Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms thrift, saving or hoarding?

You decide.

As a child my father ingrained a saving habit in me. Anything I wanted I had to save my reasonably generous pocket money for, but when I had saved enough and was about to buy that bike, my father would buy it for me and my saved up dosh would go into my savings account, never to re-appear.

For much of my life this has been a helpful habit though even now at 72 and in retirement I still save from my income. But there are aspects that SWMBO describes as hoarding. Today I unwisely decided to have a clear out of some of my clothes cupboards. In particular the one with my "stash" of new clothes in it. Note that these are brand new clothes still in their wrappers and is in addition to the clothes in regular use of which, like people on her, I am far from short .

I found 28 brand new pairs of socks. 6 brand new packetted shirts, 10 winter vests, 8 pairs of jeans - I wont go on. You get the drift. God forbit that I ever try to clear out the garage.

I once had a neighbour who lived in a large barn conversion with a 10ft x 8 ft larder. It was fitted out with and in it his wife had a stock that could rival the average small shop. It was referred to as her Tesco.

Do you hoard things? Indeed is it hoarding or natural prudence.

No Howard, I don't have enough of anything to make 'hoardable'.

I don't think I've owned 28 pairs of socks in my life!

I daren't ask how many shoes you have..

There is a significant contrast in our house.

I do not hoard, for example, once I gave up work I passed on all the vast majority of my work clothes to a charity shop. When I need a new pair of jeans, I throw out the pair they are replacing.

However, the lovely Lady Budster (Susie)is somewhat different. Having spent most of her life working in the high end fashion industry, I think she kept most of the clothes!

It appears TLLB carries most of it in her rather heavy suitcase..

Hoarding gets much worse as you get older. Funnily enough, we've just spent two days at my Mothers trying to resolve this very thing.
First day was the kitchen. Half the food was time expired. Some of it three years over the best before date. She had three fabric conditioner bottles opened. When we tipped it all into one she complained that she couldn't find the other two. I threw out four bin liners of rubbish, but always made sure that when she came in there was a half full bin liner on the floor, so she thinks we only filled one.
Yesterday it was the rubbish room, formerly my bedroom of forty years ago. You name it, she's saved it. And far too many clothes. And a hundred plastic bags.........

However, I do have a few pairs of new socks. I wear my socks until they go into holes and sometime they get darned. I also admit to having three new best shirts, and three new polo shirts and a new sweatshirt. And a new waterproof which I've only used once. But that's about it.

The garage is overstocked but that's simply because I hate running out of anything mid-job, so I try to keep enough stuff in hand never to run out, no matter what the job.

I can relate to that. My in laws lived in Tenerife for maybe 20 years. We went over there before Xmas to start the clear out of the house. My M-I-L had kept every Xmas card, birthday card and anniversary card she had received from all her contacts for every one of those 20 odd years. They were stashed in bundles in every drawer we came across. More than 60 bundles of them, and since she sent a card to every person she knew, they were big bundles.

No hoarding for me !!!...having had the "big house",2 kids and a wife and all the stuff you aquire when I moved into a wooden lodge in a forest on my own I was able to pare down life's essentials !!!

I don't have a garage to fill with c..p (the Morgan and other vehicles live outside and get used)
I hate waste and mostly live in Rohan clothes which never wear out( I still have Rohan stuff I bought in 1977 !!!)

Anything I don't wear in a year goes on Ebay.

I think I have it about right for my needs !!

I have to throw out when I get new stuff, then wish I hadn't... I am talking clothes here not the missus..

No hoarding allowed in this house - nothing lasts for long before gets fed up with it and throws it out. I'm surprised I've lasted this long without suffering the same fate!!

I grew up in a time when "things" were expensive and or difficult to source. So the natural tendency was to hoard, just in case.

I also have a tendency to keep things associated with good experiences and memories.

The result is I have far, far too much stuff.
I am now trying to declutter the parts of the house that contain my junk. This is harder than it seems.

The next BIG task is to get rid of a lot of wood in the garage, some inherited when Dad died in 2000. I will need a skip....

So, my advice is be tough with yourself. Don't keep stuff without good reason. Ask yourself two questions:
"will I ever need it" and
"can I easily buy it".

If you are uncertain about needing it and can easily replace it, then dump it.