We are not hoarders. I watch the show periodically. I never can watch the whole thing. It is the humiliation factor for the folks. When I see one of them upset wanting to have time to go through a box, I feel their pain. They had good intentions and there is just never enough time. Plus, they have lost perspective. How can you explain someone sleeping outside in a tent with a home filled with items that may be lost anyway.
Presently we have a clothes crisis. It is killing me but I am hauling a bunch of stuff to Happy Hour Service Center to donate. I found a shirt yesterday that I had worn regular last year, I try to wear items over and over in an effort to wear out and discard. Well my system has bugs is all I can say. Fortunately not the real bugs yet.
I used to go to work where you had to present yourself better. Now, I have three pairs of jeans I wear. When one set is in the washer, another one is on me and the other one sits in a drawer waiting. You would probably not be surprised at the number of black pants I have. Each one carefully snagged at a super bargain. Black pants just don't go on sale.
Then I retired and all my black pants are being folded and put in a plastic tub to save and a few in a box to give away. I have not shopped for clothes in seven years. Occasionally a sale has snagged me and I picked up a few things. I think I'll go back to the plastic tub and take a few more out to go to the thrift shop.
If you read my blog, you know I'm probably exaggerating my efforts to unload. You are right and wrong. I had stockpiled that well. Lately, I have been thinking of how much extra money I might have if I had not purchased so much. One of the hoarders was $750,000 in debt due to his excessive collections of valuable things. I don't think he was called a hoarder. He was a collector with a spending addiction. Once again I can think to myself, I could be much worse.
It's funny how you spend your life accumulating things. Then one day you leave it. A co-worker's sister suddenly died of a heart attack in her early 40's. The sister had an immense collection of hardcover novels. There was value in the books and yet a huge burden to move them half a continent back to her home. I used to have the idea that if I could find a place for it, I could keep it.
I don't plan to get rid of any of my books. I know I will never read half of them.
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| Button on the left has carefully removed the stuffing from a dog bed. |
The one thing I do know is we all need to keep our affairs in order which includes Log In IDs and passwords. When I brought my sister's power of attorney to the bank, the woman says this will not work if your sister dies. I thought, why do I need to know this. The woman was not being mean, what gives. Then I thought of the voice of experience. She was warning me to get what I need out of my sister's safe deposit box.
For what it is worth, I am making a record of my accounts. Who will take over, who knows.
I know this sounds like I am depressed but I am not. I just have had to recreate so much information to get my sister's affairs in order. It really was not bad. It was just hard to pick up the trail and pay important bills, make sure her health insurance had continuous coverage, etc.
But I have also rethought my stockpiling ways. As I cruise the clearance shelves, I'm careful to buy only what we will use right now. I did buy ten packs of printer ink at a greatly reduced price. Hopefully they will last awhile and the printer will not break. But the heated wraps to sit on the sofa with marked down to I don't know what stayed there. It's a toy I would use maybe one time. Or worse, leave in the wrapper and find myself taking to thrift shop.
So, should I be jealous of your bare necessity lifestyle or are you in the same boat as I but like it that way?
