Buying stuff, wasting money and clutter

[Freakbro]

Have anyone here heard of "hoarding"? It's a mental health condition where you collect so much of a particular item that it becomes a fire escape risk. It could be lots of books, lots of boxes, lots dolls/bears, lots of empty bottles etc. The collector keeps all of them because they have a sentimental value and they find it hard to let go of even 1 book / box / doll etc. The collection simply gets bigger, to the point that some of the items are over-spilling into their garden. It's a vicious cycle to break out of, similar to addictions.

So it looks like none of you here have reached that point yet!

I do need to declutter a little bit myself. I live in a 5m x 4m 1 up / 1 down house but with a relatively large garden, so I'm getting a shed built outside with shelves. Each shelf can be used for a different type of clutter, categorise it all then figure out which is sellable, which to give to a charity shop and which to throw away or recycle.

I recommend watching this episode of Obsessive Compulsive Hoarders (where available) it's fantastic and fantastical!

He is intelligent, articulate, his neighbours took him to court over his hoarding causing a health hazard, he represented himself and won

The best line in the show was when he said "I don't have a hoarding problem, I just have a lack of storage problem"

 

[DarrenM343]

so you are okay with looking like a *****?

live in decent sized house. can't afford £20 for a tv stand or wall bracket.

the rest of the advice i can agree with however there is no excuse for not having furniture in your home.

i take it you don't have any friends you invite round so it's okay if you are by yourself and have nobody over. but the first thing i did was buy furniture.

It was more about doing it once and getting it right to be honest, not about being able to afford so holding off on buying furniture, although I had other priorities. Friends know what I'm like. Within 3 years the house was paid off, that was an aim before spending to much on it.
When buying furniture I remember a sales person telling me "people often buy a new coffee table every year". That's not me. Actually coffee table was something I had already when I moved in - bought way back in 2004.

I looked smart btw, just the house looked like a squat for a while

 

[memyselfandi]

Frankly I find it rather sad that the attitude here seems to be its great to be minimalist and only have enough possessions that you can store them in an empty crisps packet and if you don't then you are a massive hoarder who packs their house from floor to ceiling.

In reality that's not the case. I'm not minimalist by any means but that doesn't mean i buy random crap the entire time. I have quite large collections of several things which take up quite a bit of space ... and I don't have an issue with that. If I want to watch or read something then I can just go and get ti off the shelf and do so. Could I get rid of it all and replace with electronic copies ... actually no, not legally at least, as nowhere near everything is available on any of the online services.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

It was more about doing it once and getting it right to be honest, not about being able to afford so holding off on buying furniture, although I had other priorities. Friends know what I'm like. Within 3 years the house was paid off, that was an aim before spending to much on it.
When buying furniture I remember a sales person telling me "people often buy a new coffee table every year". That's not me. Actually coffee table was something I had already when I moved in - bought way back in 2004.

I looked smart btw, just the house looked like a squat for a while

i don't buy new furniture every year. my coffee table was donated to me and is a family heirloom. over 30 years old. proper real wood. i bought a real wood italian mahogany dining table. again real wood which will last forever and is timeless. so it was worth paying 5 times the cost of a dining table in ikea.

chipboard from ikea doesn't last so people need to re-buy new furniture every year. i looked at dining tables in M&S and guess what also chipboard in there too. i also like to get it right first time and buy once but sometimes it is inevitable and you end up "upgrading" at times. for instance i've had 3 different soundbars in the bedroom. the first brand new, the 2 after that i bought second hand.

in fact second hand wooden furniture is the best place to look for furniture that will last forever and at a bargain price. real solid wood too the older it is.

however i would never buy second hand sofas or beds with fabrics involved, etc only wooden things like tables, etc.

a lot of people waste money take advantage and buy stuff second hand which a lot of the time is brand new and unused. my subwoofer - still sealed in box. £600 from BK, second hand £350 with receipt proving it was 1 month old. buyer bought then never used it and needed cash so sold it on. my ysp 2700 soundbar was £600-£800 in shops. got it 3 months old with receipt for £250 because the seller was an OAP who was deaf and wanted physical speakers blasting into his earlobes.

i buy all my tv's brand new with warranty. people may think that is a waste of money but i tend to get decent use out of them and i sell them on whilst they are still worth something.

anything i buy nowadays i will use. if i don't use it's sold on ebay/gumtree within a few months.

 

[SuperOwl86]

Having moved into my first place last year I still have loads of stuff I need to get rid of. Got a Puzz3d of New York that I opened but never got round to doing. A couple of Hornby train sets from when I was a kid which I cant see me either getting out any time soon. Shed loads of dvds that I have tried to offload onto Music magpie and alike but just soo much hassle.

