Some things are lost, some amassed

[Miss Chicken]

After getting my new furniture and having to empty the old before getting rid of it, I decided to go full hog and spring clean the rest of the house.

I have only lived in my current house for 3 1/2 years but it is amazing how much crap I have managed to amass in that time.

Altogether I found 54 pens in various cupboards, drawers, some under the beds etc.

I have far more coat hangers than I could possibly use yet I don't remember buying them.

But I have only found two of the lost socks. In the lost sock box I have about 15 lone socks which I can't bring myself to throw out because I tell myself the other sock might turn up.

On the very highest hallway cupboard, I found a box of cords and cables all tangled up. My son dosn't want me to throw them out in case we need them some day. So I put them into ziplock bags so they won't tangle even though I would rather discard them.

I also found out that I have 4 vegetable peelers.

So what do you tend to amass in your own household without realising it? What do you tend to lose?

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I once saved a sock for at least 5 years because it was a really nice sock and I wanted to find its mate. Then I did a huge cull and threw the sock out. The day after it was taken away by the rubbish truck I found its other half.

Unfortunately my house looks like I took that lesson to heart.. though in reality I am just lazy. I don't hoard so much as not bother to get rid of. If I actually start a purge I have no trouble throwing stuff out.

 

[Miss Chicken]

As I was putting the cords and cables into ziplock bags I started running low on bags. I thought I had some more somewhere. I looked in all the logical places but couldn't find them. My son offered to go down to the shop to buy some more. I said "As soon as I buy some more I will undoubtingly find the missing ones". I handed my son the money and off he went.

I found them about 10 minutes later in the cupboard under the laundry sink. I am certain that I didn't put them there as I actually have difficulty reaching that cupboard. There was also a bottle of shampoo in the cupboard. I assumed that one of my son put them there when they were "tidying up" (my sons don't really tidying up they just rearrange mess).

 

[Surfin' Santa]

I was just looking in my dresser drawers. I found an obsolete phone answering machine, several bungee straps, a chain lock for a bicycle I got rid of years ago, remote controls for a TV and a VCR I don’t have anymore either, and a fire extinguisher that’s about ten years past its expiration date. I also tend to amass prescription pill bottles. I mean, they’ve got to be useful for something, right?

I have far more coat hangers than I could possibly use yet I don't remember buying them.

THEY BREED!

Seriously, does anybody actually buy coat hangers?

 

[Miss Chicken]

The only hangers I remember buying are some of those ones with clips that you use to hang trousers or skirts. I don't recall buying any regular coathangers but maybe it is such a mundane purchase that you forget about it as soon as you get them home.

 

[ed629]

I managed to amass 5 cars, 9 laptops, 4 desktops, 3 chihuahuas, 2 sets of couches and love seats, 7 t.v.'s all without meaning to... and doubles, triples or even quadruples of various kitchen items, or hand tools, and power tools because I forgot I already had them and bought another, and another and another.

 

[ares93]

I seem to have a weakness for certain objects. More precisely; cars (7. None are road worthy), mobile phones(~25. I threw out about a dozen recently.), laptops (13), game consoles (7 X360's, 3 PS3's).

EDIT: it might be worth to mention that i just bought another mobile a few hours ago. Ipaq business navigator 614

 

[auntiehill]

I never seem to have enough hangers. I buy some every year and they just seem to vanish in the house, or get taken on one of the many trips I make to my parents' house--and somehow never make the trip back.

Binders and folders---I don't know why I have so many. I'm not a student anymore. I kept some after finishing college, and then my mom gave me some of hers when she moved. Hubby had some from his misspent youth, and I bought some when I got back into amateur writing. Now I have dozens of folders in the spare room (the junk room) and I can't bring myself to throw them out.

I don't usually have a problem with throwing things out; I try to make a couple of trips to Goodwill every year because I don't like clutter. Hubby, however, has some pack-rat tendencies. We have a very small house and I feel like I'm in a constant battle against the potential of clutter piling up.

