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jca2's avatar

What have you accumulated a lot of, in your house, either intentionally or unintentionally?

Asked by jca2 (16248points) April 8th, 2023

What have you accumulated a lot of, in your house, either intentionally or unintentionally?

I’ve lived where I live now for over 20 years and I realize I have a lot of craft items (paints, brushes, etc.) and books. I also have collections of stuff, like ceramic animal figurines from mid-century (Lefton and Napco were common brands) and stamped tin containers, usually made in England, the type that held candy or tea. I also have acquired a lot of wooden jewelry boxes which I sometimes refinish for fun.

I have a friend who has two cabinets full of Tupperware and other plastic containers. In my opinion, you could survive quite well with about six plastic containers, maybe ten (various sizes).

What do you have a lot of, in your home?

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33 Answers

LuckyGuy's avatar

Oooooo….so many things.
Electrical equipment: Volt meters, oscilloscopes, power supplies, communication devices. Too many but they are all “good” and still “work”.

Home and garden equipment. I “need” it all and multiples of different sizes for different jobs. I “need” a chainsaw in the barn, and garage, and house. I “need” 20 different hoses. I use 14 just for July 4th parties.
Lifetime tables 6 ft and 8 ft for big parties. Hey, someone might get married here again.
And so it goes….

Tropical_Willie's avatar

Lots and lots !

Acrylic's avatar

Paintings. I paint a lot, not many get sold. One day, hopefully.

Entropy's avatar

Cat shit?

JLeslie's avatar

My husband has been saving Talenti one pint gelato containers. It’s ridiculous. We only buy it about once every three months, but it is on a buy one get one free promotion so over the last few years we have a lot of them. They are very nice plastic containers with a twist off top, so they open and close easily. He uses them for coffee grounds mostly, but he never needs more than two at a time. I throw some away every so often. As a side note, I got rid of most of my plastic containers 25 years ago and bought glass for leftovers, I felt like the plastic is possibly not healthy for storing and microwaving food.

Plastic, metal, and glass beverage containers. I must have 20 between gifts given to me and freebees. I might have bought one in my lifetime. I use them for water, but I tend to use the same three or four over and over again.

Old towels of every size. I want to just throw some of them, but my husband won’t let me. He does use a lot of the hand towels for exercising, and a large worn towel comes in handy for me when I dye my hair, but we have more than necessary.

Files! Files of paperwork. Work, personal, medical, I hate it. I did get rid of a few drawers worth during covid. I have three boxes (drawers) of files from when we owned our golf cart repair business that I am waiting 7 years from when we sold the business and then I will throw everything away. Two more years.

jca2's avatar

@JLeslie I have a few Talenti containers. I don’t buy that gelato too often, but when it’s on sale, I look at it like “comes with a free container.” They’re good containers because they’re clear but they’re not too big. I’ve had a few of them warped by the dishwasher.

My friend that has two cabinets full of Tupperware, I can see the problem is that there are lids falling all over the place and it’s hard to keep track of lids and containers.

Old towels are good for cutting up and washing things in the house, like spot cleaning the floor, and then throw away.

chyna's avatar

@JLeslie I had a huge amount of towels, too and went through them, kept the best ones and donated the rest to my local animal shelter.
I have an enormous collection of plastic ware also, which is ridiculous. I barely cook, so there are rarely leftovers. Making a mental note to get rid of them.
I also have five coffee makers. Why?! I don’t even drink coffee and rarely have visitors that do.
Another mental note.

JLeslie's avatar

@jca2 I have a pile of old t-shirts and undershirts that I cut up and use for cleaning lawn furniture, wood furniture, cabinets, and whenever I need a soft rag. I wash them sometimes, other times I throw them out.

Forever_Free's avatar

Things associated with music. Guitars, pianos, microphones, speakers, headphones, Amps, Albums, XLR cords, Guitar Pedals, picks, sheet music, mixers.

canidmajor's avatar

Books. Mostly redundant, as I use an ereader for most things, but it is nearly impossible for me to get the paper titles out of my house.

filmfann's avatar

Me: Bad movies on DVD

My wife: Fabric

And there is no chance we will part with them.

Kropotkin's avatar

I’ve too many old and obsolete computer parts.

RayaHope's avatar

Lots of stuffed animals and pillows and some empty pill bottles of all sorts of pills. I like a lot of pillows on my bed. :)

gondwanalon's avatar

Cameras. I have 7 GoPros (and large pile of accessories), 2 Canon Rebel cameras with 2 lenses and several tripods. And a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-RX100. Then there’s the aerial photography (2 drones and more accessories). I cleared out a cabinet to store it all. Fun stuff!

