Why Do Americans Have So Much Stuff?
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- Опубликовано: 10 апр 2023
- It's a question I've been asked often: do Americans own too much stuff? Here's what I think.
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Adulting: When you avoid throwing out a really good box because, you know, it's a really good box.
The good sturdy bags too; especially now that they charge for bags.
Any good container , really .
It might come in handy to store more stuff in .
Also , there is the endless joy of having 16 margarine containers in the fridge , none which actually contain margarine .
Have to confess I keep small nice boxes to mail gifts to the grandchildren. Love to find I already have the exact size box to mail whatever I'm sending.
On the other hand, the post office sells all sizes of boxes to mail stuff! 😮
@@kaboom4679 for me it's the nice plastic boxes that lunch meat comes in...I have STACKS of them (but do use regularly, so...)
Peanut butter jars.
My mother always said the more room you have the more stuff you collect.
Your mother is so correct. Every time I have moved to a bigger place, I end up just doubling the amount of stuff I have.
Mom is always right! ❤
She was right!! Lol
That's exactly why I turned down a 2 bedroom apt. and took a 1 room. I'll just fill it with cr@p I don't need any way.
I find myself desperately fighting this trend so I can have less stuff and more space. I have a Tiny apartment tho.
Are you familiar with the American concept of the "junk drawer"? It's an otherwise normal drawer, often in the kitchen, into which we toss every odd bit and rubber band which we have no current use for but which is so potentially useful that we're sure we'll desperately need it some day. It contains rubber bands, the remaining nail from that group of four we brought in from the garage but only ended up using three of them, that little screwdriver that's the perfect size for tightening the screws that hold handles onto our kitchen pans, that odd little piece of rubber that was guaranteed to loosen the tightest lid but turned out to only be useful for olive jar lids, and so on. Mine probably has 300,000 objects by itself. I can never find what I'm looking for but it's always a fun trip down memory lane whenever I rummage through it.
You need one. Trust me.
We don't have a "junk drawer" per se. One kitchen drawer has a few items of junk in one corner. But that drawer is where I keep my potholders and steak knives. The utensil drawer, however, is very full. I really need to go through that one and re-organize it.
I have one of those, and the lightbulb drawer. It was easier to buy a large amount of them at once, and I don't actually have many utensils.
I think you forgot to mention the pair of scissors that only cut "in that one spot."
Ye we have those, but do americans have 'shit bowls'? Usually they are a fruit/decorative bowl left in the hall or on the table into which people start throwing whatever shite is in their pockets, keys, business cards, coins, bits of string, allen keys, screws, etc, etc until within a few months you've got a full bowl which may well remain there for many decades.
For example my grandma went to kenya about 12 years ago, and she bought this beautifully decorated wood fruitbowl made of some dark native wood and carved completely by hand, very pretty.
I've only ever seen fruit in it once 12 years ago has been the shitbowl on their table for the last 12 years
My junk drawer's most sacred duty is housing every single user manual for every single appliance, tool, and electronic I have ever purchased. Have I ever in my life needed to reference said manuals? No. Would I go digging in the junk drawer vs googling the item if I did have a question? No. Will I ever be 100% comfortable with the idea of throwing out my pile of manuals? Also no.
Part of the problem is the older generations holding onto useless items thinking their children will want it later on. A majority of my basement is now stuff that my parents keep pushing on me to take that they have been holding on to for years. I've gone through a purged quite a bit of it, but now the basement is being loaded up with stuff my wife is getting from her parent's house and she seems to have a much harder time letting go of items forcing me to build more shelving just to hold it all.
I tried telling my wife that the newest generations don't collect china, vases, silverware or anything needing a hutch to display it all, but to no avail. Some heirlooms date back three generations but no one wants it.
Makes sense, I like that idea.
At the same time, another part of the problem is literally anybody keeping something because they think *they* will need/want it later
Really? I honestly wish my parents or grandparents had some kind of family heirloom I could inherit and pass down or, some cute pretty vases to display at least, but I guess people don't usually want breakable things because they don't trust themselves to keep it safe. Unless it's new and it's just sitting there in a shop, probably on sale
@@stephen1991 A cousin inherited her side’s “goodies” and was in quite a quandary as to what to do with ‘em. At my suggestion she contacted a B&B that specializes in Wedding and Anniversary celebrations, who were THRILLED to receive the “service for 12” china, glassware, and silver plate utensils and serving pieces. That’s not to say e v e r y B&B will be so inclined, but, before you turn these items over to your nephew for clay pigeon substitutes, DO check them out, as well as historical societies, and show-and-tell museums and venues.
Funny ... if the same people die and leave nothing of value; the kids whine that they got nothing!
Turns there's my dad who lived during the great depression and saved almost everything including a broken bolt. Which he later straightened and used in my presence. 😁
My mother lived through the depression and WWII (with its rationing). I think her hoarding was a the result of a combination of psychological impact and necessary thrift. She wound leftover thread from sewing projects to be used to sew on buttons, for example. And my father saved used nails to be reused later.
I was gonna make a comment similar to this. Both set of great and grandparents either lived through the Great Depression or were born shortly after and it definitely affected the amount of stuff they had and kept, some habits which were passed down as well. (And others that didn't, sorry great grandma, I just cannot bring myself to wash and reuse ziplock bags often :( )
@@EarlLeeByrd They saved the important things. Not made in China Walmart garbage people throw their money away on now
Yup. My Dad (born 100 years ago today) kept all sorts of old rusty screws and bolts. I used to follow that practice until I realized that I was never looking for screws in the used screw jar. Now I have a much smaller repository of such things and only keep ones that are in really good shape or serve a specific purpose.
I agree about people who lived through the depression. My mom is like that. Maybe British don’t do that because they know they have an effective social safety net.
My parents left so much stuff crammed in the basement that I've gotten into the habit of checking it first before making any new purchases.
Extension cord? Basement.
Storage tub? Basement.
Folding chairs? Basement.
Filing cabinet? You guessed it. There were a few of those to choose from too.
It's like Mary Poppin's bag or Doraemon's pouch.
I think they vaguely had known that stuff was down there somewhere, but it was so much work to look for it they would usually just decide to buy a new one instead...
Awesome reply! 😀
I still go out to my dad’s shop after 20 years and find tools I need, because I know I saw one once, 😂 And I’ve cleaned it out several times.
The last time I moved I made it a point to localize all of those things to at least their own boxes. So now I have an extension cords box, batteries box, TV cords box, etc... I go shopping through my own junk all the time now that I can find (most of) it.
This is the benefit of saving things. The filing cabinet you found will probably cost you 75% more now than when it was bought. Cost to you? 0
Wish my son would do that, he tells me he bought something and i go crazy because I have three of them ...ask mother first!
American here. When we bought our home, we found out what the previous owners did with the garage, as it has its own power and breaker box, with the breakers labeled things like "welder" and "air compressor". This makes another fun feature of our garage make more sense: the door is on the wrong side. This means it isn't actually possible to fit our car in the garage without magically turning it sideways... Or moving the washer and dryer, which is what we did. And we still have to literally back into the wall to make it fit. Still an improvement over the last home we lived in where the garage was too short for our car. I'm not entirely sure that the PNW knows what garages are supposed to be for.
