Can you have too much stuff? **NSFW**

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http://www.randomthink.net/misc/ebay/

Amusing and depressing at the same time.
I know there are some collectors here....

uh...can you say WTF?

I''m assuming she has some sort of disorder?

Right at the beginning it''s amusing, but after the third or fourth picture it''s getting scary. That woman is in serious need of help.

My bathroom. The exercise bike showed up while I was gone one summer, then the vacuum a little later. The bike is useful as a clothes rack. Time for a bathroom story. One time I ran out of toothpaste or floss or something, so I opened the medicine cabinet looking for more. Instead, I found the bathroom cabinet full of my old prescription bottles. I then realized I''d never thrown a prescription bottle away, I''d get new ones, and the old ones had just disappeared. I''d never thought about it. I confronted my mom, and she told me she was keeping hers too, and was saving them to cut the labels off so the prisoners wouldn''t know what medications we were on. I told her that was crazy, and that I was going to throw mine away. A few days later I went to do that, only to find they were all gone. Mom took them all, and hid them in a box somewhere so I couldn''t throw them away. They were out of my way, so I didn''t pursue it any further. I make sure to throw my old bottles away now though.

I remember seeing that a while back. In fact, I was wondering if it was still out there, and if so, where. Thanks, croaker.

Knowing many people who either live as poor, rural Mississippians or grew up as such, I can say that I''ve been in many households (not to mention the occasional college dorm room) that were this cluttered with stuff. People who live surrounded by insane amounts of clutter are not terribly uncommon... at least not in the poor, rural areas of Mississippi.

What''s remarkable about this woman is that not only is her home insanely cluttered; everything is also surprisingly neat and orderly at the same time. Most of the boxes and books are in stacks, most of the knick-knacks are carefully arranged, the shelves of objects are fairly neat, etc. Also, nothing in the house appears to be out-and-out garbage, which is fairly atypical in my experience.

Very strange.

Sweet merciful crap.

I''ve seen this sort of thing before - in fact, I had to check again to make sure this wasn''t my aunt''s house. What really strikes me is that, unlike my relative, this woman got most of her stuff off eBay. How...peculiar.

God, that''s depressing...

Heh, there must be a name for whatever mental disorder leads to that.

Off topic, I just made a post where I said I was ""depressed yet amused"". I promise I wasn''t plagiarizing you.

Also, nothing in the house appears to be out-and-out garbage

I think that''s because it''s all still in boxes. I''d be willing to place a wager that quite a bit of the box contents would count as ""out-and-out garbage"".

I feel bad for that woman; there''s obviously something not quite right there...

That is messed up. I''m not sure what else to say.... she needs to get some help. Have a family intervention or something.

""Clean Sweep"" could do a year''s worth of shows from that house. Wow.

I really don''t understand people who have things they refuse to get rid of because they''re ""valuable"" (in this case, the old telephone pole cover things). If they''re so valuable, why don''t you sell them? And if they''re not valuable, are ugly, and have no personal memories for you, why not just toss them?

He should have his mother put into a mental insitution and clear the house out.

Seriously, they could re-sell all that crap on eBay and buy a new house.

Seriously, they could re-sell all that crap on eBay and buy a new house.

Or a storage shed... maybe they could live in that

It''s a disorder (OCD hoarding i think). They place value on stuff that''s not valuable. They keep books, magazines, junk mail, newspapers, etc... around thinking they''ll read them someday. Pretty crazy stuff.

For the horde!

Oh wrong thing.

The clutter didn''t disturb me so much as the continual acquisition of new crap via eBay. It''s one thing to never get rid of anything, it''s quite another to actively seek out more crap to add to the flood.

Not to mention that it has to be a major financial strain. I don''t think she''s rolling in the money, and all of those endless little purchases, and the shipping costs associated with them and such, really add up fast.

I fight a battle (on an infinitely smaller scale) with the hoarding of old computer hardware. I''m often able to solve problems with old hardware, sometimes in unconventional ways. Example: one night, I needed a longer phone cable than I had. It was past closing time for places that would have long cables to purchase. Remembering that (a) external dial-up modems have a ""phone"" and a ""line"" jack (which essentially extends the latter to the former) and that (b) the modem does not require its power source for this, I grabbed an old USR 28.8 modem out of my stash, plugged my longest cable from the wall to the ""Line"", plugged my next longest cable from the ""Phone"" to the device that required the line. I slipped the modem monstrosity behind a couch that happened to be in the ideal location, and I ended up just leaving it like that (since the modem was completely out of sight, it wasn''t an eyesore).

But I don''t just pile sh*t into boxes all over my apartment.

