How to Find Peace Living With a Packrat

[aaron]

Every Wednesday is Simplicity Day on Zen Habits.
Many people who try to simplify their lives and declutter their living spaces find that the most difficult obstacle in their quest for simplicity isn’t the clutter itself … but a significant other or roommate who isn’t on board the simplicity train.
Living with a packrat can be downright [...]

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/zenhabits/~3/134855492/

[eyescene]

I'm not a pack rat but my daughter is! Always has been and she always will be. Drives me nuts!

I like my life neat, organized, and in order! I can not believe this child is mine.

Making note to self....the fridge needs a major cleaning!

[aaron]

If I could, I would post this in No Man's Land.

[eyescene]

huh?

[Hermione]

eyescene, my mom shares your pain. The neatness gene skipped her children and went straight to the grandchildren.

We were having this talk one day not long ago and she said, Well Sissy (my late younger sister) was neat, her house and her office were always in order.
Me: Mom, Sissy had a maid two days a week and a manager at the store. I could be neat too like that.
Baby Bro: Yeah, remember what her car looked like?

I'm clean but messy. Part of it is that if I put something away I forget I own it.

[Fish-Bait]

My wife has to be the world's best pak rat. I can't find crap when I am lookin' for it. Just the other night she mentioned I was stayin' out in the shop too much and not helping in the house enough. I told her that I could at least find my stuff in the shop and didn't have to worry about opening a cabinet and gettin' my head busted open. True Story.

We are fixin' to move though. I am gonna get a dumpster. Not one of the small ones. I am gonna get a 18 wheeler sized one. I am gonna throw away some junk.

[Hermione]

By the way, Aaron, that was an interesting article and some of the other articles about clutter were good too. Thanks!

[eyescene]

I'm clean but messy. Part of it is that if I put something away I forget I own it. Lets not talk about forgetting now!!! LOL, that is getting worse yearly. And she is clean too I don't wont yall to think that! But Lord the stuff....she said the other day, I need a bigger house. I said duh?

My wife has to be the world's best pak rat. I can't find crap when I am lookin' for it. Just the other night she mentioned I was stayin' out in the shop too much and not helping in the house enough. I told her that I could at least find my stuff in the shop and didn't have to worry about opening a cabinet and gettin' my head busted open. True Story.

We are fixin' to move though. I am gonna get a dumpster. Not one of the small ones. I am gonna get a 18 wheeler sized one. I am gonna throw away some junk.

Just don't let my DD know!!! please?

[Kitty]

I have had packrat tendencies as long as I can remember; however, as I have gotten older I have found that I enjoy the purging process of getting rid of things. For me, there's something "freeing" about the purging process.

Having said that, I will say that I am an "organized packrat." :)

[Hermione]

I have had packrat tendencies as long as I can remember; however, as I have gotten older I have found that I enjoy the purging process of getting rid of things. For me, there's something "freeing" about the purging process.



I'm working on having that attitude. Just lately I've begun to realize that many things that are precious to me will be meaningless to the next generation. That's a little sad, but that's the way life is. I hope my son would cherish the wooden salad bowl his daddy and I dug out of the mud after Camille -- one of our few possessions to be rescued -- but he won't treasure the last remaining dinner plate from my great-grandmother's set, because he didn't grow up with all the stories about her. So, some things really need to go.
And books -- no, never mind, let's not talk about books.

[Astra]

huh?
If you were referring to Aaron's post about No Man's Land, I think that might have been his way of saying Southern Belle is a packrat... and that he'll be sleeping on the couch for the remainder of the week.:smt118

[Maggie-Doodle]

My wife has to be the world's best pak rat. I can't find crap when I am lookin' for it. Just the other night she mentioned I was stayin' out in the shop too much and not helping in the house enough. I told her that I could at least find my stuff in the shop and didn't have to worry about opening a cabinet and gettin' my head busted open. True Story.

We are fixin' to move though. I am gonna get a dumpster. Not one of the small ones. I am gonna get a 18 wheeler sized one. I am gonna throw away some junk.

You sound like my hubby...everything I have is "junk" to hear him tell it...I don't treat his "stuff" like he does mine...even if IT is "junk" too! We both have alot of "stuff" but it mostly all "good" stuff! :) We were dreading movin because of all the stuff we had to pack....that is one reason I decided to stay right where I am at..I have alot of stuff and it all has a designated place...I don't like clutter tho.

[Ande']

I grew up with a pack rat. My grandmother had clothes that she wore in the sixties hanging in her closet when she died in 1998. When I got married, she gave me several boxes full of EVERY paper I ever did in 1st and 2nd grade. If I brought it home, it went in one of those boxes. I am just as bad though. I hold on to things and I hate to say I am passing it down to my dd. I think part of mine is because of my grandmother, the other is because we lost everything in a house fire when I was younger. All that was left in my room was a denim skirt and the michael jackson thriller album. I think I am getting a little better though. I am finally getting rid of some things.