When I met my husband in my 40's, we both had our own households full of "stuff" (me, kid clutter, him camping, SCA, music, computersssss). When we joined households, the literal overflow was tremendous. Before we downsized in preparation for moving out of the US, we filled 2 extra large dumpsters with "stuff"and donated endless amounts to the local charity shops. Then we had to purge all his tools and any electronics that had 120 volt motors etc. It taught me a bunch about how much we own, and how it owns us right back. Now, living in Ireland (after Canada), I practice periodic clearing out days/weeks. Now, I have my eldest daughters boxes to content with, filling the shed!
Why did you make him get rid of tools????
@Jim-Bagel I didn't make him do anything. Lol, the very idea! His choice, his idea. Weight mostly (shipping). He kept a few boxes of hand tools. He had tons of duplication.
I do SCA too!
I finally bought a home with a garage 6 years ago. I’ll never understand filling it with stuff. I love finally having a garage and not having to clear the snow off of my car!
OR the bird droppings!😇
I agree. We got some great racks that hang from the ceiling in our garage which allows us to store our vehicles and our seasonal items. Wow. I'm in the garage looking around smoking cannabis and admiring my wife's sheer ability to organize. I wish I was more like her...
My garage is full of 4 kids worth of stuff now that they are grown. all packaged and waiting for them to decide what they want to do with it. they have until this fall to get it or it goes bye bye.
My wife and I live in a large, middle class, subdivision (Housing Estate I believe in Brit-Speak) in Florida. All houses here have two-car garages. We are the only family we have ever seen in this neighborhood, who can park at least one car in the garage.
Seriously! Not having to scrape snow off my car every time I drive it during the looonnnggg Midwestern winter is worth far more than simple storage space for more junk!
As a collector of things I am outraged and deeply embarrassed. Two lava lamps sit before me right now.
WHAT??? NO old school LITE Brites?!?!?!?!?
If the lava lamps spark joy, don't let a cantankerous Brit make you feel bad for having them!
Enjoy your lava laps, just because some people want to sit in an empty box all day doesn't mean you can't enjoy a little light 🛋️
My sister has leftover candy wrappers from 1999 if that makes you feel any better.
Make an 8 hour lava lamp RUclips video please. ❤
I'm in the process of de-cluttering my home, garage and basement. I've donated bags and bags of nice clothing, suits, and even a tuxedo that were too large for me. (I lost about 75 pounds 8 years ago, and have kept it off, since. On purpose, thank you. I only recently decided to get rid of the "just in case" pile) I've thrown away bags and bags of clothing that aren't worth saving, even as a donation. I've thrown away random crap out of the garage and basement. Simple junk and random items that were left from the previous owner, more than 20+ years ago in a 100+ year old home. "Well, it might come in handy one day!" It's a slow process to take on. If I look at all of the mess at once, I just get discouraged and say "Screw it, I'll just watch RUclips instead." Instead, I focus on clearing about 8 feet of one garage wall at a time: clearing out everything, sorting the good from the bad, and cleaning it all. My garage is an old addition. It's technically a 2 car garage; it's 2 deep, but only wide enough for one at a time. Half is laundry, the other half is a workshop. One entire wall is pegboard full of tools, odds and ends that are useful (gaskets, hinges, partial packages of hardware, etc.)
I lived with a hoarder once. It was terrifying. I worried every night that some fire would start and the mix of her oxygen and piles of junk would cause a fast burning fire that would kill the whole house. I appreciate my mom's rule of getting rid of anything one hadn't used in a year so much more after that.
Well, as I'm in the process of purging so I can move I can tell you that I have my stuff, my parent's stuff, my grandparents' stuff...and a bit of my great-grandparents stuff out in my garage. And I have to tell you, the only stuff I can quickly decide to dump or donate is my own stuff. All the rest of the stuff has to be 'gone through' in case someone else might want to add it to their own stuff.
My friend & his wife are going through the same problem.
I can commiserate. I have my in law's stuff, my sister in law's stuff (who was a hoarder by the way), and some of my brother in law's stuff.
All of my SIL's stuff had to be gone through, due to her habit of stashing cash. $20 here, $50 there.
I’m not planning on moving, but I’ve been going through our stuff. Packing up keepsakes from me, my parents and grandparents and giving them to the younger generations. Donating other good stuff to a resell shop that uses the money to help women escape from abusive situations and to help those recover from drug addiction. Also giving some stuff to friends who want certain stuff. Have gone through a ton of paperwork! I’m now reclaiming my living room that hubby turned into an office when he opened his first business. I’m 72, hubby is 68 and bed bound. We never had any kids of our own. I decided it would be a nightmare if anyone had to come in and get rid of all our stuff. The garage is old and too small to put any vehicle in it. So far I’ve purged it 3 times and still will do it again. I turned it into my work shop/art studio. I build furniture that I’ve needed and do abstract paintings. Anyway, the more I get rid of, the happier I’m getting. We were not hoarders. But after 46 years of marriage, you tend to collect more than you realize. And I decided unnecessary stuff was not going to control my life! Sorry this is so long. Maybe someone can benefit or learn from my experience.
We had 5 deaths in the extended family over the last ten years, and thus we “inherited” a lot of other people’s stuff. Now we have too much stuff.
Right? I have the same baggage dating back to great-grandparents! I've been spending the last few years sending the heirlooms out to my cousins.
If you own a home, possessions accumulate over the years. And for some the accumulation is generational.
Truth. Especially if the previous generation NEVER threw anything away. When I moved into my first house my father gave me every broken tool or piece of furniture that he refused to get rid of because it was "still good" (despite him NEVER using them because they were broken). It was basically "Here, you throw this out."
I have several boxes of my grandmother's dolls. I'm a middle-aged man. I couldn't care less about dolls. I'd throw them in the trash except I'm afraid they might be worth something. Those stupid things cluttered up my parents' garage for 20 years and now they're cluttering mine.
I used to get browbeat by my mom for throwing out anything remotely useful. She also loved to buy things after being poor for a good chunk of her life, which she would hide everywhere.
I felt like such a bad child for getting rid of her collection after she passed. A lot of her stuff was part of the family, in a sense, and it was burying her all over again breaking the collection up. I wish I could afford a dumpster right now and have a huge purge.
My husband inherited his hoarding mindset from growing up with his parents--who were hoarders. After his parents passed away, my husband kept as much crap from their house as he could. Living in a small 2 bedroom apartment, he has our spare bedroom filled to the ceiling! Every year I go through the small area that's MY things, & throw out bags of unnecessary items. I've thrown out some of his things, too. However, I can't get all the way through his stuff because they are packed so tight & I'm 65, not strong enough to pull down heavy tubs of crap. I know he has a stuffed cobra from his brother in a box, somewhere in that mess. He kept some of his mom's puzzles that he doesn't even know if all the pieces are there. If something ever happened to him, my kids are coming & we might have to rent a dumpster. Now, if he wants something, I ask where specifically will he put it & what will he use it for. That has cut down some of his adding to the hoard.
