I probably am - Throw/give away old one

I can relate to a lot on this thread. My better half & I are hoping to move house shortly but both dreading the sorting out and throwing out stuff part. Over the years we have accumulated a lot of 'stuff', including 'it might come in handy one day stuff'. In the last few months he has twice filled his truck with stuff for the tip as he just went on a bit of a rampage through the house, shed and garage saying if he was ruthless it would make things easier later. My contribution to aforementioned truck tip runs was a few bags of old videos, DVDs & CDs, a bag of clothes I'd already sorted to go and another bag of miscellaneous knick knacks etc. Admittedly he didn't give me much notice but I have now been warned more runs will be done before the move and told get rid of anything I don't want or need. I've been saying for about a year I need to have a blitz on ebaying some bits so that has moved to a higher priority on my 'to do' list (not just to get a few quid for myself, but I always put a 10-100% donation of the final value fee to our local animal charity. I would imagine they will struggle with the recent crisis overtaking people's lives so anything I can raise for them will help - might make it easy to add to the listings and not hoard stuff). I don't like the thought of leaving a nightmare for him or anyone else to have to sort out when I die so need to just bite the bullet and have a major sort out. Will use some of the tips and sayings I've read to help keep me motivated and your stories of inherited nightmares to modify future behaviour.

I had most of my old mobile phones because when they packed up I couldn't get into them to do a factory reset and delete all my information. I wondered if a strong magnet might work....

Then, last Advent, the local church had a collection of old mobile phones. They said all data would be deleted. Phones which could still be made to work would be given to needy or third world recipients and otherwise they would be dismantled and recycled. They got a whole shoeboxful from me!

Now I'm waiting for a similar collection of glasses - I've got another shoebox full of them. As I have said before, we have no charity shops in Germany, at least not around here.

A lot of these things that we think are junk can be very sellable. It’s amazing what people will buy on eBay or car boot sales. Even empty appliance boxes sell. Those sheds and garages full of hoarded rubbish can be a little gold mine.

I cannot get rid of my old mobile phones. They are all in pristine condition, sitting in their original packaging and even though I’ll never use them again for some reason I can’t part with them. I’m ruthless with everything else though.

?bluesapphire
I agree and life’s too short to get so fussed about these things. I just don’t think I’ll mention his razor again and see if he bins it himself. After reading all your posts I think maybe I’ll cut him some slack (this week at least) ?

My late DH was just the same. Couldn't get in the garage for old computers, VHS recorders, TVs, electric drills and other tools that no longer worked. Cardboard boxes for above items, old hoovers, wires, plugs, cables. Screws, nails, offcuts of wood. The broken parts of a loo he had repaired. A home beer brewing kit, used once in the 70s. The study was just the same. He also kept sentimental bits and pieces from when we cleared out his parents' house, including furniture I wouldn't give house room too.

I didn't dare touch anything, and and any mention of clearing out and going to the tip was met with a firm refusal.

Every magazine he bought also had to be kept, just in case there was a useful article that he might need one day. The day never came, of course.
However I did manage to reduce the pile of magazines but by bit, and he never noticed. I would remove a few every week from the pile in the living room to the pile in the study. Then if he didn't notice them missing, the pile in the study would gradually disappear into the recycling! He never did notice!

He died two years ago and I am still finding bits. I got a skip last year and cleared the garage, but gave the half dozen old bikes and all his tools to a charity which refurbishes them and sends them out to third world countries. My window cleaner also took quite a lot of things, took them to a car boot sale and gave me a share of the proceeds.

But I'd still much rather he were still with me, and all his rubbish!

My OH is terrible he keeps everything. Spare rooms full of junk so is outbuilding. I put my foot down last week and told him to sort all the good stuff out for a friend who does car boots and to bin the rest. Three boxes of good stuff and about eight black bags of rubbish

My motto is "if in doubt throw it out". When my mum died I had less than a week (I live abroad) to clear out her home and was very impressed how well it went. I was so grateful that she never hoarded stuff and promised myself that I would always try to do the same. I keep some very special items but not very many.

My DH had stents put in his legs and his feet were swollen so he was trying on all his shoes to see which were the comfiest. He found a pair and walked around the kitchen with them on. I was sitting pissing myself laughing because he’d had them that long that the sole had come away from one of the shoes. No wonder they were comfy! One of them was flapping. He made me keep the other one in case he ever needed it!!

I used to be the horder while DH has always been the opposite, so I've slowly come to accept his way of thinking, even if not to that extent. If there is something I want to keep for whatever reason, I keep it. Our parents' generation were horders because of need, our children have become the throw away generation because they can.

My uncle never threw anything away. When he died and we cleared out the house we found under his bed boxes and boxes of used razor blades amongst all the other other stuff.

