A Place for My Stuff

Stopping Impulse Buying

"Impulse buying" and compulsive shopping is something that shows up rather often among hoarders.  It's not universal, but it shows up frequently enough to talk about it here.  A lot of my own clutter was partially due to simply having a way higher accumulation rate than a disposal rate.  For example, going on used book or used DVD shopping sprees way more often than getting rid of things.  It took me some time to get back into the balance of things, and being a little more critical of buying anything remotely appealing that I'd pick up in a store.

MSN.com posted an article on 9 ways to stop impulse buying.  You can go click on the link to read the original article.  Here are the 9 items they list, but with my own comments on each of them:

1. Follow the time rule.

This is a helpful rule, and it shows up in the "Stuff" book.  Basically if you find something you like, the idea is to wait a little while before buying it.  The "little while" could be anything from half an hour to a month.  Chances are the initial appeal of getting the item will wear off, maybe even to the point where you'll forget all about it because it wasn't worth remembering.
 
2. Don't shop when upset.

I'd expand this concept to "Buy the item because you actually want it, in and of itself. Let need and honest desire for the item, and not some temporary emotion, drive the reason for buying."  And I HATE the new-agey sounding sentiment of the following statement (especially in the way some other people choose to word it) but it's true: sometimes people will buy an item to fill some emotional need at the time, and/or for the feeling they get from making the purchase, rather than because of the item itself. I know this because I've caught myself doing it with different things over the years.  I'd like to think of myself as a creative, intelligent person who's always interested in learning new things as well as learning as much as possible about the 3 or 4 things I'm the most interested in.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with buying stuff for that.  It sure beats spending 6 hours a day playing video games.

The problem, however, was that I ended up buying some things in a desperate attempt to get a new mind challenge or new outlet of creativity, only to not carry through with it.  I remember some time ago buying a caligraphy set.  Learning caligraphy seemed like one of those fun and creative things I'd like to do.  But what happened is the book just collected dust while I tried working on 20 other things.  I even have a number of different musical instruments sitting in my room getting dusty, for the same reason: the thrill of having something new and different and potentially creative ended up being the real motivation for buying it.  Over all, I still don't regret buying them.  But now I'm certainly a little more careful before I buy new things, and asking the magical quesiton: "Do I already have 5 really similar things just like this at home?"
 
4. Don't shop with the wrong people.

I don't think I've ever had a problem with this personally.  Maybe it's because most of my friends are misers.  But I understand why it's on the list.
 
5. Give yourself a splurge budget.

One way to do this is to carry cash on you, and use only the case to make the purchases for a given week or month.  Sounds simple, but it's amazing how fewer and fewer people bother to carry cash these days.

6. Buy only things you can return.

This rule sounds nice, but I doubt how effective it is.  It's more of a pain in the ass to buy an item and return it, than to not buy it in the first place.  And speaking as somebody who has been known to buy harmonicas as well as sheet music, I know that there are some items you simply can't return for legal reasons.

7. Remember to not be fooled by sales.

This one is self-explanatory.  But again, the bargain books, music, and movies is what used to always get me.

8. Keep a list of things you really want or need.

This is probably more effective when it comes to things like grocery shopping.  Most of the time when people go shopping, it's not for anything in particular, so there's no list.  Of course, shopping for the sake of "poking around" is someting that deserves its own place on this list!

9. Don't give yourself access to your money.

To me, this seems really extreme.  But maybe for some people this is what it takes: leaving your credit cards at home or locked in the car, for example.  I sure as hell recommend it for people visiting a casino for the first time, but that's another topic.

Organizing the CD-Rs and DVD-Rs

Over the last month and a half, I've been furiously working on a new book.  No, it's not about "stuff".  But it does have something to do with my two biggest passions in life: music and mathematics.  I've set the end of the month as a deadline for myself to complete it.  That's all I'm going to say about it for now. 

As far as clutter goes, one of my more recent areas of attack were by sticks of burned data CD-Rs and DVD-Rs.  I have these going back at least a dozen years. These days, the CD-R seems to be on its way out.  It's not just audio CDs giving away to mp3 players, but there are lots of other faster, cheaper and sometimes safer ways to store data these days: the exponentially cheaper hard drives and even thumb drives of today, data clouds, bigger webspace, faster internet speeds, etc.  I even read that a 128gb SD card in the works.  Granted, a dual layer DVD-R can store 12 times the amount of data on a standard CD-R, and a Blu-Ray data disc can store eaven more than that.  But I wouldn't be surprised if in the next 10 years, the CD-ROM drive goes the way of the floppy drive.

