Hoarder's Remorse

As you may have gathered from some of my previous posts, while I don't consider myself to be anything near an actual hoarder, I do have a tendency to collect and keep things that provide no real intrinsic value to my life.  Usually I keep these things for one of three reasons:

1. Nostalgia
2. I am almost certain that at some point they will be useful again
3. They got stuffed somewhere and I forgot I had them

Reason #1 is why I keep things like expired driver's licenses from various states.  Reason #2 is why I have clothes in my closet that are two sizes too small... because one day that diet WILL work and I will fit in those clothes again!  Reason #3 is not really a reason at all.  But it explains why I find coupons for businesses that no longer exist and pens that have run out of ink.

Moving day is usually a big clean-out day.  You must weigh the importance of keeping your junk with the effort involved in packing, transporting, and unpacking your junk.  And also finding a suitable hidey-hole in your new place in which to stuff it.

Which is why I remember so clearly that day 2 weeks ago when I looked at the binder full of print-your-own CD labels that I had bought for wedding favors over 3 years ago.  You know, the kind that if you want to make someone a mix CD you can create a personalized cover, put the paper in your printer, then peel off the sticker and slap it on the top of the CD?  They worked great for the specialized CDs we gave our wedding guests but I thought, "who gives mix CDs anymore when there's flash drives and iTunes?"  So I threw them all out.

Only today, I needed to make a duplicate copy of a DVD, and wanted a professional cover, rather than hand-writing the name of the video on the CD in permanent marker.  And there's irony for you.  I don't use the darn things for 3 years and yet, 2 weeks after I throw them away, I actually could've used them...

It's a Coupon!

I know I've been sort of absent lately. There has been a lot of stuff to do at work and a lot of improvements on the new house and also last Sunday I was extremely occupied with reading a book by the pool and getting a pedicure. So sue me.

In lieu of an actual, intersting post, I'll share one of the tidbits I came across when cleaning house. As you may recall, I'm not very good at getting rid of things. So when I found this, it was not much of a surprise:

Maybe you might notice a few things wrong with this picture.  Let's start with the expiration date.  What is that, 2007?  I'm guessing they won't honor that $10 coupon anymore... oh WAIT, I forget, the entire chain WENT OUT OF BUSINESS this year.  I think I was so excited that Mervyn's knew my birthday in a pseudo-stalkerish kind of way, that I just couldn't bear to part with my $10 coupon.

Spring Cleaning

This May, Chris and I decided the house needed a major makeover. Especially since we had some potential tenants to rent our spare rooms. The list of "home makeover" items included cleaning/organizing the house (finally putting away our boxes of wedding gifts!) and landscaping the backyard. More on the backyard later.

My first spring cleaning project: cleaning out unnecessary stuff from the garage. When I moved in to the house from my apartment, there was a lot of my stuff that landed in the garage, in boxes, and the boxes have been collecting dust ever since. Chris had cleaned out his miscelleneous junk the weekend before, so now it was my turn.

I should preface this by saying I am *somewhat* of a pack rat. Not completely - I've moved too often to accumulate very much junk - but I occasionaly have a hard time letting go of silly mementos that have no apparent function other than I just can't bring myself to throw it away.

I'm sure I'm not the only one. I mean, c'mon, don't you keep your expired driver's licenses and old college ID cards? A collection of movie ticket stubs from every movie you've ever seen since the fifth grade? Christmas cards from five years ago that you got too lazy to mail?

Well, anyway, enough about that. Let's focus on the things I did throw away. And I promise, I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP.

• 32 cent stamps (I supposed I could have used them to mail a postcard)
• A promotional poster of The Sixth Sense...IN FRENCH
• The address of my best friend in 4th grade
• Instruction manuals for cameras/phones/printers I DON'T OWN ANYMORE
• Vehicle registration receipts for the car I sold 2 years ago
• A game of M.A.S.H. I played with my high school friends on a bus trip in 1992
• A fake $3 bill with Bill Clinton's face
• Letters from pen pals I don't recall ever knowing, it's been so long
• A Ruby Tuesday receipt for some random lunch with friends - dated January 1, 2001
• More than $7 worth of coupons to I Can't Believe It's Yogurt which expired 6/30/1996

And Chris thinks that I keep a lot of needless junk. Yeah, riiight. I have no idea what would make him think that.