How attached are you to your "stuff"

[binny]

I watch Clean House sometimes where they convince people to get rid of stuff and then have a big yard sale.
I always thought I was a packrat until I saw this show!

Im watching one right now where the woman refuses to give away stuff like her first VCR and first TV. She had OTHER perfectly good TVs and VCRs in the room but wouldnt give these away because they were her first.

I have a few things that I really treasure that I will carry around with me wherever we move. One being a jacket taht my step Grandma made for my dad that is gorgeous! He really treasured that and his Canadian Forces uniform with medals on it, that and a few things from my kids, of course pictures and stuff but the rest? If youre going to replace it and make my house look nicer? Have at it!!

Why do people have such a hard time letting go of stuff?

Now I should admit that I have some unneccesary crap BUT a lot of it going away into my own yard sale and I dont have an attachment to any of it I just havent gotten rid of it yet.

 

[HelenePA]

I could become a horder if I allowed myself.. I'm very attached to things. Its awful

 

[OceanAnnie]

I'm too attached to some stuff. Especially the kids baby and toddler stuff. I plan to donate some, sell some, and save some. I just have a hard time choosing, so I put it off for another day. Looking at those things conjures so many memories. I need to just do it.

 

[AKL_Megs]

I am NOT attatched to things AT ALL. DH isn't either.

We are very much minimalists, keeping only what we use RIGHT NOW.

We don't have clutter.

DH and I each have just two or three Rubbermaid tubs of "important" things... like things from our past that we can't get rid of.

When a tub gets full and we want to add to it, we go through it's contents again and throw away something that isn't AS important.

So far, in my 27 years, I can't think of any one thing I am sorry I threw away.

I clean and throw away things from every room, closet, drawer, cabinet, each year.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Ehh, I have a tendency to become attached to things. I am sentimental but I always check back with things and if I can't remember why I'm keeping it I toss it.

I think hoarding is something different though, those poor souls are trying to regain control of their lives through things. They seem to suffer terribly, my heart breaks for them.

 

[Robinrs]

I put up so many things on eBay, Craigslist and freecycle because if I can't use it, it has to GO.

Shows like hoarders make me crazy!! I hold onto NOTHING!

 

[starrzone]

I am very attached to "stuff"; I'm pretty sure I got this from my mother, who got it from HER mother; I've found some of my mother's 3rd-grade report cards at my grandmother's place! Some of my things (class pictures from grades K-9, the letter my father wrote to me when I was born, a teddy bear my late grandfather got me) I'm really glad I've kept; other things (items so assorted I can only call it "junk") I wishs I had thrown away, but now I'm so emotionally attached to it I can't bring myself to...

 

[ncmickeyluvr]

I have very few things that I am attached to. In fact, I LOVE to move every few years just so I have an excuse to get rid of alot of stuff DH is the exact opposite. He thinks we should never move. He likes the idea of our Grandchildren visiting us in this house. He also keeps alot of things for no other reason than the memory it envokes.

 

[OK!]

I normally only get attached to stuff that has an emotional hold on me, especially gifts. I can't bear to give gifts away, even if they're things I won't use. What normally happens is that every now and again, something totally unrelated will get me hugely upset; the way I cope is to clean house. When I'm all worked up in a fury like that, that's when I try to toss the stuff that I normally wouldn't.

 

[binny]

I have some stuff (although I am in a purging mode after our last move we had way too much!) but a lot of that for me was just not getting rid of extra stuff.

Honestly there are very few things that if someone said "I'll trade you this for new floors (or whatever deal they make) that I would absolutely say NO to. there are sentimental things, sure, but regular every day stuff like VCRs just because they were the "first ones" I just dont get an attachment to that sort of thing.

 

[rwdavis2]

After watching a few episodes of Hoarders I was absolutely ruthless about clearing out our basement. I rarely hang on to too many objects due to sentimental value unless it's something I want to put our for display. You can still have the memories without the object itself.
BD

 

[tasha99]

Not into "stuff" at all. I could live with my laptop and a backpack of clothes. If I was in a city with Internet cafes where I could check my email daily, I could drop the laptop.