I am a Certified Legal Assistant in The USA; I work mostly in Probate. I hear these stories all of the time. The solution? Let family quickly go through and take what they want. Then set up an estate auction, and it usually will be gone in one day. This works very well.
Since I retired 10 years ago, cleaning our basement and getting rid of "stuff" has been on my bucket list. Every year, I've said "this is the year." And so it goes.
You can do it! Don't try to do it all at once maybe like 5 or 10 mins at a time
Those junk companies charge a bit. 400 for a 2 room studio. It's best to do it yourself.
Have a box dedicated to items you will donate. It has been a game changer for us. When the box is full, we take those items to a charity shop and begin the process again. We've even had boxes for items we wanted to give to a family member or to sell. It is too easy to put it back in the closet or drawer and forget where you put the other items you had decided to get rid of or forget you had made a decision on it already. It is amazing deciding to do a drawer or a box for 10 or 20 minutes a week does start allowing you to make headway.
Start this year. Mom and I have been destuffing my parent's home for 5 years. Will be done next year. Will have a car in the garage by this fall!!
Like mowing the yard, jobs such as cleaning out the basement should be given to teens who want to earn a few bucks. Or a few hundred bucks, with the wages they ask for now. My son and daughter=in-law pay a teen babysitter fifteen dollars per hour, PER CHILD. They have five children. Needless to say, they do not stay out very late.
I have a large house and used to have way way too much stuff. But now I'm old, and have been making a very valiant effort to downsize. Every month I fill up the car and take a load to Goodwill, religiously. But, there is still a lot of stuff here.
I do find that doing this is like unraveling an onion. As each layer goes, the next layer becomes visible to me and I'm able to give away stuff I thought I never could.
One thing, I have never allowed myself to rent a storage unit. I knew where that would lead eventually lead me. So, my plan is working, and in a few years most of the stuff will be gone.
I wish we had places to donate things here in Croatia. When my mother in UK died and we had to clear out her house to be sold, lots of things went to charity shops but they don't seem to do charity here. More than half my clothes no longer fit me but I've not found anywhere to take them.
@@Phiyedough Is it common and safe for someone to put a posting on social media asking if anyone needs size whatever clothes in your area? Or even asking friends if they know anyone who wears that size that you could give them to? I've even seen people put them to the curb in front of their house with a sign stating free women's clothes size ??. However, I know very little about Croatia, unfortunately.
Back in the early 2000s I used to watch the show Clean Sweep which helped homeowners go through their stuff and everything went into one of three piles: keep, sell, toss. Great show. One episode I remember that had a lasting impression on me, the lady bought big, blue rubbish containers that are used for OUTSIDE trash, like five feet tall, and moved them into the bedroom to store clothing in because they had closets choked full, storage boxes cluttering every corner and wall in the room. In the end the show's lead, Peter Walsh, gently but firmly got her to open her eyes and SEE what was happening to her and her family. She climbed on board the Clean Sweep train and had a great new, clean, house and a bucket of money from the sell pile. Now, when I try to decide if I need something new or need to keep something I don't necessarily use, I just picture myself trying to fish that item out of a five foot rubbish barrel and my decision is instantly made. Thanks, Peter.
Thanks for reminding me of that show. He was the best ever! I think he was the first to say, if you haven’t worn or used something in 2 years, get rid of it. And that became my motto. Still using it to this day!
That show needs to be brought back!
@@TexasRose50 But I'm still wearing the school clothes I wore in highschool 60 years ago. Still love them.
@ Kate Henry, that’s great as long as you still wear them. No problem with that!
I loved that show!
I moved from the UK to the US with two suitcases, one for clothes and one for books. Then a decade later I moved to Canada with the same payload, and 5 years later came back to the US from Canada with the same two suitcases plus one wife. It kind of breaks my heart to throw/give away the junk, but at the same time it does declutter and it makes Amazon wonderfully happy.
Years ago, my parents & grandparents both sold their homes & bought a large ranch home. After helping pack & purge their 2 homes I swore I would never do that to my kids.
Years later after they all passed, except my mother, I spent an entire summer of weekends packing & sorting that ranch home for my mom so she could enter a retirement highrise. I put names on things she wanted to give to people, stickers for auction, donations & purged trash. Again I swore I would never do that to my kids.
Flash forward 20yrs later. I lost my job 3 yrs before I planned to retire. I looked at my options and decided to go ahead & jump into my retirement plan of selling my house-& everything in it, and buy an rv.
I called the kids & told them to come take whatever they wanted. Then called nieces & nephews to come take anything, & the rest was sold in a yard sale.
Four yrs later I am still traveling around the U.S. & Canada. I am debt free and even more... clutter free. There's nothing like an rv to show you how little you REALLY need everyday.
that sounds like fun
Allentown Gal.... My daughter's mother -in -law did that also. Arizona for two weeks, then back to the Midwest. Then off to Florida for awhile.
I did something similar, before running away from home I sold some bits and donated the rest. Papers dating back over twenty years were converted to pet bedding via a shredder. For the last 6 years I've been been travelling the UK and Europe.
My parents were contemplating RV life and during that time, about a year, my mom did a massive purge in her home. Even down to a lot of her furniture. But they took their time learning about the lifestyle and decided it wasn't for them. So now my mom has a nice, decluttered home and is buying some new furniture as a treat lol
My mother was a child of the Great Depression. It drove me nuts that she would never throw anything away.
You could do an entire video on yard sales, including all the different names for them: yard sale, garage sale, tag sale, rummage sale, white elephant sale...
Moving gives an incentive to declutter. If you change homes frequently, you're more likely to get rid of stuff you don't use. If you live in the same place for years, you're more likely to have stuff you haven't touched in a long time.
Changing homes frequently holds one back from building a connection to a community, though. My neighbor has lived in this neighborhood since the early '60s. He remembers what the land looked like nearby, before it was developed. The man's a real treasure.
Painting or renovating is another good incentive. (Bedbugs work too, but are not recommended.)
Is a rummage sale really in the same category? I've only ever heard of rummage sales as larger events where a number of people have donated their castoffs to be sold as a fundraiser.
@@martys4x457 A white elephant is a gift that is too expensive to maintain and use. Just the sort of thing that might be sold at garage sales, so it makes sense that some might call them white elephant sales.
Don't forget estate sales.
I grew up in the midwest and my family had a 2 car garage, but at any given time only 1 side was useable. In the summer it housed the lawn mower, and in the winter the lawn mower was swapped with the snow blower.
Now I live in Virginia, I have a 3 story townhouse with a 1 car garage, driveway, and 1 assigned parking spot. Currently the garage is filled with things. We don't have anywhere we can store things such as our Christmas tree, Halloween decorations, the LARGE trash cans and recycling bins, a chest freezer because we have to horde a supply of food now with all the random shortages... it's a lot. If I had to fit a car in the garage i'd be able to do it with a full day of shuffling things around and some extreme Tetris. The stuff filling happens gradually. It also tends to happens to those of us who make less money. You hold onto things because of the investment of purchase. You think 'oh but what if that one other thing breaks, this will be nice to have". Like my window air conditioner. Do I need it now? No. But if during the insane heat waves we get here in the USA, if my air con unit cant keep up I will drag that heavy thing up those 2 flights of stairs to make sure our bedrooms are livable during the summer. We've also loaned it out to good friends when their air con died and they were waiting for parts.
