Who is the worse junk collector, you or your SO?

[kenny]

For this poll let's define junk as anything regardless of value that you have not worn or used in 3 years, and you may never use.
It can be in your home, garage, car or in storage.

Clearly stuff like bars of gold you squirreled away in a bank vault don't count.

Also, have you ever disposed of your SO's junk without asking?

 

[sonnyjane]

My husband holds on to things longer than I do. I'm not afraid of a good purge. I wouldn't throw things away without asking though, as I'd hate if he did that to me.

 

[gregchang35]

I am worse than SO. I have to get SO to do some of it as i cant seem to let things go. But sometimes, i just get the urge to do a spring clean.... once in a blue diamond that is affordable!!

 

[kenny]

i just get the urge to do a spring clean.... once in a blue diamond that is affordable!!

Hahaha.

We can barely walk into the garage.
There is a thin walkway of floorspace just so we can get to the clothes washer.
The garage is full of my SO's Beta and VHS video tapes of Disney movies and enough Christmas decorations for the entire block.
Then there is perhaps 300 pounds of huge black lawn bags filled with zillions of yards of heavy cloth for curtains he's going to sew some day.
Uh Yeah right!

 

[gregchang35]

Hmmm.... curtains.. maybe SO can sew some for a production that is based on all the disney movies that are collecting in the garage.
You and SO can do a pantomime for the street? i will buy a ticket for that!

Or maybe you need to call reality program called hoarders, i think. they come and move things out for you!

 

[manderz]

We each manage to hoard some junk. Mine tends to be decorative kitchen stuff, and his is electronics and tools. Think 3 full boxes of wires. We've been working on de-cluttering recently though, so it's getting much better. We both are bad at getting rid of old clothes, too.

As far as getting rid of things without permission or knowledge, most of our stuff is pretty blended anyway. We've been together for so long, and we got together so young, that the line between his and hers is really blurry. If it's something I know he might need, or might be sentimental, I'll ask, but we each have pretty free reign.

 

[Dancing Fire]

My wife!...

 

[kenny]

My wife!...

Tell us about your wife's junk.

 

[diamondringlover]

My husband is much worse then I am he is a boarder line hoarder and we have daily "discussions" about his junk!

 

[Rhea]

Me! I'm sure I'll use it someday. We don't have a lot because there isn't space in our 2 bedroom flat (no garage, no shed or yard), but we have more than he'd like. The second bedroom has a few boxes in the corner, only 1 of which I really need. In front of the boxes are misc pieces of stuff like a sewing box, footstool, magazine rack which have all been replaced so these should move on. We have 3 built in wardrobes, his, mine, and ours. Mine is all mine. His is his clothes but also joint stuff like luggage, and ours is mostly sheets, towels, gift wrapping, etc, but in the bottom I've piled fabric that I've had for years and will probably never use. But it'd make such great curtains!

I've been tasked with cleaning some of it before my sister comes to visit but she's just cancelled her holiday so I figure I'm good for another few months!

 

[rosetta]

HIM!!!

I get rid of everything that's not working for me, he wants to hire extra storage for it all. Why God why???

 

[JewelFreak]

DH thinks every object is a pet -- you can't dump it once you've adopted it. Guest room closet is stacked with VHS recorder/players in case he ever wants to see the 3 drawers full of tapes that probably have deteriorated in 20 yrs to un-play-ability. A walk-in closet crammed with old car magazines & papers. I started cleaning out old dinner plates & he wailed, "I LIKE those!" even though we don't use them. Clothes from Noah's Ark in his closet, but maybe someday he can fit into them again....(Right!)

I wouldn't throw them away without asking, though -- afraid it would give him PTSD. He'd have nightmares & sweats & seizures, ha!

--- Laurie

 

[missy]

Me without question. My dh is super organized and gets rid of anything he hasn't worn within the year and when he buys new clothes/shoes he gets rid of older ones. As for his bikes/tools/other hobbies he doesn't get rid of stuff if he thinks he can use/repurpose it so he is very practical and everything has a place for him. He's incredibly neat and organized.