 

[Miss Chicken]

One thing that constantly go missing in my house are tools, especially hammers and screwdrivers. As my son does most of the handyman work around the house i can blame him for this, it seems that he just can't fathom the meaning of " toolbox".

Another thing that often go missing are scissors.

 

[ares93]

One thing that constantly go missing in my house are tools, especially hammers and screwdrivers. As my son does most of the handyman work around the house i can blame him for this, it seems that he just can't fathom the meaning of " toolbox".

Another thing that often go missing are scissors.

For me its the opposite, its my father that can't keep track of a single screw driver. I had this huge screwdriver set, cost me around 100€. I still find them in the oddest places. Found one in the medicine cabinet the other day.

 

[ed629]

I seem to have a weakness for certain objects. More precisely; cars (7. None are road worthy), mobile phones(~25. I threw out about a dozen recently.), laptops (13), game consoles (7 X360's, 3 PS3's).

EDIT: it might be worth to mention that i just bought another mobile a few hours ago. Ipaq business navigator 614

Forgot about those, I've got pretty much every game console that came out since the original Nintendo.

 

[ares93]

Forgot about those, I've got pretty much every game console that came out since the original Nintendo.

Bloody hell, mate. I repair and sell them. What's your excuse?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I seem to have a weakness for certain objects. More precisely; cars (7. None are road worthy), mobile phones(~25. I threw out about a dozen recently.), laptops (13), game consoles (7 X360's, 3 PS3's).

EDIT: it might be worth to mention that i just bought another mobile a few hours ago. Ipaq business navigator 614

How do you have so many cellphones and not realize it? Don't the bills tend to pile up?

Me, I'm just the opposite of a packrat. I throw things out at the slightest provocation. I get rid of everything I don't use a lot of.

 

[ares93]

How do you have so many cellphones and not realize it? Don't the bills tend to pile up?

Most of them aren't used. I have maybe a dozen in daily service. Most run VNC and are used as remote controls for my smart home system via wifi. And those run on prepaid sims. I only have two contracts. One for my iphone and one for the mobile broadband in my laptop.

 

[ed629]

Forgot about those, I've got pretty much every game console that came out since the original Nintendo.

Bloody hell, mate. I repair and sell them. What's your excuse?

Ummm... wanted the system, got it, played a few games on it then moved on to the next one.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I still have an Atari 2600 system and several games for it. The console doesn't work very well but I am sentimentaly attached to the old Atari. I remember so many good times I had with it.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ That is where the Stella emulator really comes in handy.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

I'm a pack rat, my mother isn't, which can cause minor conflicts.

The more serious issue we face is neighbours borrowing things and never returning them. Neighbours and friends are always asking my mother for things, to the extent that they treat it like a convenience store where you don't have to pay. The other day the child of the worst offender came 'round having been told to ask for four recycling bags. Not "can we have some recycling bags?" but "can we have exactly four please, thank you". At least these bags are freely delivered; usually it's things like milk, teabags, scissors, screwdrivers, toilet paper, the phone. And all too often things like scissors, screwdrivers, even a lawnmower, never come back because the person forgets. Or "forgets", though I actually suspect the former. My mother is always complaining that she can't find something she wants, which she knows she has, and it's usually because someone else has it.

 

[ares93]

I still have an Atari 2600 system and several games for it. The console doesn't work very well but I am sentimentaly attached to the old Atari. I remember so many good times I had with it.

Atari... God, i loved those things.

Also heres a bit of nostalgia. My 520stfm running star wars esb.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hv3uVBTMBk&sns=em[/yt]

 

[Spot's Meow]

For the past decade I've moved into a new apartment every couple of years, so I actually haven't amassed much stuff. I am also incredibly tidy and love to organize things, so I have a place for everything and know just where it is. I'm also a cheapskate, so I don't make a lot of new purchases.

All of this combined means that I very rarely lose anything or don't know where to find something I'm looking for. Name any item I own, and I could probably tell you exactly where it's located! I guess it helps that I have a sort of photographic memory, and can literally see in my mind the object among its surroundings.