You do what you can, because most of us don't make enough money to have much of a savings to quickly fix things. :)
Your last sentence at the end. That's a major issue that most 'throw it out people' don't have to contend with. It's tough to find a balance.
That last sentence is how I explain my hording; I grew up poor and have a hard time getting rid of stuff that works and might be useful one day unless I find someone who needs it more then me.
Luckily I found a craft supply recycling group neer me that takes my stuff I don't need or got/don't like. That's most of my hord.
Your last sentence is nailing it. I'm still hoarding, but mainly because I don't have the goddamn money to let go what I paid for unless I know for sure that someone else would find use with it instead of throwing it away...
Having a clean house also costs, money, remodeling costs money. Getting rid of things may seem like a loss, but it really is just a price to have something better in return, like more space, less clutter, and more calm and quality of life. That said, it's so American to hoard things instead of selling things or giving it away to those who might need them more. If you sell the A/C you might gain 50 bucks now, and invest it for when you actually need it. You don't even know but that A/C might not be efficient to run it, might cost you more in electricity, might not even work after such a long time, or might be incompatible with other things. So sell it if you can. Enjoy the space in your basement or garage. If you have too much space, rent it for profit or exchange it for a smaller place that has a smaller homeowners tax or upkeep cost. You get the idea. Living in Europe, we'd just sell things that we no longer need. So we wouldn't keep bikes with outgrew, we would just sell it to others who might enjoy it more. Same with unused ice skates, or rollerblades, or pontoons, or tents. There's really no reason to keep it. Even if you get $50 for something or $10, that's one less thing in the landfill, another person who can enjoy that thing, and you with a bit more money to invest in whatever else you want or need in life.
It's definitely a balance. I tend to keep more than my husband does. For me it's because I hate wasting things. I've had enough "reduce, reuse, recycle" environmentalist dogma drilled into me that I don't want to contribute to overfilled landfills or excessive consumption by buying something twice when I could have just reused the old one. For my husband, he's used to a military lifestyle of only taking what you need. He doesn't have a problem with dumping something because you don't need it now, and then re-aquiring it when you need it later. I think we have a good balance between us.
Funny this popped up as I'm getting to the point of cleaning out my storage unit! I used to say that paying a storage space is like paying twice for the stuff you already paid for. I have some decent stuff but I've decided I only want sentimental things like pictures or my son's sweetest mother's day/ Christmas school art. I'm not bothering with a yard sale. It's straight up going to churches or the Goodwill. Less is more. 👍
Do you have some vintage Corningware?
I'm paying for a "guest room" that my house doesn't have.
A lot of the stuff is inherited. Also, when it was time for my mom to move the 3000 miles to be closer to my house we hired a company that does transition sales - they photographed and catalogued everything in my mom’s house and put it up for auction. My mom netted quite a hefty sum of money. Enough to buy more stuff once she moved to my state. 😅
So much stuff I have gotten from elders in the family, but dont have a use for it. Or hanging on to baby stuff JUST in case.
@@stephaniehorne6692 Baby stuff, we held onto ours for 7 years just in case only to need it one year after we got rid of it.
transition sales!!!! Where can I find one !!! My daughter is also lacemaker weaver reenactor so all the STUFF I have really does have use to her and her family. There's bound to be some stuff she's already got, right? I've left notes of who to send stuff to for sales since those folks know the values.
Moving to a one bedroom apartment, I had to get rid of a lot of stuff. Even though it was hard, I love it now because I feel so uncluttered. Not sure if this makes sense, but get rid of most of the stuff you're hoarding! It hurts at first, but feels better after a couple of days!
I'll need it eventually
I'm older now and I want it all gone😂, except the pictures of my daughters. The rest can go!
This is hard to say but years ago, my husband & I were only married a year when we lost everything to a fire. After the shock of surviving & realizing how lucky we were it was very freeing in a way to start over.
I've always been "minimalistic" as compared to other people I know, but I still got rid of SO. MUCH. STUFF. when I moved from a 2 bedroom to a studio apartment (kids moved out so I didn't need as much space, plus rent was going up a LOT). I have all my stuff in my apartment, no storage unit or on-site storage space, and I'm shocked that it's not terribly cluttered. Even so...I've been here for over a year now and I've got that mental itch telling me that I have too much stuff! Not really sure what to do about that...
It makes perfect sense. I live outside by choice and I never felt better than when I got rid of anything I didn't need. Whatever can fit in my pack is enough me
Getting ready for senior living. Going to spend months cleaning stuff out. Amazing the amount of stuff that I felt I had to buy at one time and don’t really use. Now nobody in the family even wants any of it.
As a teen I loved going through some of the stuff my parents kept from their childhood and young adult years. I wore some of my mom's old clothes, read her old notes and letters, listened to my dad's music, and had great conversations with them about all of it. I am so grateful they kept some of that 'stuff' so they had a chance to share it with me. So I know I have stuff I'll never wear again, may rarely listen too, or won't use as decor. But I will keep it so I can share it with anyone who may be interested. Eventually everyone will be all grown and I can pitch what they don't want.
Memories matter.
Also i keep useful things and go thru it all once a year to remember, organize and get rid of. I really do use a lot of the stuff i hold onto.
@@seedsoflove7684 That's a good habit. I also used to keep a bunch of weird stuff when my kid was young because I made him toys and you never knew what odd bit of foam, button, tube, etc would come in handy. It took a bit to break myself of the habit once he was grown and I didn't make anything with the stuff anymore. Probably would have realized it earlier if I had a routine!
@@spinthepickle1244 yep, u never know when u have kids. For crafts. Also shelves and containers help me stay organized. So it doesnt SEEM like i am a hoarder. Haha.
@@seedsoflove7684 Gotta keep your stash subtle, lol. If you aren't apologizing for the clutter when you have guests, you are probably still in the clear (pun intended).
My wife's parents were hoarders. When they reached the point where they were unable to live by themselves (far away in the country). We "acquired" all that stuff. Weekend trips across Wisconsin to bring back two trucks, pulling trailers, loaded to the "gills" over three months. Filled 2 storage units & our basement. We're down to just the basement 10 years later.
We've noticed that all new home construction near us has no basements. At or near the entrance to these new homes are row after row of storage units.
@@Captain_Bad_Bill There is more money to be made that way. 😉
@Brandi not from this stuff. Not only were they hoarders, but her Dad was a scavenger! Twenty Styrofoam coolers from Omaha steaks because "they're too good to throw out"
Bravo!
@@Captain_Bad_Bill I meant that the reason they aren't building homes with basements, but instead adding storage units is so they can make more money. I agree with you on the hoarding part, 100%.
I think the Great Depression really imprinted on the past generations in a lot of ways, and some of those things keep getting passed down. Perhaps the depression followed by war rationing manifested in a strange way upon our culture.
