Pack Rats!!!!!!!! What do you do?

Question

What do you do with a husband is a pack rat. Our house looks like a war zone. He's afaird to throw anything away because he might need it tomorrow. He gets really mad if I throw any it away. I get away with it sometimes but most of the time he catches me,like he has an inventory in his head of what he has!!

Answer 1

communication is the key.let him know how much it annoys you and that you are willing to comprimise by letting him keep his junk as long as it is in a rental storage unit.after paying the fees for a month or two he may relize that he dont need all that stuff.my wife did this with me,a reformed pack rat.good luck

Answer 2

Pack-rat behavior is in my family, and I am one. My sister and her husband are both worse than me, and have smaller living quarters to divide among more bodies.

What Mother and I ended up doing when her smallest boy had to have an operation to remove a VERY nasty tumor was go to her house to help her clean and straighten. We more or less had to shake my brother in law by the scruff of his neck so he would start going through his stuff too.

We brought bags to sort out stuff that would go to a local charity and stuff that was simply too messed up to use any more. The rest we cleaned and put into a place where it would sit and actually look nice.

You may need an ally for dealing with your husband. He sounds an awful lot like my grandfather. My grandfather saved stuff and saved stuff and never did anything with it until it more or less rotted into the ground. A lot never even got removed until he and my grandmother moved to a new place where they literally couldn't take it with them.

Answer 3

Pick up a couple storage boxes a month, pack things up and write the date on the box. If the box is unopened after 6 months toss the stuff when he's not around. I am a reformed p. rat and this is how I finally got over it. Good luck

Answer 4

Think of something you need...find someone who has it who also needs something you have and work out a deal to swap. That way your husband will not feel as if his time and effort of aquiring/saving that item was wasted. Sometimes local radio stations have "Switch and Swap" (that's what our's is called) type of programs where you can post listings for free. Also, cable companies often have a similar show. Or you could try to convince him to have a yard sale. As long as you are getting something else in return for the items, maybe he would go for it.

Answer 5

I been married to a pack rat for 15 years...I finally gave up trying to reform him and came up with a plan instead. We each have a separate area of the house that is ours and ours alone to do anything we want with. The rest of the house is "common area", and both have to agree upon the things that go in there. I get a spare bedroom to house my teddy bears and books, and he has the office to trash up with all his s**t. (he also gets the attic!) The plan has worked great!

RULE: You're not allowed to "organize" his trashy room!!

Answer 6

You are in a tough spot. Pack ratting is the most difficult of compulsive behaviors to change because the pack rat believes what they are saving has value.

Your best bet is to find a way for your rat to "donate" to a good cause, thereby replacing one form of emotional gratification for another.

Good luck.

Answer 7

Lots of Luck on that one. I have the same problem. I catch him gone and start throwing away. Little at a time. If he asks for it "So and So borrowed it and hasn't brought it back"

Answer 8

my husband is one too and i tell him that if he hasnt used it in the last six months its going to goodwill