A pack rat escapes the trap and learns to purge
Published 9/6/05
At one time in my life I had a pile of scrapbooks with crumbling yellow newspaper clippings recapping every game the Pittsburgh Pirates played between, say, 1963 and 1968. I also had about a hundred back issues of Sporting News that I picked up in a trade for a trunk of baseball cards in what was probably not the best trade I ever negotiated.
And then I met my wife, who’s made a career of classifying clutter wherever she sees it and sending pack rats packing. Take for instance our recent dialogue—okay, our monologue—about my hoarding habits. She said that unless I wanted to rent a storage unit—or my own apartment—it was time for me to prioritize and purge.
I’ll confess to being a compulsive collector. Whether it’s newspapers and magazines, fascinating articles from those newspapers and magazines, books, records and cassettes, ballcaps, baseball memorabilia, you name it, I save it.
My eclectic collection of magazines has included back issues of Esquire, Rolling Stone, Runner’s World, Wittenburg Door, Christianity Today, The New Yorker, Writers & Poets, and, even though I’m not one of their graduates and I’ve never been to Oregon, the alumni magazine of the University of Portland. Go figure.
At one time, that is until three years ago when my wife and I had another monologue, I possessed every issue of Notre Dame Magazine published between 1985 and 2002, plus a few vintage issues from the late ’70s that I picked up at the garage sale of a fellow collector and fellow alum.
When my wife and son went continent hopping recently, they knew what to bring me—editions of Nairobi’s Daily Nation, The London Daily-Telegraph and a special issue of the New York Times, published particularly for international readers. And for collectors like me.
I also have a weakness for old LPs, and their successors in the line of audio technology, plastic cassettes. Rather, I once had that weakness. In my most recent purging, I said goodbye, Yellow Brick Road and Elton John and farewell to Carole King, the Fixx, Roger Daltrey, a live two-cassette set of Joe Jackson, and all the boys in .38 Special. I did have presence of mind to salvage my Rush collection. I have amassed nearly everything recorded by Geddy Lee and the guys on cassette and wax, in case the Smithsonian’s interested.
Then there’s my “sample file,” which is really more about memories than about putting my work under glass. Until last week, I had a copy of every lousy magazine article, brochure, newsletter, press kit, speech, research paper, billboard, direct mail, annual report, trade ad, consumer ad or verse of haiku I’d ever written.
In some cases, where a client or supervisor made changes prior to publication, I kept my original draft for proof that my version was better.
Some would say it’s an illness.
At least that’s the view of Parade magazine, a supplement that appears in this newspaper each Sunday. Ironically, in the midst of last weekend’s purging, Parade ran a story with the headline, “Are You A Pack Rat?” (I’m sure you saved yours. Go back and read it. It starts on page 8.) My wife spotted the article first and started reading it to me from across the room. Here’s a transcript of our actual conversation:
Wife: Nearly a million Americans suffer from a troubling psychological disorder…
Me: What’s that, dear?
Wife: It’s called compulsive hoarding, saving things that most people consider worthless.
Me: Really…
Wife: Here are some of the signs of compulsive hoarding…Severe anxiety when trying to throw out an object, an excessive amount of clutter that limits living space, fears about needing items that could be thrown away…
Me: Honey, could you save that article for me? I think I might use that at some point. WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH IT?! PLEASE DON’T THROW THAT AWAY! GIVE THAT TO ME, DEAR!!
By the time I wrestled the little supplement away from her, I learned that “pack rats” and “clutter bugs” often “feel a heightened sense of responsibility for making sure an object’s potential isn’t wasted” but that “they can get help from online networks to get rid of years of clutter.”
Well, I’ve now made sure that the article’s potential wasn’t wasted. But who needs a chat group when your wife’s TV viewing habits include Mission Organization.
At one time in my life I had a pile of scrapbooks with crumbling yellow newspaper clippings recapping every game the Pittsburgh Pirates played between, say, 1963 and 1968. I also had about a hundred back issues of Sporting News that I picked up in a trade for a trunk of baseball cards in what was probably not the best trade I ever negotiated.
And then I met my wife, who’s made a career of classifying clutter wherever she sees it and sending pack rats packing. Take for instance our recent dialogue—okay, our monologue—about my hoarding habits. She said that unless I wanted to rent a storage unit—or my own apartment—it was time for me to prioritize and purge.
I’ll confess to being a compulsive collector. Whether it’s newspapers and magazines, fascinating articles from those newspapers and magazines, books, records and cassettes, ballcaps, baseball memorabilia, you name it, I save it.
My eclectic collection of magazines has included back issues of Esquire, Rolling Stone, Runner’s World, Wittenburg Door, Christianity Today, The New Yorker, Writers & Poets, and, even though I’m not one of their graduates and I’ve never been to Oregon, the alumni magazine of the University of Portland. Go figure.
At one time, that is until three years ago when my wife and I had another monologue, I possessed every issue of Notre Dame Magazine published between 1985 and 2002, plus a few vintage issues from the late ’70s that I picked up at the garage sale of a fellow collector and fellow alum.
When my wife and son went continent hopping recently, they knew what to bring me—editions of Nairobi’s Daily Nation, The London Daily-Telegraph and a special issue of the New York Times, published particularly for international readers. And for collectors like me.
I also have a weakness for old LPs, and their successors in the line of audio technology, plastic cassettes. Rather, I once had that weakness. In my most recent purging, I said goodbye, Yellow Brick Road and Elton John and farewell to Carole King, the Fixx, Roger Daltrey, a live two-cassette set of Joe Jackson, and all the boys in .38 Special. I did have presence of mind to salvage my Rush collection. I have amassed nearly everything recorded by Geddy Lee and the guys on cassette and wax, in case the Smithsonian’s interested.
Then there’s my “sample file,” which is really more about memories than about putting my work under glass. Until last week, I had a copy of every lousy magazine article, brochure, newsletter, press kit, speech, research paper, billboard, direct mail, annual report, trade ad, consumer ad or verse of haiku I’d ever written.
In some cases, where a client or supervisor made changes prior to publication, I kept my original draft for proof that my version was better.
Some would say it’s an illness.
At least that’s the view of Parade magazine, a supplement that appears in this newspaper each Sunday. Ironically, in the midst of last weekend’s purging, Parade ran a story with the headline, “Are You A Pack Rat?” (I’m sure you saved yours. Go back and read it. It starts on page 8.) My wife spotted the article first and started reading it to me from across the room. Here’s a transcript of our actual conversation:
Wife: Nearly a million Americans suffer from a troubling psychological disorder…
Me: What’s that, dear?
Wife: It’s called compulsive hoarding, saving things that most people consider worthless.
Me: Really…
Wife: Here are some of the signs of compulsive hoarding…Severe anxiety when trying to throw out an object, an excessive amount of clutter that limits living space, fears about needing items that could be thrown away…
Me: Honey, could you save that article for me? I think I might use that at some point. WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH IT?! PLEASE DON’T THROW THAT AWAY! GIVE THAT TO ME, DEAR!!
By the time I wrestled the little supplement away from her, I learned that “pack rats” and “clutter bugs” often “feel a heightened sense of responsibility for making sure an object’s potential isn’t wasted” but that “they can get help from online networks to get rid of years of clutter.”
Well, I’ve now made sure that the article’s potential wasn’t wasted. But who needs a chat group when your wife’s TV viewing habits include Mission Organization.
posted by Jack W. Williams | 5:59 AM
2 Comments:
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Nice blog
you might be interested in my horse racing betting site
Keep up the good work
I think I'll print this (in duplicate) and file it somewhere safe (in everyone's way).
Cheers!
Luke
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