I, on the other hand, am not. I actually still have clothes/shoes from the 90's LOL though every 6 months or so I try to go through some of my stuff and get rid of what I just haven't worn for years. Thanks to my dh's encouragement. But I still have too much as I have trouble parting with stuff and you just never know when it might come in handy. I mean, as soon as I get rid of something it seems I could have used it lol. And I am still the same size I was 20 years ago so everything still fits. Though as my dh says I will never wear clothes from the 90's haha. I cannot seem to get rid of jewelry either though I give some stuff away to my nieces and as they get older I imagine I will be giving them more of my jewelry (that I don't wear).

I just seem attached to stuff and I am trying to be more like my dh in that regard. It's just overwhelming to go through all of it so I'm trying to do it a little bit at a time.I do not want to be like my parents (mom). She collects sooo much stuff. Hurricane Sandy went a long way in clearing her collection though (I feel badly for them-they got over 8 feet of water in their finished basement and had to totally gut and redo that first floor). I just don't want to let a storm clear my stuff out as I'd rather do it on my own and pick what I want to get rid of and what I want to keep.

I always say I want to be more like my dh when I grow up. He's just so practical and matter of fact about things whereas I attach so much emotion to my things.

 

[artdecogirl]

I voted my SO but we both have a tendency to collect stuff and I tend to try to validate mine because alot of it is house stuff, you know china and quilts, books, that sort of thing but I know it is hoarding none the less. I picked him because we have a ginormouse pole barn that is almost the same square footage as our house and he has it packed to the gills with Idontevenknowwhat! Neither of us has ever been able to park inside because it is so full and most of the time you can't even walk through it. One time I had got at an auction a couple of old pieces of furniture that were in very rough shape for about 5.00 for both, he complained about the junk I was bringing home but I thought to refinish them and they sat for years in the pole barn and one day I thought I will free up some space out there so I dragged them to the street and put a free sign on them, he came home from work shortly after and OMG you would think I had tried to give away the crown jewels!!! Needless to say they are back in there with crap piled on them....

 

[AprilBaby]

Def me! We have tons of stuff in the basement that we might need someday...right! So I was really dreading having to clean the basement. For the 4th time in 17 years Mother Nature has taken care of it. Three times we flooded and had to throw stuff away. This time the sewer backed up into the basement and service master came and wiped us out of junk. I don't even want to know what we threw out.

 

[arkieb1]

We both joke that its in the DNA and we are BOTH from a long line of shit hoarding family members. For the record his parents are both hoarders and so are both of mine. They all hoard different stuff but they have too much of it just the same...

 

[packrat]

JD by FAR. When we got married and I helped him pack up his house, he had a spare bedroom filled w/junk. Not in any order, just tossed in wherever. I threw away bags and bags of catalogs and Sunday paper store ads---some of them were 5+ years old and when he saw me doing it he was like nooooo I NEED those! Um, care to explain why? For research says he.

My parents, brother and SIL came over last summer to help us go thru the back garage. It's a 2.5 car garage. And you could open up the door, and then you had to do crazy lunges/high leg stepover moves to get anywhere inside. We spent an entire 3 day weekend going thru it. Six people, about 8 hours a day, for 3 days. Hello? I should take a picture of it now. One whole year later. It's not quite to the same state, but awful damn close.

I can't function w/crap everywhere. I go thru magazines and tear out pages I might find useful later on, put them in a folder. After a year or so if I've not used them or even bothered to go back thru them, then I didn't need them and out they go. He has about 50 Tshirts in various sizes and for various uses--sleeping, wearing out and wearing for yard work. I have like 4 that I wear for sleeping and yard work both. He has 7 long sleeved dress shirts for fancy times (which is maaaaaaybe once a year) or when he is not on duty for work, but has a case at court he has to attend--which is maaaaybe 3 times a year. Personally, I would just have one if it was only getting worn a few times a year. But that's me. He has at LEAST twice as many clothes as I do. I get rid of them as I lose weight and if they're so small that our daughter could about wear them. He keeps them.

