Are you a pack rat?

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In others words;

Do you keep everything, collect everything, or just feel to attached to get rid of things even though you need to?

I put things aside in boxes to get ready to give it away but I always end up going through it again and taking stuff back out. I have piles of things and papers and boxes everywhere and it's beginning to get a bit overwhelming.

Yep, though since being married and moving a lot in the past 10 years (I'm 37) I do throw away stuff. But I admit, I'm at least a size 18 and still keep my 3/4 dresses, medium shirts around.
I've always save grocery bags too. The plastic builds up quite a bit. The paper bags I manage to go through with recycling and/or throwing dry stuff away. But I have cabinet full of plastic bags. When I was young I had disposable money and would buy stuff in dept stores and save those bags. My mom would get mad but eventually be begging me for a bag. (before they manufactured gift bags)

I keep everything
When I was in school I started collecting empty cans of Pepsi
I built a really big pyramid of them in my room
But then when I went to school one day, I came back and they were gone
My mum had taken them to be recycled

I am the ultimate pack rat.

Tim

Sort of. I keep those little plastic tables that are put in the center of pizzas. I also keep my Yu-Gi-Oh! cards even though I don't play the game anymore.

I hatehatehate throwing stuff away. I dunno what it is, exactly, but I really don't like the idea of getting rid of stuff.

This has been asked before.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php? ... ter#550158

Apparantly, it is an AS trait. I had perhaps ****EVERYTHING**** until I was like 10, and got rid of things I felt were too childish. I then kept stuff until I was perhaps 30, and threw out some because I didn't have time to go through it all, and had to move. I then kept stuff until about 39 and threw out some because I was moving again. I STILL have almost every cable, all my spare parts, every computer(except a 286 I LOANED some idiots that sold it. It was a special 20Mhz version, and was faster than any 386 out there. The 386 was perhaps the only generation Intel made that was wholly slower than the previous one.), and 2 PDP 11-23s. I have almost every book purchased in the past 30 years.

BTW I keep every reciept/bill/check also!

Steve

no not really, i collect things but i dont keep like trash all over the place so i cant walk aroung my house

Heres a long winded artical on the subject:

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/con ... /164/3/380

To make it ADHD friendly and legal for WP I will pick out some random points from it.

I actually get a thrill from throwing stuff away. Clutter drives me crazy, fills my brain with too much stimulation, so throwing something away frees up a little of the clutter in my brain, or at least that's what I figure the reason is.

Happiness is an empty trash can because all the trash is gone!

I loathe to throw things away. I have things in my room right now dating back more than ten years. I'd still have my kindergarten scratchbooks with me if I were less forgetful and kept good track of them. I keep these things as neural pathways to memories of the state of mind I was in when I had each item. When I throw them away I feel like I'm losing parts of myself that I'll never be able to get back again.

Come to think of it, I still sleep with about 10-15 stuffed animals in bed and i'm an 18 year old guy........but I won't throw 'em away, hell no.

Involuntary pack rat. I would like to throw some things away, but then I think there will be a use or a need for it so I won't. I do get frustrated though and toss stuff occasionally, like I will toss out dishes and plastic food containers though do to my OCD if I think they are too dirty.

I cleaned my room a few months ago and I had to throw stuff away and give clothes to goodwill and stuff. My mom's boyfriend was being mean to me about cleaning my room, too. He has no idea how difficult it was for me to get rid of that stuff.

I even got rid of my favorite jacket. Sure, it was old and junky, but it was my favorite...

my bro is a bigtime pack rat and keeps everything. I'm the opposite and have to get rid of anything and everything I can on a regular basis as I can't stand having so much stuff around in the way if I can't use it. I do however collect alot of different specific things.

i agree with aylissa: if I have too much clutter around it does clutter my brain. everything has to be needed and usable and it the right place or I feel lost and disorganized and cannot focus or concentrate on anything and also cannot find anything!!