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The confession of a Pack Rat

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Category: Ramblings | Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:02 pm

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I'm from a family of pack rats, and I've married into a family of pack rats. I've been unable to throw things out that I knew for certain I'll never use again, and nobody else will ever want to use it either. But what can I do? It's in my blood. Just look here:

My grandmothers collected jam jars, bottles (they were glass back then), old clothes, magazines, newspapers and probably a lot more. There was a reason for their collection. The jam jars were reused. I remember the lovely, sweet smell of jam making permeating the whole house. The big jars held boiled pears that would serve as dessert through winter. The bottles were used for collecting milk, or for limonade made from redcurrants, blackcurrants or bilberries. Thick and lovely, with lots of sugar, mixed with water before drinking. The old clothes were made into woven mats and rugs, nice and thick for floors that would otherwise be bare and cold. The newspapers went to the outdoor loo. The magazines were used to start fires with, after all the recipes were cut out. They weren't so glossy then and burned well.

My mother kept the tradition alive. She also hermetized pears, made jams and limonade and made new clothes out of old, unfashionable ones. She collected plastic containers of all kinds too, to freeze berries. After a time she came to realize that home made was more expensive than shop bought, and with long working hours she just didn't have time for domestic activities any more. She managed to throw the clothes away, realizing she didn't know how to weave, but she kept her stash of jars and bottles.

Then it was my turn. I ended up saving jars and bottles, and made jams because I liked it and I knew what was in them. And plastic containers of all kinds for berries, soups, stews and such. And old clothes that were torn, out of fashion, with a broken zip or just worn out. Newspapers, of course. And boy, have I worked hard to make myself get rid of this!

The glass jars are now recycled. I've kept the big, old ones that my husband inherited from his grandmothers by way of his mother (!). The plastic containers are also recycled. We only keep a couple now and then, because the girls like to use them for snow art and such. Then there's the clothes. I've cleared away the torn or worn out. Everything else has been sorted in bags and taken to the Salvation Army containers or one of the Church Aid dos. I actually manage not to keep things I know will never be used again. I'm proud of myself.

My grandparents and parents lived through at least one war. They knew how to make the most of what they had, and were prepared for any shortage that might arise. I'm fairly confident I won't have to think like that, but the heritage has made me careful about wasting. Now all I have to do, is make sure my girls won't start on the same collection madness that the last three generations have suffered, but give them enough sense to realize that wasting is bad for them.


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toni wrote on Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:34 pm:

I married a pack rat and gave birth to one.
My mother used to save all the plastic containers that sour cream and margarine came in, she used them for leftovers. Daddy always fussed about not being able to actually find the sour cream or margarine when he wanted it.

I used to save small boxes simply because they are so cute. Right now I am saving some really cool shaped wine bottles for making mead.
Our favorite wine comes in a box....no wine snobs us! I have been saving the mylar bags, cutting them open, washing them and using them as weed blockers under mulch in some areas of the garden.

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Sjoerd wrote on Wed Nov 28, 2007 12:04 am:

Did you really get rid of those jam jars? Oh what a shame. I am always looking for decent jam jars (preferably with wide mouths). I have bothered all my aquaintanences, collegues and family to save them for me...or at the minimum, the tops cos they wear-out sooner than glass.
Oh what a shame, Droopy...what a shame.
chuckle

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glendann wrote on Wed Nov 28, 2007 4:26 am:

I am a pack rat too.I was taught by the best and I married one from the same type of mom and grandmom.Its in the blood.I just might need that.How many times have you thought that?
I think my mother in law beat us all.Her husband died in 1945 and her mother was an invalid for 11 years her dad had T.B.and her sister had some brain damage at bith.It left her with to boys age 6 and 8 and everything else on her shoulders.When she passed away.going through drawers and closets and cabinets we found balls of twine roll in balls that came from the newspapers and then rubber bands. butter bowls,Tv dinner trays every box and wraping she got for Christmas.We had 30 X-large trash bags of things she might have needed.I thought my mother and I were bad but she had us beat.Grocery store coupons that had no expiration dates now that was tough on me to throw away.I bet those garbage
collectors wondered how such a small house held it all.She lived on so very little money I do understand it.

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Droopy wrote on Wed Nov 28, 2007 9:31 am:

I can see the Pack Rat family is a large and healthy one! :)

Twine and rubber bands, of course. I had forgotten about those. They were also saved. Most of the rubber bands disintegrated before anyone got round to using them!

