But it Might Be USEFUL Someday — How We End Up Hoarding Things!

On my journey through life, I have generally tried to not save too many useless things.

Maybe that makes perfect sense to most rational human beings, but for a lot of folks throwing away things can be difficult. You look at something and you think to yourself ”that might come in useful someday,” and then you find a place to save it just in case that ”some day” eventually comes along.

Baby bunny in our garden

In isolation, that probably isn't a big deal. Lots of things in life are useful; I think people generally just avoid getting rid of things they believe are. The question is whether we really need to save all of them.

The reason I'm bringing this up, is the ongoing tidying up project we're in the middle of, which I've mentioned on a number of occasions here. I was unpacking a box from my closet today, and it contained quite a few things I just had to wonder about why I had chosen to save.

Now I'm definitely not what you would call a "hoarder" in the clinical sense of the word, and even though some of the elderly people in my family definitely had too much stuff they were hardly what you would call hoarders. That said, I am definitely coming to the realization that we have too much stuff on our hands!

I suppose the entire notion of ”too much stuff” is pretty much in the eye of the beholder. I've been to some people's houses that were so minimalistic that I found myself wondering how they were going to be able to — for example —find a pair of scissors to cut a piece of paper with, if needed. We're by no means aspiring to that level of austerity!

But getting back to the question of things being useful, just because something is useful doesn't necessarily mean that you could reasonably expect to actually use it in the foreseeable future. So is there really a good reason to save it at that point? As I unpacked my boxes, my response to that is increasingly growing into a firm ”no.”

I remember my auntie in Denmark — the one who helped raise me — having an entire tool shed filled with all kinds of gadgets and bits of wire and hinges and fittings and nails and screws of every conceivable size and shape. If you needed an original plug for a 1949 toaster, chances are she had one!

Granted, she was a child during the Great Depression, so throwing anything away for her was considered wasteful. However, 95% of the things in that tool shed were never used. And when she passed away, they went to the junk yard. Wouldn't it have been better to have had a less cluttered tool shed, and then when you do need a special part just go to the hardware store and get one?

Again, there's not a real clear answer there. A lot of the bits and pieces my auntie saved, for example, were vintage and antiques… in other words, things you simply couldn't just run down to the hardware store and buy.

Getting back to my closet, however, one of the main things I notice myself having hoarded, seems to be documentation. If the IRS says you need to save something for seven years to support your tax return claims, I seem to have saved it for 15. I even found bankruptcy documents related to a bankruptcy that was discharged in 1997! No reason to keep those. However, in my mind, I can remember thinking ”what if somebody comes back after the fact and demands to have the information about this?”

And so, it was saved away in a box, along with many other mostly useless things. A box I am here unpacking more than a decade later.

In my own particular case, I think a perpetual lack of money has also been related to my saving so many things. If I see something usable, I would save it out of a simple concern that I wouldn't be able to afford to replace it, if it were ever needed.

Regardless of whether it's useful or not, I am definitely feeling ”lighter” as a result of getting rid of many many things!

Thanks for reading and have a great remainder of your week!

How about YOU? Do you tend to save things thinking they might be useful? Do you have a tendency to save more than you need? Or do you try to keep your surroundings very uncluttered? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20210416 00:25 PDT
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