mom was totally shocked at the amount of stuff that we found. The house always looked neat & tidy, so she expected it to go quickly and easily... it took almost a month!

A couple of examples, my Grandma kept just about EVERY greeting card she ever received. It was neatly stored away, but we had to go through it. We kept anything that had a letter with it so I can go through and scan if it's anything related to the family. Other than that, we tossed.
My Grandpa had a shed outside that had bits of wire, screws, an old used toilet seat. LOL!! A bunch of junk that we had to throw away.

But, I am very sentimental and LOVE keeping things that bring back memories & feelings.
So, guess who has 24 boxes to bring home from my mom's house of things that I felt like I needed to keep???! I know once it's here, I'll go through and get rid of things, but I was shocked when I got it all together and it added up to so much!!
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Old 04-23-2019, 11:20 PM
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I was definitely a hoarder before but have been working on it for the last few years. I’ve been donating stuff and decluttering a bit here and there so have made a good dent in the odds and ends in the basement and closets. I’m not done yet and it’s getting easier to let things go so hope to clear a lot more out this year.
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Old 04-24-2019, 08:12 AM
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UGH we are somewhat of a mix but Kennedy is a MEGA hoarder lol. The child thinks she has to keep anything and everything. She will even keep boxes and things from the boxes like the backgrounds from barbie packaging. It drives me nuts. We are moving in the spring and I foresee A LOT of things being thrown out. I tell her all the time we need to go through the toys but honestly it will be easier if I do it alone....but at this point I don't even want to do it lol

I hoard certain things. But I refuse to Marie Kondo my house. lol
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Old 04-24-2019, 02:00 PM
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I fall into the sentimental hoarder category. I keep on to old diaries and weird things from my yuth and some of the kids' baby clothes and knick knacks. I also hoard stationery and planners, stickers, scrapbook supplies (physical stuff AND digital). I have a knick knack or thingamabob for everything and most is still stuck in the attic after our move 4 years ago! My husband shoved everything in there and it is impossible to find things, even after I labeled every box with content and colour coded it by room. Sadly I did not take part in the stuffing it in so my husband put EVERY single label wrong side in and all the way in the back.
So now I have double copy of all my harry potter books, plenty of suitcases (yet we rarely travel), too many empty boxes, old computers, rugs, cloth diapers an other crap filling it up. To make it worse, it's my husband's granparents' old house so there is an old bike, one of those radio tables, another table or two, a whole weave (dismantled thank god) and I think there is an old chair up there too. What I wouldn't give for someone to just come and organise everything in our house and declutter our attic.
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Old 04-24-2019, 09:55 PM
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I fall somewhere in the middle. I'm not a shopper and don't buy unless we have a true use for something, which helps keeps clutter under control. But I'm also a sentimental keeper and practical enough that I don't like to throw out things that we might need to re-buy in the future. I tend to be drowning in paper clutter but okay with other stuff. (But yeah...the idea of having to clean it all out to move makes me want to cry. I have a lot that wouldn't come with us if we moved.)

A couple of summers ago we had some water damage in our basement. We were forced to throw away soooo much. It was such a big job to go through and throw it all out--notebooks from our college days, years worth of books from before I switched to ebooks, baby clothes, my kids' artwork...But in reality, there was very little that I'm upset about losing--generally there's a reason it was down in the basement. (And the few things that really did mean something to us we were able to dry out and keep. I may have 1/10th the collection of kids artwork that I used to, but I still do have some and have pictures of a lot of what we tossed.)
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Old 04-24-2019, 10:27 PM
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I have very few material things that I'm attached to, so I'm ALL about getting rid of stiff. So is my husband. We've unloaded a crap ton of stuff in the few times we've moved during our marriage. I love it!
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Old 04-26-2019, 03:10 PM
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My husband will say I'm a hoarder. My childhood room in France was full of stuff and I went through it and threw away a bunch of stuff but also kept a lot.

As a mother I started hating things on top of furniture because it made dusting so much harder. So I now like to just have the bare minimum but of course I like to also hang on to a few sentimental things.
I do like to buy new kids books and toys though... so maybe I'm a hoarder after all.
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