i was raised
use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.
i cant part with anything except obvious waste trash garbage.
for heavens sake i keep envelopes mail comes in for scrap paper im that bad.
i can not pass up good stuff other people have out on garbage day. i grab stuff out of the dumpster at work if its still usable...
i have clothes and shoes from high school and that was 40 + yrs ago.
i have everything no one else wanted out of the contents of both parents and both grandparents homes. i have games and toys the kids played with and the youngest just turned 45.
i have practically every card and personal letter ive ever received... note books from jobs umpteen jobs ago..
i know i need to not only get rid of stuff but i also need to stop collecting more.
easier said than done. i will see stuff out for garbage and force myself to keep driving past it then a mile or so down the road it bugs me to the point i have to turn around and go back and pick it up.
now .. on the up side is i have lots of neat stuff to use as gifts..my people almost expect to get a "vintage" used gift from me... i have had everything any one has ever been in need of ... im the 1st one everyone calls before they go & buy something they need... i myself never have to buy much of anything il ever need to have other than day to day essentials...
i get most all my clothes handed down from someone who knows me brings me what they think is close to my size of their outgrown items...
i garbage picked enough gift bags from my coworkers garbage next year will be the 1st time in 2 yrs il need to buy any again...
so many of my things im unable to part with because of my sentimental family attachment to them. i dont need or use 2 sets of my grandmas wedding china but i can not bring myself to part with a single saucer of 1 of them...
i have researched many things and know if i found the right market i could make a nice profit to sell some of what i have but there again i take issue doing that because somehow it feels like because i didnt pay for things initially its not my right to sell them to my profit. i watch antique roadshow a lot so yes i do realize its a ok to dumpster dive and make a mint off the treasures you find. i myself im still just not comfortable to do it.
also heres another roadblock i have ... on the rare occasions i have gotten rid of some goofy thing ive never touched in years and now im tired of tripping over it ... it has never failed that within less than 1 month il have a reason to need it and cant because its gone now.. yes honest injun that has happened so many times its probably 9 10ths of why im so gunshy to get rid of anything else.
ohhh boooks... i make it a habit never to lend out my books... the 2 times i have ive never got them back so i went on line found a used book site that had them & i have replaced them both. why .. i cant explain other than something i had went missing and i needed it to put it back in the place where it belonged. because i knew it was missing it left a void that disrupted the entire "space" around it. not that i could look and see it was missing but more like everthing else was a bunch of out of context random tid bits of odds & ends without it there .
the oc in me needs to now and then touch the things that mean the most to me to reaffirm that connection i have is still there.
im rambling i know but im sure you can all understand the "frame of mind" perspective its coming from.