What do you have too much of?
 I have been cleaning like a maniac since I started my summer holidays, and the house is starting to look better in some rooms at least...today's goal is the computer room.I do take some responsibility for the mess of course, but by far and away it's my hubby who cannot let anything go. He talks a good game ("If you haven't used it in six months it should be thrown out..." he says) but that appears to only apply to my things. His things are sacred. And once things start to pile up I tend to give up and stop being dilligent myself. I've thrown out/recycled twenty one bags of garbage so far. I think, if it weren't for me, he'd be on Hoarders. His obsession seems to be empty jars, empty boxes, empty two litre Coke bottles, etc. Not stuff of value, but he gets mad when he sees me dispose of them. He once had eighteen two litre bottles lined up on the kitchen counter (great) to use later for batches of Kool Aid. I waited until he went out of town on business, got rid of them all, and it took him over a month to ask where they'd gone. But of course, when I told him, he flipped out about how important they were. So, I do all the throwing out when he's at work and just deal with the moodiness after. So, I was thinking about those things that I definitely have too many/too much of... I have way too much yarn. (I crochet, and collect it like crazy, but it is fairly well organized and stored. I also have way too many winter scarves, as they are a great project to try out a new novelty yarn with...I think I've made over fifty for myself. I also use extras to make hats and scarves for homeless shelters, so I like to think that balances out my yarn karma just a little.) I definitely have way too many books. But I do think that the solution to that is simply to keep on buying bookshelves. It's not like they are scattered all over the house. They look nice on the shelves, and I cannot give them away. They are like old friends to me. Bowls. It's an addiction. I admit it. But they are all neatly stacked on shelves, and they do serve a purpose. My hubby says I should pick one colour and get rid of everything else. I say pfffft to him, and remind him of the assorted two litre bottles he infests our home with. At least my bowls are pretty. And finally, I have too many clothes and too much costume jewellery. I admit it, but I do have it all (mostly) neatly contained in the closet in the spare room, and in a few dressers. I do quarterly purges and try to donate as often as I can, but I know that I have too many things. So I was just curious. I know you are all very disciplined, neat, tidy, and organized (unlike me) but does anyone want to fess up and share what they have way too much of? No judgments here... |
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| We have a really small apartment right now and one entire room is full of my clothes. They are EVERYWHERE! It's really awful because it gets to the point where they're all piled up and I can't find anything, so I just buy more. I did just give away a huge suitcase full of clothes to a womens shelter... so at least someone is benefiting from my problem. |
| LOL Good topic... BTW, NO such thing as too many books! I have no idea how many I have but I do need more bookcases  I tend to hoard paperwork, mail, bills, stuff I more than likely will never need to look at again but I just let them stack up and fill drawers and cover my desk until, like now, things are falling off and I need to sort through it and throw it all out. Clothes too but not because I'm trendy or need the newest things all the time, mostly because my weight fluctuates so much from year to year and I'm afraid to throw out bigger stuff and stubbornly refuse to throw out smaller stuff. I hate clutter. I don't like knick knacks, or stuff on the walls, or unnecessary items in drawers etc. It still builds up though especially when you live with other people. It's actually probably one of the main reasons my husband and I are no longer together....  |
| Getting ready to do some work around here is forcing me to take inventory. Earlier this week a van load of stuff went to women's shelter thrift store. Glassware (one of my downfalls, like your bowls Tracie) went with tears in my eyes. I did have 16 of them so split the amount, all matching dessert bowls went. They've been with me for 42 years, never in dishwasher so not etched. I have 4 sets of dishes (service 12 with servers), am not kosher, so no excuse. We don't entertain, so one is plenty, but which set...........? Mugs.....oh my. Cups for the dishes, mugs because I like larger cups, special mugs like my mother's Portmeirions I gave her and are now mine, my ceramic commuter mugs that hold 24 ounces...... I'm going thru pots and pans.......still 50:50 if I'm going with induction stove top (I prefer gas but moving gas lines requires pressure test and if the kitchen fails.........? If induction I'm left with only steel pots which knocks out the Revere and Caphalon....... Casseroles, they must have been reproducing under the cabinets. Cleaning supply cabinet is another den if iniquity.......3 cans of End Dust? How much silver polish? I know those chemicals are up to something........ I hate clothes.....so why do I have so much? Shoes? I'm not Imelda Marcos (I do know a lady with 600 pairs), I just can stand to depart with the old ones........unless they truly don't fit. Those that fit but look like crap.......are still here? Books.........well, so far I've donated 200 horticulture books to a book sale at the garden center and still have another 75 or so. Cook books I've been culling. DH's history books are way, way down. My recreational reading is now on Kindle, what a space saver! Design plans.......work I did 30 years ago, why am I hanging onto the plans? Same with the rest of the clutter associated with it.....tech drawing pens? I'm sure anything with ink is long dried. And papers, just clutter. My secretary desk holds unknown number of pressed and mounted wild flowers......my own little herbarium, yea gads. Oh yeah, and bags of yarn from afghans never made. |
| Your husband sounds a LOT like mine tracie! 2 liter bottles? check! he says he needs them for planting seedlings in. Empty boxes? oh yeah...otherwise what would we do if we ever wanted to return something to the store??? Plastic bags from bread: so he has bags to put home baked bread in (which, granted, he actually does...just not as much as he seems to project he will) Any and ALL resipts...because who knows when Mcdonald's lunches could suddenly become tax deductible? Phone books...ok, Ive never actually gotten an explanation for the keeping of old phone books  ...maybe because he jotted notes in the margins? Office supplies!!!!! OMG the office supplies!  Scott used to be a high school teacher, and he has NEVER gotten over the tendency to hoard sticky notes, staplers,binders, etc....I used to dread the end of the school year, when he'd bring home all the discarded supplies that the students would leave behind. Now me...Id have to say books, except I agree with Stacy on the "you can never have too many" theory  . Also, coffee mugs. I'm like you with the bowls...they are all unique, useful, and pretty. Almost all of them are handmade by potters that I know from my art fairs. Besides...who knows, someday I could invite over a couple dozen friends for coffee! It could happen!  |
The longer I'm on this forum, the happier I am to be single. And the sad thing is I inevitably end up feeling sorry for the husbands!  I don't have to justify what I have too much of. If I'm fine with it, who cares? I hate clutter though, so, reviewing with myself:Clothes? I don't know about quantity but I'm pretty sure I have some that go back to high school, college for sure. Fit back into my skinny jeans again this morning, so that justifies not having thrown them out though lord knows when I last wore them and I have to have my bigger ones that will go over the long johns I seem to live in all winter. Books. Susan - I'd be the one picking up the 200 gardening and any cooking related books you got rid of. I'm definitely of the "one can never have too many books, just too few book cases" school of thought. The only thing I wish I could divest myself of in a more timely manner - yup, me too - is paper work including mail. Periodically I plow ruthlessly through it, but it's the biggest mess maker I have in my life and that's saying a lot given that I live with Sybil. I have boxes full of ribbons the hairy critters have won in various pursuits that I always tell myself I will someday display, and lord knows how many title certificates I promise myself I will some day frame, but I can't toss them. Sweet memories. I just don't want the sweet memories to become something more I have to dust.  Every so often I go through everything like a maniac and I can unmercifully rid myself of certain things, but the above gets spared. Thank heavens for closets. Kristine |
