"Stuff"

[jeff kushner]

We all have "stuff", most of us have too much stuff. Some of us pay others for a space to store our stuff.

"I'm not that bad off yet" ....same thing I said at my first AA meeting 32 yrs ago.....LOL

Who else does this? I know that I'm not alone.

I'm moving over the next couple of months and no surprise, I have "stuff", a LOT of stuff! Its in the process of moving that I'm finding things that I had forgotten I had even bought! It's bordering on gluttony! I'm also finding duplicates of things that I forgot that I already owned one. Not little things but like Camp stoves, you know the Coleman green two burner type? I got 3 of them! Guess how many drills, circular saws, compressors, hand tools I have?

Extension cords? How far do you want to go? Interstate? Got you covered.....I literally have a 1/4 mile of outdoor extension cords! So because I really don't need so many cords I am doing the "Keep the 3 best and give away the rest"


I told Kerry and after I'm done, we'll hold a yard sale with the same price on each item...."free"

 

[TammyJ]

I can't stand it. My husband is a major Hoarder. I am being suffocated. Please, no more!

 

[TammyJ]

I can't stand it. My husband is a major Hoarder. I am being suffocated. Please, no more!

Tammy. Jeff is not a hoarder...he is a Collector. Don't you know the difference???!

 

[DoubleD1996!]

My dad is the same😂. He hauls scrap as well, so the backyard gets random stoves, hot water tanks, and refrigerator on ocassion for a "good haul"

 

[wellington]

My hub has lots of garage stuff. Mostly, the small stuff. Screws, bolts, clamps, etc. Instead of looking for them he would just go buy more.
Luckily though, we go thru the garage at least once a year and clean it up and throw it out. I do the same with my closet, basement and junk drawer.
Everyone has a junk drawer too right?

 

[TammyJ]

You know what's the difference between stuff and junk? Stuff is what you need, and junk is what others think they need.

 

[EppsDynasty]

We all have "stuff", most of us have too much stuff. Some of us pay others for a space to store our stuff.

"I'm not that bad off yet" ....same thing I said at my first AA meeting 32 yrs ago.....LOL

Who else does this? I know that I'm not alone.

I'm moving over the next couple of months and no surprise, I have "stuff", a LOT of stuff! Its in the process of moving that I'm finding things that I had forgotten I had even bought! It's bordering on gluttony! I'm also finding duplicates of things that I forgot that I already owned one. Not little things but like Camp stoves, you know the Coleman green two burner type? I got 3 of them! Guess how many drills, circular saws, compressors, hand tools I have?

Extension cords? How far do you want to go? Interstate? Got you covered.....I literally have a 1/4 mile of outdoor extension cords! So because I really don't need so many cords I am doing the "Keep the 3 best and give away the rest"


I told Kerry and after I'm done, we'll hold a yard sale with the same price on each item...."free"

Congrats ..... 10 yrs here
And on the other "Stuff" I ain't getting rid of anything. Might need it someday and if not my kids might need it someday when I'm gone. If not it will just sit there, no problem.

 

[TechnoCheese]

Ok, but who DOESN’T need a million extension cords? I never have enough!

 

[Tom]

Instead of looking for them he would just go buy more.

THIS is my problem. I have so much stuff that I can't remember what I have. I'll go buy what I need to complete a project and then discover that I already had what I needed two days later...

It got worse when I got married and started living with someone else. My wife is very industrious and she likes to "clean up" my stuff and move things around. I surrendered that battle early on... What's funny is that she gets mad (Italian woman...) when I ask here where the stuff she moved is, as if I'm supposed to be psychic and just know where everything is.

Ok, but who DOESN’T need a million extension cords? I never have enough!

Agreed!

Congrats ..... 10 yrs here
And on the other "Stuff" I ain't getting rid of anything. Might need it someday and if not my kids might need it someday when I'm gone. If not it will just sit there, no problem.

I let my employees talk me into cleaning out the barn at my ranch. It was a lot of old dusty stuff that hadn't been touched in years. We are now at 6 times that I've needed stuff that was up there that we gave or threw away, and I had to go buy it. Still counting...

 

[SinLA]

I am pretty fortunate. My dad was dead set against moving out of his house almost 50 years, and then his sister passed, after having stayed in a house much to large and inappropriate for someone of her age and mobility/health, after her husband died a few years earlier. He saw the outcome of that and agreed to move. My mom spent more than a year getting the house ready for sale and getting rid of stuff and getting the house in order, and eventually they slimmed down, sold, and moved into a 2BR apartment in a city with tons of restaurants and stores within walking distance, plus ample public transportation, have been there 5 years and have never been happier. The only sad thing is they didn't do it 15 years sooner. Every time it rains they don't have to worry about what is leaking, or taking the trash out to the curb, or fixing anything broken. Its been a complete life change for them. They are the worlds oldest "hipsters" in their apartment building where almost everyone else is in their 20s or early 30s, and them in their 80s. Everyone also "watches out" for them, as the sweet old couple in the building, so its really a great reassurance for us kids knowing there are people around to keep an eye on them if needed.