Regardless, I've still got 10 years worth of data on burned discs, not all of which is doubly backed up on some other source.  Having a 1TB hard drive in the year 2001 was unheard of.  So those files had to go somewhere.  I had a few music mix CDs I burned, too.  It was time to go through these home-made discs and decide which ones to keep, which ones to throw out, and which ones to just extract a thing or two before throwing them out.  Then out of the ones to keep, it was a matter of organizing them.

To help with this, I bought an Atlantic Parade disc holder from K-mart.

It holds 96 discs total in 4 slide-out books, which you can also label in the front.  Obviously this means getting rid of the cases and insert booklets, but since I didn't really have any booklets on my data discs (I typically just wrote the description on the discs themselves with a marker) or anything fancy in the cases, this was fine.  The whole thing is about 7 inches wide.

I've talked before about storing discs in different sorts of holders in order to save space.  I still keep most of my movies in bigger 3-ring binders.  But this is another product I'd recommend if you're not concerned with keeping cases or booklets.

Prince Charles: admitted hoarder?

Some interesting quotes from him in this article:

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/317242/Prince-Charles-My-boys-are-always-pulling-my-leg

"I hate throwing things away. I am always trying to find ways of re-using things. There are bits of this, bits of that everywhere. For example, we’ve had to take curtains down in my bathroom and I was seeing how we could make cushions out of them."

Fridge Clutter Includes What's On Top

In cleaning my refrigerator, I realized I overlooked another place where clutter can build up: on TOP of the fridge itself.

If your refrigerator has cabinets or something directly above that prevents you from using it as a shelf, then you don't have this problem.  Though maybe you want to consider dusting the top once in a while.  Otherwise, I've seen the top of the fridge become a magnet for clutter.  I guess the reason for this is pretty simple: it's easy to put stuff on there because it's a flat surface in a common area, but it's not something you often look up and notice often enough to sort through it.

In my own case, I found at least 3 bags of long-since-expired chips of some variety.  I was happy to toss them.  And from now on I'm going to try to keep this area in mind.  I'd insert some poetic comment here about "not seeing the forest for the trees" and trying to relate that two in interior and exterior of the refrigerator...but I can't think of anything clever.

(On a side note, why does "fridge" have a 'd', but "refrigerator" doesn't?  I checked several spell checkers and dictionaries on this, and that's how it is.  Other people don't understand it either.)

Unearthed from the Depths of the Antarctic (my freezer)

Speaking of freezing food, I've looked at the enormous piles of stuff in my freezer, and said to my wife "You know, we probably have some stuff buried way down in there that we've had since we moved in."  She said that no, that simply wasn't true, because she keeps the stock rotated.  I was still a little skeptical.

Recently, my wife took on the challenge of penetrating into the freezer even deeper, throwing out many things along the way.  She came into the room and said "Kidding.  There WAS something we've had in the freezer since we moved in."  I saw it and grabbed the camera, "Ooh!  Let me take a pic for the blog." "No!" she screamed, "People will think that we're disgusting!"  I pleaded with her until I could finally snap the pic.  Here it is, for your viewing pleasure.  Just don't think of my wife as disgusting or lazy in any way.  She really isn't.  I mean it's not like we left this thing in the living room.

How long should you refrigerate/freeze food?

My wife showed me a rather beat-up paper which she said was one of the most informative things she's ever found on the internet.  It was two lists on various foods and how long they should be kept in the refrigerator and/or freezer before tossing them.  Obviously a lot of food these days comes with an expiration date stamp, but that's not always the case.  Thus, her reason for having this document.

Ironically, the list itself was need of recycling.  So at my wife's request, I hunted down the original articles so that I could print out a copy for her and a copy for her sister.

Thousands of other people have seemingly copied the same contents to their blogs.  I'm just going to give the original links instead.

• http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/shopping-storing/food/how-long-can-you-refrigerate-freeze-food-10000001210757/

• http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/shopping-storing/freezing/how-long-food-last-freezer-10000000687907/

Of course, it helps to actually put a label on these foods and write the date on them in the first place!

 

Getting to those pots on the back-burner

For those of you who aren't familiar with this English idiom, keeping things "on the back burner" is another way of having a task or project that's on a rather lower priority.  Or at least that's how I end up using it. 

I've talked before about procrastination, which Tony Robbins aptly calls "the silent killer".  In my experience, procrastination is not an uncommon theme with pack rats.  And I don't just mean putting off the decluttering.  One of the biggest reasons for keeping things that aren't really needed is the concept of "someday".  I think I've come to hate that word. Look through the items of a hoarder, and you'll quickly find something that's being saved for something they'll swear they'll find a specific future use for.  It's certainly not the sole reason why some people are pack rats, but I'd say it's more often than not a big one, and like I've said, I've already talked about it here.

