Pageviews past month

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

How to avoid becoming a horder

One of the hazards in seeing so much potential in everything is that everything then has value. And when something has real financial potential value we tend to grab on to it.
So how do you avoid seizing every stick, old t-shirt, empty bottle, or old bone and sticking it in a corner while mumbling "my precious, my precious"?

I try to avoid picking up things because it ought to be good for something. I avoid picking things up because I am "saving them from the landfill". I try to avoid picking up things that have a nebulous future potential.

*I have a specific purpose for the item. I will use (blank) for (this use) within the next (number) of months. Never the less I do bite off more than I can chew and I have to reassess now and then.
*I rehome things that others are more likely to use. If that means that I end up taking something apart so it has more potential use for them I will. If it means I cluster things into batches that go together so someone else can use them I will do that too. And for somethings, like that batch of t-shirts I picked up that were too small to wear and I never got around to turning into scarves there is always the thrift shops.
Even then I end up with stacks I have to make painful choices about. For example I have been collecting lamp and lighting parts with the idea that I would turn them into table top or floor displays for a wide variety of items at sales and shows. But really when it comes down to it. I never have time to assemble them and I go back to my perfectly adequate standby displays.

*Remember that when you choose to pick up items to transform you maybe taking time away from another project you had planned. Does this new project have a better chance of being completed? Does this project have a higher monetary potential?

All that said, there are some things that either do not take up a lot of room or have many different potential uses. Wood is one of those things for me since we are in house construction mode. Trim pieces and moldings as well as the stray 2x4 are instant pick ups. They may not end up used in the house but then again they will be used.

*Stay organized. Keep like things together where they can be easily accessed when you are ready to use them or group all the items for a project into a "kit". So when you are ready to get it you do not end up searching high and low for a critical part.

*Keep it fun. If any project or potential project has become a chore or a burden it is time to free yourself. Donate the parts to others who can use them.

1 comment:

akartisan said...

I tell people I'm a "forgetter" rather than a hoarder. I get something then it gets buried and I forget where I put it, so I get annother one. Then when I finally clean up or organize, I find that I have 3 or 4 of them. Trying to get better at this.
Sue Cole