Hoarding...not just on TV

:hello: Hello and welcome, suzitiger. Good to have you aboard. I'm impressed that you have taken ownership of your stuff from your parents' home and are working through it, and recognising that maybe you have generational tendancies to hoard.

I consider myself someone with tendancies rather than a full-blown hoarder but it could easily get out of hand, I suspect lack of space is a limiting factor. I should add that I am extremely ingenious with space, so if I say I haven't room for X, you can be sure that I've really tried to squash it or something like it, into my home in the past.

At the weekend I was having a little rootle in my clothing drawers and turned some items into the light which I'd frankly forgotten. So I am bringing them into use (some are winter-appropriate) to see if they still fit/ suit my lifestyle.

If they do, they're keepers, if they don't, they're outta here.

I think it's very easy to have a lot more clothes than one person needs. I don't have a very demanding social life, for example, ususally hanging with pals in their homes, maybe a pub night or a movie, not big dressy occasions. Show me an occasion requiring dress-up clothes and I'll show you my back, retreating at speed. I need smart-cas for the office, outdoorsy type stuff for walking or allotmenteering and, apart from loungy stuff for home, that's IT.

So, apart from an "interview" outfit and an emergency LBD, I can shed a few items, and will do so. Those drawers need to be able to be closed easily, preferably this millenium.:o:p

imataloss, so in agreement with the whole less-is-more thing. I've seen stuff proliferate like bunnies in the course of my life (child in the late sixties/ seventies, young adult in the eighties, middle-aged now). Stuff just grows and grows, you don't even have to be affluent to be overwhelmed with possessions, heaven knows I'm not rich.

Whereas experiences are held in your memory and you don't have to dust them, move them when you decorate, move them when you move (yah boo sucks Mr Pickford) and enhance your life and develop your skills. I want more of them and less of the physical stuff.

I have a bunch of flowers on the table beside this desk. They're in a jamjar and look no worse for not being in a vase.

I agree Thriftwizard, it's almost certainly not a hoardy thing if it's something that is going to be used now or at some definite time in the very near future. A hoardy thing is, imo, something that could be used or has the potential to be useful at some undisclosed point in this life or the next, and all the stuff that's bound up in that (I may never find it again, it's collectable *roll eyes*, no-one I know has one etc).

This is moot of course but is an event where dress up clothing is required not an experience too? I also hate formal events of any kind but they're still experiences, just maybe not enjoyable ones.

I really dont understand hoarders. I think it must be [sadly] a mental illness and they need help. Why else would anyone hang on to cheap tat, packaging,newspapers and so on? Its utter trash cluttering up their lives.
My late MIL hoarded. Utter rubbish, old clothes of her deceased husband were kept old kids toys you name it she filled the house with it. Was miserable and selfish all the time. What a way to live a life.

I de - Rcharded my plastic box collection yesterday - used as freezer containers. WEnt through the cupboard matching boxes to lids and binned any strays - from old butter containers (so handy for a 1 portion meal) to sturdy lock n locks. Result is a cupboard i can get into without everything avalanching onto my head and still more boxes than I need but at least they all match and can be of some use.

I have a posh frock I bought from TK maxximus a couple of years ago in the sale. I never have and I never will wear it. I really should ebay it.