 

[Magix]

I've always had way too much "stuff". I'm in my 2nd round of trying to go through everything and eliminate as much as I can. I really want to be much more minimalist, but it's very difficult to shed that attachment to everything. I think I'm making some very good progress, but it's slow going and will require a few more rounds of eliminations before I'm really happy with where I am.

 

[pearlieq]

After cleaning out my mom's house, I am 2000% anti stuff! Can't stand it, don't want it near me, don't want it coming into my house.

Since Mom moved in, the clutter level has increased dramatically and it really bothers me. I try to put up with it for her sake, but it really does stress me out.

I could fit all of my essential "stuff" into a backpack with room to spare. I prefer to store up assets at the bank and memory full of experiences.

 

[tasha99]

After cleaning out my mom's house, I am 2000% anti stuff! Can't stand it, don't want it near me, don't want it coming into my house.

Since Mom moved in, the clutter level has increased dramatically and it really bothers me. I try to put up with it for her sake, but it really does stress me out.

I could fit all of my essential "stuff" into a backpack with room to spare. I prefer to store up assets at the bank and memory full of experiences.

This is my goal when I finish school (just one more year!). Instead of buying stuff, I want to spend school breaks traveling with my son.

 

[DizBelle]

After cleaning out my mom's house, I am 2000% anti stuff! Can't stand it, don't want it near me, don't want it coming into my house.

Since Mom moved in, the clutter level has increased dramatically and it really bothers me. I try to put up with it for her sake, but it really does stress me out.

I could fit all of my essential "stuff" into a backpack with room to spare. I prefer to store up assets at the bank and memory full of experiences.

The problem is that for many, as they get older, their memory can't be relied on to recall those experiences. They need some stuff (pictures, souvenirs, etc) to remind them.

 

[mrodgers]

Our basement flooded last week. Not too big of a deal since most stuff on the floor was just boxed up junk. We've been with DirectTV since 2005 and I opened a soggy box to find our two original Dish Network receivers from 1997.

I'm looking over on a shelf and I can see the HP 667MHz Celeron computer from 1999. Why is it still there? It's been sitting there for years.

I have a Pentium 4 computer that the motherboard went bad on and replaced it with what I'm typing on now. It sits off to the left of me.

I have 2 desks in the basement. One has the main computer and the other one I had that old Celeron computer mentioned above running for the kids. Like I said, that was several years ago. The monitor is still sitting on the desk.

Whoops, I just looked over where that P4 computer sits. Next to it sits a monitor that was part of my original Pentium 75MHz computer I bought in 1995

Actually, what makes it all tough to get rid of is we are limited on how much the garbage will take. We do have a spring cleanup at the township building where they have dumpsters and us folks can bring our junk by the truckload to get rid of. Having a little 1994 Honda Civic makes it a bit more tough to haul everything over there though. I think I made 5 trips in 2005 with my Tacoma pickup truck.

 

[PatsGirl]

I don't collect much and what I do have gets cleaned out every six months or so. I really hate knick-knacks and stuffies, that sort of thing. DD, on the other hand, has a "hoarder" instinct and her room shows it About once a year, I go in, clean it out and put most everything into a rubbermaid bucket. If she doesn't ask for it in three months, it goes....

Right now she has buckets of barbies, doll clothes, stuffies, and school papers that I let her keep in her closet. She is now collecting buddhas, last year it was scarves and posters which she has covering every square inch of her room. I don't know what to do with her, she gets very upset when I talk about emptying out one of her many (4 or 5) junk drawers so we can fit some clothes in them instead of all the junk she is saving.

Even with it this bad, she can almost always put her finger on whatever she is looking for by memory

 

[palmtreegirl]

I use to be a pack rack and kept everything, but then we moved 6 times since 2003 and each time we got rid of more stuff, it was awesome. Through all those moves I learned stuff is just that, stuff and I no longer get attached to things like I use it. Makes for a much more peaceful life.

 

[chisnpeke]

I'm very attached. I definitely know the feeling of not wanting to get rid of something because it was my "first".

I never get rid of stuff.