I joke w/him that I like to cull things so that if I died it wouldn't take him long to go thru my stuff...and I'm kinda sorta joking but not really. It bothers me to have crap everywhere, to the point that I get angry sometimes, and then I start throwing stuff in a pile..and I don't care what it is either, if it breaks or is ruined, sorry Charlie.

 

[Dee*Jay]

When I was married the answer started out as my DH, but became both of us because all the sudden I had space I never had before so the urgency to get rid of stuff was gone. Our two car garage became a one car garage, plus all the sh!t you can buy at Costco. When I cleaned out the garage to move last summer I found multiple 54-packs of toilet paper. Apparently we would buy TP, forget we had it, and buy more. This isn't really "junk" but still...

Book were a big one for a while but I put my foot down at one point because we were starting to look like a branch of the Chicago Public Library. Neither one of us was "rereaders" so what were we keeping them for? We found used bookstore and took over two SUV loads of books. Again, books are not "junk," however...

"Personal" products that didn't quite work out is a big cagetory for me. Self tanners that you use once, turn you bright orange, and live under the bathroom sink forever. Hairspray reminiscent of our mother's ozon-hole causing White Rain from 1964. One 'do and off to the nether regions of the back of the vanity. Cold medicine that zones you out so badly you cannot walk, talk, or think while taking it. One dose down, and the rest to rot beside the mini-garmet steamer in the linen closet until dooms day.

 

[yssie]

Me. I'm the one who can't let anything go because "it might be useful one day." My dad is the same way - we drove my poor mum nuts! Clutter is her personal poltergeist - she's a minimalist who believes decor should accent, does not believe that flat surfaces should be used as makeshift shelves...

DH has a policy that if he puts something away and I don't comment on it in a month or two he's allowed to toss it *without* consulting me. I collect shipping boxes - we use them to store stuff for recycling, the cats and dog like to play with them, and boxes of various types and sizes are just useful to have around, right? Then DH showed me the collection he'd amassed from MY collection and... I agreed. Reluctantly.

 

[MissGotRocks]

Neither - we are both avid 'get ridders'! We don't save or keep stuff without a reason and we have lots of storage space. I just can't stand junked up or cluttered - it's all gotta go!

 

[Laila619]

I'd say we're about the same. We both have some stuff we just can't get rid of, but nothing too bad. We're definitely not hoarders.

 

[Dancing Fire]

My wife!...

Tell us about your wife's junk.

I don't know what's inside all them boxes... I can tell you that we stock more hair conditioner than Costco..

 

[tyty333]

We are in option 4...neither! We both hate junk and we both constantly purge. Occasionally we purge things that later we
wished we had kept.

 

[Smith1942]

My SO. I'm really minimalist and he has a problem throwing anything away, even old packaging. For this reason I do sometimes throw his stuff away, otherwise I'd be living knee-deep in crap. However, I'm talking about that old packaging or about personal products that are eight years old and that he'll never use again, or which will give him a rash if he does. I wouldn't actually throw out his possessions. But after much careful thought and consideration, I'm pretty sure he doesn't need that cardboard box that his computer came in three years ago! That scenario doesn't happen anymore though, because I tend to have a massive clear-out every year, and now we're at the point where we only have things we need or use on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis, and if anything else is there, it's because we believe it to be beautiful.

I think it was William Morris who said, "Have nothing in your house that you don't either know to be useful or believe to be beautiful", and I agree with that.