Hell yes!!! My grandparents got married in '36 so they were a textbook example of that. I spent time with them growing up and sometimes I think they influenced me more than they influenced my mother.
Comparing with other people it seems like the people today most affected by their Depression & WWII era elders are the ones live comfortable lives *BECAUSE* they've always worked two jobs and save/reuse things. It's like they (and me) feel their situation isn't very stable. And the current economic climate hardly helps.
I wish history classes taught the ACTAUL effects of history into our modern times like this. Sure, Great Depression, people sad and poor, blablabla, this is all that we learn in school, but not what all of these events actually MEANT.
Not really. Unless you think excessive consumerism is a result of the depression. Anyone not of that generation thought the stuff they did (like straightening out used nails) was borderline insane.
And we’ll get to use those skills again soon😁
My Grandparents were farmers on both sides and lived in the Great Depression, my Great Grandmother moved west in a wagon train part way and all she could carry is in one bag. One reason to keep "stuff" is it can be repurposed. Pieces of metal can fix the car engine, tractor etc. A lot of that generation needed "stuff" to repair other stuff by themselves and be self reliant. I tend to keep some sheet metal around for patching the fence etc. So the mentality of keeping random stuff is passed down from then. I go through my 'stuff" periodically. I've spent the last 6 months relieving myself of lots of random junk. I do collect random things because I restore antique furniture and have to divest myself of scrap wood all the time.
I am downsizing to move to a smaller place. I found that I had so many duplicate items. I think a lot of it stems from having a long period where I barely had any money. When I replaced or upgraded something, I kept the old one just in case the new one broke or gets stolen. Then, I wouldn't be without that item. Having doubles has actually helped, but it means I have a bunch of stuff I don't need.
At one time I had five pairs of pants that I kept just in case I wanted to wash the car. I NEVER washed it myself, I always took it to the car wash. I also lived in a one bedroom apartment with four good size closets filled with stuff that "May come in handy one day." It never did.
Hi Laurence, good video. Those same people who have garage sales often find themselves going to someone else's garage sale the next week, to pick up different stuff.
Well, of course! You have all that money now burning a hole in your pocket from the sale, and new space to fill up--what else are you going to do but hunt for bargains among the next person's discards? :)
Garage saling is a hobby unto itself...
Or they're like me, they take a box of donations to the thrift store...and then go inside and shop for more stuff.🤣
@@Melanie220 Same idea. I figure anytime I donate or sell, I'm entitled to acquire more, so long as I take home less than I got rid of! :)
Became a empty nester and sold my house. Went from a 3 bd room 2000sq ft house to a 1 bedroom condo. Never knew I had so much stuff, and then there was the attic…..
That is about the size of .my house. 1300 sq ft. Plenty big enough.
This is one reason I don't like to use a shopping cart unless absolutely necessary, I know I'll buy more stuff 🤭. I'm also astonished at how many storage facilities I see being built in my area.
I'm always fascinated by the use of garages for storage of stuff people don't use instead of putting the car in it, especially when we have quite the varied weather here in the midwest. Even in neighborhoods with new homes that have three car garages, you can drive by at night and find a driveway full of cars and garages packed to the rafters with stuff instead of cars. They apparently didn't build a big enough house. I'll be danged if I spend half a million dollars to build a home and still have to scrape ice and snow from my vehicles in winter. I have a one car garage in my 1947 home that my SUV barely fits in but I proudly park it in out of the rain, snow, and dust of the outside world and enjoy driving around in a car that is more days than not looking shiny and clean as a result.
I have a 3 car garage and for 5 years I was restoring a 72 GMC c10. The body was off the frame at one point and I couldn’t park another car in the garage because a vehicle stripped down takes up a lot of space. It’s finished now and I have 2 cars in the garage the other space is my tool area.
😂 100% agree! I just did a construction project so my garage was full of lumber and tools for about a month. I absolutely hated parking outside, and it was summertime. First thing I did when the project was over was clear out my parking space in the garage again. Never understood why you would want to advertise when you’re home and when you’re gone by keeping your car in the driveway when you have a perfectly good garage.
It's truly amazing the number of garages filled with stuff, while the cars sit outside. I'm not entirely guilt free, while I dont park my car or motorcycle outside my garage, I have rented a garage at an apartment complex a few blocks away for storing a classic car and all the stuff id otherwise have in my garage or basement.
Especially when you consider that in the Midwest most homes have a large basement as well
I like my cars in the garage too. I don’t understand people who feel their garages with junk.
As a Southerner I feel like it's not just my stuff, but grandma's china and great-grandma's quilts.
Yeah, stuff that actually LASTS.
I'm definitely holding onto my grandma's washer & dryer, that have been running with only 1 minor repair, for over 40 years now.
Sometimes I can let go of that stuff by keeping a few representative items from the ancestor, to stand in for the rest I never look at, display, or use. I sell or give away online, feeling that I'm honoring grandma's intentions more by finding someone who will actually use her old linen tablecloth than by keeping it in a closet. (Did keep some linen napkins for nice dinners.)
@@GoAwayNow-iz3du I bought a 1956 GE stove and tossed the 200 glass top. It looks good in my 1920 house and will outlast the newer one i got rid of.
@@GoAwayNow-iz3du what china do you have that lasts? you leave that packed away except on holidays when one of the kids in the extended family inevitably drops it on the floor and shatters it to pieces
@@gristen good point. The china is on display now, but I won't feel bad if my sons don't want it.
Many of us have a lot of stuff because we do a lot of things. We grow gardens, go camping, exercise, read books, etc. We also have a DIY mindset. We bake cakes instead of buying them. We fix our own cars instead of paying someone to do it. We mow our own lawns. We do our own plumbing, electrical, painting, grilling, and so forth.
Yes. We have stuff but this is us. It's only stuff we actually use. It just happens that we do a lot of different things.
Yeah, hobbies do that
Yeah, but we rarely do any of it well, mostly giving up after one or two attempts at each.
@@mirzaahmed6589 that sounds like a you problem
@Kenzie Dayne my goal in life is to never pay someone to do what I can do myself, so far only my wife has written a check to a contractor.
We do! So many reasons for that, too. One is learned. From grandparents that grew up in the great depression, where everything had some sort of value, and right into ww2, where everything was rationed. Those folks would save aluminum foil and re-use coffee grinds, because things were so scarce. The other is that we have bigger houses, and lot of room. I think another is that our behaviors haven't changed, from moving into a time when most things are disposable, but people have sentimental attachments to them. As a society, we're a bit programmed to work, make money, and buy things. That's part of it, too.
When my mom passed, I had to clean out her storage unit. She had always told me it was 75% my clutter (but would never let me go through it). Turns out she was right in a way, we had incident where she lost a lot of my early childhood keep sakes, and I discovered the storage unit mostly had things she kept that I made in school (middle and high) and collage (I'm an artist). It also had all the silly little trophies and ribbons I'd won while part of a dance team and an absurd amount of old tennis shoes she had worn. My best guess is she held on to all this stuff out of mix of sentimentality and anxiety (maybe cause of the previous incident and her utter fear of ever getting dementia?)