Ths strikes me as the kind of house you''d find a serial killer living in.

You''re right, Prederick. I think you just discovered the truth about what''s really inside all those boxes...

This was originally a thread on SA, and yes it''s f*cking crazy.

Very entertaining though, the original thread was even more so but it''s in the SA archives now and it''s not public or I''d link it.

IF that were my Mom, I would start selling her glass stuff on Ebay on the side. She has so much crap she wouldn''t miss a few of the pieces. I''m also aware that she might also become my best customer. lol.

I saw this a couple of weeks ago, and it''s what motivated my ""Too much stuff! I have TOO.MUCH.STUFF!"" organizing binge. I''m a pack rat. I realize it, I do my best to control it, and recently, I just started getting rid of stuff. Lots of stuff. Seeing this house scared the bejebuz out of me, because I had this horrible vision of my being trapped in a maze of my stuff...*shudder*.

In just the first round, I collected enough stuff that it took the local battered women''s shelter a semi, 2 guys with dollies and more than 30 minutes to move it all out of my house. And I''m so not done. That was just the clothes from the Reagan/Bush/Clinton years. (Well, to be fair, there were shoes too...)

I cleared my kitchen cabinets, installed racks, sliding drawers and shelf liner...because I wanted it to look nice. I decided it was insane for me to keep 16 full place settings in the everyday cabinets...so once entire set of china...gone. Tupperware without lids...gone. Collection of bizarre novelty cups which have been washed so many times as to have become unrecognizable...gone. Glassware that isn''t as functional as it was pretty...gone. I got rid of probably half the stuff in my cabinets.

Although, I admit, I''ve sort of run out of steam...but still to go; garage, business office and soap center, and gods help me...my office. There''s probably 7 full computer systems up here, and motherboards and component boards that could build another 5 or 6.)

soap center?

Be careful not to throw out DuckiLama, he might be lost somewhere in all that stuff.

Sheesh, and I get annoyed with my wife when she puts a display of ten teapots up on some shelves. Guess I have it good.

In just the first round, I collected enough stuff that it took the local battered women''s shelter a semi, 2 guys with dollies and more than 30 minutes to move it all out of my house. And I''m so not done.

Ho-ly cow! That''s a lot of stuff.

I''m exactly the opposite and toss with abandon most of the time. We have some collections of stuff in the house...action figures, etc. and definitely need to clean out the closets, but it''s all confined to the home office and back bedrooms. I like wide open spaces and an uncluttered look so the main living areas of the house are kept stripped bare of crap.

"leapingfrog" wrote:

soap center?

D''oh, I wrote the paragraph below, then realized that I should probably qualify it by saying that I''m a soapmaker. I make organic, aromatherapy, all natural soap and other bath/body products.

Well, one has to have a place to store the soap, once the soap is made, and the giant molds for doing big batches, and the aromatherapy section where I work on scent recipes, and all the stuff for filling gift baskets, plus spray bottles for spritzers, jars for unguents, bathsalts, bath bombs, scrubbies, massage butters and the like. And packaging and shipping materials...which are bulky. Frankly, I had no idea how much inventory space I would need.

And now that I''m thinking about expanding from just doing custom and handmade organic/aromatherapy bath and body products into also doing gift baskets, I''ll need even more room in there. I''m beginning to think I should just wallpaper the place with pegboard. So, that room is my next big project.

Be careful not to throw out DuckiLama, he might be lost somewhere in all that stuff.

Sheesh, and I get annoyed with my wife when she puts a display of ten teapots up on some shelves. Guess I have it good.

Na, the Duck has a fortress of his *own* stuff to protect him from my stuff. And 10 teapots? Oh yeah, that''s not even slightly packratty. 60 teapots, 40 of them in boxes, never to be opened...that''s packratty.

Ho-ly cow! That''s a lot of stuff.

Indeedlily doodily. I feel better, the house looks better...and I just need to save the page of this house on my harddrive, and anytime I start slacking...load that bad boy up and motivate myself with terror.

"DuckiDeva" wrote:

... and anytime I start slacking...load that bad boy up and motivate myself with terror.

Or, apparently, when the ''lama feels the need to prod you, given his comment above.

bath bombs

Could you make a special GWJ edition soap wiener bomb for the tub? The kids would love it.

Apparently, yes.

"Edwin" wrote:

Could you make a special GWJ edition soap wiener bomb for the tub?

Do it. You know we''d all buy one.

People who live surrounded by insane amounts of clutter are not terribly uncommon... at least not in the poor, rural areas of Mississippi.

Sadly, this is quite true. Though I don''t think I''ve ever seen it quite this bad

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