A very interesting article. Like the grandmother in the article, my grandparents lived through the Depression and had a similar mentality.
While I definitely did inherit that tendency, it's a weakened version. I also spent several years with roommates who were incredible hoarders. Dealing with their estate forced me to take a look at my own habits. I found I didn't tend to accumulate an excessive amount of any one thing. However, I wanted ONE back-up for EVERYthing. So my deal with myself is that if I find a third which is better, one of the 2 I have has to go. so far it's worked out.
So where's my weakness? Clothes, paperwork/financial records, books (big one for me!), shoes (because I can't wear regular shoes). When I look at that stuff, I realized that my decisions to save them were correct AT THAT TIME. I was RIGHT to save those things and more often than not I had very good EXTERNAL reasons to back up my decisions. Example: I look at shoes and say to myself, "These shoes are old, but still good for 'X'." If my life has changed and I'm unlikely to do 'X' in the foreseeable future, I donate the shoes.
The kicker is that (as some of you know) my life has been turned upside down so many times in the last 15 years that I've lost count. Point? The reasons I saved the stuff are GONE. I no longer have a reason to keep those things. Therefore they can go. End of story.
What do I do about it? I've figured out a system that works for me and doesn't require much thought. This is important because I'm usually exhausted when I finally get around to clearing things out.
First, I set up 4 boxes: Definitely Keep, Not Sure - keep it for now , & Definitely GO (one box for trash/recycle & one for donation)
Second, I grab a random box (it's important not to think about which box) and sort EVERYTHING in it into one of the 4 empty boxes.
Third, whenever one of the 4 is full, I stop and close it up. If it's Def Keep or Not Sure it goes back onto an EMPTY section of shelving. Donation boxes get stacked up in a corner. Def GO boxes get taken out of my apartment IMMEDIATELY.
I've found that on average, if I go through 5 boxes (usually NOT efficiently packed), I end up with one. to Keep, one Not Sure and two to GO. I started with 5 boxes on my shelves and ended with just TWO. Progress is made without trauma
For washers and other appliances:
If you're looking at 6 of something, ask yourself:
1. Is it working?
2. Is it in demand (or would it be if working)?
3. Is there someone in your family fascinated with it and who wants it at some point in the future?
If any of the 6 gets a NO on all three, pick ONE to go.
If an item needs fixing, ask yourself what the likelihood of you getting the time, the energy, the tools, the co-operation from other people, etc. needed to fix it is. An item that gets "not very likely"...goes. Notice I didn't say anything about you own personal willingness to invest in repairing it. YOU are just the beginning; the rest of the planet has to co-operate. Sad, but true. if you realize you'll probably never be able to fix a washer/coffee maker/etc. because of outside factors, accept it, but don't take ownership. Why not? Because you don't control the outside factors.
If you have multiple collections of multiple items and you've already decided you need to pare down, I would only sell/donate ONE item from each collection at a time. The goal is to make your collections manageable, not to stop collecting!
I hope I've made some sense.
Jim
