A place full of stuff you can't use or don't use is depressing to me,and being a hoarder makes no sense to me,except maybe canned food or other useful staples,I am constantly streamlining my things and getting rid of unneeded items,in my opinion it just makes you feel better having a free area and not a bunch of things piled up.

This man I help on occasion who has health issues, asked me to bring a item out of a back room of his house,from the time I walked into the room and found the item it took me almost a hour,climbing over things,looking for the thing,digging the thing out,and tracing my path back out,and this is one medium size room,with no window air conditioner by the way,I would guess the room temperature was about 110 at best,I asked him why does he keep so much stuff,he said he may need one of the items some day,I cannot relate to that mentality.

i have so much stuff man, it just snowballs. i try to fix stuff instead of throwing it away. i got electronics, old chairs. shit people say im throwing this away you want it? if i ever got my ass in gear i could sell it on ebay. im sure there is valuable collector things. it ends up you aquire stuff faster than you use it / sort it / dump it. then when you have a pile that is too much to go through, you start another. and then you never want to sort the 1st. its a vicious circle.

batou wrote:
I bet you do have some collectables,and valuable or rare items you should search some of them online,this man I helped had a large size wood burning old time stove back in the corner of the room,it probably weighed over 200 pounds at least,that would sell in a minute to someone,but he won't and he doesn't even use it.

What a waste regarding the wood stove! I just got one last year because gas is so expensive and it's one of the best things ever! I love it! But, yeah, I've been putting off going through all of my boxes of shit and selling pretty much everything that doesn't have a purpose. I used to collect stuff like Batman toys, Alice in Wonderland shit, ect. I could use the money more than I can use toys. It is pointless clutter that just collects dust and gives bugs a place to hide!

I was telling someone recently about how these objects only have the meaning we attach to them. Even "sentimental value".

i have an unopened michael jackson thriller record. a flag with 48 states. books from 19th century. toys from the 40s.
ill just tough it out until someone intervenes.
its the only thing standing between us and a zombie apocalypse. the minute i get rid of things, the world will descend into darkness and the dead will rise, and i'll be left wishing i had kept it all.
in many ways i am doing you all a favor holding the portal shut.
its a thankless job.

K-Bone wrote:
Your right about the stove, he could get 300 bucks easy for it,and yes we get controlled by sentimental items and keep them,but as for the other things we may consider selling, the market value for most collectables has dropped dramatically,people want useful hands on items, and camping or surplus military gear,the old wall clock granny had isn't worth as much these days.

true that. i'd trade a whole room of this shit for a couple of rifles

I dunno, rick. I like a bit of clutter. Not so much you can't walk through a room, but just enough to make it cosy. Decor-wise, I can't stand all that minimalist nonsense and it puts me on edge.

People often have the brass balls to tell me my home looks like a charity shop, until I point out that their own domicile resembles a padded cell with a flat screen.

batou wrote:
And a good water purification unit don't forget that.

Ab Origine wrote:
I hope like hell we can keep a cosy mentality about life,and people can have their things and extra stuff plus the niceties that make life enjoyable for them.

Many professional Hoarders keep everything usually because of an underlying Mental Health issue (often the feeling of being abandoned or neglected in childhood) so it's more complex than just someone hanging onto a lot of junk.

I'm with Abs on the minimalistic front. I find houses that are minimalistic just that.....houses.....not homes.

I used to love going up to the attic as a child....you'd find stuff that you hadn't seen for years and it would bring memories flooding back .

They do say that amount of clutter that is around you is a reflection of your own subconscious

I'm not so much a minimalist as I am too lazy to decorate! I have a couple of pics on the wall and some owls, pottery and such on the shelves but I've stopped collecting. It's really hard because owls, Alice & Batman stuff is "in" now and I have to resist the urge to buy these things I don't need. I have so much stuff still boxed up- I'm talking it's been boxed up from 3 moves ago- clearly, I'm not going to do anything with it. I'll keep my "sentimental" stuff but won't cry if it gets ruined like I used to. My first boyfriend was a compulsive liar and a thieving meth addict- I lost so much stuff to him and was so devastated by it(I had to buy my great grandmother's ring back from a pawn shop! ) . Eventually, my attachment to objects diminished. Anyway, I don't have much money to blow these days so if I'm going to have something decorative; I want it to be useful. Pretty plates, tea pots, bongs

K-Bone wrote:
Sketti tells me that bongs are more than merely 'decorative', k. I have no idea what she means, though.

Bongs Pong