When you finally get something done that you've been putting off since forever, it's quite rewarding.  Some recent tasks I've done:

• Setting up the wireless server.  When I moved in to my current apartment, the cable/internet provider also gave me a wireless router so that I could have wireless in my home.  Needless to say, I never got it set up.  I guess in my mind (and in my wife's mind too), it was presumably going to be a long and tedious process that would also take up more room that we didn't have.  Well, I finally went ahead and did it.  And now I'm wondering why the hell I didn't do it sooner!  If you're in this situation yourself, go ahead and do it tonight.  Just follow the directions they give you.  You'll be proud that you did.
• Upgrading memory on my laptop. This is something I'd try doing off an on for the past few years, ever since I bought the Mac laptop used from somebody on CraigsList.  Trying to find just the right memory card that would actually work, was a total pain the ass.  I'd find one at Best Buy, then have to return it because it didn't work.  I'd meet out with somebody on CraigsList who had one, only to find out there that it didn't work when I tried it at their home.
  Finally, I asked a local computer store.  It was already a minute or two past closing time, but they had one.  The manager reluctantly said that he wasn't 100% sure if it would work, and that if I had to return it, it would be for store credit only.  But I brought it home, installed it, and...it worked!  I've now maxed out the RAM in this thing.  It didn't resolve the problem that I thought it was going to resolve, but now I at least don't have the memory quesiton hanging over my head!  And it sure beats breaking down and dropping some insane amount of money at the Apple store.

• Fixed the iPod.  A couple of months I tried using my iPod as an external hard drive to back up some stuff.  It wasn't really going the way I wanted to, so I tried cancelling the process, and ended up corrupting a folder.  Long story short: the iPod still worked, but I couldn't get my computer to recognize it and add the newer music I had bought.  I read everything I could find on-line, trying countless different things. 
  (On a side note, I swear that this is one of the biggest things that separates an alleged computer expert from somebody who claims to be a computer illiterate: the geek actually takes the time to read the help files, search the web, etc. to see if he or she can find an answer to the problem at hand.  99% of the time, this strategy works.  Really. )
  At some point I did get it to work the way I wanted to, but shortly after ran into the problem again.  Finally, I tried working at it again using advice I found from a YouTube clip.  And now, all is well.  That makes another several hundred dollars saved by not paying Apple to fix it or give me something new!
• Breaking out the Carribean coffee.  A few weeks ago I went on a cruise, which included a stop in Jamaica.  I got to taste some really excellent Jamaican coffee there, and bought a pound or two at a fraction of the cost of what I would have to pay back in the states.  I broke down and bought a coffee press.
• Bought the new Van Halen release.  Hell yes!  And I'm glad I didn't settle for the digital download, but went all out and got the CD/DVD set.  Ah, printed lyrics...a former norm that is becoming such a nice novelty these days.
• Dusting, moving, cleaning.  I'm starting to wonder if there are such things as dust pixies which magically leave thick dust in my bedroom when I'm away at work.  Because I'm baffled as to why there's so much dust.  I really don't get it.  I run an air filter too.  Is it just a matter of doing it every day, or what?  But dust, I did.  I dusted.  And dusted.  And dusted.  Then moved furniture and dusted some more.
• Book cases and bureaus.  At this stage, I'd say my ultimate goal is to get the remaining stuff off the floor.  This invovled getting a new book shelf, rearranging the living room set up (which of course is easier to do when you've already managed to clear away a lot of the clutter, otherwise it's impossible), a trip to the trift store (unfortunately closed), a trip to Target (which didn't have what we were looking for), a trip to Big Lots (which DID have a cheap book shelf I bought and screwed together -- despite the fact that the directions had something printed wrong), and a trip to the in-laws to pick up a much needed bureau.  Busy day.  My only regret is not taking enough "before" pictures.

Zits (the comic strip)

Somebody showed me this piece of clutter-related humor recently:

http://www.zitscomics.com/?date=02-04-2012#comic-image

 

 

Facing the Wardrobe, 2012

Dealing with clothes is a topic that I've blogged about before.  Well, that was over two years ago, and some things have accumulated since then.

