I am a pack rat! I keep every single receipt from anything and everything I buy, just in case I ever need it. I keep all documentation on any appliance I buy. I have every single piece of mail the government ever sent me regarding my student loans. Et cetera.

The question is this: What do I need to keep, and for how long? It seems reasonable to keep a lot of the stuff I have, but I'm only a year into the past-college stage. If I keep on keeping things at this rate, I'll run out of living space soon!

Also, I am going to be moving twice this summer (once in 2 weeks, to a subletting situation, and once at the end of August), so I need to pare down the "keepables" and figure out what I really need, and what I can trash.

Thanks in advance!!!

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2000

Answers

Every friend I've had has been cured of pack-ratting tendencies by moving. "You'll be one of us soon"! :)

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2000

You really need to keep your old tax returns, and your passport, and your birth certificate... everything else is negotiable. I say be brutal and throw anything you think you won't need... you can always get another later. But don't throw sentimental, irreplacable things like old photos. You probably won't ever need your class notes again, but you'll probably need your textbooks. My biggest problem is books, so I always end up doing a will-I-read-this-again sort; same for CDs and tapes. Give stuff away.

Joanne
Parietal Pericardium

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2000

You don't need to keep your tax returns in perpetuity...I think it's 4- 7 years. AS for appliances, I'd keep receipts for a couple of years, but after that, most warranties expire.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2000

If you really are freaking out about getting rid of actual *things* (as opposed to receipts), put aside the stuff you haven't used in a while, but are keeping "just in case". A room, a closet, or even rent a small storage place (great motivator as well) -- if you don't use it or wonder where it is in a month, you can toss it.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2000

Someone want to tell me why I have a concrete cast of my own head in my storage room? It used to be for creating prosthetic makeup pieces (like Klingons and stuff) when I was a fangeek, but I'm not into that anymore. I've lugged this thing all over Canada. Why?

Trust me, when you move a few times, you'll ditch a lot of junk. I've been thinking of going through my crap to see what I can get rid of. I think the concrete head will be the first to go. I can always make another one if I REALLY need to!

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2000

heather, you should totally sell that head on ebay! you can make it sound glam and mysterious and i bet someone would bid on it! :D

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2000

You should keep anything remotely tax-related for 7 years.

As for everything else, here are my mother's rules, especially when going through stuff for a move:

Have you used it in the last 5 years? The last year? A lot or only a little? If you haven't, does it have some kind of sentimental value? If not, chuck it. If yes, what kind of sentimental value, do you love it so much you can't part with it? If no, chuck it.

My mom and I went through an entire closet like that when we were packing. We threw out half the closet.

Now that I've packed up all my stuff, I'm leaning more towards "ruthless" than "pack rat."

In general while packing, if I came across something I didn't feel we needed to keep, my mom would say "chuck it" and sabs' parents would say "pack it, you might need it."

Go figure. We had 6200 pounds of stuff in the truck.

I shoulda chucked some more.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2000

Moving will definitely turn you ruthless! Unfortunately, if you don't move for awhile it all builds up again. I've heard that if you still haven't unpacked it after a year, you should get rid of it. I have stuff that's been packed for *five* years, and I'm not even sure what it is anymore, but I definitely know I want to keep it

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2000

Clementine, As a former packrat still in rehab, I say keep only those receipts that you need until the warranty has run out. Documentation on appliances that you still have, like owner's manuals, can come in handy so keep those. If you no longer have the appliance throw out all paperwork on it. Keep your tax papers for 6-7 years. Of course, keep your photos and scrapbooks. When you get tired of knick-knacks give those away or have a garage/yard sale. And books that aren't keepers, again do the give away or garage/yard sale thing. You've just got to make up your mind to do it.

Hope this helps.

-- Anonymous, May 04, 2000

Clementine, Some places have a used book store that you can trade for credit or different books. You can also donate them to the thrift store. If you need more things to read, get some from the book store or the local library. As far as chucking, anything that you haven't used in a year should go! This, of course, excludes sentimentals. I think the 7 year plan sounds good on taxes. As a matter of fact, I think I shall chuck some stuff in your honor...

-- Anonymous, May 04, 2000

Don't know if this'll work, as you're not staying long in places, but what I find is helpful is if you pack everything you own. (For me, this was out of necessity, as I didn't give myself enough time to go through the shed-loads of junk and nonsense I've been stashing for years and had to move two houses-worth into one, but let's not go into that). So pack it all, but put your really useful stuff in different boxes from things you don't use constantly.

Unpack your useful boxes and just stash the junk ones. It's a lot easier to open a box after three months settled in your new (smaller?) home and think 'well I haven't needed any of this...'. It also keeps your junk tidy in the meantime and helps sever those sentimental attatchments to, say, that plate you found in the skip three years ago and meant to wash and give to Oxfam? Or the skirt that you meant to slim into? Or the book you meant to read, but...

um, you get the picture

-- Anonymous, May 04, 2000