My parents are the worst hoarders. They haven't thrown anything away in 48 years. Every drawer and cupboard is stuffed to bursting with junk and frankly I consider their house a disgrace. It's pure laziness - they could never be bothered to sort their house out and now, at their age, it's too late. They seem to be under the impression that when they go, my sister and I are going to stop our lives and spend the three months or so that it would take, combing through every piece of their rubbish and painstakingly, lovingly keeping or carefully disposing of it all. No way! We will take the sentimental memories such as photos and paperwork (like theirs and our grandparents' marriage certificates, wedding clothes etc) and other items that remind us of them, and the rest...house clearance company!

Since I grew up in a very messy house, I can't bear having a messy house now.

 

[Jennifer W]

I'd say it was me. I love my junk My spouse detests it and despairs of it.

However, I'm hugely cheered and encouraged by your definition of junk. I need to go back and explain to him that the dozen or so sewing machines, some set in their own pieces of furniture, the collection of modern and antique spinning wheels, the heaps of fleeces, selection of looms and knitting machines, needles, fabrics and yarn will have to be re-defined. Finally, someone else recognises that is not technically junk, since I use all of it, or will eventually.

 

[Smith1942]

I'd say it was me. I love my junk My spouse detests it and despairs of it.

However, I'm hugely cheered and encouraged by your definition of junk. I need to go back and explain to him that the dozen or so sewing machines, some set in their own pieces of furniture, the collection of modern and antique spinning wheels, the heaps of fleeces, selection of looms and knitting machines, needles, fabrics and yarn will have to be re-defined. Finally, someone else recognises that is not technically junk, since I use all of it, or will eventually.

A-HA! That's the giveaway! If you haven't used it in the last 12 months you probably never will, and out it must go! Out, out!

"Eventually" never comes!

 

[Jennifer W]

I'd say it was me. I love my junk My spouse detests it and despairs of it.

However, I'm hugely cheered and encouraged by your definition of junk. I need to go back and explain to him that the dozen or so sewing machines, some set in their own pieces of furniture, the collection of modern and antique spinning wheels, the heaps of fleeces, selection of looms and knitting machines, needles, fabrics and yarn will have to be re-defined. Finally, someone else recognises that is not technically junk, since I use all of it, or will eventually.

A-HA! That's the giveaway! If you haven't used it in the last 12 months you probably never will, and out it must go! Out, out!

"Eventually" never comes!

No! No, no, no! It takes months and months to wash, card and spin a fleece, then knit or weave it into fabric. I will use all of the fleeces I have over time, and all of the relevant equipment. I use my butter churn once every few years, my cheese making equipment once in a blue moon. I only wear my vintage Dior evening dress on average once every ten years. Pearls, I wear every few years... and so on. Don't throw stuff away, that's terrible!

(Are you my husband, really? )

 

[House Cat]

Let's get one thing straight, nothing I own is junk! (and everything my SO owns is junk.)

He is the worst (and most disorganized) pack rat! Our garage and attic is disgraceful! It's all his except for one tub. That one tub is the sum of all that I find sentimental.

I probably throw out too much. I believe if there comes a day when I will need it again, it will be provided for me. I am not sentimentally attached to material items.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Me. I'm the one who can't let anything go because "it might be useful one day."

My husband is like this but I cannot stand junk! So I just get rid of it. After an initial "harrumph" when he discovers that the old, broken piece of crap is gone, he never thinks about it again!

I garbage or donate at least a couple bags of stuff each month. Now if I could just stop NEW junk from coming in the house....

 

[NOYFB]

"Personal" products that didn't quite work out is a big cagetory for me. Self tanners that you use once, turn you bright orange, and live under the bathroom sink forever. Hairspray reminiscent of our mother's ozon-hole causing White Rain from 1964. One 'do and off to the nether regions of the back of the vanity. Cold medicine that zones you out so badly you cannot walk, talk, or think while taking it. One dose down, and the rest to rot beside the mini-garmet steamer in the linen closet until dooms day.

This is me, too. I have a small cabinet in the bathroom and use only about 5% of the stuff in that space. the other 95% is sh!t I should probably get rid of....