GoodSense
Full time employment: Posting here.
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2007
- Messages
- 678
Confession: I have been a hoarder all my life. My mom is a hoarder, my grandma was a hoarder, and it runs in my genes. Earlier this year, I realized I was unable to throw away anything, I mean ANYTHING. Plastic bags, pen caps, you name it.
To make things worse, I am also married to a hoarder who is worse than me. We got into a "discussion" yesterday about whether we should recycle his hand-written notes from graduate school, which he had not looked at in 8 years. After unsuccessfully lobbying for recycling them, I gave in and we're keeping them in a box for probably another 20 years. We also live in a townhome but have a full set of gardening tools and a garden hose b/c we can never get rid of them.
But it really feels like a huge burden to have so much stuff! My basement is filled with things I might use but probably will never. I know it's a natural part of LBYM, but I need help!
I think my question is two-pronged:
1. What criteria do you use to decide what to keep and what to get rid of? Haven't used in the last 1, 3, 5, 10 years? Don't anticipate using in the next X years?
2. If you are married to a hoarder, what can you do to try to convince your spouse to de-clutter? Or, how do you reach some kind of compromise? (e.g. your room is yours to clutter up, but don't pile junk in the common space?)
--Pulling my hair out in frustration
To make things worse, I am also married to a hoarder who is worse than me. We got into a "discussion" yesterday about whether we should recycle his hand-written notes from graduate school, which he had not looked at in 8 years. After unsuccessfully lobbying for recycling them, I gave in and we're keeping them in a box for probably another 20 years. We also live in a townhome but have a full set of gardening tools and a garden hose b/c we can never get rid of them.
But it really feels like a huge burden to have so much stuff! My basement is filled with things I might use but probably will never. I know it's a natural part of LBYM, but I need help!
I think my question is two-pronged:
1. What criteria do you use to decide what to keep and what to get rid of? Haven't used in the last 1, 3, 5, 10 years? Don't anticipate using in the next X years?
2. If you are married to a hoarder, what can you do to try to convince your spouse to de-clutter? Or, how do you reach some kind of compromise? (e.g. your room is yours to clutter up, but don't pile junk in the common space?)
--Pulling my hair out in frustration