Difficulty throwing things away

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I am absolutely one of the worst packrats ever...I even do it in computer games! But I'm trying to downsize...but it's really hard because like others mentioned I keep thinking oh but I might need this or want it later. Plus I never seem to have time >_<

Sometimes I also seem to go through phases of collecting weird objects, dead batteries, empty green tea bottles, and other stuff like that...

You always sound so sad, it makes me want to stalk you down and hug you. (I'm just kidding about the "stalk" part, in case that's not obvious..)
I do hope the reason your posts are always so sad is because you post more when you're feeling particularly sad and lonely.. I don't know you very well but I do like you, and it makes me sad to think of you always feeling that way.

Lack of space.

Yes! And I know I personify objects. I care much more about objects than most people. (my husband and kids excluded of course)

When things MUST get thrown away that I can't bare to do.. I instruct others to do it at a later time and not say anything to me. Sometimes I make up a fictional place they're going to. Like just today I had to throw away an expired car seat. This car seat was expensive 7 years ago. It was a GOOD car seat! My babies were in it. Its been with us for so long... its been a good car seat.. it didn't deserve to just get thrown in the trash. (yet its not safe to have anyone else use it) So I told my husband that I had a friend coming to pick it up and borrow it and to please go put it outside for her to pick up. He knew full well that I wanted it thrown away. So he agreed to my story and threw it away... but didn't tell me that.

So i know the truth... but I like to pretend I don't. Its easier on me.

What makes it easier for me is imagining my clutter (I have a tendency to hoard empty drinks cans and stack them in a tower ) having a better life in the recycling box, even though they aren't living things I still feel bad about getting rid of them. I'm trying to be ruthless when it comes to clearing things out, it will take a while but I am getting there.

Yes I have the same problem, I'm a terrible hoarder. My new years resolution this year is to dig out and throw things away or sell them or donate them. LOL

My main reason is I'm afraid of being considered junk.

In high school they called me junk or damaged and it made me so hurt.

I wish I could make them feel/become junk.

I hate to get rid of things and especially to throw them out. My house is way over-crowded and my partner has insisted on getting rid of a bunch of unused (and in many cases useless to us) stuff. We have thrown some things out and I am trying very hard to not even think about them and to not know what precisely has been chucked.

We are also "selling" a bunch of stuff on a local auction site (letting it go for the cost of listing it actually). I doubt my partner has any idea how very anxious this process makes me. I have been "talking up" the process saying how great it is and keeping up a commentary on how many square metres of space have been "recovered" by getting rid of items. Basically I am self-soothing my way through with constant verbal reminders to myself of both the necessity and benefits of "getting rid of unused stuff", but honestly I really hate it and already miss everything that we have so far dispossed of.

i am an extremist. I am also a hoarder.
My house has been crowded out by junk (and we compromise by confining it to "my areas," although I have often been known to crash the boundaries and I start creating clutter everywhere.

About 2 months ago I began to clean out our home with the help of son and his father. Getting to the point of being able to do this took a couple of years, and I had to cease everything and just focus on it as a single task for the duration of the holidays.
The house is now spartan - extremely clean and zen.
I have my area where I have some things and my elephant collection and i also have a studio area that is crammed with the household stuff i cannot yet discard.

I must say, I feel a thousand times better. It was hard to do and it took all my energy, but it has been worth it.
i hope to eventually clean out the studio too.

Last edited by millie on 11 Jan 2010, 7:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I certainly need to pare down my possessions, not least because I spend a lot of time trying to find things and if you need them in a hurry it's very stressful,but I don't think I could go bare minimum with nothing but functional furniture and bare walls and surfaces. I need something to look at. I think I would go stir crazy without that.

It makes me sad to throw things away. I feel so bad when I have to. Then, of course, what if I need them some time in the future?

I hate throwing things away, because it seems a bit like objects have 'souls' or whatever and it makes me sad to throw them away. I still haven't managed to throw away my old iPod, which is full of soap and water because my mum accidentally put it in the wash.

I have often cried because I have had to throw some object away. I'm such a wuss

That's a good idea. I might give my old iPod to my mum to throw away. (I'm crying my eyes out right now!!)

Every time I throw something useable away, I end up needing it.

I recently had to throw away my flourescent green slippers that I'd had for five years because they had holes in them. From the moment I saw them in Peacock's, I really wanted them, and I loved those slippers. I miss them .

I had a big collection of magazines which was getting out of hand. I reduced the piles by going through them and tearing out the pages of those articles I wanted to keep and recycle the rest of each magazine. The easiest way to file the pages you keep is a large accordion file with a-z pockets for each subject of each article. I resist the temptation to keep magazines (and even torn out articles) by reminding myself that the web probably has a similar article that I can access any time. I often download the text of articles on the web, but they don't take up any space and are easier to find later.

I am a packrat, but find giving away things to charity helps me to give up unneeded things. There is still the problem of deciding what to keep and what to give away, but at least I think they won't go to waste.

I have the same problem. But adding on to it is an even bigger problem which makes that problem a whole lot more bigger of a problem althogether, and that's buying things I rarely use, like notebooks and journals and regular books.

And then even little useless things, me and my grandma had the same problem. And my mom says how she finds it amusing that me and my grandma had things cluttered up in our rooms like an organized mess. With things stacked neatly or put certain places but they crowd up space.
And sometimes mom will do the liberty of throwing out some of my old things that have "worn out" without my consent =\
And dad often complained about the same thing.