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The Hordes of RatDom - Confessions of a Packrat
- May 16, 2009 at 11:54 AM
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- Comments (16) Total Views (516) Everyone can see this journal post.
My husband and I finally realized that a family of five living in a two bedroom house is good way to lose our minds, so we are now in the process of getting our house ready to sell. It's been home to us for almost thirteen years and to our offspring, who are 10 and under, it's the only home they've ever known. This is a strange and exciting time for our family, to say the least.
In thinning out some of the (for lack of a better term) crap I've kept over the years, a truth has been discovered. I thought I was frugal. This is not so. I am a packrat.
The proof showed itself at every turn. Each room I went through, trying to rid some of the clutter, I unearthed...
*echoing voice* The Hordes Of RatDom!
Did I really need to keep three pairs of Just In Case I Need the Material for Something Jeans that no one will ever fit into again?
And what about the Assorted Threads and Buttons that came with shirts I no longer own? Do I really need to save them if I didn't care enough to keep the shirt?
I have twenty pieces of Rubbermaid and/or Tupperware. I don't need twenty plastic containers, do I? I think not.
True, some of the things I've "collected" over the years have been little pictures my girls have drawn for me. So I should get a folder for each child and put in that folder only the pictures that make me smile when I think of how young and sweet they were when they drew it for me. I don't need to keep each book report and spelling test.
Boots that fit no one, a lonely shoe that hasn't seen its mate in eons, and part of a board book that I thought I'd repair if I ever found the cover are all going bye-bye. I believe it's also time to say so long to Jaws since the last pages disappeared long ago and the shark never bites it in the end. Can you say cliffhanger?!
What about these boxer shorts adorned with "Get me to the Church on time" that my husband wore for approximately seven hours on our wedding day nearly fifteen years ago and never wore again? They served their purpose. Buh-bye, boxers! *toss*
After long consideration, I decided to give my tiny hotel shampoo collection the boot. I hope someone at Goodwill can appreciate those little bottles because I've just gained a cubic foot of closet space!
Whoa, look at the room we have in this place now. Maybe we don't have to move after all.
"Mom! Tell her to get off my third of the room!"
Oh yeah, we do.
For more anecdotal overdosage, visit BlogLikeNinja - Silent but deadly.
Comments:
I love clutter. I love it too much. Problem is, I have passed that gene onto three of my four offspring.
I no longer love da clutter.
I understand the packrat thing. my gram was the queen packrat. i keep a few papers with great grades and most of the art brought home. tupperware, plastic, if they are in perfect shape and have lids that match KEEP THEM that stuff is expensive. i would have kept the boxers. good luck on your move...
Ah, I am a packrat extraordinaire. So here is a story of why we are actually RIGHT. My husband and my mother convinced me against my far-superior better judgement to get rid of all my twins baby and toddler clothes, gear, etc. Well, whaddaya know, along comes surprise baby number 4 (he was the only surprise, but the sweetest) and the kicker is that while I was sadly donating all of it to Goodwill unbeknownst to me I was already pregnant! They will never hear the end of it, the upswing is they don't dare give me any crap when I go shopping for this little one. Ha, ha, I win.
LOL! Lori, I did that with all my maternity stuff. Then I got pregnant with number three and said, "Where the heck are all my pants?!" :)
Yeah, my SIL made me get rid of all the maternity clothes about two months before I got pregnant with MJ. That's why I kept a box of 'em and still have them in The Closet of Shame, which is where MY collection of jeans that might some day get made into art, the semi-broken DVD/VCR combos I might be able to repair given the time and a set of teeny screwdrivers, and every Halloween costume my kids have ever worn live. Also in there is the improbable vest ZM wore on our wedding day, his leather coat that he wore in Amsterdam and never wore again, a pair of silver strappy heels I wore ONCE to go to The Mansion on Turtle Creek and four tons of unsorted sheet music. But if you want packrat, you have to see my mother's storeroom, which contains actual five-inch floppy discs for computers that no longer exist, books on programming in Pascal, history textbooks that end before the Cuban Missile Crisis, several texts on speaking Esperanto, Lego sets, unopened, that date back to the 1970's that she will not let anyone touch, a box marked "Dried Bat" in which there is a dried bat we got at a Chinese apothecary in San Francisco in 1979 and a gallon of frogs in Formaldehyde. I could go on, but I won't.
Wow, ebay awaits the time when your momma is nappin'...a fortune awaits you Liz!
LOL! At least you are throwing your stuff away. My dear MIL likes to bring me "precious treasures" that she finds as she digs her way through her house: a 23 year old toothbrush and toothpaste that would be "just precious" if my little DS would use it since both his Aunt and his Uncle used them when they were his age. EWWW. Oh, and I can't forget the 18 year old half used bottle of lotion, or the cloth diapers that ALL four of her children used that would be "just precious" if I sued them. Ummm..I don't think so. I graciously thanked her for them and threw them away as soon as she left.
LOL I am packing too and realized what a packrat I am too! Welcome to the club hun! We have t-shirts!
If there are t-shirts for members of this club I will somehow find a place to put it. I won't wear it, mind you. Can't have any of that! No matter that my closet is overflowing already and I really only wear about 2% of what I own and store. My name is Lisa *Hi Lisa* and I am a packrat. I could never dream of selling my house. Help! Ha ha!
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I'm a sap. I'd have kept the boxer shorts for sentimental reasons. But I have no idea what you were hanging on to that Jaws book for.
Me, I have no clutter. Nope, zip, nada...
- clairandamjones
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