A Hoarder I Am Not

 

Today I started clearing out our basement – two small rooms crammed full of accumulated crap. Most of it is boxes of stuff we packed when we left Australia in 2007 which I never got around to unpacking because I was too busy getting pregnant and churning out babies.

Before I started, I had no idea what was in these boxes except I knew one of them had our wedding photos in it. Otherwise I was tempted to just take the lot to the tip. I made the mistake of telling this to Rob and I could see the alarm in his eyes – his inner hoarder completely freaked out.

I’m very brutal when it comes to throwing stuff out. For things we’ve had in storage for nearly six years I figure if we’ve gone that long without it then we don’t need it. Rob on the other hand (always the financier) sees things in terms of monetary value – so if you throw out something you no longer use but once paid a lot for then it’s being wasteful, regardless of how long ago you got it.

“Steph, I don’t get why we buy that stuff if you’re just going to throw it out”.

“Because, Rob, we no longer have a baby and don’t plan on having another baby so I no longer need things for a baby .. and there is no reason to keep cassette tapes, clothes you wore in 1981 or mobile phones from history, nor do we need enough of those cables with the yellow/red/white bits to extend the length of the eastern seaboard.” etc., etc., etc. We have many of these sorts of conversations and it’s reasons like the above why our basement looks like a shanty town.

A couple of years back when we moved house from down the street I threw out a heap of old stuff. Knowing what Rob is like I put it all in boxes and taped it up as tightly and securely as I could and asked him to take it to the tip. I gave him strict instructions not to open any box, just unload from the car and dispose of. Simples.

About a week later he was mowing the lawn wearing these hideous old shoes that are so manky and decrepid that I don’t even like touching them. Didn’t I throw those out? I swear to god I put them in the stuff that went to the tip. As it turns out, rather than leave said shoes at the tip to be set on fire in a heap of rubbish where they belonged, Rob rescued them and brought them home. Like a stray dog.

Therefore, today I  embarked on Operation Basement Purge after he had gone to work and I plan of disposing of all items before his return.

Are you a hoarder? Or a ruthless culler like me?