 

[TammyJ]

My husband does NOT have "stuff". He hoards real, genuine, 100% Junk. I mean he never throws away any container whatsoever no matter what it is. Empty plastic soda or juice bottles, boxes, including egg boxes either plastic or cardboard, any plastic squeeze bottle, mayo bottles, peanut butter bottles, etc. etc. I am literally being crowded out of the small house. I live with a true Hoarder, and it's very, very difficult...it's a constant game now of him hoarding the junk and me destroying and dumping it.
He also keeps thousands of different size screws, nuts and bolts, etc.
He puts a few certain size screws in one mayo bottle, and another size screw in another bottle, etc. etc.
The Laundry/storeroom in my house is completely packed and now the living room is beginning to fill up.
It's a nightmare.
Sorry Jeff - I had to get that in...this is a really good thread for a cathartic rant.

 

[EppsDynasty]

My husband does NOT have "stuff". He hoards real, genuine, 100% Junk. I mean he never throws away any container whatsoever no matter what it is. Empty plastic soda or juice bottles, boxes, including egg boxes either plastic or cardboard, any plastic squeeze bottle, mayo bottles, peanut butter bottles, etc. etc. I am literally being crowded out of the small house. I live with a true Hoarder, and it's very, very difficult...it's a constant game now of him hoarding the junk and me destroying and dumping it.
He also keeps thousands of different size screws, nuts and bolts, etc.
He puts a few certain size screws in one mayo bottle, and another size screw in another bottle, etc. etc.
The Laundry/storeroom in my house is completely packed and now the living room is beginning to fill up.
It's a nightmare.
Sorry Jeff - I had to get that in...this is a really good thread for a cathartic rant.

I feel for you, it can get miserable. When we bought our 2 homes 3 years ago it was a Mother and Son who owned the 2 properties. The son had some hoarding in his genes but wasn't that bad, more organized chaos. On the other hand the mother was a hoarder. She (so fortunate) was a hoarder of paper things though, not food or items that would stink. She had thousands of pages of heritage info. Burials, Births and other info from her ancestors. She was a descendant of the Mayflower. She worked at the DMV and we found thousands of pieces of mail sent to the DMV that she saved the envelopes for the stamps. When she did leave the property for a senior home she was living in her car in the driveway, pretty bad. It took my wife and I 4 months to clean the house, 2 1 yard dumpsters dumped once a week for 4 months for a total of almost 40 sq yards. of trash (some weeks we would have them dumped twice). It truly is a disease to pack your living space with so much "stuff" you are unable to live in it.

A cool story .... When we first moved to this area we were pretty poor, with very little stuff. We lived in a travel trailer in the front yard while I rebuilt the home. I had little "stashes' of things like screws, nails, electrical parts (switches, outlets, etc.) and tools. It did not take long (maybe a week) before my stashes started disappearing. I would go to find a certain screw and they would be scattered and have a nail or 2 in it, what in the heck is going on. 1 day I opened a cupboard and there was my rechargeable battery, a Phillips head screw head and a whole lot of other stuff I had. It was in a "nest" looking thing right in the corner, what the heck is this. We've all heard the term "Pack Rat" throughout our lives to describe someone who just can't let go of things. This "nest" was a Pack Rat's little hideaway. When I showed my wife and started to take back MY things, she said "No, if you move that stuff you'll never know where your stuff is. If you leave it "The Nest" alone you'll always know when something disappears where it is." So I did for over a year, just left a pack rat nest in the dinning room cabinet. Would check for MY things often but leave him alone for the most part.
When we tried to use poison "D-con" to eliminate the rodents from our home it was a complete disaster. I would put bait out, it would be gone the next morning but no dead animals or smell for over a week, just kept putting it out. I had the thought of O boy I'm going to get em all, since so much bait had been put out. A couple of weeks later while cleaning under a bathroom cabinet there they were ... all the poison bait blocks I had put out. The Pack Rat was not eating the poison but rather Packing it away. So if ya want to kill a Pack Rat skip the poison and just go straight for the Live Trap to save yourself LOTS of stress.

 

[Tom]

He also keeps thousands of different size screws, nuts and bolts, etc.
He puts a few certain size screws in one mayo bottle, and another size screw in another bottle, etc. etc.

Wait... doesn't every man do that? Isn't that a "thing"? I've been doing that since I was a kid, and I frequently use them too. Well... maybe not "frequently"... but I do use them.

 

[wellington]

Wait... doesn't every man do that? Isn't that a "thing"? I've been doing that since I was a kid, and I frequently use them too. Well... maybe not "frequently"... but I do use them.

Yep, I think every man does that. They also do the "maybe not frequently" when it comes to using them.
My dad however, saved everything, used the different jars too and the neighbors were thankful he did. If they needed any tool, nut, screw, etc, my dad had it.

