Anyone live with a packrat?

[Aidensmom]

I have NO idea where he got this from, but my son is a certified packrat. He wants to save the packages things came in, gift bags, every card he has ever received, ever drawing he has ever done, even wrappers from candy and the Mickey paper cups at WDW! I am always throwing stuff away when he is sleeping. Last week, DH told me that Aiden asked him to hide a juice bottle so "Mommy won't throw it away when I go to sleep"!!!!!

I keep NOTHING, I am definitely a minimalist. I don't know how to deal with all this. How much should I let him keep? How do I teach him that garbage is NOT something that needs to be saved?

 

[Cantw8]

guilty as charged I am a packrat but a neat one I am very sentimental and save all sorts of weird things Maybe he is sentimental as well Let him keep his mementos, just show him how to do it neatly Eventually I ask myself, "do I really need this?" and I throw it away but if someone did it before I was ready, it would upset me but what the hell do I know?

 

[Aidensmom]

guilty as charged I am a packrat but a neat one I am very sentimental and save all sorts of weird things Maybe he is sentimental as well Let him keep his mementos, just show him how to do it neatly Eventually I ask myself, "do I really need this?" and I throw it away but if someone did it before I was ready, it would upset me but what the hell do I know?

Ok, so WHERE do you neatly keep 15 paper cups from WDW?

I do understand what you are saying. We have designated a dresser drawer for his "treasures." The thing is, it is getting really hard to close the drawer.

 

[tmt martins]

No but my DW lives with 3 of them

DM ,DD and myself collect and keep everything.


I have a garage thats a few blocks away and the stuff I have in there that will never be used is just toooooo bad.

Now I will every once in a while get on a kick and just ramdomly start throwing stuff out of mine and DD's .

We have even had DD want something so bad from the craft store only to find out she has 2 or 3 of them at home in one of her boxes.

You can always make it disapear for a week or so and if he doesn't ask for it then you can throw it out.

 

[RitaZ.]

Yes. My husband and my DD. My mom is also one, but she doesn't live with me. They never want to throw away anything because they may need it one day. I have to wait for DD to go to sleep or to be at school to throw away things that are no longer useful or that she has outgrown.

What can you do?

 

[kejoda]

get him a couple of rubbermaid boxes.

I live with a houseful of packrats. I'm also very sentimental and tend to keep too much. But I tried to throw away the interrative club order form for school 3 times last week 3 TIMES!!!! I finally went to all the guys showed them the paper and said this is trash get TRASH!!! actually recycle but I was still trying to get rid of the stupid thing.

 

[tiggersmom2]

Raising hand slowly......

However, I am not nearly as bad as my parents. They wash the styrofoam that ground beef comes on and empty yogurt cartons.....don't ask me why, I have no idea.

 

[RitaZ.]

BTW, my DH has all these 7-11 plastic cups from the 70's in the garage. He must have been 9 or 10 at the time, he is now 41. I know the cups have something to do with football, but they are all cracked and faded, so it's hard to tell.

One more thing... He has all his hand-written notes from college (all labeled and perfectly stored) and most of his textbooks.

 

[beckmrk04]

Ugh- my mother is a total packrat which has inspired me to become the ANTI-packrat. SHe cried when I told her I threw all the cards I got for my wedding in the trash.

To me- it's just stuff that takes up valuable space in my house.

Don't get me wrong, I do keep some things, but for the most part- I am pretty ruthless when it comes to hanging onto/throwing things out.

Aiden seems like he might be a little young to try to explain that it's just stuff. It's cute that he cherishes such little things. I agree with some of the other posters- get a Rubbermaid tub- then maybe when he fills it, if he wants to add anything else something has to go out of the tub. Then he'll kind of learn what things are most important to him and what he can let go of- all while making the choice himself.

 

[WonderfulDreamer2]

I do, but it helps that he travels so much now. He would actually go into the trash and pull out stuff that I had tried to throw away. Now, not candy wrappers and stuff, but OMG....let stuff go!!!!
Now that he's away, I make my mission trips to Goodwill or the trash and get it gone before he gets home. If he doesn't see it, he doesn't even think about having it. I also have a rule...if its been in a drawer, on a hanger or "put away" for a year and it hasn't been touched, we don't need it. Now obvious sentimental stuff, I leave alone, but do you really need to keep the cassette case from a tape that you lost 12 years ago? He does this. But my job is to keep him in control.
Good luck, and maybe those long rubbermaid containers that roll and go under the bed would be a good place for his treasures.

 

[Aidensmom]

Good luck, and maybe those long rubbermaid containers that roll and go under the bed would be a good place for his treasures.

That is a good idea. We don't have a lot of storage space, but under the bed is empty. (Well, except for stuff he has hidden from me )

 

[WonderfulDreamer2]

That is a good idea. We don't have a lot of storage space, but under the bed is empty. (Well, except for stuff he has hidden from me )

And he sure is getting big....and cuter with every picture.

 

[snowwite]

I inherited the packrat gene and I have passed it on to my DD. Nana lived through the depression and saved everything. She instilled saving into us. We just need a bigger box!

 

[snowwhitesmom]

One of my DDs was like this - we solved it by buying her a scrapbook, and she cut a piece of what ever special package she wanted to save and gluing it in. Bigger things we would take a picture of. We explained recycling to her and made a big deal out of recycling those items. Some kids just have this need to "own" their special memories tangibly.
Hope this helps!

 

[Aidensmom]

One of my DDs was like this - we solved it by buying her a scrapbook, and she cut a piece of what ever special package she wanted to save and gluing it in. Bigger things we would take a picture of. We explained recycling to her and made a big deal out of recycling those items. Some kids just have this need to "own" their special memories tangibly.
Hope this helps!

Yes, it does help, those are some great solutions.