So how do you break the habit and just let go?

Mike

Mike

Adventurist
Founding Member
In an attempt to get my life a little more organized, I have a problem/habit I just have never been able to shake off. I have been doing this since before my teen years and as much as I try, I can't stop myself. My friends.... I am a magazine hoarder. I buy/subscribe to magazines and I never get rid of them. I have boxes and boxes of magazines, well into the thousands. Some date back into the late 70's. At my height, I had 9 subscriptions going monthly and still averaged buying 2-3 per month of ones I didn't subscribe to. Currently I have 4 subscriptions, one I think doesn't run out until late 2017. I did a purge a number of years ago and recycled all of my R/C type mags. What I still have are all my old model railroad type mags from late '70's into mid '80's, until I was able to drive. Then my life has been around car/truck mags to this day. I have had a few specialty stuff thrown in, just to mix it up.

I know I need to let these go but I just can't bring myself to throw them into the recycle bin. I have thought about trying to sell them but finding someone who wants the hole lot, as I don't want to piece this out. I have seen/met people who do that and it takes years.

I know the first step is admitting you have a problem and I sure know I have a problem. It's that next step I have problems with. :dunno

Anyone else in a similar situation or has dealt with one and not so much the social type issues (drugs, alcohol, partying) but more of the hoarding type?
 
Hi, my name is Dave and I'm a hoarder.

I hoard all kinds of stuff. Camping gear, tents stoves and lights especially. Blades, I cant tell you how many I have from Bowie knives to Swiss Army to high speed military auto openers. A couple swords. Guns... actually pared down my battery to a few common calibers but now my ammo pile is easier to hoard since it's easier for me to rationalize new purchases since they work in different guns. Military gear... a career in Uncle Sams Gun and Canoe clubs has my garage looking like an episode of preppers... add all the outdoor gear and it's almost too much to justify. T-shirts... I have been to a few concerts in my day and have them going back to the 80's - I'll never wear them but can't seem to let go of them although I did ditch a large amount of assorted things recently. CD's - I have a huge collection (some rare) and now they are all but obsolete IMO. Magazines, I went through that and last year IIRC I sold off all my OJ's and got rid of stacks of Off Road and Peterson's and other stuff that I'd had forever. I look back at how much money was wasted on some of these baubles over the years and want to haze myself. One day I'll blow a fuse and just drag it all out to the curb with a free sign on it...
;)

All kinds of "stuff" in my house I don't "need", but most of it I "want" :lol
 
I am a hoarder and I am not a quitter.

I have so many fishing rods and tackle I can open up a store. Well over 30 rods and reels. Mom always says do you have enough fishing gear. My reply is... is there a limit? My greatest fear in life is when I die my wife will sell my fishing gear for what I told her I paid for it.
 
I am not a hoarder, but I bet BlkWgn_wyfee would tell you otherwise. :rolleyes:
 
I work in military surplus and have more crap than uncle Sam and I am a hoarder and a prepper. Wouldn't ya like to be a prepper too? One great use of all those magazines is when the poop hits the air mover it would make great ballistic protection for the house unless they're using incendiary or tracer rounds or there is always insulation when Yellowstone blows and sends us into a nuclear winter or make lots of paper mâché targets or lots and lots of paper airplanes of many designs and styles......build a collection of mannequin carp. When there are no more trees sell some paper to the paper people....have you ever seen so much paper? ( looney guy from Waterworld ) wipe your ass forever.....that's why I collect phone books...
You could duct tape them together and make dorm room furniture...

or start building an off road trailer project that's what I did... Now I'm not as hoardy...

really I'm not hoardy at all anymore. Everything I have is neatly organized and packed away and will have specific uses if the brown stinky stuff ever hits the oscillating mover of air.
 
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Mike said:
In an attempt to get my life a little more organized, I have a problem/habit I just have never been able to shake off. I have been doing this since before my teen years and as much as I try, I can't stop myself. My friends.... I am a magazine hoarder. I buy/subscribe to magazines and I never get rid of them. I have boxes and boxes of magazines, well into the thousands. Some date back into the late 70's. At my height, I had 9 subscriptions going monthly and still averaged buying 2-3 per month of ones I didn't subscribe to. Currently I have 4 subscriptions, one I think doesn't run out until late 2017. I did a purge a number of years ago and recycled all of my R/C type mags. What I still have are all my old model railroad type mags from late '70's into mid '80's, until I was able to drive. Then my life has been around car/truck mags to this day. I have had a few specialty stuff thrown in, just to mix it up.

