My general rule is that if stuff impedes my life by creating clutter, either organize it, or if that’s not possible, get rid of it. Also, if it can’t be used, get rid of it. (for example, clothes that are too small. But even some of those can be used for patching clothes that DO fit, so that can get tricky.).

I keep a full wardrobe of clothes for the season at the ready. I have more clothes than that, though, but instead of purging them I keep them all in boxes to replace current items as they wear out. I also have more kitchen stuff and dishes than I need, but many are family heirlooms and even the workaday stuff dates from when my parents were first married, so they are kind of heirlooms, too. Since I have enough space, i keep them all. Eventually everything will break and new stuff will have to be bought, I estimate in about 60 to 100 years for the dishes and 10 years for the clothes.

How I manage all these possession is basically I buy next to nothing Even my cellphone is like 8 years old, the front of it is fallling apart, but this month I’m going to glue/reseal the faceplate back on with silicone adhesive and it should last another good 8 years.

You could get the free toothpaste and donate it to a food pantry or some other cause.

Btw, that show depresses me. These people have big problems, and they’re rarely resolved. Too sad for me to enjoy watching. I like How Clean Is Your House (Brit, not commercialized American version) and Clean Sweep :P But I don’t have cable anymore – another savings choice I live well with :D

We realized that a book–even a favorite book–is pretty much useless collecting dust on our shelves. Better it be in the hands of someone else who might benenfit from it. That mindset enabled us to give away the majority of our books.

I think you could apply this thought process to almost all possessions. If you think an item might be more valuable in someone else’s hands, give it away and enable someone else to be frugal.

Dan
Casual Kitchen

Things like that are worth the cost of keeping it, in my opinion. It’s more than just a piece of furniture — it’s a connection to a family member I never met.

However, these were my food staples – so I got essentially 2weeks of food for the cost of 1. I don’t consider this hoarding – but it was difficult to mentally agree to bring the extra food in the house :-) I try to limit my intake be gadgets or food.

So I’ve come to try to keep one of various things (and if I’ve got more than one, I pick the best one and get rid of the others). For example, the front door handle to my home failed. Those suckers are expensive, and we didn’t find a replacement we liked in any local hardware store. So for the moment I’m using a doorknob taken off another door some years ago to keep the door functional. I used to have three similar doorknobs, but got rid of two and kept one about a year and half ago.

So now I’ve got a couple of tubs in the basement with things I might use down the road, and I can check them before I run to the store to buy anything in a rush.

My husband was sort of a hoarder, perhaps borderline? He was beyond a pack rat, but he was nothing near the level of hoarding that we see on TV. I think his hoarding was based upon a very unstable childhood and being raised by a very mentally unstable single parent. He told me that for one year of his life, he went to three different schools and he graduated high school 2 years later than he should because he was constantly being uprooted (because of his mentally unstable parent) and he fell behind because of changing schools so much. He held on to his things as security more than anything else because his possessions were the only stable thing he had going in his life. It wasn’t until he met me and after we were married for a few years that he was finally able to let go of the “things” as he finally had a stable living situation for the first time in his life.

Our rule is that if we don’t use it after six months or it has sit for six months where it was originally put, it goes. Our other rule is that our stuff has to work within the confines of our living space. If we open closet doors and things spill out, it’s time to do a purge. We try to do a “purge” at least twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall. We can’t bring in new things unless we make room for them.