I probably am - Throw/give away old one

Re your little plastic ‘bit’, Calendargirl, we’ve got a kitchen drawer (just one) full of things like that - you can’t remember or fathom what they’re for, but they look as if you might just need them one day.

Though of course the one ‘bit’ you will actually need will more than likely have been binned a week ago last Tuesday, after you thought it was ridiculous to have kept whatever the hell it was for so long, the drawer was getting too full, time for a bit of a clear-out....

I needed a small Allen key this morning and actually found one saved from an ancient Ikea kit.

We have a desk which belonged to my husband's grandmother. There are two slender drawers in the top absolutely full of little things. Fuses from plugs, tacks, nails, screws, tiny dice and tiny toy figures.
You've no idea how useful these little things have been over the years.

DH will put things on kitchen cupboard shelves, drives me crackers.
On a shelf that should just be mugs I found a glass stopper out of a bottle, a magnet off the waste bin door, a small cake tin with a shot glass in it, half a dozen or so screws and the microwave instruction book so he doesn't have to walk across the kitchen to look for it.
On Thursday he actually made it to the tip with stuff that had been in the car since Christmas.
I, on the other hand, bin stuff exactly one week before it becomes a crucial must have.

I’ve found the best thing is not to mention the ‘replaced’ item, then quietly dispose of it when he’s not around, preferably just before bin day. Then when he asks where it is, I can act all genuinely surprised and sorry as I tell him I threw it away because I thought he no longer needed it ?.
Once you’ve said “why have you still got xyz?” and he tells you he wants it because it might come in handy, then it’s too late - you’re stuck with it!!

Meant to add - we too have an old non-working electric razor on top of the bathroom cupboard, collecting dust. I made the mistake of asking him why it was still there, so now it’ll be there till the end of time ?

As a seamstress I'd kept drawers & boxes full of might-come-in-useful fabric scraps, most less than one metre, some for over 40 years. The week after my ruthless clear-out a friend phoned to ask if I had any pale pink fur fabric to cover a child's stool.....well, I DID have until a few days ago!

In our house we've 2 cupboards of 'stuff' and only ever need them when we've cleared them out!!? the junk drawer is so heavy its breaking,but whenever we clear anything it always seems to all find its way back in again! ?The boxes things come in get folded flat and shelved,but once an item is got rid of the box is recycled.

Leah
I rationalized mine the other day from a large box down to a smaller box. Some of it is nearly as old as yours.
Now need to do the same with the yarn!

I see Leah50 is in same situ as me! You only need them when you've chucked them?i clear out occasionally,but ive 2 sons who keep everything!! (Must be a bloke thing) thing is,they never know where exactly they've put the 'stuff' and then come ask me,where it seemingly becomes my job to help look/find said items,and my fault if we cant!?

Put it and other items in a cupboard at the back and bin in 3 months ha ha

My husband will never throw anything out - broken or otherwise, he has 3 sheds and a garage full of stuff - a full on hoarder although the house is fine thankfully. But, he’s slightly changed his tune recently when we had a conversation about what happens if anything happens to us and somebody (I.e. our two sons with their own families) will have to clear the stuff. I pointed out that the stuff we have, apart from a few valuables and family heirlooms, is literally of no interest, or value, to anyone else and therefore will likely end up in a skip - he actually started clearing stuff out of the garage after that so I’m slightly heartened that the point has struck home. ?

I have the opposite problem. DH chucks out anything that he isn’t immediately thinking of using to the comment of “ Tat!”. Other people keep bits of wood offcuts etc. But every time we need something we have to go to get new! As we live miles away from any sort of shop it’s a major problem. I have had to go 20miles for a long piece of batten to fix something. He threw out ( recycled) the other bits last week!

My dear old dad - of the save used envelopes and pieces of string generation (we may do it again soon). Clearing his garage I found old biscuit tins full of bulbs - blown ones. Goodness knows what he was thinking - one day he would mend them?

Hoarding and clutter may mean you can’t use all the space you have, or easily keep things clean or have spaces looking pleasing or have things easily accessible. If a use did come up for some of these hoarded things they possibly wouldn’t be remembered or couldn’t be found anyway. It can be a form of anxiety. On the one in a thousand times when a use comes up for something we have thrown out, it isn’t the end of the world probably. Hoarding won’t really protect us against the unexpected things life will throw at us. Hoarded things can also send us depressing messages, the wool we haven’t knitted, the handicraft materials we haven’t used, the clothes that are too tight, that are the wrong colour, that are ugly, that are uncomfortable. My husband was very bad but has improved a lot through example rather than me complaining. So there is hope.

I have a definite policy of 'one in - one out' - applies to clothes too have been known not to buy a top because I cant think of one to throw out that I like less than the one in the shop!

DH was a hoarder and rarely threw anything away. Around 18 months ago his brother came and sorted the garage for me - he had to hire a skip and also used his pick up to take away a lot but there were still things left. Yesterday a neighbour called and said he needed a couple of pieces of wood and could he look in the garage - he found just what he needed! DH died 9 years ago - but I suppose he was right to keep those pieces of wood "just in case"!

Sorry but I don`t throw things away either and dh finds it hilarious thank goodness.

It's not things, it's the boxes they come in. My husband is a firm believer in saving the boxes 'in case we need to send it back'. Heaven knows how many boxes are in the loft!

My first husband was a man who came back from the tip with more in the car than he’d taken. He couldn’t walk past a screw or washer in the street without picking it up. When he died suddenly at 57 I was left with a garage full of such stuff. I subsequently married a man who was useless at diy but still had the might come in handy gene. He embraced husband no one’s collection with glee and added to it. Now I am 82 and as far as I know none of it has ever come in handy, so WHY can I not bring myself to get rid of it? Can said gene be transferred between husband and wife?

I’m trying to de clutter, partly because I shove stuff away when expecting visitors then spend hours trying to find things later!
Someone, sometime is going to have to clear it all and I feel that it should be me!
Once I accepted the D word I realised how very sensible the Swedish idea is.

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter
Book by Margareta Magnusson

My dad was a hoarder “just in case”. When he died and we cleared out his garage, which you couldn’t actually get into, we found 48 brand new black plastic toilet seats. Presumably he had squirrelled them away when he was working as a plumber. We also found a big glass bottle of mercury, complete with skull and crossbones label☠️!

Parents kept everything- make do and mend. DH getting to be the same! Including all the paperwork for selling and buying house with a, now, ex.......! I just worry about it all being left for me / my, not his, children to sort - his are overseas.

When our dear dad died my 2 sisters and I had the job of clearing out his shed,not a big shed but full to the brim with his collection of lawn mowers,now I have to say his back lawn was really the size of a postage stamp in the grand scheme of things,we found 6 x mowers and one ride on mower all in different stages of repair we also found motor bike parts which would never in your wildest dreams make a complete bike,he even kept some bike parts by the side of his easy chair in the lounge to the dismay of our mum,bless him he never got anything to work again however hard he tinkled with them.

Thanks for your posts. I've asked DH if he will chuck out old razor today. He says he will but he just needs to make sure new razor is working properly. It better be it because it cost an arm and a leg. He has a selection of wet shave razors so I dont see why he needs to hang on to broken one but hey ho watch this space