Foo - packrat?

Hell, my name is explody pup, and I am a packrat.

*sigh*

Okay, they say admitting you have a problem is the first, and most difficult, step to resolution. But, yeah, I have a lot of crap I'll never, ever, ever, ever have a use for. Okay, it's good that I kept my engineering texts from school. But do I need that phychology book? NO! Do I need all my notes from my 4 (5) years of school? NO! So I've been slowly going through this crap and tossing what I don't need or want. Its all in a growing pile in the corner. Hopefully I can talk one of my house-owning friends to hold a garage sale sometime in the near future.

But, as a packrat, there is a lot of crap that's hard to throw away. For example, why the hell can't I get rid of my copy of Song of Roland that I put off reading in my senior year of high school? I have a box full of **** I'm never going to read, yet I still manage to convince myself that maybe it'll be useful in the future. BULL****!

And then there's the worst of all. Gifts. I have 2 boxes full of crap that I absolutely cannot get rid of because someone at some point gave it to me as a gift. Yeah, I really liked Lord of the Rings when I was 14. That doesn't mean I want a ****ing LOTR calendar every ****ing Christmas! No, I don't want to read what JRR Tolkien's motivation behind his story was. Okay, the Bruce Campbell bobbing head statue is cool, but the person who gave it to me was not. And so on. But, still, I can't get rid of it all even though I don't want it.

So, packrats, former packrats, and others: How do you deal with this? I know I need to just toughen up and toss this useless crap that's cluttering my apartment and wasting storage space. I don't want this much stuff. I wish people would stop giving me stuff. Except bike stuff, of course.

Don't throw it out!

Sell it on eBay and buy stuff that you really want!

My gf is...I am desperately trying to break her of this annoying habit. I am the opposite. I moved across country with nothing and could do it again. Nothing is worth my sanity to try and keep.

Useless - Garbage
Useful - give to a warm home/friend or sell
Required - I mean REQUIRED...keep it

Its simple and logical, you just gotta follow through. All the packrats I have encountered become terrified like field mice when they think of throwing out there 5 year old bus ticket that represents some time period they barely remember.

- if you're young, the problem can be dealt with... but when you continue to exhibit 'hoarding' behavior over the years, the result can be debilitating...

- i have a friend, who besides being an insomniac, is also a hoarder... he has a four-car garage filled with every item acquired during his youth and the following 40 years... this can lead to some dangerous situations, such as many multiple 1,000-round lots of 9mm automatic, .38-cal., .357-cal. ammunition and scores of handguns and rifles... fortunately a large steel safe is in the equation, but there are racks upon racks of shelves from floor to ceiling and wall to wall to house his 'stuff'...

- i really, really hope you get a handle on the habit... unchecked, it will only lead to heartache and aborted relationships...

try one of these? (http://www.appliedhistory.com/) :p

If you've ever gone through the belongings of someone who dies, you have a better appreciation of what to keep near you.

When I go, I don't want my people going through my stuff saying "What on Earth was he keeping THIS for?"

it's bad enough that 80% of my stuff is bike related.

Ug i hate some of that junk i have like that. Out it goes!:)

I am a reformed pack rat... I just dumped out tons of stuff I did not need... including 10 year old notes from high school!

lol i still have tons of papers from when i was in kindergarden:D

I used to be a packrat, but moving around so much after college forced my hand :o Sadly, I threw out some of my college papers. This reminds me, I gotta clear out and donate some old clothes.

a metal bucket full of FIRE!!!!


mwahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!! :D

i used to think i was a packrat but my ex-gf takes the cake. when she moved out my apt had so much more space. now i just don't throw **** away out of laziness.

I'm a terrible packrat. But all my stuff is cool! :D

Every once in a while, I get in the right frame of mind for a truly ruthless culling of the crap. I pull all the clothes (and shoes, et cet) out of the closet and throw everything I haven't worn in forever into the donation box. Books used to be a problem, but now thanks to the Internet, I don't need half as many books.

