Are you a packrat or do you live with one?

maxter

maxter

O.G.
Feb 5, 2006
7,336
339
#1
I am not a packrat, however I do live with one - my DH. Between him and my two boys I am constantly organizing all their *stuff*. Right now I am in the middle of cleaning out their "dump" closet. It's where they dump all their stuff when they come home from school, sports, etc. It also has all their toys in it. If it were just my stuff I would throw it all out. I'm going crazy!! But I have managed to fill up 4 HUGE plastic garbage bags. Hopefully I will finish before they get back from their trip!

So are you a packrat or a "tosser"?!
 
#3
My DH is impossible, he does not throw anything out and seems to catch me if I do.......I believe less is more and my goal is to try to organize this house....Impossible task to do. I don't know where to start. The basement is wall to wall junk. I mean 90% can go out the door.....He saves everything and it is a sore point in our marriage. It is frustrating..... Hopefully I will make some progress in the weeks ahead. He took over the master bedroom walk in closet which is probably a room 15 by 10 feet of wall to wall shelves. He has it filled and has bins on the bottom floors with all his stuff. I refuse to share a closet with him. My closet is a tiny bedroom one, maybe 5 feet wide and I have a small armoire. But it is organize perfect. I will be buying some Ikea closet units for me to put against a wall and put my desk in what is now my regular closet so it will be out of the way. It is hard to try to get someone who is so unorganized and it doesn't see to bother them to try to do anything to improve the situation.
 
#4
i'm a pack rat.. however. i do clean out everything once a month. i toss magazines, trash, read mail, bill statements go through the shredder, etc etc.. every middle of the month (which is coming up actually) and everything gets cleared again. hehe. i try to keep the under of my bed cleared for my rabbit when she runs around, so i really just pile stuff on top of my desks.. and since i type everything, i only need the keyboard to be cleared. lol.
 
#5
gillianna said:
My DH is impossible, he does not throw anything out and seems to catch me if I do.......I believe less is more and my goal is to try to organize this house....Impossible task to do. I don't know where to start. The basement is wall to wall junk. I mean 90% can go out the door.....He saves everything and it is a sore point in our marriage. It is frustrating..... Hopefully I will make some progress in the weeks ahead. He took over the master bedroom walk in closet which is probably a room 15 by 10 feet of wall to wall shelves. He has it filled and has bins on the bottom floors with all his stuff. I refuse to share a closet with him. My closet is a tiny bedroom one, maybe 5 feet wide and I have a small armoire. But it is organize perfect. I will be buying some Ikea closet units for me to put against a wall and put my desk in what is now my regular closet so it will be out of the way. It is hard to try to get someone who is so unorganized and it doesn't see to bother them to try to do anything to improve the situation.
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I am not married to my SO (even though we have been living together for over five years) because I don't know if I can commit to living like that forever:crybaby:

Our house is a freaking disaster:cursing: I made the mistake of moving in with him instead of insisting that we both sell our houses and buy a duplex & my life is a constant battle to try and make sense of the mess.

I am a minimalist and the few, carefully chosen things that I want to own must be kept in their designated places or I am miserable.

Living with a messy packrat, I have full scale meltdowns about 3-4 times a year because it is so emotionally draining to look at clutter.

He is the perfect guy in almost every respect and I know I will never find anyone else that I could have the same kind of relationship with, but his clutter makes me so miserable that I probably will end up leaving him eventually:crybaby:
 
#6
I am a packrat. My art room is a disaster. I do a lot of collage as well as assemblege so I save really odd things and graphics because I can see creating something from them...
 
#7
I'm a packrat to some degree. I don't throw out any of my magazines, and had a bunch in my parent's house in boxes. Unfortunately, it got thrown out in their spring cleaning. My Dad finally pushed my Mom to get rid of some stuff around the house since she's a packrat too. :P
 
#8
I'm not a packrat at all- I purge my closet at least every 3 months and keep clothes no longer than 6 months unless I am completely in love with them.
 
#9
I went online at Overstock.com last night and Amazon.com and must have bought 20 books on having a stress free home, clutter free home and geared to a more simple approach of living. I am going to throw the junk out, I don't care what he does. I know how I want to live and what I want my home to reflect, a place of calm. I love Pottery Barn and Shabby Chic so I am trying to combine the both. I have been painting and need to remove some major wallpaper but I just want to unclutter it all. The funny thing is that this was not a problem in some of our other houses. I think the main problem is he needs to let go and I hope I can find a way to do this. I also bought a few books on organic housecleaning--due to allergy issues and "less is more" for me. All this clutter does cause stress and such a feeling of being overwhelmed. I don't even go in our basement.....But to me to keep things for 20+ years that you will never wear again is just too much. He seems to have a 6th sense when I throw things out because he has actually gone in the garbage to see what I throw out.......................
 
#11
gillianna said:
He seems to have a 6th sense when I throw things out because he has actually gone in the garbage to see what I throw out.......................
Click to expand...

How do they know? :wtf: It's like radar. My DH always knows. The best time for me to do major tossing is on Wednesday mornings because trash pickup is Wednesday's at noon.

One week he was out of town so I had Mon, Tues and Wed to organize and toss. My driveway was lined with solid trash bags halfway down - unbelievable.
 
#12
I used to be a packrat as a kid but I've gotten more ruthless as I've gotten older and wow, how freeing it is! I try to purge closets twice a year (once in spring, once in fall) and if I haven't worn it out it goes with very few exceptions (such as cocktail or evening wear that has not gotten dated).

Kitchen? Well that is another story. I am overdue for a purge of my cabinets and getting rid of pots/pans/tupperware/gadgets I'm not using.
 
#13
I am a purger, I feel sorry for the trash collector in the building because I throw away stuff constantly and like my place minimalist.
However when it comes to library books, I want to have as much as possible.
 
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