Toni, I wonder if the mylar bags can be used for pot liners? I've got some nice pots... No, I'm not starting! My husband has a big collection of electric wire. I'm not sure why. Maybe I'll just ask him.

We sometimes save Christmas wrappings, but use them for decoupage projects.

Sjoerd, the cost of shipping alone will enable you to buy more jam than you need. *lol*

Is saving for a project Pack Rat mentality? I don't think so.

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Sjoerd wrote on Wed Nov 28, 2007 12:01 pm:

Ha ha ha... Droopy, you're a little smart-alec!
We pack-rat stuff as well, but do keep it down to minimum (which is too much as well, really). Over at the lottie, there is also stuff stuck-away for the "eventuality"...but of course, that's not really pack-ratting, as Droopy had established.
At a certain point, the excess seeding pots and empty soil bags have to be thrown away I suppose.
Oh well wher we do the spring cleaning there I can see what will need to go.
Sometimes I find mouse nests...occasionally with dessicated babies in them. I suppose the parents were picked-off by weasels or stoats...

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Droopy wrote on Wed Nov 28, 2007 4:13 pm:

Empty flower pots, whatever do you mean? *looking down and blushing* I've got a huge stash of those. I never get to give them to a gardening friend who really needs them this year, so she'll have double joy of them next spring.

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Anitra wrote on Wed Nov 28, 2007 9:51 pm:

I was a packrat most of my life. We moved often, which would pare down some of the hoard; but there would always be boxes of mixed "stuff" that were carried along unopened from house to house year after year, because I never had time to sort them but I was certain there was *something* in there I would need some day.

I was homeless for awhile. Having to carry everything you won with you at all times does encourage one to pare down. Now I live in a very small studio apartment, which also discourages massive collections. But I still refer to my closet as "the archaeological dig": there are many layers, going years back, of flyers and magazines that "I will want to read some day" and popsicle sticks and hat and old rags that "I could make something out of." Every six years or so I dig it all up and throw out most of it, wincing and crying all the way.

Fortunately, I live right beside a thrift store that I can give most old books, clothes, and any usable miscellany to.

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Droopy wrote on Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:22 pm:

Anitra, you just reminded me of a couple of cardboard boxes stacked away in our big cupboard. I have to take them out and sort them some day. They've changed home twice, and I've forgotten what's in them...

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Sjoerd wrote on Thu Nov 29, 2007 12:46 am:

Soooooooooooo..... you have a stash of empty flower pots too, do you??? heh heh heh. Well, I'm alarmed.
I can't give mine away because I will need them next year, don't you know.;-)
Why, I shall have loads of little plantlets to put in them.
One way that I cut down on pack-ratting is to have "collections". A collection isn't packratting, now is it?

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Droopy wrote on Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:20 pm:

No, of course not. A collection is something serious that one adds to after great consideration. Like stamps. Or not, all according to your own wish.

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Sjoerd wrote on Thu Nov 29, 2007 11:50 pm:

Do you save stanps, Droopy?

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Droopy wrote on Fri Nov 30, 2007 8:14 am:

Yes, I do. I've done so for ten years. It's rather dormant at the moment, but I'm still collecting. I'll get time to sort them later. Hah.

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Sjoerd wrote on Fri Nov 30, 2007 11:40 am:

I collect them as well. And m,ine is also dormant. It all started when I started making and maintaining my website. Plus it's difficult to get the stamps that I collect here in Holland, I must order from abroad and with exchange rates and so forth, it's a bit of a hassle, if you know what I mean. I still look at them tho and re-arrange them from time to time. I had an opportunity to buy some pages from a firm (Minkus) that was going to stop with making making stamp collection supplies. Changing them all over to that system was a monumental task, but I am a patient man and, as I said, I like doing piddly little things. (We call it "monnikenwerk"). hahaha

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Droopy wrote on Sat Dec 01, 2007 5:00 pm:

I only collect Norwegian stamps. It's hard to get a complete collection, and I'm always on the look-out for prettier stamps on the stamps, if you understand what I mean.

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Sjoerd wrote on Sat Dec 01, 2007 8:05 pm:

I think I understand...you mean a good and legible postmark cancellation, right?
I collect thstamps from the Islamic nations up until 1961. I did Holland for a while, but was soon aware that selling stamps for collectors was a business to the postal system...and that defeats what I like to do...I mean, printing stamps just for the sake of it is not what I am interested in.
That's why I like the older ones that were printed beforee collecting was a lucreative business.
There are some true jewels in those earlier stamps...and they re so educational.
I like the designs and subject matter.

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