I also found a original Playstation box with a megadrive.

 

[memyselfandi]

chipboard from ikea doesn't last so people need to re-buy new furniture every year. i looked at dining tables in M&S and guess what also chipboard in there too. i also like to get it right first time and buy once but sometimes it is inevitable and you end up "upgrading" at times. for instance i've had 3 different soundbars in the bedroom. the first brand new, the 2 after that i bought second hand.

A lot of my furniture came from Ikea (including my coffee table). The majority of this was probably bought in early 2004 and I haven't had any issues with any of it lasting at all. In fact I haven't had any issues with any Ikea stuff bought then, or later, lasting or falling to bits.

 

[Raymond Lin]

A lot of my furniture came from Ikea (including my coffee table). The majority of this was probably bought in early 2004 and I haven't had any issues with any of it lasting at all. In fact I haven't had any issues with any Ikea stuff bought then, or later, lasting or falling to bits.

My dad has lots of furniture from Argos! it's 25 years old and still standing lol. Granted they are terrible quality but in terms of function, it does the job.

 

[413x]

I'll always want nice stuff. Just less of it.
I hate the cheap, tacky look.

A long time ago I bought some Monitor audio second hand 5.1 speakers (the sets that cost over 1k) but they still look lush, and sound amazing.
I just want less clutter. Nice stuff, for me, is different. I hate hate hate secret santa type presents. Such a waste of money, and just ends up in landfill.

 

[Scam]

I think my hatred of clothes shopping stops me from ever doing too much of that.

And my mild OCD when it comes to picking, price matching etc everything else means it just gets quite tedious when I do want to buy something. So no, I'm good

 

[Wizzfizz]

A lot of my furniture came from Ikea (including my coffee table). The majority of this was probably bought in early 2004 and I haven't had any issues with any of it lasting at all. In fact I haven't had any issues with any Ikea stuff bought then, or later, lasting or falling to bits.

Same here. Like with anything in life, if you look after it then it will last.

 

[MartinPrince]

My missus is pointing me to this thread as I have a room full of 'junk' that she's slowly but surely squeezing me to clear out.

 

[Mark A]

Yup. I have loads of hobbies as I have to always keep busy to keep my depression at bay, so am pretty much always ordering bits and bats. I wouldn't say it was junk though, as it's all useful. Our homes in the UK just aren't designed for housing tons of stuff, so you end up struggling to store it. Hmm, i'm sounding like one of the hoarders that live on top of mountains of "useful stuff".

 

[Mark A]

Find everything you don't want in your life. Put everything in boxes and get it sold. Nothing better than de-cluttering your life. Don't underestimate the value of something. Get it listed no matter what it is. You will be surprised.

Agree with this. I recently sold a bunch of things on ebay and made a fair bit, which i then bought more stuff with... But yeah, sold an Asus LGA775 mobo that I thought would be worth £5 for parts, but they were selling for £50+. Also sold some chain rings I removed from a new bike, which again I thought would be worthless and they sold for £50 as well.

Edit: Oops, I meant to add this to my last post.

 

[Deleted member 77746]

I can't live in a place where it's cluttered. If I don't use it, it goes and most things are in stackable boxes.

 

[AndyCr15]

I think having a hobby/interest that you’re content with helps.

Really? I recently got into cycling. I think I'm closing in on 4 figures spent on it... (not including even the bike!)

 

[FlapR]

I'm bad with keeping boxes for things and clothes. I don't buy clothes often at all but I keep things thinking "oh I'll wear that if I'm painting or doing DIY" etc. Washed a load over the weekend and took it to charity shops/bins along with a load of boxes for stuff like keyboards, headphones and other electronic bits.

 

[builder22]

Really? I recently got into cycling. I think I'm closing in on 4 figures spent on it... (not including even the bike!)

I just mean not having the need to buy stuff thinking it will make the hobby/interest more enjoyable...Once you’ve got all the cycling gear it shouldn’t cost that much for maintenance? But I’m sure you could keep on constantly buying different accessories etc but never really use them

 

[JonnyT]

My missus is pointing me to this thread as I have a room full of 'junk' that she's slowly but surely squeezing me to clear out.

Tell her you'll do it when she clears down on all the unworn clothes she keeps in suitcases packed away, and unworn shoes in the cupboards

 

[bayo000]

Tell her you'll do it when she clears down on all the unworn clothes she keeps in suitcases packed away, and unworn shoes in the cupboards

haha so true

 

[Arsonist]

I#m pretty minimilist, but don't mind so much if my 'junk' has a place to live out of sight. My partner on the other hand, literally has bozes and bags of stuff cluttered all around the house. Livingroom has several piles, spare bedroom is just one big junk store. It absolutely does my head in!