This is my husband all over. I have to have regular purges in order to keep things liveable. He sees value in everything and his favourite words are "reduced, special offer" whether or not we need the bargain. Mind you, he has always hoarded toilet rolls so in this present crisis we are sitting pretty.

Guilty as charged. Nuff said!

There'a a brilliant paint recycling project here so you can donate and buy. I do keep some for touch ups though.

When I was little, my job was to get buttons removed from old clothing for the button tin, then cut things into pieces for the rag bag - used for cleaning, shoe polishing etc.

I have no problem taking clothes to the charity shop but I feel guilty getting rid of books (for some reason) or anything that belonged to my late husband. He's been gone for 23 years but still I have a problem!

Dowsabella, we must be of the same generation. Mum and dad kept said bits of string, brown paper etc. I was usually give the job of undoing the knots in the string. Mind you, dad was a jolly good 'maker and mender'. When he was alive, neighbours would ask if he could use various bits of wood, and he would squirrel them away, often to be used for some project or another.
As a moving in present, to our new house, when we married, mum gave me a small paper package containing a piece of coal, so that we need never be cold. I still have it in a kitchen drawer.
I used to keep boxes that things like TV's and mixers came in, just in case, but recently have cleared out a lot from the loft, and I am also getting better at clearing clothes from the wardrobe, that I haven't worn for a long time.
DH has at least two drawers of bits of 'electrical string' with various plugs attached. We don't need any of them, but he won't get rid.
Why have we got half full/ empty tins of paint in the garage?
I guess it is the wartime habit of making sure you don't run short.

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

Totally with you there Chaitriona. Well said. We need to ‘let go’ of stuff.
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OldWoman70, I also have a large box of unidentifiable wires.

Maybe if I put it out near the pavement, somebody might just find them useful?

Probably not, but I do dislike throwing things away when there's nothing wrong with them. Perhaps they're a weaving project?

I'm the hoarder in our family! Unfortunately, when I have been persuaded to throw things away in the past - I HAVE needed something I had been keeping, hence I cannot now be persuaded, Recently, our Vacuum stopped working and yes, I DID have the box to pack it up and return it - just as well! Can you imagine having to parcel up a vacuum cleaner? Every now and again, I go through all the receipts and "Guides" to electrical equipment (and other things we have purchased)and throw out the ones we no longer have. When we had a new kitchen installed, I kept the (still working) Microwave and was able to gift this to someone in need, complete with manual and cookbook!

My dear old dad was a bit of a hoarder. When we cleared out his bungalow after he died we found old wrapping paper - all smoothed out and folded neatly - down the back of his wardrobe. Boxes of soap - he always said it got harder if you kept it for a few years - it did but non of it had any perfume left! He had a tower of washed out margarine tubs piled on top of his freezer? He also watched every penny but not if my mum or I needed anything. To us, and my brother, he was extremely generous

I have had such a chuckle reading this thread!! I'm sure some of the hoarding in my generation comes from the education we received from our parents and grandparents who lived through wartime deprivation. I was born just after WW2, and some of my earliest memories are of my grandmother saving pieces of string, paper bags, and wrapping paper, all carefully put away, including at Christmas saving pieces of sticky Christmas tape. Every year as part of our tradition at Christmas the box of previous years' wrapping paper and tape was brought out for re-use.
And when it came to nails, screws, washers, nuts and bolts all carefully removed and saved by the men in my family, bent and rusty or not, well, words fail me!!

Now I am in my 70s, I am just beginning to think of the "stuff" our children will have to deal with after I have died, and it's being a real struggle to let go, especially when it comes to sorting out our accumulated library of 5000 books. Too many memories.....

My Mum used to say 'keep a thing for seven years and you'll find a use for it'. Well...... I didn't practise that but there have been odd occasions when I wish I had.

Possibly the worst of it is that he sometimes brings other people's ‘stuff’ to our house from the tip, apparently the parts might be useful to him when he’s repairing something!

Hide it somewhere and if he hasn’t asked after it in 6 months quietly bin it....

May7

Yes, yes, yes, I share your pain. This is exactly how my husband behaves. We have spare of almost everything cluttering up the cupboards and the garage. There is no room for a car in our garage because it’s full of ‘stuff.’ The ‘stuff’ might be useful one day apparently. I’m fed up with it but cannot change his behaviour.

Some older people hang on to broken kettles, toasters etc simply because they have no way of getting rid of them. The bin men won't take them and they don't have the means to go to the tip.

I do keep boxes in the attic in case I need to send things back. A couple of years ago DH was offered a phone upgrade and took it. The phone didn't work and he had chucked the box, we had hells own job to get the company to take it back!