of holding on to their stuff, stuff that isn't needed, stuff that doesn't fit and paperwork that serves no purpose.

Just talking to a friend who is always so so busy making up stuff to do with her stuff, papers she keeps for a long time etc....I called her on this again and she finally said, yes I'm OCD.....we've talked about this OCD issue and I thought she could make changes, BUT...and she is alone in her little house....

And I have another friend who has kept clothing from size 3 to extra extra large as she says she may wear the size 3 again. No way, I don't even ask her anymore....her daughter is the one who has to clean out her house when my friend is gone.

I started purging so much maybe 20 yrs ago and feels so freeing...and over the years I've tried to throw things away in my parents house and my mom would put them back in place, but my sis and I were the ones that had to clean the two story house out when they were both gone. I won't let that happen to my daughter.

Anyway, think about this...and for laughs and truth view George Carlin's
video on "stuff".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac


I think I posted a post some time ago on this topic.

I've had to "clean-out" behind enough people who died that
i have become hyper-aware of what artifacts I'll leave behind.

I try to go through our stuff twice a year and get rid of paperwork, clothes, shoes etc. I donate some of it to Goodwill or The Salvation Army. My son has stuff in his closet from when he was in grade school and he's 30 years old. I want to purge that closet so bad. If he ever moves out and doesn't take it with him, it will all go in the dumpster.

I keep a few things because of its sentimental value to me. But we contribute a lot of stuff monthly or bi-monthly to my local thrift store. Getting rid of clutter makes me feel free. I have gotten rid of things that maybe I should not have, but it's over and done with.

Of course, the other side of the coin is, seeing the asking prices now for vintage toys that I played with back in the 1960s, and disposed of as I grew out of them.

Some of those Marx playsets and Kenner kits fetch a fortune.

My mom died in 2002, and had been a secretary for 40+ years. And while clearing the house out, I found her "stash" in the back of one closet. every credit card bill, utility bill, cancelled check,. mortgage payment coupon, etc she had ever paid was neatly filed away in a stack of shoe boxes, Organized by date and alphabetized within each month.....going all the way back into the 1950s.

It was entertaining to voyeur my way through some of that older stuff, seeing how cheap the monthly (heating) gas bill was in the 1950s, compared to what it was for the same house in the 2000s

But, I vowed then and there that I would NEVER give anyone else the post humus opportunity to snoop into my daily travails. I burnt 2 decades of my own records as a result, and now am extremely selective over what I'll keep longer than 6 months.

Of course, the other side of the coin is, seeing the asking prices now for vintage toys that I played with back in the 1960s, and disposed of as I grew out of them.

Some of those Marx playsets and Kenner kits fetch a fortune.

My mom died in 2002, and had been a secretary for 40+ years. And while clearing the house out, I found her "stash" in the back of one closet. every credit card bill, utility bill, cancelled check,. mortgage payment coupon, etc she had ever paid was neatly filed away in a stack of shoe boxes, Organized by date and alphabetized within each month.....going all the way back into the 1950s.

It was entertaining to voyeur my way through some of that older stuff, seeing how cheap the monthly (heating) gas bill was in the 1950s, compared to what it was for the same house in the 2000s

But, I vowed then and there that I would NEVER give anyone else the post humus opportunity to snoop into my daily travails. I burnt 2 decades of my own records as a result, and now am extremely selective over what I'll keep longer than 6 months.

My mother kept all her paid bill stubs in shoe boxes. She had a small apt. and they eventually had to be shredded and thrown out or recycled, so a friend and i did that a few years before she died.

My mom died in 2002, and had been a secretary for 40+ years. And while clearing the house out, I found her "stash" in the back of one closet. every credit card bill, utility bill, cancelled check,. mortgage payment coupon, etc she had ever paid was neatly filed away in a stack of shoe boxes, Organized by date and alphabetized within each month.....going all the way back into the 1950s.


Wow! That must have been some find!

Wow! That must have been some find!

It gives one a valuable perspective.


We often hear (in response to our musings over how cheap things used to be) rebuttal that people didn't make as much "back then"...which is true.

But, there is a relational difference between what certain necessities "cost" as a percentage of your overall income, then...compared to now.

A $6.00 natural gas bill for January in northern Indiana circa 1960-61...compared to $160-$240 for the same house in 2003-2008 when I was living there as chief bill payer. And I was the beneficiary of a "high efficiency" furnace, not to mention global warming.

Now, a typical middle class wage might have been only $150/$200 per week back then...but look at the proportional relationship with how a winter month's heating bill compared to income ....in the two different epochs

Really puts those low prices we see advertised for food in the grocery store windows of LITB and TAGS,..into perspective.

So yeah, a boat or a TV set might have been a proportionally larger percentage of typical income back then...but what we consider life's necessities were considerably more affordable back then.

Mortgage payment $56.00

Now, of course there are mitigating factors. Back in the 1950s the gas companies were still trying to drive the final nails into the coffin for home heating by coal, so they had the burden of trying to grow their market segment, whereas now rewarding their stockholders is the higher priority. We have made ourselves sitting ducks thru our dependency.


In retrospect, I wish that I had saved all those records, and compiled a comprehensive report to compare to, but at the time the need to clear everything out was a higher priority.

I have collections and not planning to part with them, but having said that, I don't hoard stuff and try to keep an orderly house. What I basically do is keep what's important to me and dispose of what's not important or no longer important.

I'm a hoarder. About three fourths of the basement really should be tossed.

The mentality of the generation before me, was of the Great Depression era and they could not get rid of anything. I was born at that time, but did a lot of waking up over the years. And then the folks that have so much fear and buy those shredders and work to shred their OLD papers...... I can see where these are probably used in major companies etc...but for the homes......Nope, not me.

With paperwork, I am really bad about keeping it because I always think I will need it for some reason. I keep sturdy cardboard boxes for the same reason.

I'm a bit of a hoarder but during the early stages of the pandemic, I made a vow to dispose of things. My big issue was buying books, I'm a library trustee and would buy every time they had a sale. Back in 2005 I purged most of my books but vowed never to get that bad again but I broke my promise. I also had lots of things I hadn't gotten rid of, such as broken electronics and clothes I hadn't worn in 20 years. The local school was having a garage sale so a great excuse to get rid of things and get rid I did. I ended up with 9 boxes of books and other misc and four bags of clothes. In addition to this, I finally went through the wires and electronics and had several boxes to take to recycle. I then went through the paperwork and shredded boxes and boxes. I have a lot more space now.

I realize MOST here are much younger, but you will all get old if you live long enough. So getting rid of stuff is not a big thing on your plates, but it is for me and the other day I got rid of 2 bags of clothes and a purse that my cleaning woman was happy to take to her family..

Talking to a friend who is doing long distance "cleaning out of her mother's life's attachments", her mom lived to 98, and my friend is having a hell of a time doing this in CA as her mom lived in FL. Her mom had a LOT of stuff, and now my friend is stressing with it all.

I know that when my parents died but they were not wealthy and we had enough to do just to get their house cleaned out and get it ready to sell it.

Just a thought..... Our attachments that we own, end up owning us.

Talking to a friend and she's finding herself possibly moving to Nevada and she's having a hard time keeping up with the cost of her retirement "small house" and now looking at a assisted living place...BUT her house and garage and loaded with STUFF she didn't work on scaling down over the years...and at 85 and health issues, will be a lot tougher for her....

The blue state is eating us alive with heavy taxes.....