MrGrimm888's avatar

@RayaHope . Pillows and Pillows bottles? What would J.L. Picard say about that? I thought Trekkies were smart people…

canidmajor's avatar

@MrGrimm888 @RayaHope has medical conditions that require medications, as, I imagine, you do too. And Picard would absolutely support modern methods for health purposes.
And those little pill bottles really are useful for other things.

MrGrimm888's avatar

^ Understanding a situation means understanding it’s potential to become another situation. It would be short sighted, to take my words as mere criticism. I am aware of her proclaimed medical history. I am aware of your wisdom as well. Antiepileptic drugs, combined with the stress of the conditions they are designed to treat, are a load.
Please forgive my preachy behavior of late. I didn’t mean to derail the thread…

MrGrimm888's avatar

I have a lot of books lying around too. I will be making a donation to a detox center soon.

RayaHope's avatar

@MrGrimm888 I sorry for not being clear. I have a lot of pillows because they do help when I have a seizure and I do like them. The pill bottles, I should have said medicine bottles for my condition. I have been on many different prescriptions and I tend to keep the empty ones to remind me of what ones I’ve taken in the past. I’ll try to be more clear next time, sorry :)

Acrylic's avatar

@RayaHope Empty pill bottles make for some creative crafting.

MrGrimm888's avatar

@RayaHope . No. You’re fine. I understood. When I worked with animals, we used to surround the seizure risks with stuffed animals to keep them from hitting their heads on the walls. I would hope your bed is on the ground, and not elevated on a bed frame.

Prescription medication can be a problem in and of itself. That’s all. I was “thinkin’ outloud,” when I made my original post.

Blackwater_Park's avatar

Stuff in general.
Me: Books, video games, cookware, tools, electronic parts, unfinished projects…
My wife: an extensive collection of shoes and hello kitty memorobilia
our dog has an extensive collection of plush toys.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Not much, really. I have a laundry basket by the back door that I regularly donate to. When it’s full it’s off to Goodwill it goes.

SEKA's avatar

I have a thing about clutter. If you want to buy something new, you’ve got to discard something old. Give it to Goodwill, a homeless person, or your best friend; but it’s leaving the premises. Then once a month the family picks 1 day to do a thorough clean out. No closet nor cabinet is safe. On Jan 1 every year all clothes are pushed to the back of the closet. A separator is added to the front of the clothes. As you get dressed every day, you pull from the back. When laundry is done, hang in front of the separator. Then between Christmas and New Year all clothes behind the separator are donated to Goodwill. If you haven’t worn them in a year, good chance is that you don’t like them anymore. Then on Jan 1 we repeat the process for the next year.

JLeslie's avatar

@chyna I just noticed what I last wrote I tagged @jca2 but I meant to tag you. I also want to mention that I’m in the Buy Nothing facebook group where I live, and if you have one, I’m sure people in there would love your coffee makers. I give and take on there myself, it’s great.

Animal shelter is great for towels, we do that here too.

chyna's avatar

^I’ll look to see if we have a Facebook group like that. It sounds like a good idea.

JLeslie's avatar

This is the link where I live just so you can see it. I think they are all over the country. Part of the BuyNothingProject. https://m.facebook.com/groups/152083943571390/?ref=share&mibextid=S66gvF

LuckyGuy's avatar

I’ve been thinking about this since i first answered. The problem is I have lots of space – basement, barn, work area, office, garage – so it is easy for me to collect and store stuff I might need later.

I have too many empty boxes. I have every size I need to mail anything. Occasionally I will burn them in the wood burner in the basement and convert them to heat.
I have too many containers. Film cans, pill bottles, glass jars, plastic tubs. . Unfortunately I have a friend in the restaurant business who saves food grade buckets for me. I can’t refuse.
Too many interests and hobbies. Photography (I still have a darkroom.), radio equipment (from VLF to microwave). Music (accordion, harmonicas, keyboard), video equipment (I’ve never thrown out a video camera. They can always be used for something.)
Tools (But you can never have too many tools. Right? )

RocketGuy's avatar

Paper! Bank statements, billing statements, user manuals, books, magazines, school notes, cardboard boxes. We are sending more to recycling and shredding these days, so the amount is starting to go down.

LuckyGuy's avatar

@RocketGuy I figure all the old bills and such are thermal mass – and potential BTUs in a pinch.

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