I probably am - Throw/give away old one

Not sure what's worse, my OH gets rid of things because of the smallestt hing wrong, the lever on the toaster lost its plastic bit so you had to press down a metal lever. He insisted on replacing it!

lin663
But it's not mine to bin though is it?
and he would notice

Yes that's a good idea .. just like Mary (Imelda Stanton's character) did in that latest drama. I forget what it was called

Don’t ask, just bin it...I bet he won’t even notice

Perhaps she'll make you a lovely quilt, Greengran.

Chatting to my son’s MIL in Australia, I mentioned that I was getting rid of a big bag of patchwork pieces. She begged me to find room for them in my suitcase, on my next trip. I did, though it meant leaving some of my clothes behind.
When I presented them to her she gratefully tucked them into her ‘stash cupboard’- which already contained enough fabric to keep her sewing for 50 years! Grrrrr!

Thankfully DH and I have the same "get rid" approach to failing electrical items which are beyond safe repair (by someone qualified). We take such items to the "small electricals" section of the local authority tip. End of.

My father used to keep old batteries just in case they recharged themselves!

I tried to clear my wardrobe during the week. Everything came out on the bed, tried on, rehung and all went back apart from about 6 things . It is so hard to part with items. Why????

Oldwoman70 - I gave mine to the electronics / IT service and repair shop, on condition that if I discovered I needed one of them, he'd give it back to me. So far, I haven't needed any of 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

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.

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.

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☠️!

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 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?

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!

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

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"!

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!

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.

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?

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 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. ?

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