packrat | Tuesdays with Laurie

Len and I sold our commercial property in December because we’re relocating. We thought we knew where, but it’s still somewhat of a moving target — we’ll let you know when we figure that piece out.

We intended to put our home on the market April 1, but due to unforeseen circumstances (including four weeks in a non-weight-bearing cast), we’re currently making up for lost time getting our home ready to put on the market.

One of the items on our to-do list was to empty the attic space over the garage. In twenty years of living at the same address, things accumulate — big time! When Len got up there to clear it out, he discovered that:

Literally, we don’t have any bats in our belfry — or attic, as the case may be.
Figuratively we just might be crazy — or at the very least, eccentric!

We created three sections in the garage to sort items: donate, throw, keep.

As a minimalist [who’s married to a maximalist], I don’t want to be possessed by possessions, so for something to make it into the keep section took quite a bit of negotiation on Len’s part because I want the next chapter of our lives to be footloose and fancy-free.

Are you more of a keeper or a thrower?

Our home is located in what had been a grove of oak trees in days gone by. Most of the homes in our neighborhood have at least one huge tree in the front or back yard. Every fall we can count on being entertained by the antics of squirrels as they lay in stores for the winter. What they squirrel away is absolutely necessary for their survival.

Human beings are different. The National Association of Professional Organizers says that as a society we’ve acquired so much “stuff” over the last three decades that the self-storage industry is the fastest growing new industry in the United States.

According to the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders Program at the University of California, San Diego, the overwhelming desire to acquire, save, and compulsively collect—hoard—can be attributed to a “unique pattern of brain function abnormalities.”

Research shows the inability to discard doesn’t play favorites; it can equally affect both men and women.

Are you more of a minimalist or a maximalist?

Tuesdays with Laurie

"Whatever you are not changing, you are choosing." —Laurie Buchanan

Tag Archives: packrat

Nary a Bat in My Belfry

Of Mice, Men, Packrats and Squirrels