Ok, I have a 3 bedroom house with just me and dogs. The closets are bursting at the seams because of all kinds of clothes, many I have never worn and still have tags on them. Others somehow, just got small. I have been going thru closets and pulling lots of things out because a friend of mine was going to have a garage sale. The sale still hasn't happened. If not soon, I will take to Goodwill or give to Disabeled Vets. Never thought of a womens shelter. It is very difficult for me to part with shoes. With closets and the storage bags under the beds full (no more room under the beds) sadly I have pulled several pairs to contribute. Some go back to my college days and my feet have gotten bigger plus if anyon has noticed, the sizing has changed over the years as well. I have some 7 1/2's that were smaller years ago than the ones I have now. I still have at least 150 pairs left and I found a number of them I have never worn. It's like getting brand new shoes again! My sock drawer is so full I can't close it, the same with underwear. (TMI) Books, 2 bags are full to donate. I also love linens, lots of those as well. My basement is really scarey. To clean out that area what I really need is a match and a bulldozer. There is even an attic like storage area in the garage and the rope for the pull down stairs is broken, not to mention other junk in the garage. Paperwork is out of control, stored in bags in closets and a file cabinet. I even found a saw in my front closet. Don't know how or when that got there.  Yup, way tooooooo much stuff. I wish I had an extra pair of hands.Years ago, my mom also said if it hasn't been used in a year, get rid of it. My dad was one to keep things and she would get rid of his stuff when he wasn't home and she would'nt bring up the subject to him. Why start an 'International Incident' as she would say. He even kept Christmas presents, like shirts, ties, underwear un-opened in his drawers. We would re-wrap for the next Christmas or Birthday. With 3 females in the house, he couldn't win.  Yes, I am embarrassed but that's life. I don't think I have earned hoarder status yet. Here is a little funny. Many years ago, my dad got on this kick about reusing things. He started taking paper towels after they were used and spreading them out on the counters and kitchen table to day and use again. Not much counter or table space. It went on long enough, I told my mom I would fix the situation. I took toilet paper and hung it over the shower curtain rod and towel racks, on some I smeared a little peanut butter. When he saw it, things went back to normal. He never had a chance.  Nancy |
Some might say I have too many cars.  I will vehemently disagree with that! But I do have boxes of car & motorcycle magazines from the mid 80s. I don't know why. I don't ever look at them unless I stumble on them. My college text books (non-engineering ones) have to go. I'll never look at them again. When I finally get my own place, I'll have to force myself not to bring this crap into my new house. |
| There is a periodic thread called "de-crapification" on another BB I belong to. I love that word, cuz that's what it's all about. Throwing out the crap you don't need. Sometimes I think I have too much "stuff," then I read that thread and feel better! Every once in a while I find myself holding onto things. I have to do an intervention on myself. I usually say "if you throw this out then miss it, you can buy another." Hasn't happened yet. It feels good to purge. The one item I will not buy or hold on to is books. That's what the public library is for. And I'm a librarian! |
| I have too many clothes (some with tags still attached, magically too small a week after purchase, some that genuinely did shrink too short --and I'm very short), too many unfinished projects, too much fabric that I will never use. Too much to do, too little time to do it. Too many boxes, general clutter. Hubby seems to think that ALL junk mail that specifically does not have his name on it is my job to deal with. So is de-cluttering. So is everything except: most of the cooking, loading and unloading the dishwasher, mowing the lawn, walking the dogs, grocery shopping for things he wants to cook or eat. Am I missing something? Probably, but nothing leaps to mind. Gawk! don't want to go into hubby bashing mode. That is not what this thread is about. I have too much stuff, too many regrets. |
| I try not to be a junkie and am constantly CONSTANTLY throwing stuff out (by throw out, I mean putting it outside for the daily illegals to drive by to pick it up ...which I'm happy someone gets to use it). I like everything to be clear and clean! ...but I have a bad bad bad addiction to buying my little girl dresses and hair bows!! If I posted a picture, I can guarantee I own more than any store any mommy on here has been in.  |
| I try not to hoard anything and when we moved from our home to this trailer I had a whole lot more to get rid of. Used to have a lot of needlework and stuff but don't do that anymore and books I go to the library for. |
