Is there something in your house/office that should have been thrown out a LONG time ago?

[Harley Spencer]

Why are there wires seemingly running everywhere at random...?

That's a good question. The only real answer is because he simply has them and doesn't want to part with them, same with pretty much everything else in the apartment. He has multiple crates packed full of extension cords, a ton of ethernet cables, wires for printers, cameras, lights, and other miscellaneous electronics. I would love to get them out of sight, as much as everything else, but that's impossible because there's just too much that there is nowhere to put anything.

In two years, we'll be moving, and that will be a nice big challenge for us. We're either going to have to get a huuuuge house to put all the stuff, or a decent sized house and throw half the stuff away. Either way, I want it out of sight. I'm willing to deal with it right now because I know what he went through years ago after 9/11 (the reasoning behind why he has all this stuff), but after we move... no way. Clean, organized house.

 

[BlkHawk]

Some obsolete technical handbooks.

This, I have boxes of coding, and networking books that haven't been relevant in 20 years.

Almost everything in my apartment needs to go. Unfortunately, none of it is mine so I can't get rid of it. It's awful in here, and I can't wait to move but that won't be for about another 2 years.

Harley you win, i suggest we all chip in and get her a trophy she can proudly stuff into that apartment.

 

[Harley Spencer]

This, I have boxes of coding, and networking books that haven't been relevant in 20 years.

Harley you win, i suggest we all chip in and get her a trophy she can proudly stuff into that apartment.

Haha! Or you could all chip in and get me a warehouse to stuff all this stuff in. :shy::angels:

 

[HappyHapyJoyJoy]

That's a good question. The only real answer is because he simply has them and doesn't want to part with them, same with pretty much everything else in the apartment. He has multiple crates packed full of extension cords, a ton of ethernet cables, wires for printers, cameras, lights, and other miscellaneous electronics. I would love to get them out of sight, as much as everything else, but that's impossible because there's just too much that there is nowhere to put anything.

In two years, we'll be moving, and that will be a nice big challenge for us. We're either going to have to get a huuuuge house to put all the stuff, or a decent sized house and throw half the stuff away. Either way, I want it out of sight. I'm willing to deal with it right now because I know what he went through years ago after 9/11 (the reasoning behind why he has all this stuff), but after we move... no way. Clean, organized house.

So those wires aren't all hooked up to anything, right? Because there's no way that many run wires isn't overtaxing an outlet, and a lot of them are hanging or wrapped around stuff, which can damage the cord, and to top it all off it's surrounded by a bunch of paper (and probably old, dry paper). That would make for a massive fire hazard (and even with most of them not plugged in it will still be pretty fire hazardy).

Harley you win, i suggest we all chip in and get her a trophy she can proudly stuff into that apartment.

Where would she put it...?

 

[Maggie Green]

I just threw away a huge folder of manuals and instruction booklets to things that went in the trash or were given away years and years ago.

 

[Harley Spencer]

So those wires aren't all hooked up to anything, right? Because there's no way that many run wires isn't overtaxing an outlet, and a lot of them are hanging or wrapped around stuff, which can damage the cord, and to top it all off it's surrounded by a bunch of paper (and probably old, dry paper). That would make for a massive fire hazard (and even with most of them not plugged in it will still be pretty fire hazardy).

Where would she put it...?

Not all of them are plugged in. But just between those 2 shelves that you see in the picture, there's over 26 cords (I just counted) that are plugged into 3 power strips and 1 extension cord. Then over by the tv we have 7 or 8 cords plugged in for 3 landline phones, the tv, ps3, modem and cable box. And over here by the computers there's... 15 cords plugged in (that I can see- there may be others that are buried by papers and stuff).

Trust me, I'm all for changing that, cleaning it up and minimizing it. Try explaining that to my boyfriend. And no, the fire hazard argument won't work. He'll have a counter argument, guaranteed.

 

[HappyHapyJoyJoy]

Not all of them are plugged in. But just between those 2 shelves that you see in the picture, there's over 26 cords (I just counted) that are plugged into 3 power strips and 1 extension cord. Then over by the tv we have 7 or 8 cords plugged in for 3 landline phones, the tv, ps3, modem and cable box. And over here by the computers there's... 15 cords plugged in (that I can see- there may be others that are buried by papers and stuff).

Trust me, I'm all for changing that, cleaning it up and minimizing it. Try explaining that to my boyfriend. And no, the fire hazard argument won't work. He'll have a counter argument, guaranteed.

Unless everyone living there is flame-retardant there's not really much of a counterargument. That is far too much plugged into far too few outlets, and the care taken with the cords is... lacking. Surge protectors don't work miracles, and technically can cause issues with amperage that can actually adversely effect certain electronics, causing power spikes which lead to shortages and sparks.

