Love this site. So glad I found it.

My MIL said her mother is a hoarder, she said she thinks it has to do with the way they grew up.. people didn’t have as many things back then. You had to keep certain things and find a new use for them. Like people kept old clothes to make blankets out of, not because it was a thoughtful sentimental thing to do, but because it was cold in the winter.

If you look at the contemporary and minimalist styles of today. We like things clean and sleek. Compare them to the older styles where things are just so cumbersome.

Maybe that’s how they grew up, with alot of stuff and alot knick-nacks. My dad tells me he’s uncomfortable when the room feels empty. He says it feels cold.

While reading this post I can’t feel that its a generation thing. I don’t know many younger people who keep everything. In fact, they tend to throw almost everything away as quickly as possible.

We sent _truckloads_ to goodwill just of duplicate books, VHS tapes, and DVDs…not to mention a portion of their 5000 mugs (which they come by honestly as teachers – parents, give your kids’ teachers Starbucks (or other) giftcards, not mugs! They’ve got enough mugs already!!). We had an overflowing sleeping bag of all the clothes that we just threw out as we went through the piles of laundry – including baby socks from the un-matched sock collection (the youngest child was 18 years old at the time and none of us had kids yet).

Ugh…cold shivers…their way of making more space in the house right now is to rent storage.

My Dad told my Uncle he would die before he would clean out his basement for him. Would you believe my father died one year exactly before my Uncle. Hmmm, I didn’t think he was that serious about not cleaning out his junk.

I’ll toss anything but my peanut butter lids!!!

Alright, grandma, whatever you say.