I come from a long line of deal seekers and garage sale bargain hunters. My grandma and grandpa loved to go to auctions and get things for a steal. As a result they had many, many interesting things in their home, but perhaps a few too many...
My mom relishes in getting clothes at bargain prices. She regularly shops the sales at the Macy's outlet on her lunch break and as a result she has many, many interesting clothes. She has a four bedroom house in which all the closets are filled with her clothes. Unlike my grandparents, she hides her clutter pretty well. But like her parents, she doesn't let go of much... (I love you mom! You know it's true!)
So I in turn love a good deal. There have been points where I have been searching for garage sales on a Saturday morning just out of the love of the hunt. Clothes on the clearance rack? My weakness. In some ways, I do save money on a lot of things. I almost never buy things unless they are on sale and I buy used as often as I can. And I have gotten some killer deals. Like the time I got the slide set for my kids for $15 that I specifically searched for on that day. Or when I got the park bench for ten bucks that I turned around and sold on craigslist for $40. But I have picked up many things I don't need and don't use...
Last year, I found an incredible outlet in having an antiques booth where I could buy treasures for cheap and then put them in a store where other people could pay more for them. I got to shop. I didn't clutter up my house.
But then I got booted from the antique store. (Another story, another time...) And now I have even more stuff in my house. IE my garage. AKA that place I can't walk through.
Loving a deal has put me in this weird place. This weird place where I have too much stuff and not enough money even though we have a big enough house and more than enough money. And though I don't consider myself a hoarder yet, I think it's probably ten or twenty years away if I don't get a handle on this RIGHT NOW. I mean, I have a hard time letting go of my kids' toys. They aren't even mine and I don't play with them!
And I am darn tired of being a manager of stuff. If I didn't have to spend so much time picking things up and putting them away, then I could spend more time doing the deep cleaning that I do like, or quite frankly, more time to do pretty much anything else.
So my quest? Keep out the stuff, hold on to my Hamiltons.
Buckle up.