I know I need to let these go but I just can't bring myself to throw them into the recycle bin. I have thought about trying to sell them but finding someone who wants the hole lot, as I don't want to piece this out. I have seen/met people who do that and it takes years.

I know the first step is admitting you have a problem and I sure know I have a problem. It's that next step I have problems with. :dunno

Anyone else in a similar situation or has dealt with one and not so much the social type issues (drugs, alcohol, partying) but more of the hoarding type?
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Mike you could donate them to a local library. The library will then use them, or sell them off to help fund their costs.
 
Quite the time consuming proposition, but have you considered turning them into a digital library? It wouldn't be goodbye completely, but would take up HD space instead. Get a 4-5 TB NAS HD and make them available to a network. Then follow Justin's advice to free up your space.
 
I know your pain Mike. I come from a long line of discard challenged people. I can get you any issue of National Geographic from 1923 to the present. When the brushfire sweeps through my neighborhood and everything I can't fit in my truck is ashes or melted, and the dumbass reporter asks me "you've just lost everything , how do you feel?" my reply will be "I'm FREE".

Digitize and dispose and move on.

I may even follow that advice someday.
 
Stuart said:
I know your pain Mike. I come from a long line of discard challenged people. I can get you any issue of National Geographic from 1923 to the present. When the brushfire sweeps through my neighborhood and everything I can't fit in my truck is ashes or melted, and the dumbass reporter asks me "you've just lost everything , how do you feel?" my reply will be "I'm FREE".

Digitize and dispose and move on.

I may even follow that advice someday.
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If'n you wanna free yourself from all of those Nat geo maps, I collect them....
 
Hello ladies and gentleman...my name is Mark and I use to be a hoarder. Oh I had my share of boxes of car mags and other stuff I though I needed or might want to reference some day. Than one day I had an moment of enlightenment...what good were these things to me stored in these myriad boxes. I had not touched them for years, they commanded space and returned nothing of value. If they were not adding any real value or happiness it was time for them to go. The collection of Overpriced Journals were bartered for a vial of sand to some crusty veteran and the rest were burned. It was a cathartic exercise.

As the smoke rolled the amount of available space in the closets and storage nooks increased dramatically. Soon the hoarder gene was flipped and anything that wasn't adding happiness or value was being sold or tossed. All those flathead Ford parts...sold. The row of big blocks...sold or scrapped. Piles upon piles of accumulated crap...yard saled, traded and disposed. It got easier and easier as it went. And the freed up funds payed for trips for us to enjoy. Light and lean is our new mantra and if it hasn't been touched or used within a year's time it shivers in fear of the reaper. The light and lean gene is so prevalent now that my two automotive toys are on the sale block. Guns...hell I sold a couple this winter as they haven't seen daylight in 30 years. Now in their place is a new kayak and a new crossbow, stuff that will get used and bring me smiles so much so than hoarding something locked away and never seen but for a quarterly cleaning.

Mike the first step is the hardest but after that it's a easy down hill stroll. Let go young Padawan....
 
My shop was a hoarding nightmare a few years ago. Every wall and floor space had a cabinet or bench of some sort that I had drug home. Nothing matched. Every cabinet was filled over capacity with tools and building supplies. Every bench covered in junk. I moved every thing out to my garage. I then patched every ding and hole in the wall. I painted the walls, ceiling and floor. I then built one small bench and put a cabinet above it. I saved one free standing cabinet for power tools only. I put shelving along one wall. Now if it doesn't have a home it does not stay. I don't keep any building supplies anymore. I get more done because it is much easier to work in a clean shop. I don't hunt for tools anymore. Left over wood from project goes on the fire wood pile. I do keep a scrap box of steel, but that is way to important to discard;)

My wife hoards tupperware. I have to wait until she's out of town and throw out all the mis matached bowls and lids:)
 
My wife hoards tupperware. I have to wait until she's out of town and throw out all the mis matached bowls and lids:)[/QUOTE]

YOU TOO!! I swear she does that to my workshop sometimes or maybe I just lose things in my clutter... hoarding
 
For those train magazines, Nick (Team Balls Out/Ray's son) is big time into trains and model trains IIRC.
 
Oh, that might be a good place for those. I'll have to get in touch with them.
 
Team Balls Out said:
Nick would love trains mags.
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Okay, I'll have to work on getting them down from the garage rafters, where they have been for 17 years. Most of them are from the early to mid 80's. I'll hit ya up when I can get to them.
 
My names Alex and I'm a scotchaholic.

But my advice for the magazines is just recycle them, they're just taking up space and the chances they will be worth money is probably pretty slim.

My second recondition is find a new place to move to, hauling boxes of magazines and books will get you throwing stuff out real quick.
 
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