So we have spare bedroom. It is full of stuff from 20 years ago. We call it the junk room. I have been saying I am going to go through the boxes and throw out all the stuff we haven't used in twenty years. My plan was to do this back 2005, but I move a few boxes, then get completely overwhelmed and give up. I would like to offer friends a place to stay when they come in from out of town. Usually they end up staying at hotel. I feel embarrassed. Does anyone have this situation. I mean, people clean out dump stuff out all the time. I just don't know why I can't seem to tackle this. It makes me feel abnormal. People do this kind of stuff all time.
I'm the opposite. I tend to shed things along the way, occasionally regretting having tossed something. (Books, usually.) The Big Bang Theory just had an episode about this subject. It turned out that Sheldon has never thrown away anything, so he keeps things he supposedly threw out in a rented storage stall. Penny's answer to him (and mine to you): start with something small and as useless as possible. See how it feels. If it feels good, find more things that also evoke that feeling. (That's our society. We have so much stuff we have to resort to renting an extra little house to store it all.)
First of all, you are abnormal. I mean seriously out there. Way beyond that third standard deviation. But you just need to embrace the fringe you big weirdo and relax on the edge with the rest of us bizarros. Next order of business . . . consider this . . . there are two components to your problem. The first is just the volume of stuff. It's a big job and so probably can't e completed in one day or even one week. Second, the stuff has some emotional content attached, some meaning to you. So go into the room and bring one box out of the room and put it in the middle of the living room. Leave the rest alone. Then just look into the box and see what's there. Tell yourself the story about how you came to own it and how it came to be in the junk room. Every story ends with "....and that's why I don't need to keep this anymore." When that one box is empty, give yourself a little reward (a piece of chocolate works for me) and then plan when you're going to do the next box. Rinse and repeat.
If it it does not: 1. Make you money 2. Have genuine sentimental value (subjective) 3. Is not utilitarian Then toss it by giving it to charity. Why withhold from charitable organizations what is rightfully theirs?
Thanks for your comments everybody I actually made a little progress today. I asked my neighbor for some help in moving out some heavy exercise equipment out of the junk room. We took it to Goodwill. This freed up quite a bit of space. I have a friend who is going to help me go through the boxes and organize the sentimental stuff so we can store them in plastic bins for storage in the garage.
Americans weren't always that way. In 1958 the first such facility opened. Now there is more than 2.35 billion square feet. Partly to do with affluence, I'd figure. And part the opposite - people in reduced living space, no room for stuff. Interesting history here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_storage That's maybe 80 square feet for every person in America! How did I know this? Blame Mandy Patinkin - Jason Gideon on "Criminal Minds." Some years back, his character remarked on the phenomenon, in the show. It stuck. :smile: Who says you can't learn from TV? J.
Oops. Sorry. No it isn't. Lost the decimal! It's more like 7 to 8 square feet per person - maybe 30 square feet for a family of 4. Please note: Mandy Patinkin / Jason Gideon never made this mistake. All mine. :smile: J
My wife and I don't keep a lot of stuff for a couple of reasons with the first being lifestyle. We move every 2-4 years for work and declutter before every transfer. Other than standard living room, bedroom, kitchen, etc. stuff for the two of us plus our kids, we have a small collection of hobby stuff (camping, kayaking and cycling gear) that sees a lot of use. The other big reason - I grew up with a grandmother who was a hoarder. There was barely a walkway through her house when she lived in it. After my great grandparents passed away, she moved into their house and quickly turned it into the same thing. Cleaning both of them up for sale a few years ago wasn't fun.
It's funny that you mentioned the word "hoarder". I started watching that cable show about hoarders. I then convinced myself that I was either a hoarder, or I was becoming one. Plus, I had an aunt who was a hoarder, so I figured that I must have that form of mental illness as well. Luckily, I happened to talk to a newer neighbor a while back, and it turns out she is a therapist. For some reason, I felt the immediate need to tell her about my "junk room". I then asked her to come over to my house so I could show her. She basically said, "you are definitely not a hoarder, a lot of people have junk rooms". She also recommended the obvious - stop watching "Hoarders". I still wondered a little bit, which is why I posted about my junk room here. The comments make me feel normal rather than abnormal.
