I was just re-arranging my storage area, putting away the Christmas decorations, and it occurred to me that I have got way too much junk.

So, if you want to, back a dump truck up to my front door, and I'll shovel a load in for you

It took me over two years to deal with my parents' forty years of junk. And to find the one-third of their possessions that was not junk, and to sell nearly all of them. Oh, and that's just from the forty years we spent in Iowa. They inherited junk from my mother's mother's house.

I loved my parents dearly, but even that was sorely tested when I opened boxes and had to deal with junk mail they had received in 1957, before I was even born.

Mother could never make a decision about a piece of paper. She was the soul of generosity, and I don't know how she kept track of the 100 classic recipes she used out of 200 cookbooks, but paper just floored her. And went below the floors, into the basement. If it weren't for a touch of leakage every five years, we wouldn't have gotten rid of any of it -- but even my folks couldn't argue with getting rid of water-sodden paper!

My brother Tim just reminded me, as I read him this posting, of the stacks of books and papers, mostly "Better Homes and Gardens," that he, our dad, and I sneaked out of the basement one night. That was a major operation. We were fearful of being discovered, but Mother never even noticed. That should have told us something.

Grey, I can totally relate!!! Scott and I have kept telling ourselves that 'after the first of the year' we would have to go back to my parents house and deal with their junk. They've been married 51 years, but my father is the pack-rat of all time. He has papers from grade school and even school papers from his mother and sister. I've found his whole life in their basement. I had spent weeks and weeks worth of time opening sealed boxes and sorting and tossing before they got so sick. Then it all came to a standstill while we've nursed them and then built this house. I know that the awful mess is still looming for me to deal with. We've had three 30-foot professional construction dumpsters of crap hauled away already. At $235 a trip it's insane. To make matters worse, mom and dad moved this garbage back and forth eight times between Oregon and Utah. There are treasures, but few and far between the unopened junk mail and the magazines and home-made 'newspaper morgue.' Dad was a Director of the US Department of Commerce under President Carter, and so I was mad, but not surprised, to find the entire 1970 and 1980 census on mirco-fische. That should have gone to a library, either public or university for pity sake! Oh, I get so sick and upset thinking of going back to deal with it so we can get the house on the market!! YUCK!!!

It's a trait that runs in the women of my family. My grandmother was that way, but my mother is much worse. My grandmother was more likely to have crap stored in the attic and basement, but my mother is more likely also have too much crap all over her house. I swear, her house looks like a thrift store sometimes. Actually, it looks more like a Goodwill store.

I'm like my mother, although to a lesser degree. My storage area is full, but its also not very large. I have quite a bit of clutter around my house, but at least I have wallspace and surfaces that are clear, unlike dear old mum

I've been going through crap today and throwing out all the stuff from 2003 that I don't need. My goal is a clutter-free 2004!

I've come across a number of Post-Its with random phone numbers -- and, for some reason, I neglected to write down the name of the person(s) at these numbers, or what the numbers were for.

Should I just throw them out? Or should I call up the numbers and ask, "Hey, who's this? I have this number written down on a piece of paper and I don't know who you are!"

Sounds good to me!

My mother died in 1993. When my father passed away last year, we found Mom's old tax returns dating back to 1954, the first year she filed. Mom probably hung on to them just in case the IRS audited her -- even 40 years later! Dad just didn't like to go through stuff and throw it away. As long as crap was safely sequestered to the back room of the house, he didn't care. I'm pretty much the same way, though I don't have the luxury of a spare "crap" room.

Actually, if you go to www.google.com and type the phone number into the search field, there is a strong possibility that it will tell you who the number belongs to. I believe it will work for most listed phone numbers.

Aha -- what a great idea! Thanks!

(I strongly suspect that a bunch of them are local businesses that I needed to call about one thing or another -- although there are one or two numbers from other states where I don't know anyone, so I have no idea what/who those numbers are for...)

Maybe we could have a LW garage sale - or an online Ebay-type auction.

"Does anyone need a bunch of crap?"

No. I just need a house for all the crap I already HAVE!

Why am I reminded of George Carlin's rant about "Stuff?"

Thanks for the ofer, but I already have enough of my own.

Hmm... I'm thinking of putting up an auction on eBay to sell off some of my crap. I won't provide a description of the stuff, or how much there is. I'll just say: "Who knows? I might be someone famous. And then you'd have a real windfall on your hands!"

(Actually, if I set the starting bid at a relatively low price -- say $10.00 -- I wonder if anyone would bite...?)

I can't stand having clutter. I've moved 6 times in the last 8 years, so whenever I pack stuff to move I get rid of everything that I simply do not have to have. I either throw it away or give it away. I don't generally feel comfortable asking people to buy things that I've used. My mom, the queen of garage sales, thinks I'm insane or something.

I'm about to move again so I've already started filling up the trash bags. I also use moving as an excuse to go through all my boxes of comics and organize them. Unfortunately, I often find a bunch of old books that must be read again. I just finished re-reading my entire run of Excalibur, which actually only consists of the Alan Davis (with and without Claremont) issues and Carlos Pacheco's issues towards the end of the series. When I look at how Davis and Claremont wrote Nightcrawler and I think about how Austen is writing Nighty today, I weep uncontrollably.

I'm getting good at getting the clutter down.

I've sold of tons of comics I don't want anymore but there's more to go.

And I'm going to have to go through my clothes one of these days...

Lebensraum, baby. I'm decluttering.

When I saw this thread title in the Last Posts box, I was like "Do I even want to know what this thread is about?"

Go figure

How quickly they forget.

Huh?

Forget what?

Great, now this old thread is cluttering up LW again!!!

This thread is now in the MMB's junk drawer!

I thought we'd flushed it away.