Your comment is touching. I found my first birthday card, meaning age one, in my dad's collection after he passed.
He might not have known where it was, just as I don't know where I put it. Maybe my son will find it one day!.
My granny was a hoarder unfortunately. She had a wooden house with a long room and 3 side rooms full of clothes, toys and about 1,000+ books that she might thought might be valuable to sell, but never did. And she probably had 500 more books in the house and a ton of clothes. I was thinking about decluttering too
Hoarding is a big problem around where I live. My dad is a recently retired firefighter, and he's told me stories of how people died/nearly died/suffered harsh injury because a fire caught amongst all the trash, and either they couldn't escape or firefighters couldn't reach them in time wading through trash. I've been with him on scene a few places like this, and wow. Please, people, just throw out your trash. Trust me you will never need those month old take out boxes again. If you can't, seek help.
They say a lot of that type of hoarding of actual trash is because of depression which basically immobilizes the person from even performing simple tasks like taking out the garbage
Yeah, there IS true garbage and that should go. Very few papers need saving, they can recycle. ditto jars and cans. Old take out boxes is just nasty. Cook your own food.
My brother has a two-car garage which is so full of stuff it has never seen a car. He eventually built a barn to put even more stuff in while the cars remain in the driveway. Meanwhile, my one-car garage actually has a car in it.
Sounds like your brother has hoarding disorder.
We have a two car garage. It's home for the washer, dryer, various tools ; garden, power, hand; a cabinet with gardening items; pots, pots, and more pots; a bench press, snow thrower, tractor, and shelving full of various drum heads; my partner is a musician. Oh, it is also home to a pair of Robins nesting in the rafters. 😊
For a while there I was feeling rather full of myself, as my basement is not full of stuff, and my garage actually contains 2 cars with a bit of room to spare. But then you brought of storage units. Oh, yeah. Forgot about that. I guess it's time to do something about my dearly departed mother's furniture. It's been 5 years and she's not using it anymore.
My wife and I live in a large, middle class, subdivision (Housing Estate I believe in Brit-Speak) in Florida. All houses here have two-car garages. We are the only family we have ever seen in this neighborhood, who can park at least one car in the garage.
Did you get to Costco yet?
You'll need a garage to store the toilet paper pack the size of a small car, gallons of dish soap and industrial size laundry detergent, I've had items bought at Costco that last longer than the relationships that that I bought them for
Hording, as most Americans will know it, is when you literally hold onto everything, because you essentially have a fear of throwing it away. The general amount of junk most Americans have is just due to laziness, and sometimes from a loved one that passed on. We had a lot of my great grandmothers antiques in storage for the longest time, as we didn't have room anywhere else for them and didn't want to sell them to some shop. You'll find over the years you buy something for the yard, use it for a season, something happens to it, you move it to the garage to fix it later, and forget about it the next day, and before you know it it's full of "junk".
"...There are those who will walk into Walmart, clear the shelves of all the beans, and Stock up for the Apocalypse!"😂😂😂😂😂 That is classic Lawrence!
After WWII, America got into a huge buying spree. Those of us with older parents have been dealing with cleaning out their houses once they pass or move into a smaller house. My parents had to build a pole building on my siblings land to house all their crap.
I'm a Minimalist, my partner is a Victorian Collector of Things. Books, our garage was converted into a bedroom back in the 70's, as was the fashion, and is now a library containing pretty much everything that has been printed in English about St P. not the Florida one, so yes, collecting and clutter are very close to hoarding.
I live in an apartment, so I don't have any unnecessary stuff. From time to time, I go through my drawers and closets and get rid of the stuff I don't need, usually after watching an episode of Hoarders.
You see vintage unopened appliances in thrift stores because people get them when they married and it only left the home when they went to the old folks home or died. Basements are a glorious stash of the effluence of life.
I live in California and have a 2 car garage. We are able to park one of our cars in it. I think most people here use their garages for storage because we don’t have basements. Where else would we store Christmas decorations, camping gear, gardening equipment, etc? (Our HOA doesn’t allow sheds). Luckily we don’t have to rent a storage unit to house even more “stuff”, but yes, we do have too much stuff and need to declutter again. It has definitely been more than 1 year this time.
I’ve found that it’s a bit of a learned behavior in the states. Between companies constantly reminding you “buying X makes you happy” and previous generations holding on to everything because you couldn’t just order that on Amazon to fix something creates a weird cluttering effect of “better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.” I find that to be fair enough, but it’s an easy thing to let get out of hand, myself included. I’ve been decluttering and organizing lately, and despite the past few weeks of depressive setbacks, it’s been nice.
Oh Laurence, let me tell you, I was so happy when I bought my house, with it's wonderful 2-car garage complete with automatic door opener, I only have 1 car but whatever. Then a relative passed, we had an estate sale, what didn't sell landed in my garage. A few years later I decided to close my business and needing to vacate the rented space I moved the business stuff to, yep, my garage. To date a quarter of the garage is relative stuff, another quarter is business stuff, and the other half I squeeze my car into. I really need to have a yard sale!
Son, you are precisely correct. We have dishes in our basement that belonged to my wife's grandma. They haven't been used for over 43 years. And I have an old rotary telephone that was my parents back from the 1970's. In fact I recently found some proof photos from the late '70s when I was a photographer for a church periodical. And I have a shoebox full of unused 35mm film.
Yessss! As an American, I can say that yes, we do have too much stuff. I need a bigger house so bad!😩
Remember: The clutter expands to fill the available space.
then you would fill it up and need a bigger house
You don't need a bigger house. You just ... need to better utilize the space you have? A bigger house would just mean you'd have even more stuff you can't figure out what to do with.
No, you don't. You just need less stuff.
A bigger house isn't the answer, you either need to reduce stuff or get better storage solutions (or both).
Ours is actually a 1.5 car garage according to the city, since when the previous owner converted it from detached to attached they stole part of the garage to make an entry way into the house. And yet we keep 2 cars in it because (a) we don't like our cars being broken into or tires slashed, and (b) in the winter we don't have to remove accumulated snow and ice off them.
We have a 3 car garage and we don't use it to park our cars. In the divided single car section we use it for literal trash. Stuff that we don't need or want anymore that can't go out with the weekly trash like old furniture or lawn equipment. The other two car section we use for storage of basically everything. Our garage is detached and is at the end of a big yard so we would never park in it even if it was empty. Its really nice to have so much room for storage, we never run out of space for bikes, lawn equipment, kids outdoor toys, or anything really
"I could watch you read the phone book " 😂😅
Your lovely wife, maybe.
I lost everything due to a series of circumstances. I live in a 1 bedroom 600sqft apartment. If it doesn't serve a daily purpose, it doesn't come through the door.
I use my 2 car garage for my wood/metal/bicycle shop! The expensive vehicles (bicycles) ARE in the garage, while my car languishes in the driveway.
On average American homes are slightly larger than British and i will attest that my wife and I moved into a condo and we kind've 'filled it up' even to the point where I remember specifically not buying things because there wouldn't be a good spot for it. Then we bought a townhome and at first it seemed spacious and we filled that up, then a house, same result. I think there might be some tendency to fill up whatever space you live in with stuff and since American homes are a bit larger, they have a bit more stuff?
