Does anyone else always get sucked into those tv shows about people who have houses filled with clutter? Some are more lighthearted, like Clean House, others are kind of dark, like Hoarders. Either way, I find them completely fascinating. People have just accumulated so much stuff, and it’s always such a mess, with piles everywhere. And yet, the people also always know exactly where everything is.
Watching these shows always makes me want to go clean out my closet.
At first, you don’t understand how people get to that point. And I still don’t understand how anyone can stand to live among rotting trash. But I guess you just get used to it and then you stop noticing the smell and the flies. But then I start to think about the things that I own. How many storage boxes do I have in my closet? How much stuff is saved under my bed. It’s not trash, but is it really stuff I need? On some level, maybe I’m saving it so I don’t have to spend money later. And that’s frugal. But at the same time, it’s a little bit wasteful too.
So here’s my challenge. I want to get rid of 5 things a week for the next month. And maybe for the month after that. See how much I can pare down. It will be nice to be free from some of this stuff that I have accumulated, and it might make organizing my closet a whole lot easier.
Megan is a 30-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
That show is disgusting, so I have to watch.
It blows my mind how people put a sentimental value on so much crap. I have a few things that are sentimental, but, really, that cracked tea cup set you got at goodwill?
I wish they came back to interview the people a year later to see if they went back to their hoarding habits.
I grew up in a house with my mother who has definate hoarding tendancies. She’s nowhere near as bad as the people on tv, but the urges are definately there. Whenever my brother and I tried to throw away/donate/get rid of anything, it would inevitably make it’s way back in the house, and eventually, back into our lives.
Now that I’m on my own, I’m trying to get rid of as much of the stuff that I’ve been forced to hold on to for most of my life, and to break the packrat tendancies. I totally agree that part of the mentality is a frugal one of “but I might need it one day!”
It’s a struggle.
twe1vegir1
My dad is a borderline hoarder. Our basement is crammed full of stuff including three cars that no longer work (it’s a big basement). He even has little paths to get around. He goes through the trash fairly often as well and pulls things out that he swears he can use. Sometimes I do see him use stuff (especially old towels and anything made of fabric that can be used as a rag), but mostly it’s still piled up with the rest of the boxes that were moved into our house 19 years ago and ever unpacked.
I am a little bit of a pack rat and I save stuff for the “sentimental value”, but I try to declutter twice a year. I’m especially good about weeding through my clothes, shoes, and bathroom products. Not so good with my desk and my books. It sounds like you’ve set a good goal for yourself. I think 5 things to throw out is very doable.
What a great idea to eliminate five items a week — and so much less painful than trying to tackle the complete job all at once! I think I’m going to do the same!
I started a project like that a few years ago and have been meaning to get back to it the last few weeks. I had this one sports bag full of bits and pieces and no matter how much I cleared up, cleared out and tidied, I always had this bag full of bits and pieces. So I gave myself a challenge to find a home for 3 little things every day. Yeah, I kept it up for a couple of weeks and then something else happened. And then it’s easy to convince yourself that as soon as you have a bigger home, you’ll be able to find space for everything.
In the meantime I am finally renting my own place (no more house-shares, yay!) and am unlikely to ever have much more space than I do now. So now that two years after moving I have finally gotten through the pile of filing that I have been ignoring for years, I want to finally get that bag emptied. Yes, it is still nearly full (more got added to it when I moved) and just moved with me as it was.
I spent a couple of years trying to get over my hoarding tendencies and a few small steps did help. I have to admit to a love of tacky souvenirs but I decided years ago that only souvenirs which also have a practical use were ever coming home with me. I also hate dusting so as much as I love to have a few ornaments around, whenver I am tempted by something new, I remind myself that it would need dusting on a regular basis and suddenly it doesn’t seem so tempting. When I moved house once I sent all of the glass jars I had been hoarding for a ‘someday they’ll be useful’ purpose off to be recycled. Of course then a few years later I started to get properly interested in simple, sustainable living and frugality and starting making my own jams and chutneys and really, really regretted having gotten rid of all those jars. But that’s life.
One thing I have planned for years but never gotten around to is a memories box. I was in a friend’s house and he pulled down a big cardboard box to show me a photo – he had photos, old records, paintings he had done, medals won and that kind of thing in it. But that was essentially it. Anything of sentimental value was in that box. I decided that it would be a great idea to just have one box to keep the stuff in that is really, truly of sentimental value. I did get a blanket box for that purpose but have always ended up actually using it for blankets and other bedclothes. Must revisit that idea. I like the idea of setting a space limit on sentimental value items as then I have to decide what is really important to me.
Doooo it! I felt so much lighter after my “Get rid of stuff Sundays.” It’s liberating.
I hoard CDs and books. I’m good about everything else.
I watched Hoarders for the first time the other night. I cannot imagine living like that. What I noticed (at least on this episode) is that people hoard crap (maybe even trash). It makes no sense to me.
Anyway, good luck on your project.
I am also a “fan” of these shows and when I talk about it with people (that don’t watch the shows) they call me sadistic. But honestly I find it very interesting and like you want to immediately run to my room and start throwing crap out. Ever since watching this series, I started to really take a good look at STUFF and throw/donate/sell STUFF that I don’t use on a regular basis.