I’d be the last person to ask about hoarding, so I may as well be the first to comment.

We’re terrible at throwing things away. We look with affection at pretty much everything we’ve been given, so our house is stacked with old notebooks, mugs, cards, pictures, etc, all with sentimental value. I mean, we don’t live in a hovel, but we sure have a lot of stuff.

Occasionally we have a clear-out, but I often think I’d prefer to do it blindfolded. Just scoop it into a black bag, dump it, and run. As soon as we stand around gazing at things, ain’t nuthin’ gonna get thrown away!

hi derek. it’s your friend jwang. im sorry, i take back what i said about you having an uninteresting blog. i like it. what was the gift given by an old flame?? haha i’m curious.

@Rory
Oh I know plenty of people who like to save stuff just like that. Actually I think that it’s a bit of a natural tendency for a lot of people and we have to forcibly fight the urge to keep things. When I get into one of “those moods” of wanting to throw away anything unimportant, I jump on the chance and make use of it by cleaning as much as I can for I surely know that it will soon be over.

I agree with the idea of being blindfolded and cleaning up. Consequently I actually think it’d be a great idea if one had a friend that had an equally dirty mess at their place to trade. What I mean is, one would clean the friend’s place and the friend would clean one’s place. Both would already know things of obvious value (jewelry, technology stuff, etc) but would have no idea about the things which are only sentimentally valuable. Interesting idea, no?

How often do you have a clear out? Around here, it seems like they are few and far between!

@jwang
Hello there, jwang! That’s right, I had totally forgotten that you had stated that my blog was boring. Thanks a lot for that, by the way. Oh the other hand, I’m glad that you don’t find it as boring as before. Perhaps you got wiser since then.

In any case, it’s not important what I did or might have found while cleaning. It was a hypothetical question. But it was still a topic that I found interesting to ponder about for a blog post. Plus I don’t want to write anything that could come back to haunt me in the future!

I’d toss both items. If it’s something matchbook sized, well that’s okay. But if it’s anything that takes up storage space, better to write the memory down somewhere and toss the item that’s otherwise useless.

And if it’s a useful item with bad memories…surely you can eventually replace it. I can barely function with just the minimum of “stuff” around me. Now and then I wish I’d kept something or another, but normally tossing stuff always works fine for me. That way I can (sometimes) manage to find the stuff I really need.

@Jill
Well that is a very bold move indeed! But on the other hand, it does make some sense. I find that I, too, will hardly ever miss something that I have thrown away. And I hardly ever go access those borderline items that I will keep. However I still find some amusement and benefit in keeping some stuff that you seem like you’d probably throw away.

I guess it all depends on how much space you have to store. No matter how much space there is, we do tend to fill it right up!

I tend to toss stuff because I was raised in a very cluttered disorganized household. My mom has a high number on the hoarder-cluttered scale. Luckily, I don’t have the problem (I think it’s actually some type of cognitive problem). Anyway, I see too much “stuff” and I get the urge to purge.

I now keep some stuff - I used to toss out postcards from friends (keeping them for a little while) and then I realized, hey, these are actually kind of cool memories…

I think my home is starting to look more lived in because I’ve allowed more stuff to accumulate. I think it used to look a tad TOO clear before. I still want to toss things out, though!

I tend to throw out the junk of “grand old times” (like oh, bright green stuffed animals won at an amusement park) and save small things like ticket stubs or matchbooks from say a romantic dinner. It all depends. I have thrown out some old love notes I’ve received.

If a particular object brings back a very strong memory it depends if I want to re-experience the memory again.

Nowadays I’m so glad that I have a digital camera and scanner. I’ve been able to scan stuff in and then toss out the actual object. I haven’t done this with old stuff but new items I have.

I sometimes use the image of people who have lost everything (like in a hurricane or fire) and how little most of that stuff means to get me to throw out items. This was an interesting post for me - I am not much into stuff but some of it can be quite meaningful.

@Ms. Q
I definitely think that even though we are in general hoarding too much stuff, there is obviously a happy compromise between saving important things and giving up unnecessary things. It helps a lot when the stuff that is important is small and takes up very little space!

I, too, am very glad for the advancement of digital pictures and data. It saves all sorts of room to be able to save countless pictures as sets of bits on a hard drive rather than the negatives and prints of long ago. And similarly it’s nice to be able to have music in digital form rather than having to lug around some type of physical copy. (Although on this point, I actually like to buy CDs and have them around just in case something happens.)

Do you ever enjoy just going through old stuff and remembering how you felt? I’d imagine so based on your desire to “re-experience” memories. I think that’s the best use of the “stuff” that ends up being kept.

I seldom go through old stuff just to re-experience something. I usually end up reliving something by accident - that is, I am looking for something and come across an artifact - postcard, matchbox or even hearing a song on the radio.

Most of my memories are in the form of photos and emails. When I travel I don’t buy souvenirs. OK, I collect shot glasses when I’m on the road as they are small!

I seldom choose to save things and the 2 times I moved, I pared down further. Photos bring back the memories. Right now my favorite memory-producing items are the stones I collected on the beaches of South Africa. I got some hand-sized ones and when I see them …they bring me right to that moment. I remember picking them out and knowing, at that moment that in the future I would recall all the details.

I have a couple of songs that take me back (Grover Washington’s “Winelight” for one) and what memories those are.