Yes to a degree, I think much of it stems from the fact that space is relatively cheap and the idea of "Just in case" is the reason why we have more than just the bare minimum. For example I have 4 pairs of jack stands for working my car. I really only need two but several times I have found uses for the others to hold a suspension member or exhaust or transmission up while I do something else without compromising the stands that are holding the car off of me.
This was definitely true for my grandma. Her childhood was the span of the Great Depression, so she could never really bear to throw much out. She passed a couple of years ago and we're still going through her things.
My parents were born into the Great Depression. They never got rid of anything. When I cleaned out their basement in 2008 (after they were dead), I found their income tax forms dating back to 1946. I also found a picture of my mom from the 1960's. Later the same day, I found the dress she was wearing in the picture. It took three visits from 800-got-junk and 19 visits in our cars between my sister and me to Goodwill to clear out what we didn't need or want. I filled a large trash bag with photos of random scenery, the backs of people's heads, and people I had no idea who they were. It was a nightmare. When that was over, I began ridding myself of my own clutter and it feels great. I confess that I hung on to my Beatles cards from the 60's 😊.
This sounds like my parents’ house that I just cleared out for renovations. Every checkbook and tax return from the last 45 years had been saved, every receipt and packing slip too. Throw in 20 years of cats that peed and pooped and shed on everything too!
Add to that a 3rd generation, no probates and you have the legal and logistical mess I’ve been doing myself (in multiple locations) for the past year plus. It’s impossible to describe the overwhelming sense of frustration and exhaustion. I feel your pain! Worst part is how much I miss my mom still.
I feel for you. Over the last year or so my kids and I have been clearing out my mother's five bedroom house built in 1886, plus the barn/garage complete with hayloft. She had to move into assisted living and left everything to us. Receipts and Christmas cards going back 40 years, freebies from charities she donated to (how many wall calendars does one need?), thousands of books and vhs tapes, stuff still in boxes from her previous house...ad infinitum. We rented the biggest "industrial sized" trash skip and filled it to the brim. The Goodwill people got so they recognized us because we made so many donation trips there.
AND a day AFTER getting rid of all of it you found out all were priceless antiques!!! When I pass I intend to make it a treasure hunt for the relatives by having gold coins, silver dollars and small, expensive collectables mixed in with the old tax forms and the like!
@@YouthfulOne Yes, I could have included possessions they had from my grandparents and things they had saved from our childhood. And there was no will. It was fortunate that my sister and I get along so well. We went through so many things saying "do you want this?" "no, do you?" "no, it can go to Goodwill". We didn't fight over any of it. Sadly, my sister is going through the same thing now with her in-laws possessions and her MIL was a shopaholic. Seriously, who needs 15 - 20 sets of dishes?
Hang in there. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.
If you want to declutter, there is one habit you need to start practicing first. If you bring an item into the house, you must then get rid of an item. This doesn't actually help get rid of the clutter, but it does prevent more clutter building up.
I’m a Brit living in the States now. My friends have moved to bigger homes to accommodate their stuff. We’ve added four kids to our family over the past six years (and acquired a lot more stuff) but it’s almost a daily battle to reduce the stuff we have vs moving. They outgrow clothes, toys etc and I pass them on on my local buy nothing group. I just had my last baby in December and I gave away all my maternity clothes. We gave a bunch of furniture pieces and cookware to a local community housing project. There are some brilliant charities that want household things and come pick them up. Less stuff means the house is easier to keep picked up and clean. Less visual clutter = less mental clutter for me so I work hard to keep our inventory as low as possible. I like what you said about having as little stuff as possible to live comfortably. That’s what we aim for.
I have unopened boxes from when I moved into my house 26 years ago. They are stored in my garage.
Unless you're going to move somewhere where the extra stuff fits, storage units are a bit of a trap just sucking all your money. Calculate how much you spend on a storage unit and how much the stuff in it is worth. If you have that much extra for a storage unit, maybe you can afford a bigger place.
Growing up the garage was always my dad's workshop. As an adult we used to run a PC repair business out of ours, when we stopped that we converted the space into a dan for all our gaming PCS (4 people 4 PCs) and a TV. I see no point in parking a car in the garage at this point.
When I moved from home 1 to home 2 I rented a storage unit. 8 years later, not having seen or missed anything in it, I asked the owners (super cool folks) if on their next auction, could they auction off my unit and they could keep the money. I still don’t know what was in that unit. 😂😂😂😂😂
I do think that modern folks in general have too much stuff. Laurence I can always count on you to put a great big smile on my face!😁
Wow. This question is on my mind a lot! I work at a charity-run diner/thrift shop. I am amazed by the massive amounts of STUFF that is donated every day. Why do people consume so much, then get rid of it, only to buy more STUFF? I have no answer.
I've taken tubs and tubs full of stuff to donate, and a lot of times the places don't even accept many items because they already get so much stuff! I'm left to recycle or dump at goodwill, & I think they're stuffed to the brim as well! It's truly amazing that we live in a country where there's too much stuff even to donate! Note: the reason I have (unfortunately) acquired so much - because I'm a minimalist mind you - is because my MIL is a true impulsive shopping addict, with more duplicates of everything and several closets full of clothes she never wears. I hate feeling so overwhelmed by the clutter in her house, but she buys so much, even duplicates & things that don't fit for our kids I have tubloads to donate every several months it seems. The worst part is that my husband is like her in that he doesn't want to get rid of anything! I don't understand it, I hate having too much, less really is more!!
The answer is easy. People buy stuff they want, and when they don't want it any longer, they get rid of it. There are no deep answers, it's as simple as want, then don't want. On a personal level, I buy a lot of things that I believe will work for me, that will make something easier, or that I think will work better than something I already have. Sometimes these things work, sometimes they don't. When they do work out, I donate the old things. When they don't work out, I donate them.
I also have a lot of things sent to me for review or testing. When I haven't requested these things, and have no need for them, I donate them
Lastly, I often buy things from rummage sales, good lamps, good furniture, etc., and often some new things, including fountain pens, fountain pen ink, notebooks, journal, and donate them. Usually to Goodwill.
Oh, there is one other thing. When someone dies, the family doesn't want many of the things left behind, and all this also gets donated. It happens often, and it can be a bunch of stuff, though seldom anything high quality.
I bet the "box room" was HEAVEN for your cat!!
You do make me laugh, Lawrence. Love your sense of humour.
As a fellow Brit, I must remind you that hoarding is a problem here in the UK as well. It's usually triggered by traumatic events and as we see on TV programmes, it has a serious negative effect on mental health.
A lot of the "hoarding" in our family, going on two generations in the same house, is "This might be useful some time." Thus we could open an antiques shop, just with the contents of the house. And there's LOTS of outdoor gear, bikes, motorcycles, and yard tools, in the never-used half of the garage.
