Do you have a problem with clutter? (Yeah, I mean YOU!)

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by frahse

I doubt that you will make it through the series, but there is a Hoarders TV series that you can get.
The food hoarders are really really crazy. The animal ones are next.

I have watched hoarders and you can almost feel the pain emanating from them. Gotta be a bit drunk to make it through a show, never mind the series.

After a night on the town I looked at a forum about the show. The real crazies are the people who heap scorn and abuse on these people.

Helen

[applesauce]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

Even very useful stuff can be clutter. Your plates are clutter if they aren't put back in their proper place. Sometimes eliminating clutter is getting rid of stuff, other times it is just putting it back where it belongs.

So true. I swear my daughter and husband are hoarders. It seems worse than it is because they NEVER put things away. It drives me nuts when I go to clean something and find a 5 minute job turns to an hour as I have to put away everything they leave out.
I have got rid of all my cds dvds and paper books, besides a couple of childrens books I wanted to keep. Far easier to have all that on one computer the entire family can access without making a mess.

applesauce

[frahse]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I have watched hoarders and you can almost feel the pain emanating from them. Gotta be a bit drunk to make it through a show, never mind the series.

After a night on the town I looked at a forum about the show. The real crazies are the people who heap scorn and abuse on these people.

Helen

I find it difficult to toss old machines. Yard machines, electronic machines, etc. I can usually get them to work, but I have moved on to the latest and so the old ones just occupy space in the garage or my storeroom in the basement and never get used.

Example. I have two old very powerful 33cc gas string trimmers, an IDC and a Poulan that are adapted for specific uses, but I mainly use a Worx lithium ion trimmer that a son gave me. There are also some old corded electrical trimmers down in my "storeroom." Truthfully I had forgotten about them until the other day when I was looking for something else.

Thank God city ordinances won't allow me to keep old vehicles anymore without licenses though I think that unfair if the vehicle can run.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by frahse

I find it difficult to toss old machines. Yard machines, electronic machines, etc. I can usually get them to work, but I have moved on to the latest and so the old ones just occupy space in the garage or my storeroom in the basement and never get used.

Example. I have two old very powerful 33cc gas string trimmers, an IDC and a Poulan that are adapted for specific uses, but I mainly use a Worx lithium ion trimmer that a son gave me. There are also some old corded electrical trimmers down in my "storeroom." Truthfully I had forgotten about them until the other day when I was looking for something else.

Thank God city ordinances won't allow me to keep old vehicles anymore without licenses though I think that unfair if the vehicle can run.

I think the majority of us find it difficult to toss out anything still working/usable.

I am sure there are lots out there with close to zero 'junk" but I can't think of any I know personally right now.

I moved to the Arctic in 1999 and in 2003 I had someone get rid of my stuff in storage, so I was almost clutter free for a short period except for 22 boxes of household crap I carried from job to job.

2005 found me in Rankin Inlet Nunavut. The company I worked for paid $2200 to ship my stuff to Rankin Inlet,(no roads in so air freight only) but as you can imagine they weren't going to pay to ship it out, so I had the big sale and was down to two luggage and a backpack

By 2008 I had accumulated 14 tubs and boxes. I moved back to my apartment in Vancouver for financial reasons, and am once again battling the clutter battle.

My big weakness are electronics and kitchen appliances. Got my eye on a Bluetooth enabled Instant Pot which will be shipping in the fall. And I have almost every spice and gadget one can buy affordably.

My last roommate left behind 16 boxes of stuff when she had to move back to Romania this year not including groceries. Every time the Vacuum got clogged up she would buy a new one Luckily the Thrift shop is close by, although that too is a dangerous place to go.


Time for an intervention perhaps


Helen

[CWatkinsNash]

I know a few people that are anti-clutter fanatics.

I don't invite those people over.

It's my stuff, I like it. My roommate feels exactly the same way. It's a perfect situation in which neither of us would dream of complaining about the "stuff" of the other.

[crich70]

Of course not. I believe in live and let live and as long as clutter doesn't have a problem with me I don't have a problem with it. :lol: Seriously I probably do have too many books, etc. but at least with ebooks I don't have as big a problem as I would otherwise.

[GA Russell]

I went to my storage closets the other day, and they are cluttered!

[frahse]

Originally Posted by applesauce

So true. I swear my daughter and husband are hoarders. It seems worse than it is because they NEVER put things away. It drives me nuts when I go to clean something and find a 5 minute job turns to an hour as I have to put away everything they leave out.
I have got rid of all my cds dvds and paper books, besides a couple of childrens books I wanted to keep. Far easier to have all that on one computer the entire family can access without making a mess.

applesauce

I read somewhere that sometimes "messy people" and collectors who don't necessarily meet the criteria of real hoarders can be mistaken as such. I am not sure what a good measure is but, I think the TV series "Hoarders" lets you see the real thing.

[crich70]

Well I don't think I qualify as being that bad. I know when to stop buying things that take up a lot of space (most of my book purchases of late have been ebooks) and though I don't have a great deal of room I do live in a small apt. and do share the space with a blood relative both of which situations make things look more cluttered than they are.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by frahse

I read somewhere that sometimes "messy people" and collectors who don't necessarily meet the criteria of real hoarders can be mistaken as such. I am not sure what a good measure is but, I think the TV series "Hoarders" lets you see the real thing.

I remember this one lady. She said something like "well, the label on the can is gone, and the can was swollen up and leaking, and the outside of the product doesn't look too good, but if you go in toward the center, you might find some "good stuff."

Where are "those nice young Men in their clean white coats, ,,,coming to take me away, ha-haaa!"

[ManosHandsOfFate]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

I know a few people that are anti-clutter fanatics.

I'm trying to become one of those anti-clutter fanatics. It's pretty challenging when you have small kids.

[Catlady]

I think the hoarders just can't let go of anything. Whereas the clutterbugs are more likely to simply be procrastinators who let things pile up till the task becomes cumbersome. And then it's harder and harder to tackle the backlog.

[cadele]

Whether you hoard or collect, it is hard to let some things go.

A friend suggested a policy of getting rid of five things a week. This whittles down the mountain without making it such a huge task to be completed in one go, and doesn't cause the panic that your whole life is going out the door.

That fabulous Kobo coupon helped recently as I was able to replace a lot of paperbacks with digital. I am hoping to get down to only two shelves of hardbacks and sentimental favourites. (Well, maybe three :S)

[Ebookfans]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I don't consider books, records, movies, and the like clutter. These things present a storage problem, and I reluctantly weed out items because of that, but they're not clutter. Clutter is useless old receipts, paper clips, unopened junk mail, mysterious keys, batteries, scraps of notes, expired coupons, etc.

Perfectly said