Sort of funny, but when I moved in with my wife, I only had three medium boxes of things. No furniture because I had been renting a room in a condo that was completely furnished. In fact, back in the later 70's, a person could rent a furnished apartment in a complex. For awhile I rented a 1-bedroom. Due to the hourly rate of pay I was getting on a job, I couldn't afford much of anything.
I have a tenant who accumulates.....stuff. The backyard and front yard are cluttered with it and the inside of the house is packed full of.....stuff. Old or new, if he sees it and he has enough money to purchase it, it comes home. According to him, he’s never had anything to speak of. Since he left the reservation, (he’s an American Native) he’s now making more money than he has ever earned and it makes him feel happy to be able to surround himself with those things he was never able to have. In a way, I feel happy for the guy because he has indeed gone from poverty to some semblance of having wealth but at the same time, I have been trying to help him get his priorities straight concerning emptying his pocket week after week buying “stuff”. It doesn’t matter if whatever he buys even works for he says that at some point he will fix it and maybe have a yard sale but viewing how many hours he spends working and his ability to fix things, that yard sale is a long time coming. Now, perhaps I’m the pot calling the kettle black. If it’s a bolt, nut, screw or a widget, it’s going to be saved and is somewhere in my shop. If it’s a broken whatever and I’ve replaced it with a newer part or tool, I will inevitably save the old one with the thought that I’ll be able to either fix it in the future or integrate it with something else. Lately I have been throwing stuff into the garbage bin just to free up some space and get rid of some of the clutter that has accumulated in the shop.
It's a shame, I feel for him having had so little myself growing up and early adulthood, I can understand how easy it might be to go down that route. Fortunately for me I like the money in my bank rather than make someone else rich or I may have gone down that route myself easily !!
I remember going to school in 'tap' shoes 'cos my one pair of shoes had to be mended, I didn't mind, always wanted to tap dance You could sure hear me comin' No, never been a hoarder, couldn't stand it ! I have a couple of knives, 49 years old they are
Get rid of the crap you do not need . It is a very rewarding feeling- trust me. And believe it or not, once you make that change- other things will also change. My hubby saves- I ditch things in fact I feel a ditching twinge coming on now
I do recall doing something a while back that is very much akin to what you are writing about and yes, it did feel remarkably good! Granted, an x-wife isn’t necessarily getting rid of anything because eventually somebody else got hip deep but hey, it ain’t me. Unnecessary clutter is such an ugly thing isn’t it?
@Gloria Mitchell 'Ditching Twinge' I think that's the best description ever of when you just know it's time.
To remedy the accumulation, just move to another town.... If you have to relocate your stuff, only the important stuff goes.
no hubby dumping! I am an organizer. I know where everything is ...shelf what side etc Provided you have put things back in their proper place. However I also rearrange things becsuse I have found a better quicker way of doing things. Yeah I know living with me could be maddening I guess
Hanging on the curtain rod is an old cane that I bought at a horse auction in the late 1970s, I think. It's cracked now, and useless, but I used it for many years, hiking the canyons outside of Corona, California, and up north, at the Forks of Salmon, and other places, with friends first, and then with my son. I can't rightly say why I keep this old rusted adjustable wrench because it certainly holds no memories for me. I found it at a place in our land up north, where there used to be a lumber mill many years ago. I have been toting this piece of driftwood with me from apartment to apartment, and house to house, since the late 1970s, too. It kind of reminds me of a dragon, so I keep it on a shelf. This is some Joshua Tree wood that I picked up at Joshua Tree National Monument in the early 1980s when my son and I camped there for a few days. None of these things are prominently displayed, but I have been carrying them around with me for years.
@Ken Anderson The unusual structure of the wood pieces in the final image may be unique to the Joshua; that I don't know. We have often seen similar pieces during our hikes. Frank