Looks like Sheriff David Clarke is now a deputy secretary at DHS. Sure. Why not. That seems like a great idea.
Living in relatively small apartments for the past 28 years (and having a relatively small discretionary budget for most of that time) has kept the worst of my collecting impulses at bay. Aside from books, there's not a lot that I buy on impulse.
I've very carefully avoided getting a storage unit. Expense aside, that would just end in thousands of books mouldering away, to be discovered—mostly unread by me—by my great-grand nephews and nieces in 2057. "Why did great aunt Calli have an illustrated guide to the lost rivers of London?" "Dude, why wouldn't she?" And then that one, special young adult who is unfortunate enough to take after me would lug thousands of semi-intact books back to zir home, where they'd lie in further unread glory for another 40 years (or until they decayed beyond recovery, which ever comes first).
We're all doomed. I mean, good news for Milwaukee County inmates, at least in the short term. But this is really horrific.
I'm about to run headfirst into my pseudo-hoarding issue (not that I can't let go of stuff, it's that I never find the time to go through it and discard what's useless or outdated). The plumbing behind my washing machine sprang a leak this week, with the result of water seeping into my bedroom from the closet that shares a wall with the laundry alcove. Luckily most of the paper goods in my closet are in big plastic bins, but I'm going to have to be merciless in throwing away old jeans and knick-knacks to avoid growing a mushroom farm.
(not that I can't let go of stuff, it's that I never find the time to go through it and discard what's useless or outdated).
Ding ding ding! That and I buy too much crap in the first place.
We at one time had *three* storage units. We paid the rental on two of them for more than a decade, because we had no storage at home. Maybe once a year we would pull something out to use, but that's money ill spent--most of that stuff got sold or donated, eventually. And I will perform a spectacular tantrum if renting another is ever suggested.
H has the "this might be useful" thing--but with him, it's true. Still. He's never going to get around to everything he's saved parts and materials for. He's just spent three days (and is far from finished) sorting and storing and arranging the interior of his workshop, after five years of just chucking things inside when he's finished with a project and scrambling to find what he needed for the next project. It had gotten to the point of buying tools he knew he had but either couldn't find or needed immediately--and those were the replacements for tools he'd had for years, buried somewhere in the depths.
It might be beyond hope for him to include "Putting shit away afterward" as *part* of each project, but I'm going to keep suggesting it. Who knows? "It could happen" - Judy Tenuda.
I confess to "collecting" things--pens, inks, single teacup and saucer sets, teapots. But I do use them all, and if I run across something I don't have and want, I weigh how much I want and will use it against the things I already have. I'm gradually divesting my pens, as handwriting is increasingly difficult. And to be honest, "I already have all the pretty teacups." I rarely see anything I like better than the ones I already have.
I've also stopped buying every blank book I covet--in fact I frequently send visitors home with a few from the stockpile I've built over the years, since I'm facing the fact *I'll* never fill them all.
But still, I do have to fight the urge to acquire things I love. I have two chopping blocks, one hard rock maple edge grain, one bamboo, four paddle boards, two of which are marquetry teak, a meat cutting board, mid-century Dansk teak, a slab for cutting or chopping made of exotic woods by a former co-worker, two small oak sandwich boards, and a pig-shaped board made eons ago by StE in shop class.
I'm currently pining because I left a large paddle board with metric conversions engraved on one side, and a smaller paddle board with a gorgeous shape behind in NC for StY to use. And I'm upset that I can find neither my brand new, nor my well-used rock maple bread kneading boards (I think they're in the shop, still packed from the move).
Which is so viciously ironic, because H does all the cooking, and he uses one of two plastic cutting boards, never a wooden one.
Mmm, kneading boards.
I'm not even going to start on my hoarding-esque issues. It is too much. I will say that clutter and crowded rooms do not bother me. I find them obscurely comforting, tbh. Any advice that tells me how much better I will feel if I'm in a tidy environment gets big old eyerolls.
My DH's family is close to hoarding. They "collect." If they like something, they want ALL of it.
This, sadly, is Pete and me. But starting this weekend, I am decluttering one area at a time each weekend. I'm starting small (the corner of the library that is now a graveyard of unfinished projects), but my goal is that by the end of summer, everything of mine has been sorted and culled.
(And you guys, I have been SO good about not adding to my stacks and stacks of vintage gothic romances. There have been so many great covers I've seen from my favorite used bookseller. But no, I have restrained myself.)
Sadly, I have a storage shed in my back yard but don't really use it. Anything stored in there but metal or plastic would quickly mold and mildew here in east Texas. I suppose I could raise roaches. I think my predecessors used it for gardening stuff, but I use a mowing service.
If anyone wants to come to Bryan, Texas, disassemble it and haul it away, that would be fine by me.