I've taken a saftey rep course or two. If I had the credentials and saw that I'd fine him. For an apartment building, locally, that could run up $50,000 and a year in prison. No idea what the penalties are where you live, but... yeah. :dunno:

 

[Harley Spencer]

Unless everyone living there is flame-retardant there's not really much of a counterargument. That is far too much plugged into far too few outlets, and the care taken with the cords is... lacking. Surge protectors don't work miracles, and technically can cause issues with amperage that can actually adversely effect certain electronics, causing power spikes which lead to shortages and sparks.

I've taken a saftey rep course or two. If I had the credentials and saw that I'd fine him. For an apartment building, locally, that could run up $50,000 and a year in prison. No idea what the penalties are where you live, but... yeah. :dunno:

I believe you. But I'm not going to bother discussing it with him. It's useless. I've tried talking about the mess of this place countless times with him, and it always comes back to, "Everything I have is worth something. I can't get rid of it. Everything that's in here, I want to use and get rid of. I don't want to keep anything. I want to use it up and that be that." And god forbid I should make things neat. It's hiding it! He can't find it! He needs it to be out in the open so he remembers to use it!

As for the cords... yeah, not bothering to talk to him about it. You might not think there's a counter argument, but trust me, there is. He's got one. I'd imagine it'd be something like, "These circuits are pretty strong and can handle a lot. The things I have plugged in don't take up that much energy. It's been working all these years and there hasn't been a fire yet." No sense in arguing with him, he will always win, even if there's a better solution. I'll bring up problems from time to time, but if nothing comes of it, then I don't like to revisit the issue.

 

[HappyHapyJoyJoy]

I believe you. But I'm not going to bother discussing it with him. It's useless. I've tried talking about the mess of this place countless times with him, and it always comes back to, "Everything I have is worth something. I can't get rid of it. Everything that's in here, I want to use and get rid of. I don't want to keep anything. I want to use it up and that be that." And god forbid I should make things neat. It's hiding it! He can't find it! He needs it to be out in the open so he remembers to use it!

As for the cords... yeah, not bothering to talk to him about it. You might not think there's a counter argument, but trust me, there is. He's got one. I'd imagine it'd be something like, "These circuits are pretty strong and can handle a lot. The things I have plugged in don't take up that much energy. It's been working all these years and there hasn't been a fire yet." No sense in arguing with him, he will always win, even if there's a better solution. I'll bring up problems from time to time, but if nothing comes of it, then I don't like to revisit the issue.

Those reasons are decidedly unreasonable.

If an inspector shows up... run. You don't know anyone who lived there. Never met them.

Also... have you considered a yard sale?

 

[Harley Spencer]

Those reasons are decidedly unreasonable.

If an inspector shows up... run. You don't know anyone who lived there. Never met them.

Also... have you considered a yard sale?

A yard sale would be fantastic, but sadly we have no yard. We have a sidewalk.

 

[HappyHapyJoyJoy]

A yard sale would be fantastic, but sadly we have no yard. We have a sidewalk.

Well, yards are optional. Sidewalks work. Garages. Ebay. There are tonnes of ways to get rid of things without it being a "waste" so if his reason really is that "Everything I have is worth something. I can't get rid of it." then he can still get something out of it without it having to sit around doing nothing until he gets around to using it... which he likely never will. Honestly, does he even know what's in most of those boxes? Something tells me no.

You should play a little game, if you can point to a box and he can name a 1/3rd of what's in it, then he gets to keep it. If he can't, then obviously he doesn't care that much about what's in the box and would never be able to find anything in it if he was needing it and looking for it, so the box goes.

 

[Harley Spencer]

Well, yards are optional. Sidewalks work. Garages. Ebay. There are tonnes of ways to get rid of things without it being a "waste" so if his reason really is that "Everything I have is worth something. I can't get rid of it." then he can still get something out of it without it having to sit around doing nothing until he gets around to using it... which he likely never will. Honestly, does he even know what's in most of those boxes? Something tells me no.

You should play a little game, if you can point to a box and he can name a 1/3rd of what's in it, then he gets to keep it. If he can't, then obviously he doesn't care that much about what's in the box and would never be able to find anything in it if he was needing it and looking for it, so the box goes.

Actually, surprisingly, he does know what's in most of the boxes.

Have you ever seen the show Hoarders? If not, you should watch it sometime. You'll notice how the people on that show tend to get really angry and upset when they're faced with the decision to get rid of something, whether it's selling it or throwing it away. He has basically the same attitude. One time when we were talking about this, he said that if I make him get rid of stuff then he'll just set fire to everything. Way over the top dramatic response.

But there is some stuff that he does want to sell and we've talked about selling it on ebay. He wants me to set him up an ebay account so he can sell it, but I can't do that because in order to set up an ebay sellers account, you have to enter bank/card/paypal information. However... we do have a shared paypal account. I could see about setting up a seller's account on ebay with that.