 

[TammyJ]

I feel for you, it can get miserable. When we bought our 2 homes 3 years ago it was a Mother and Son who owned the 2 properties. The son had some hoarding in his genes but wasn't that bad, more organized chaos. On the other hand the mother was a hoarder. She (so fortunate) was a hoarder of paper things though, not food or items that would stink. She had thousands of pages of heritage info. Burials, Births and other info from her ancestors. She was a descendant of the Mayflower. She worked at the DMV and we found thousands of pieces of mail sent to the DMV that she saved the envelopes for the stamps. When she did leave the property for a senior home she was living in her car in the driveway, pretty bad. It took my wife and I 4 months to clean the house, 2 1 yard dumpsters dumped once a week for 4 months for a total of almost 40 sq yards. of trash (some weeks we would have them dumped twice). It truly is a disease to pack your living space with so much "stuff" you are unable to live in it.

A cool story .... When we first moved to this area we were pretty poor, with very little stuff. We lived in a travel trailer in the front yard while I rebuilt the home. I had little "stashes' of things like screws, nails, electrical parts (switches, outlets, etc.) and tools. It did not take long (maybe a week) before my stashes started disappearing. I would go to find a certain screw and they would be scattered and have a nail or 2 in it, what in the heck is going on. 1 day I opened a cupboard and there was my rechargeable battery, a Phillips head screw head and a whole lot of other stuff I had. It was in a "nest" looking thing right in the corner, what the heck is this. We've all heard the term "Pack Rat" throughout our lives to describe someone who just can't let go of things. This "nest" was a Pack Rat's little hideaway. When I showed my wife and started to take back MY things, she said "No, if you move that stuff you'll never know where your stuff is. If you leave it "The Nest" alone you'll always know when something disappears where it is." So I did for over a year, just left a pack rat nest in the dinning room cabinet. Would check for MY things often but leave him alone for the most part.
When we tried to use poison "D-con" to eliminate the rodents from our home it was a complete disaster. I would put bait out, it would be gone the next morning but no dead animals or smell for over a week, just kept putting it out. I had the thought of O boy I'm going to get em all, since so much bait had been put out. A couple of weeks later while cleaning under a bathroom cabinet there they were ... all the poison bait blocks I had put out. The Pack Rat was not eating the poison but rather Packing it away. So if ya want to kill a Pack Rat skip the poison and just go straight for the Live Trap to save yourself LOTS of stress.

That's a great story 😄!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Every time I clean out my garage, I'm more than a little alarmed by how much stuff I've accumulated.
I find things I didn't remember that I owned. Duplicate things. Old vintage things. Parts of other things..Brand new in the box things. Recently I found not one, but TWO AMAZON plasma cutters and two new in the box mig welders. These must've been on sale. And must've been for a project vehicle I was working on a few years back.
Then there's all of my extra reptile stuff. Fish pond stuff. Stuff for my dog and tortoise stuff. There's even a brand new washing machine under a pile of stuff right next to my fully functional washing machine that we use everyday.
There are also three or four motorcycles in there. Covered in stuff. And a new one. And three very large over stuffed tool boxes from my years as a mechanic. Most of that stuff will probably never be used by me again.
I have a very large tote full of nothing but extension cords. Yet, I get another cord instead of looking in the tote.
I have no actual idea of what exactly is in there. But it's good stuff.
My neighbors usually benefit from this. They get good stuff for Christmas and birthdays....or just when I find stuff I don't need.
I'm also constantly throwing away good stuff. Because I'm too impatient to deal with trying to sell things to people.
I don't want to cross the line into hoarding or let the stuff migrate into the house.
Kelly is pretty screwed when I die.
She has no idea the treasures that just look like stuff.

 

[EppsDynasty]

It has been said alot in this thread ... My family is screwed when I die. When I do leave this place my family will look at my shop or shipping containers as a way to remember me. Every time they work or have to be in there the thoughts of "US" working or playing in those places will come flooding back. The property with the shop was a man who did everything his self, no matter what it was. I am currently arranging the shop "My way" and am using lots of the stuff his family said was junk.
Whether we admit it or not "Stuff" is a very important part of who we are. The items we collect make "US" feel comfort, the comfort of knowing we will not go without, the comfort of "Having that" when or if it's needed, the comfort of knowing "You can fix that", and of course the comfort of not having to pay today's price for something already owned.

 

[jeff kushner]

I have moved nearly all my "supplies" to Kerry's garage and it's been a healthy experience, not easy but healthy. We all know what needs to be done so none of us can pretend we don't....LOL....sucks don't it? The truth?

W/o my marriage coming up(3 days!!) we all know i wouldn't have straightened it out either...I'm no different than anyone else, maybe lazier but I don't know.

The way I see it, finding those duplicates and putting everything in a system where we know where it is....my shelf units look more like a store than a garage...5 of this, 8 of that.