This channel truly has become one of my all time favorites
A lot of the stuff I have came from problem-solving for how to maintain the house, the yard, the car, etc. Even the clothes came from the season changes, the events that I had to dress up for or the hobbies I needed to dress for or the housing projects that I wanted to not use my good clothing for. I live in a 4 season part of the country so there are fall coats and winter coats and raincoats, etc.
Both of our vehicles live in the garage! We have a few items stored in there as well
We're working on paring down 30+ years' worth of stuff before our first long distance move in 30 years. 😅 It's astounding how much stuff that can entail, and how much easier it is for a big move than for a short distance one. 😮
not only do I acquire my own stuff (ok, I hoard it), I've also inherited the collective stuff passed down to me through being an only child of an only child of an only child of an only child. And so my stuff and theirs goes into boxes and into storage for that 'some day I'll go through this" to happen.
as another only child, I have china, etc from three grandmothers, nobody wants Rosenthal or Wedgwood anymore, granted, my only child son is unlikely to have a tea party with the Wedgwood, but it sure is pretty...I would give it away(sage jasperware) if someone would love it...
Our stuff makes us happy. A lot of it tickles our fancy and simply pleases us because, for whatever reason, we just like it. Some things bring back fond memories. If it belonged to someone we loved, who died it makes us feel like we still have a connection with them. Some things entertain us, or we imagine the day when we will actually go fishing again even if we only went once ever before we still plan to. Some things seem useful, and we just know if we get rid of it, that will be the time we really need it. Some things are projects we intend to complete some day when we get time. So Lawrence, how can you even think we would let go of any of our precious stuff?
We are indeed moving, and using the storage unit as a central point to sort what is total garbage, what goes to thrift shops, and what comes to the new place.
We have a two car garage. The previous owners converted half of it into a fifth bedroom with what's called a quarter bath. It's the back half, so cars don't fit in the garage any more. Instead, we've installed shelves and there's Christmas stuff, lawn stuff, painting stuff, and a number of dead pill bugs in the front half, near the doors.
Seeing all of those boxes reminds me about when we moved to the house that we’re planning on staying in pretty much forever. My husband insisted on saving all of the empty boxes in the basement “In case somebody needed them.” Nobody ever needed them, and we had a flood in the basement which solved my too many empty boxes problem (and sadly wiped out the extensive vinyl collection from my youth).
Our 2 car garage is used for 1 car and stuff (including empty boxes, which are safer in the garage 🙄). Hubby’s car is in the driveway.
My husband has kept our empty boxes in the attic. Our one car garage hasn’t seen a car in it in decades. It’s the woodshed for our wood stove.
But I repeat myself….. so sorry!
This is always a struggle for me. I hate to get rid of things that might be useful, and I really hate having to buy something twice because I got rid of something I thought I wasn’t going to use and then ended up needing it anyway! But I also dislike clutter or feeling crowded. Some of the reason why I hang on to things has to do with being raised by parents who grew up during the Depression. If you managed to buy something, you kept it whether or not you used it just in case you or your children (or grandchildren) needed it someday. As far as garages are concerned, one of the places I lived I noticed that a LOT of our neighbors were using their two-car garages as spaces to entertain friends with a pool table, large screen TV, a fridge for drinks and snacks, and outdoor furniture. On nice days the garage doors would be open and neighbors could wander in and out of each others’ garages to chat or there’d be parties and friends would spill out of the garage onto the driveway and yard and sometimes into the street. At Thanksgiving there’d be people sitting around talking, drinking, and usually there’d be a huge pot on a burner for deep fat frying the turkey. Using the garage in that way sort felt similar to people sitting out on porches and visiting with friends or saying hello to neighbors as they walked by.
So, I’m an American, who over the past 10 years has lived in a spaces that at largest were 600 square feet. At smallest, about 120 square feet. When I was in the smallest space, i was just renting a room in attempts to save for a house, and I rented a storage unit for all my stuff that didn’t fit. That storage unit was a mistake because it gave me room for extra stuff.
I’ve bought myself a home in the past year. It’s 1700 square feet, and somehow I’ve filled it up. There’s lots of stuff, but I have trouble getting rid of it because I do have the space. I’m not a hoarder by any means. But I’ve lived in so much smaller spaces, and had all I needed to live there, that I often question why I am keeping these extra things. But it’s also like “okay, but if you do have the space to store it, why get rid of it?”
And I think that’s the American dilemma. We know there’s stuff we don’t need, but we have big houses. So why get rid of stuff we have space for?
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
A lot of my parents old friends have rooms full of stuff you can't even walk into and getting rid of it seems to cause them a lot of anxiety
I turned my “garruge” into an art studio. If you count all the bits and bobs and beads and brushes, there are probably 300,000 items in there alone!❤️🤗🐝
2 car garage: park one out of 3 vehicles on one side. Other side is bicycle repair area.
I love garage sales! We buy stuff to sell online. That has gotten us through some pretty uncertain times in our lives.
Spot on Laurance. They are building storage units faster than housing
I'm a wannabe minimalist. I haven't accumulated much in the last decade, but I still live in a big house with a husband and 3 newly/nearly adult children and it's easy to forget what has been stored down in the basement for up to two decades. We do actually use our garage to park our two cars though!
We can explain some of the stuff accumulation by acknowledging the role of recreational shopping, AKA "Retail Therapy," in the middle classes of US. Also the drive to get a great deal, a byproduct of consumerism and capitalism. If you see something marked down substantially, we are sorely tempted to grab it even if we don't actually need it or already have one. Also correlated topic, we know what something is worth and what it would cost to replace it IF we ever needed it again, so we hang on to stuff just on the off chance . . .
I was just about to order all of your merch. But then I realized I already have too much stuff. Thanks, Lawrence.
Save a box for Kafka! I am guilty as charged. I save too much stuff. I guess it is a habit I got from my mom and her sister who were lived during the great depression and WW2. I remember having to wash bread bags, plastic cottage cheese containers and aluminum foil. Dad had jars filled with nuts, bolts and nails. They saved everything (all greeting card they received, every bill and receipt, etc)
Your mom & her sis sound exactly like my maternal grandparents. G'ma saved the bread bags, cottage cheese conatiners and aluminum foil. G'pa the nuts & bolts in jars. All for the same reasons, too.
Unlike G'pa's sister, my grandparents both had mental catalogs of what constituted 'enough' bread bags, etc. And they didn't save beyond that.
My grandparents got through the Depression and WWII without too much of a problem. However, as I got older I realized that they viewed their situation back then as extremely precarious. In their minds they were very, very lucky and the slightest little thing could've brought everything crashing down. I'm sure it was a decade or so of extreme stress for them.
So I can understand where they're coming from.
@@ak5659 I think it's from living in a time when items were scarce and you didn't have much money between the Great Depression and WWII rationing.
My wife takes a stack of cardboard boxes and reduces them down to evenly sized squares for recycling in mere minutes. One of her many talents.
My Garage has been turned into a hobby woodshop. The garage is only a one car but it is very long.
If you want to start any new flower, beds, or vegetable garden beds, using the boxes is a wonderful way to sheet mulch. That allows you to build beds without having to dig everything first.
Do remove the tape first. It doesn’t biodegrade and you’ll find it. Stuck around your garden fork or trowel later.