Saturday, May 31, 2008

Quirk #5 - Being a Pack Rat

5. I am a pack rat and hate throwing things away because "someday I might need it!"

I do tend to hang on to things way too long and cleaning out HAS to happen at regular intervals. However, it has long been my experience that the moment I decide to throw things out, take them to Goodwill, or give them away, then I need them. I even remember giving a whole bundle of clothes to Goodwill only to discover that I had given away a pair of red pants that I decided I still needed. I rushed over to Goodwill and bought them back for $6! And there was the time I gave away all my sewing notions, lace, yarn, etc. Then I began teaching first grade and yearned for that box of notions for the art projects that we did.

I guess that is Murphy's Law for me: the minute I decide to throw something away, the wheels are set into motion for me to need it again--sooner or later!

Write about your notions on being a pack rat. Do you save things that you no longer use? Or do you clean out things on a regular basis--and never look back?

2 comments:

  1. There's a word for the stacks of "stuff" that we pack rats accumulate..."culch pile." My father was the world's worst culch piler. He had a barn full of stuff and when he sold the farm, the barn was left to rot and collapse around the culch pile, exposing Dad's treasures to the world; the pile included such items as my brother Bill's plebe uniform from the Naval Academy and several cardboard boxes of cancelled checks dating back forty years or more. Nevertheless, your typical culch piler will maintain to the bitter end that, "I might need that sometime!"

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  2. Yep! That is an apt description of some of our "savings" around here. Nice name for it, too. Culch PILE!

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