| After raising 4 children i've learned to declutter. As i'm bringing the mail in, I sort through at the garbage can and throw out all junk mail. I pay most bills on line, so I throw out the extra envelope and the envelope the bill came in right into the garbage as well. I don't like clutter. When i get up to go in the kitchen, I always look around the room to see if anything else has to go. I always put the dirty dishes in the dishwaher. I have a thing about dirty dishes in the sink, especially over night. Of course i do have a cat, who I recently found out, can climb up on the counter. The way I deal with receipts is i write the item in my register and as soon as the items show up on my bank statment on line, I throw it away. My hubby, on the other hand likes to make a pile of his and then go through them once a week. I love books and used to have a great collection. 3 moves ago I took them all to the library and donated them. Now when I buy a new book and as soon as I'm done reading it, I donate it to the library....so no more clutter at home. I do save all the oes.org Christmas Cards each year and put them in an album. which I do keep on my shelf in my office. I also keep all the holiday cards i get. I figure people took their time to pick out the perfect Christmas/Birthday/Mother's Day card and I like going through them every once in a while. My Mom/Dad did the same thing, whic I didn't know they had until we were going through their estate after they passed. It was nice to see things from so long ago. My daughter has boxes in my garage that have been there for 6 yrs, 4 moves and with each move a "promise" to go through them. So I can only park my Van in the garage and hold my breath opening the door to scoot out. She needs to get a storage unit. I don't function well in clutter. |
Fat. I have too much fat.  |
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| I have watched the show: "Hoarders: Buried Alive" and there is someone I know well that has those tendencies and it has been a constant ummmm, well struggle is too strong of a word, but a constant issue. I get the attachment to inanimate objects, but the depth of it is hard to understand. |
Abuckie wrote: Fat. I have too much fat. Oh yes...that too, I forgot to mention it! |
| I have too many clothes and why???? Fat...here one day and gone the next...maybe it was that piece of chocolate cake or that to die for praline pecan ice cream. Emails too,definitely need to purge the computer. I also have one stand alone cabinet filled with Christmas candles,oils and ribbon and wrapping paper.I buy after the holidays and replenish it. My daughters think that is funny,but I enjoy having it on hand at Christmas and they have stopped here on the way to a birthday party and have asked me to wrap a present or two.Ha. I cannot function seeing clutter so I store it,out of sight out of mind.LOL! Still does not solve the problem,though.What can I say,oh I know,you never know when you will need it. Robin |
| does dog hair count??? Not sheepie dog hair, LAB dog hair. My yellow lab looks like pig pen from charlie brown but instead of dust cloud following her she has a hair cloud following her. Other than that- hummmm not much, I'm pretty good at cleaning junk out and throwing it away or donanting to Goodwill or other places. My 12 year old son is probably the worst. Everytime its time to clean out his clothes he has out grown or toys he hasnt touched since he was 6 he'll say "But it has sentimental value". UGH so I keep it a while longer then get rid of it while he is at school and he NEVER knows something is gone. I guess stuffed animals are the hardest thing for me to purge. I still have some from my childhood and almost all of the ones my 3 kids have ever gotten. We have bins of them.  |
Abuckie wrote: Fat. I have too much fat. OMG! You mean there is someone else besides me out there that collects & hoards that? |
Dog stuff: Dog beds, harnesses, leashes, collars, beds... Things to donate to Rescue Auctions... A rather large collection of OES hair that I'm spinning and knitting. Tools of all kinds: Every kind of dog grooming tool imaginable. Knitting needles, spinning wheels and spindles, yarn & fiber, stained glass grinders, soldering irons, glass for planned projects, photo enlargers, cameras, lenses. OES figurines and Longaberger baskets. Clothes out the wazoo and shoes that don't fit after multiple foot surgeries but I can't bear to toss out. And quite a bit of nice jewelry that I don't wear much anymore but has a lot of sentimental value. Too much crap!  |
Abuckie wrote: Fat. I have too much fat. don't we all .... too much    I am a computer guy.... so naturally, I have a vast collection of old useless computer hardware boxed up in the closet. This of coarse bothers my fiance because it takes away from her clothes space .... I find it to be a wonderful tactic to keep her from buying more clothse |
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