Hi. My name is Kelly, and I am . . . I'm a . . . I'm a packrat. There, I said it. It was hard, but they say that acknowledgment is the first step. Well, I know it. Now I need to figure out what to do. The thing is, I love my stuff. Not all of it, so I could get rid of some without tears. But a lot of it has been collected over a period of years. All of my Cocker Spaniel stuff has been chosen by me, and the thought of getting rid of it makes me sad. But I have to do something. My bed is covered in books, magazines and papers. Stuff is stacked all over the place, and it gets knocked over with a puff of breath. I think the dogs will appreciate less clutter too.
Anybody have any good tips on how to "break the bond" with stuff? I watch Clean Sweep all the time, but every time I see it, I think about how they'd NEVER convince me to get rid of my stuff. That's kind of a bad mindset to go into this with LOL
Take it from me, don't get into the habit, and your life will be easier in the long run!
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I have a tip... you'll have to judge whether it's actually useful. :-)
When I need to do a big cleanup, I tell myself to be ruthless, to get rid of anything that's not useful to me now or in the near future. I also remind myself that if I later need something I threw away, I can easily replace it because I live in a city with lots of malls, and eBay is just a click away. (This doesn't apply to homemade or sentimental items, so I tend to hang onto those longer.)
I find I can turn on this mindset once in a while and do a major tiding job. But then I go back to my comfortable, borderline-packrat habits. :-)
My Mum has a philosophy I have adopted:
"If you haven't used it in more than a year (unless it holds sentimental value) then it goes."
Also if there are things that you would like to keep, but don't know quite what to do with them, buy storage totes. You can get ones that go under the bed with wheels and everything. Label and pack them well, so you can access everything. If you just load junk in them then they just add to the mess and not help it.
Another thing I find helps is if I have something (say a cocker ornament) that is just taking up space, but I know I spent money and I don't really want to throw it away. I give it away to someone who I know needs it or would really like it. Then I don't just feel like I have thrown all of my stuff away. Check out something like Freecycle.org to see if there is a group in your area.
Just my two cents! lol
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