Similarly for movies, I realized a while back that there are only a few films I want to watch over and over, and most of them are at the public library or the video store (or netflix even).

One trick that works pretty well: if you have ten of something (old letters, commemorative plastic cups, et cet) you really don't want to get rid of -- keep one of them and get rid of the rest.

It's not necessarily bad to hold onto things that matter to you. I totally dig that I have tickets from nearly every concert I ever attended. Never throw away your personal journals! Or photographs.

Some stupid junk actually ends up being worth actual money. Anyone else wish they hadn't gotten rid of their old Partridge Family lunch box?

I'm a horrid packrat...partial deraileur cables and such...but I DO find uses for this stuff eventually.

Like the time I used an old advertisement card I got in the mail and folded it into a small disposable parts tray for taking apart a pedal to attempt to service the bearings.

...or when I used an empty 20oz gatorade bottle as a structural support for my desk hutch. and it worked great for five years.

I also am known for keeping every CD-rom I can...I think I actually have a Windows NT 3.1 CD sitting around. Like I'm ever going to use that!

I would consider myself a digital packrat also... I have many many folder GBs of software that I have upgrades years ago, DMGs of system 8, system 7.5 and even discs of system 5... remember that!

(And a disc set for windows for workgroups 3.11 from the early 90's...)

Don't get me started on ZIP discs!

My computer desk looks like my CD cabinet and filing cabinet exploded on it. Plus, there's an XBox sitting on it, under a pile of receipts and a CD(Slayer's Seasons In The Abyss, actually). Probably lots of things on here that I've been looking for, but couldn't find.:lol:


I would consider myself a digital packrat also... I have many many folder GBs of software that I have upgrades years ago, DMGs of system 8, system 7.5 and even discs of system 5... remember that!

(And a disc set for windows for workgroups 3.11 from the early 90's...)

Don't get me started on ZIP discs!
Pfft! I've got about 10 JAZ disks sitting around here somewhere. They probably don't even work anymore. The drive hasn't been hooked up for about 5 years or so.

I was pretty bad. Moving across country made me get rid of a lot of stuff. I still carry a bit that I can't seem to get rid of, but maybe when I do my next long distance move, I'll finally have the rest of this crap thrown away. But I am much better now. When I moved into my apartment here, I had so little, I had to go out and buy some furniture. If I hadn't of thrown out a lot of the things I had, that wouldn't be the case.

Koffee

(And a disc set for windows for workgroups 3.11 from the early 90's...)

Hehe. I have DOS 1.10 in the original box! That... has to be a collector's item... doesn't it?

If you've ever gone through the belongings of someone who dies, you have a better appreciation of what to keep near you.

When I go, I don't want my people going through my stuff saying "What on Earth was he keeping THIS for?"

it's bad enough that 80% of my stuff is bike related.

Along with the "use/don't use" factor, that is definitely one of the things I consider when I throw something out or when I'm thinking about getting something new. I am a packrat at heart, but with regular cleansings, I am in control.
A big help for me has been actually to get something new, a computer w/ internet. Along with the library and video stores, that enabled me to get rid of most of my books and bookshelves (BIG help), phonebooks, CDs, tapes, DVDs, VHS, and almost my stereo system all together... I have come to a hurdle. My vinyl and turntable. I didn't have any trouble at all moving my other music to the computer, but, my LPs won't let me. Can I hook a turntable up to my comp? Oh, and then there's bikes, but I have no intention of doing anything at all about that collection.... Except, get more. :o

I am an unrepentant pack rat, but once in a while I get brutal and throw out a LOT!

It seems like I always have a lot of pending paperwork at home and work, so it gets piled.

Coworkers have called me a "pilot" engineer.

:D

Anyone have a collection of 8-track tapes laying around?

I just re-read my post, and, just to clarify. I don't want to digitize my vinyl collection. I just can't bring myself to get rid of it... Can't... Saving a CD to computer is no big deal. What's the difference? But vinyl? that would be like keeping a photocopy of a painting and throwing the original away.