Thursday, February 10th, 2011
Paper-Hoarder
I’m a purger. Not that kind of purger. I’m an obsessive donor/recycler/throw-awayer. I hate clutter and random stuff and I just don’t want it in my house. At any given time, there’s a Goodwill bag going. Sometimes, when I give away one kitchen item because I have two and then the second one breaks, I regret this. But, mostly I’m proud that I have a (mostly) clutter free home.
But, there are a few things I cannot bring myself to get rid of.
- Cards, including wedding invitations, thank you notes, Christmas cards, etc. I don’t even know what to do with these items. I have several plastic totes filled to the brim with them.
- My own wedding invitations. And programs and menus and save-the-dates. I kind of over-ordered on these items and probably have about 25 of each hanging around here. Also, reply cards! People wrote notes on them! I can’t throw them out. I know that I want to frame a menu, an invitation and a program all together. So, I’ll always have one of each preserved. But, why do I need the additional 24?
- Cookbooks, Recipes and the like. I could write a novel about my cookbook/recipe addiction. Before we moved into our house, I had probably 3 years worth of various cooking magazines, all with flags marking recipes I wanted to try. Because I wanted to move without a bunch of crap, I tore out all the marked recipes and then put them in a box. Just recently, I organized all these recipes in plastic sheet covers and a binder. I’m quite impressed with myself. BUT, I still have a bunch of cookbooks that I’ll probably never use (sorry Rachael Ray) and 5 years worth of Cook’s Illustrated. Which is the best cooking magazine ever, by the way. I have a grand plan of one day framing the lovely back covers of Cook’s Illustrated and swapping them out seasonally. Christmas? I hang illustrations of Christmas breads and candies! Spring? An illustration of quiches! (This will probably never, ever happen) Additionally, my husband shares the same cookbook addiction and well, we need an intervention. The couple with the most cookbooks does not win. OR DO THEY?
- This is a big one. I was the News Editor of my high-school newspaper. I have every edition of “Paw Prints” that I helped to create. Three years, 9 issues a year. Add to this, every single paper I turned in for a grade during high school AND college. And, for college? NOTES. As if I am going to one day need to look back at my Econ 420: Money and Banking notes. Or, my 12th grade Western Civ final.
So, basically, I’m a paper-hoarder. Do you obsessively save anything? How do you organize this stuff?
Comments on this post
I JUST threw away our reply cards last weekend. We’ve been married since 2008. We also have about 25 leftover invitations. But I just can’t get rid of those!!
10. February - 7:17 amNGS´s last [type] ..Blog Share
I used to keep EVERYTHING! Birthday cards, rejection letters from jobs, everything. And then I moved across the country and moved to 6 apartments in 5 years and I got really tired of lugging that shit around.
I still keep some things, though. I have lugged every yearbook, media guide and gameday program that I was the editor of while I was at the 49ers, plus my stuff from ASU, with me. That is the heaviest box, but it means too much to me.
10. February - 9:22 amKristabella´s last [type] ..Asking For A Junk Punch
I’m totally a paper hoarder, though 95% of the paper I hoard is “to be sent” cards and notes and stationery for letters. I still have a brand new set of stationery from Korea and a set from Russia (from 2003!).
Which is why I’m not supposed to be allowed into Oblation with my wallet. But I can’t resist the siren call of witty, lovely letter-pressed cards.
I love the idea of using prints and paper as art (my sister did that to decorate their apartment in Korea, with Korean prints and paper with Korean letters), and/or making books and/or journals out of them, too.
I’ve actually recently taken to keeping envelopes from cards received and using them to line journals, to collect movie tickets and other little notes I want to keep without them getting lost.
10. February - 9:29 amKerri Anne´s last [type] ..Portrait Of A Year Upcoming
I don’t even want to know what I still have. I know it’s not a TON of paper, but there’s definitely a list of Modismos en Espanol (when will I need a pages-long list of Spanish idioms? WHEN?) and all my college papers.
And of course I have every issue of Cook’s Illustrated, too, and your idea about the back covers is BRILLIANT.
10. February - 2:34 pmHome Sweet Sarah´s last [type] ..Knock- knock
I was the exact same way and then (Debbie Downer alert!) Hurricane Katrina hit and I lost a bunch of papers I could never really get rid of on my own. The upside was that it has really helped me learn that I don’t need to hoard things like that anymore and if I can’t get throw them away, I can scan them and save them digitally.
13. February - 10:20 amregan´s last [type] ..had to get away
TOTAL PAPER HOARDER over here.
14. February - 5:53 pm:)
alimartell´s last [type] ..Restoration