"Don't throw that out! I could use it later." and then you never do. (packrats unite)

[nerve]

I save everything, so may things, jars bottles papers boxes plastic pieces various scraps well, I'm not that bad. but probably bad enough to be called a packrat. now, I suppose I have a good excuse, the "creative" part of me cries out to hold on to things I can later make something with, artistic or practical. other things I can't explain, such as receipts. I just hate losing/destroying history, even it's most tiny and insignificant parts. are you a packrat? do you have serious qualms about throwing out: glass jars? old newspapers/magazines? stacks of papers you printed, but no longer need the information? empty boxes and bottles from food or other products? receipts (when not necessary for taxes)? anything else most people usually toss? post if you're a packrat! and post pictures! of your piles and stashes! I should have got a picture for this initial post... I will get one and post it later, if there are enough packrats here to give this thread a pulse ...GO!

[DeeryTheDeer]

Same with me. I tend to save almost everything I've ever written or drawn... I don't want to lose any history. I have a lot of junk that I keep around because I don't want to regret throwing something away. It's all security, lol.

[nerve]

I must have security issues :)

[Catbus]

I add sentimental value to virtually everything, so unless something is just total rubbish, I'll probably keep it :x

[no-Name]

I only do this with files on my computer :f I do nostalgia about old toys from when I was 4-8, though. Fun.

[Darkmatters]

Hi. My name is Darkmatters, and I haven't kept crap I don't need for... 2 days now. Aw, who am I fooling? I'm a total packrat!! My basement used to be a big empty space, but now you have to thread your way through little paths between the piles of junk. Bottles, jars, any kind of containers I think I might need because I:m an artist and I need thing to mix paint in, store stuff it etc, and yet I now have so many containers it's hard to store them all... I need containers for them!! Sometimes I literally get bogged down in all the junk I save... to the point that there are no clear spaces left on any of my tables or chairs. I use chairs as storage shelves... and sometimes I get this big pile of books and stuff that I move from the bed to the chair, and then back to the bed after I get up... I'll try to get a few pics posted soon. Great idea for a thread Nerve!

[Spartiate]

Any of you ever see this show

[Black_Eagle]

I am extremely stingy about throwing things out. However, if it is something I don't use very often, I will find someone to give it to rather than toss it.

[TamiDoll]

I use to collect lolly wrapers and gift wraps, but not anymore. Also use to collect shopping bags (the one with prints on them), also not anymore. I've also kept stuff that I'll never use (just in case I need them for a random art project). And like the OP, I use to collect receipts. I guess artistic ppl are more likely to be a packrats.

[ChrissyMaria]

I seem to be the nemesis of you packrats, I throw everything out which I deem of no value lol like half eaten stuff or stuff just laying around like old cell phones and old magazines which nobody has the desire to throw out. anti-packrat

[nerve]

^ GTFO!!!!!! xo welp, this isn't all packrat stuff necessarily, but my room gets pretty crazy when I'm manic, junk and crap everywhere: ...sometimes I get this big pile of books and stuff that I move from the bed to the chair, and then back to the bed after I get up... totally feel you there. I'm gonna get pics of clutterstuff soon, come on guys post your clutter piles!! :D let's see who has worst

[Alex D]

I keep Relentless cans. No idea why. I had so many i tried cutting them up and making a sculpture once. Didn't go too well

[TamiDoll]

Wow nerve... Just wow. My junk collections are always stored neatly away.

[nerve]

I keep Relentless cans. No idea why. I had so many i tried cutting them up and making a sculpture once. Didn't go too well :( that's ok you know you can trade like 3 billion in for a dollar :D well for that many, you might get two! Tami: it's not that bad ;; I should find the pic of the dining room table close to when I first moved in, the entire thing was covered with books and papers and stuff. and it's a pretty big table o_o

[Zhaylin]

I used to be a major packrat... but now I'm not quite as bad. I wrote several novellas when I was a teen-20. I also created my own language using cryptology/phrasology of over 350,000 characters. I had everything stored and one day my kids got into it and well... I don't have them anymore and... It didn't kill me. I collect a lot of junk for art projects, and I still have a great many "keep-sakes" (like a Math notebook from the 7th or 8th grade and stuff my kids have drawn or written). I only have about 1/3 of the stuff I used to have. My hubby on the other hand is the worse packrat I've ever known. He's *almost* as bad as the Collyer brothers (http://gothamist.com/2003/10/28/coll..._pack_rats.php)

[Xaqaria]

I am a recovering packrat, sort of. I still have boxes of shit but I got rid of more than half of it. I think the packrat tendency comes from psychologically living in another era. If I were alive during or just before the great depression, my hoarding tendencies would have been an incredible boon. Ultimately though, it all boils down to a security issue. We place all this importance on stuff and then we feel like we won't be able to cope without the stuff. This is why I am trying to minimalize; not because I no longer think all that stuff could be useful, but because I want to be independent enough and resourceful enough to make due with very little. Part of me has a tendency to collect everything that I might be able to put to use, but another part of me has the tendency to want the ability to get up and go with nothing to tie me down. I go through phases. I've lived in a house with enough stuff to completely fill a uhaul and I've lived out of a backpack.

[Darkmatters]

Yes. Same here... I went through a period when I lived like a soldier on bivouac - I could pick up everything I own and stuff it in the car in one afternoon no problem... hell probably in one trip!! But when you try to make stopmotion animated movies... it really does pay off to save EVERYTHING. Now I'm crowded in between mountains of junk... some of which I'll probably be glad I saved one day.

[Xox]

I'm a huge packrat. I give sentimental value to everything as well. Movie tickets, any kind of tickets, receipts, cards, notes, old clothes, toys, classwork from years ago, old perfume bottles/the like, drawings..just everything. It's even worse on my PC. Save all msn logs, etc. Waay too many pictures. I just think of myself later, and think I'll really value saving some of this. I know some of it I already do. And you can never take too many pictures.

[Kara18]

Sequins/beads/rhinestones that fall off of stuff. Fabric/wallpaper samples (I'm an interior design student) Old headphones that don't work Guitar strings Little boxes Old clothes Flip flops Anything collected while travelling (recipts, shells, tags from clothes, airplane tix, those little toothpicks they put in sandwiches, pens, stationary...) Concert memerobilia (guitar picks, set lists, confetti, signed stuff, the ads they put on seats to get you to join fan clubs and such, some little thing some deaf dude handed me about what its like to be deaf, the envelopes the tickets came in, the tickets themselves, shirts, keychains, magnets, bandanas...) Pens from Disney world Film canisters (which I put the confetti, shells and such in... I have one full of sand from Italy...) Mat board from when I was a photo student (some look like leather and stuff) Sharpies I'll keep anything if its pretty or I think I'm gonna use it for something. Sometimes I do.

[Alex D]

that's ok you know you can trade like 3 billion in for a dollar :D well for that many, you might get two! I don't think they do that here :(

[Bearsy]

My mom is so fucking bad about this. EVERYTHING she keeps. I can't walk through the basement or the attic cause there's so much crap and she freaks out when I throw something out.