Here were some of the recently found wearable oddities:

• Poor People's Pub shirt, 2000-2001.  This is easily one of my all-time favorite restaurants, and I've been going there since I was a kid.  They make a new shirt every year.  I haven't worn this one in years though, and I already have some similar shirts.  My father-in-law collects these shirts, but my wife said that he probably already has this one.  I think I'll toss this one into the Goodwill bag.
• Two high school gym class shirts.  I went to a private high school, and even phys. ed. class had a dress code.  We had to at least wear one of these shirts, the matching shorts, a jock strap, and sneakers.  The shorts had a space where you'd write your last name in magic marker.  The shirts had one too.  They were also reversible, I guess to make it easy if you wanted to break the class into two teams to play.
  I absolutely HATED gym class.  I always did.  Hated, hated, HATED it.  It always had less to do with actual physical development, and everything to do with pretentious, asshole jocks.  It does NOT build any sort of social skills or "teamwork".  If anything, I'm convinced that events like the Columbine shootings wouldn't happen if gym class didn't exist.  Why this is still a part of public academia, I have no idea.  On top of all that, I have never been a sports fan, and to this day, I still hate sports.
  I should be BURNING this shirt.
• A shrunken sweater.  At this point I should just shrink it further to make a ski mask.  But it's easier to just add it to the Goodwill bag.
• A "Rock Cleveland" shirt that my father got me on one of his business trips, who knows when.  It's pretty small now.
• 34" waist pants.  Oh yeah, right, like I could still fit into these.
• A black "University of Charlotte" shirt.  This was presumably came from my dad too.  And it's rather small now.  I'm guessing I kept it so that i could use the black cloth for something.  Well, that hasn't happened.  Into the bag you go.
• Old work shirts.  I don't mean "work" as in blue-collar shirts to work in.  I mean free shirts that I got from companies I worked with.  This included at least one of those pull-over, partially-zippered sweatshirts.  I really don't wear these.
• Two nostalgic shirts.  These are tough to get rid of.  One is a fraternity rush shirt from my first year of college.  The other is a shirt I got made up in the mall when I was in the 8th grade, that shows a photo of metallica but with my face superimposed on Kirk Hammet's.  I think I'll pack them away and think about it further.  I've still made a lot of progress.

One last look at the bureau

OK, one final look at the bureau-top junk that got removed.

Before I continue though, I'd like to say that I hope this isn't just seen as a "listing" experience.  When I blog about things I've gotten rid of, I do get some idea of why I might have kept something in the first place, where some of the common problem areas are, and how I can hopefully eliminate some of that in the future.

• Stuff to shred.  Not all of this junk was to be carelessly thrown in the trash.  Some stuff was better suited for the shredder.  Like a piece of paper that had by bank account info on it.  Yeah, that gets shredded and burned.  Also, these papers that came with my prescriptions.  Do you get these too?  Especially if the stuff you're picking up comes in a tube?  You go to a pharmacy to pick something up, and they give you a few huge stapled pieces of paper with information you don't need, and in my case, my last name spelled wrong across the top in big printed letters.  Then on top of that, there's a set of instructions in the box itself.  Who needs this?  I certainly don't.
• A clear plastic bag that went to...maybe that guitar stand I bought a few months ago?  Maybe something else?  Well, enough guessing.
• Hate note from my wife.  I don't need guilt-trips in verbal form, let alone in written form.
• Tag from wife's yellow gold chain.  "14k", and a big price tag of which I only had to pay a fraction (Thank you, JC Penny!).  I probably should have photographed these last two items together, for comedic value.
• 2011 Concert Venue Schedule.  Yes, it has the band we saw listed in there.  But I really don't need this as a souvenir.
• Free brownies coupon.  We could not find this brand in ANY of the stores.  And the coupon expired last November.  I tried.
• Ozzy article.  My father cuts things like this out of the paper and snail-mails them to me on occasion.  I appreciate the thought, and I do read the article.  But 6 months later, I think I can say in most cases that it's safe to throw these away.
• More paper items.  Including a slip of paper with a BluRay player model on it (and I subsequently bought), a list of karaoke song numbers and a note on the back where an old karaoke cohort of mine is now hosting (which I don't think I'll ever get to), plus 3 envelopes (which initially freaked my wife out, because she thought I was throwing out a card.  Nope, just the envelope, honey.)
• 2 Hotel Key Cards.  Most hotels these days have long since ditched metal keys in favor of programmable, cheap plastic card keys.  Some of these we end up keeping as souvenirs.  But chances are that if it was a really good trip, you already have a ton of other souvenirs anyway that are better.  Time to ditch these.
• And finally, some clothing tags.  You know, you buy a shirt or a pair of pants, and see these things attached to them.  Some of them are even facy, like they're made of cork or something.  But if you've already been wearing something to the point that you know you're not going to return it, then these are junk.