Am I a Packrat?

Big Dan

…that’s a rhetorical question.

Yesterday one of my boxes got here from Florida and as Murphy’s law goes of course it was the smallest one with nothing I needed but I unpacked it. In the process I decided to clean out my night stand drawers. My night stand is like my catch all storage spot. I only actually use one of the drawers on my side which normally holds a book or two and some late night snacks. The bottom draw in that one holds a bunch of stuff I think I’m going to need at some point in the near future but never actually do.

On the other side of my bed, in the nightstand I don’t use, I have a bunch of keepsakes in the bottom drawer: Pictures, old letters, birthday cards, drawings from my sister, etc. The top drawer holds all my extra wires for A/V and computers. Normally that’s stuffed full a mess of tangled cords.

Now, I’d like to think of myself as a neat and tidy person. Generally I am but when it comes to* drawers I just keep stuffing stuff in them. In my ‘keepsake’ drawer I found Time magazines from 2001 and 2002 a newspaper from 2004, and a credit card receipt for chips and soda from Wal-Mart circa February 2000.

What the hell is with that? I am a sentimental person, pretty much anything anyone gives me I save. My sister loves drawing and stuff like that so I have tons of pictures from her. Birthday/Christmas and other cards I feel bad throwing them out. Hey, someone thought enough of me to send me a card, the least I can do is hold on to it….but for how long?

I wound up filing up a garbage pail full of old paper work. I found a report card from school back when I was 15. On a positive note, I found my GED (high school diploma) and my small business certificate from a local education center. I was looking for my GED for a while. I need to get frames for the both of them.

Today my the rest of my boxes came from FL. They were huge, 50 + pounds each, the girl in the post office could barely lift them onto the counter, I felt bad she was kinda cute too. I brought them upstairs and mom helped me unpack them. Mom’s help unpacking meant she stuffed everything back in the drawers I just cleaned out. LOL I was glad she helped though. Now I have a bunch of brand new clothes in plastic on my bed which have to go some where. That means I have to clean out my closet tonight or tomorrow. I have boxes up there still sealed, I wonder what the heck is up there. I know I have 3 or 4 boxes of CD jewel cases since I went to binders for my CDs but other than that I don’t know.

I may have to take some pictures of my closet cleaning fiasco..so you can see what I have to deal with!!



More...

Raven

You have not seen a packrat until you have seen our place. Mr. Raven owns so many books they are still in boxes. I can't seem to figure out what to throw away. When it comes cleaning time Mr. Raven always wants to throw out my stuff and never seems to want to throw out his.
My dad recently gave me a new computer chair because he was not using it anymore. Mr. Raven said, now he can throw out my old chair cause my bird ate half the chair. I like that chair still and do not want to get rid of it. We do not have any couch in the living room because the birds have all the space so another chair can't hurt.

__________________

Taboo My African Grey's Blog

THERESA

I am a packrat too but have gotten much better. I have letters that are 20 years old.

__________________

~THERESA~Can I get a hero shake with that, or are you all out?

Rebecky

same here....unpacking and thinking...why did we pack this?
I have a box of photos and old plaques from my cheerleading days....found my college diploma in that box!
it was fun to go through them though...hehe

esnagel

Yeah, I've begun collecting cards from my kids. Ones from my aunts & uncles go in the trash, though. I try to get rid of as much as I can, although I have a big pile of papers waiting to be shredded on my desk at home.

However, I can say with certainty that I do NOT have receipts for chips & soda from 2000. If you do, however, they must've been some GOOD chips!

__________________

Nagel family website