What I hate about having too much stuff is the boxes that were packed 20 years ago and have never been opened since. And most of it is lame stuff that should have been opened the day we moved in.
"Where's the dish strainer?"
"Uh, I know which box it's in, but I don't know where the box is."
"Well, let's buy a new one because we can't wait until we find the box."
Buying a self-storage unit just for the unopened boxes would be a great idea. Pay one month's rent and then never return again. Sure, your stuff winds up on a TV show, but as long as no one in the family watches that particular episode, they still think all that stuff they never use or even look at is still safe and sound, waiting for the end times to come, at which time I'm sure opening that box one last time would be their number one priority.
Or, do what I did after my divorce. Actually open those boxes and give the kids one last chance to claim the beloved stuff animals they haven't seen in years before I donate it. The daughter did want her Barbie collection and the boys did want their hot wheel collection, but we sure did donate a lot of stuffed animals (in really good condition, too).
I really caught hell for donating the He-man characters. Apparently those are collectible, too, but by who?!
Boxes of baby clothes and a pregnant daughter and she took less than a dozen articles. But did hang onto the box so some of her friends could look through it, which got rid of another half dozen articles. I would have thought the baby clothes would have been a little more popular. Almost all of them got dropped off at the thrift store.
Plus, there were a lot of boxes that were nothing but old school papers and those went to the recycling center. Keeping a sample of your kid's first kindergarten assignment is one thing, but was there really a need to fill up entire boxes with old school papers? It's not like they're as important as old computer magazines for my Commodore 64, which I did keep, by the way (maybe next time, since if you don't have at least a little worthless junk on hand, major cleaning projects just wouldn't give you the same feel of accomplishment).
And, I did get a cool set of drinking glasses for the kitchen! My oldest daughter had bought these when she was dreaming of moving out of the house, but forgot to actually take them with her when she finally did get her first apartment. Tough break, kid! That's part of the storage fees around here!
And, then, the ex's diary of her teenage years, including the period where her dad died. Her dad was diagnosed with cancer right after she got the diary and the last entry was the day her dad died. I guess there wasn't anything else to write about after that. That did have to get mailed to her. That's not something I could just throw away.
And, yes, since I kept the Commodore 64 magazines, I also had to keep the Commodore 64 computer, as well.
Out of enough stuff to fill a garage sized storage unit, what was kept didn't even fill the cubby hole under the stairs. But, I actually get to park my Jeep in the garage now!
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