Junk in my trunk
I have a problem. Before you start emailing me in effusive agreement or listing all my faults, that's not what I mean. My problem is that it is very difficult for me to throw things away. Now mind you, this is not a problem for some because they either have the home, garage, barn, or shed space to hoard vast quantities of stuff, have an extremely efficient way to organize and store stuff, or both.
I don't fit into those categories, so I place the blame squarely on my parents and in-laws. They had to ruin my life by living through the Great Depression and then reminding me of that awful time every wretched day. Then there's the fact that we didn't have much disposable income when I was growing up so we reused everything, from clothing to screws, nuts, and bolts. You had to fix everything until it couldn't be fixed anymore, and then find an innovative use for that unfixable thing. Of course, it was unthinkable to ever buy anything new when used would do, but even buying something used involved a great deal of price negotiation or searching the far-flung reaches of the planet to find the best sale price. Let's not even get into the bartering scene or, saints preserve us, product guarantees.
Parting is just plain sorrow
All of which is why I have a hard time parting with things like those two perfectly good boat anchors (I'll never own another boat, but you never know...), that large, oddly shaped plastic piece that I'm not quite sure about where it goes, those four billion empty coffee cans I'm saving to organize stuff that I'll never organize, the 48-quart cooler with the broken hinges and clasp and the interior scarred with multiple cracks, the bins and five-gallon buckets filled with odd assortments of this and that I no longer recognize as ever having a use, or uncountable pieces of wood and dimension lumber in all sizes and shapes. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
I've been told that people thus afflicted are unusually intelligent and see more connections between things, which leads them to value those things much more than others. However, I have also been told that this is a type of excessive-compulsive disorder, which is why I always do my best to ignore what people tell me.
It all comes down to the fact that once you throw something away, that something will not be there when you really need it, and then you have to go through the hassle of purchasing a new or used something to replace it. Let's face it - most of you reading this are in the same boat but don't have the guts to admit it. I know this is true because I see you all, swimming alongside me in that endless sea of clutter and junk.