 

[bobjustbob]

Good advice Happy. So what kind of **** do you have that needs to see the inside of a dumpster?

 

[Harley Spencer]

Good advice Happy. So what kind of **** do you have that needs to see the inside of a dumpster?

Tons of stuff. Where do I begin? Piles of old newspapers, a giant bag of like 50 baseball hats, heaps of plastic bags, something like 30 rolls of trash bags that could either be tossed or used to toss the other stuff, knick knacks, empty candle holders, stacks of hundreds (maybe thousands) of business cards that are doing nothing but collecting dust, old clothes, ruined clothes, shoes, dozens of empty dvd containers (which you can see in the background of one of the pics), papers, empty ****** bottles, expired bathroom/beauty products (his, not mine- I actually use mine), christmas lights that never get used, etc.

 

[HappyHapyJoyJoy]

Good advice Happy. So what kind of **** do you have that needs to see the inside of a dumpster?

I could stand to vacuum as there is dog hair everywhere at the moment. Does dog hair count? I have some DVDs/Blurays that I'll probably never watch again, but I give them away regularly anyway. I do have some old magazines I could probably toss. Maybe some clothes in the back of my closet I could give to Goodwill or something.

 

[Mr_Stiffy]

What have you got folks? We all have something.

How long have you got?

• Old audio tapes. Albums that I never got around to buying on CD, singles from bands that I love that I just can't part with, my own compilations that I justify keeping if they have songs which I don't have in another format i.e. not even downloaded in mp3. Even though I don't have a tape deck to listen to them on any more.
• Old videos. Films or shows where I have bought the DVDs, but due to over-PC retro-censoring or copyright issues have had various scenes, chunks of dialogue or background songs removed. It's not the same. When Dr Sam Beckett makes sweet love to the hot psychic who can see him for who he really is, I want to hear "I Want To Know What Love Is" by Foreigner, not "Generic Romantic Theme #7."
• Receipts and ticket stubs from nights out that might hold sentimental value, if I could remember exactly what happened that night to warrant me keeping them in the first place.
• Business cards of both myself and colleagues from my old company. Bonus points if they left the company before me, even more bonus points if it was a role they were performing before I even started, top score if it's a role that doesn't exist any more. I don't even know why.
• Random useless tat. A personalized credit card from a company I don't have an account with because I like the design, a little castle from the fishtank I had at uni, a cue ball one of my friends shamefully liberated from a hotel pool table.
• Clothes I consider "aspirational" even though I know they'll never fit me again. Mostly because they only fit me first time round because I bought them during my "usually too ***** to remember to eat" phase and was a bit gaunt.
• Old birthday and Christmas cards (even the odd Valentine) so I can read the nice words from people, even if they're people that aren't in my life any more.
• Old magazines. Nothing like digging out reviews of 15 year-old albums to see if the reviewer rated it as much as me, reading old pundits' football predictions to see if they came true, or reminding myself how hot Caprice used to be.
• Flyers, programs and posters for gigs I didn't even go to of bands that I like, that I acquired at gigs I did go to.
• A poster from 1996 of the six principal cast members of Friends is still on my wall, nine years after the show ended. I don't know why, but I don't want to take it down.
• My broken Game Boy.

There is more, that's all I can see from this spot.

 

[lurkingdirk]

I need to amend my earlier statement. Albums. I have more music than should be allowed. I have roughly 15,000 LPs, the same number of CDs. I have eliminated all of my cassette tapes, at this point, which pleases both God and man. I have an entire storage room, which is sizable, of nothing but music. Floor to ceiling. I'm not likely to listen to the entire collection again before I'm dead, but it is a collection. I'm rather proud of it. I don't think I'd be able to part with it.

 

[D-rock]

I have some cardboard boxes I receive stuff in that I need to get rid of. It's just that tearing them all up is going to be a pain in the ass and it's not like getting rid of the garbage bags they will fill up will be free. It seems few things fill up your trash as inefficiently as cardboard.

 

[HappyHapyJoyJoy]

I have some cardboard boxes I receive stuff in that I need to get rid of. It's just that tearing them all up is going to be a pain in the ass and it's not like getting rid of the garbage bags they will fill up will be free. It seems few things fill up your trash as inefficiently as cardboard.

Couldn't you just hit them with a utility ***** then blue bin them? Most places recycle cardboard.

 

[GodsEmbryo]

About twice a year I go through everything at my place and I usually throw more stuff away then I should. I'm quite happy with minimalistic and functional rooms where I can find my stuff right away, then having to go through piles of stuff you hardly (or don't) use to find what you need. Apart from my books though... I find it hard to throw these away. I have about 1000 books about art, science and history and even the books I haven't read in ages or books that are jut crap, I just can't throw any of those away.