A big part of who I’d like to be is one who travels lightly, that is, without attachments to stuff. Which isn’t to say I don’t enjoy all the things I have, it’s just that I don’t want them to be all that important. That’s why I decided to go on vacation to Cape Town and spend time with my friends there instead of buying furniture. I wanted to see my friends and have those memories to cherish. Of course I took lots of photos!

As a side note, I recently purchased the Journaling software recommended in Steve Pavlina’s blog. I never kept a journal and thought buying journaling software a bit odd - what was wrong with using MS Word or plain old Notepad? But then I read about this particular software’s features and it’s uses as a tool for self-discovery and personal development and decided to purchase it.

It’ll be interesting to read my entries several years from now! I hope to keep journaling…I’ll be able to re-experience my memories more accurately than just looking at a ticket stub!

@Ms. Q
I think that I often will look at stuff simply because I am doing something else (cleaning, searching, etc). However, there are times that I look through stuff and do it for its own sake. I have pictures up that I look at. I have mementos around that I see.

Likely as a result of living with people who are somewhat of pack rats, I’m pretty determined not to have that happen to me in the future.

When you mentioned going to Cape Town simply to hang out with friends, I was reminded of the fact that I enjoy not being the one in groups who takes pictures. I purposely enjoy being able to really live in the moment of whatever is going on. Well that’s what I try to do, and it has seemed to work well thus far. Thank goodness for digital cameras so I can get copies, though!

I took a look at that journaling software that you mentioned. It looks interesting for someone very intent on journaling. Sometimes it’s worth it to have tools that will help you accomplish your task more easily. Surprisingly I’ve never been much of a journal writer myself. That was actually one reason why I wanted to start (and host) my own blog. I wanted to be able to write private entries that I could keep and that I could know where they were being stored. However, that hasn’t quite worked out as I originally intended. Maybe I will do that sometime. It might be kind of nice to just have a “journal” category that won’t be made public. I’ll have to think about that the next time something comes up that I want to journal about.

My mom took thousands, probably tens of thousands of photos of me as a child and it actually has taken a big effort on my part to take photos! I’d rather enjoy the moment, too.

But having a digital camera and being able to point-and-shoot has really made things easier for me and usually I am glad that I made the effort to take photos.

Not everyone is into photos and there is much to be said about “living in the moment.”

I was telling some friends of mine about the journaling software and one said, “Yeah, but you have to be interested in journaling in the first place - otherwise you’d just stop writing.” He’s right!

What I have been trying to get used to is the idea that the journal is truly private - I am so used to thinking (when I used word processing software) that someone may end up reading my entries that I’ve censored myself a bit. Sure you can have password protection on your computer but once some is in, well, they can still read your files, right?

The journaling software has some security on it so I’m slowly getting used to the idea that I can write my most private thoughts.

@Ms. Q
Yeah I definitely am glad to have the photos that I have. It makes remembering moments, events, people, and experiences so much easier.

I must admit that your friend speaks truth when he says that no matter how good something might be, one won’t ever do it unless one really wants to do it. That is fairly obvious, but I actually think some people don’t really understand that they can’t be forced or force others to do something.

Well truth be told, I’m pretty sure that nothing is truly guaranteed to be safe (but the same goes for pretty much everything). Still, that’s nice that the journaling software has some features in it to make it more private. Have you started using the journaling software? If so, how is it?

I started using it right away! It can tag elements so in a given day I can highlight text and assign it a topic (e.g. Feelings: Hurt or Dreams or Family) and then search all entries for that topic.

So let’s say years from now you’re dealing with feelings of hurt and you wonder how you’ve overcome pain in the past and your search for all entries regarding the “Feelings: Hurt” topic.

You can create templates and insert images and such. I’ve started tracking my exercise routine and weight (I generally note it in a small calendar).

I’ve also started adding my dreams. I wish I had more time to really write in it but it’s gotten a bit terse since I’ve been busy trying to think of things to write in my blog after The Universe told me I should write 5 posts this week that are uplifting and encourage people to make a positive change in their lives. Gee. Thanks.

I had begun writing less so I could concentrate on another project but this “project” is pretty interesting and of course, making ME think.

@Ms. Q
It sounds very easy to use! That’s good I suppose since the purpose is to write down real entries and not fiddle around with the software itself.

Oh dreams sound like an interesting thing to write about! I tend to forget quite a good deal of the dreams that I have. I would think that I’d have some amazing entries if I were able to transcribe my dreams into written form.

I’ve definitely noticed your entries! They’re pretty positive (not that you usually post negative entries or anything). Is this other project that you’re talking about totally unrelated to the Internet in any way?

Well, regarding my project and it relating to the Internet, Phase I does not involve the Internet. It’s not technical if that is what you’re asking. I hope to add an Internet component later. It’s still rattling around.

@Ms. Q
I like that there are phases. That always sounds impressive. Well once you have completed it, I for one would like to hear about what it is!

I am recently working on a program (that I had left gathering dust in terms of active development). I think that perhaps I should write a blog post about it because it’s just stuck in the static pages, and I’m not so certain that many people look at those. I’m talking about the budgeting program that I have, by the way. In any case, I’m trying to get it into a state that I wouldn’t mind distributing it. I definitely will blog that once I get there!