Packrat's history

I come from a long line of packrats. My parents purchased the home of my grandparents (my dad's folks). The house sat on nearly an acre of land, and it was surrounded by seven sheds (tool shed, pump house for the well, toy shed, massive six car garage attached to the "cat shed", plus two more the size of two car garages. It also originally included a barn and farmland, which was sold earlier to another family intending to raise horses.

First my grandfather, and then my father, packed those buildings to the rafters. They both had hoarding tendencies. Why have a few five gallon pails when you can have two hundred? Why not stop by the side of the road to pick up a discarded bungee cord, despite it being the 80th one you own? You never know when you might use two broken refrigerators, thousands of tools, thirty fishing poles, a boat with a hole in it, a lifetime of chopped logs for the fireplace, fifteen staplers, and on and on and on.

We weren't poor. We were middle class. My guess would be that for my father, things meant security. He was the youngest son with a decade gap between his next-oldest brother, and he was alone a lot since both his parents worked multiple jobs. Things can insulate you from feeling lonely, and I suspect that is his underlying issue.

I was an obese child with major self-esteem issues. I also have a terrible memory. My things serve as my memories, my barriers, my cocoon. Things started to get out of control when we had two children. Now we live in plastic land, with toys they don't play with, clothes they don't wear, plus bins of stuff anticipating the next phase of their lives, the next size, the next development stage. It all amounts to TOO MUCH STUFF.

I want to raise them in a house that feels welcoming, calm and orderly. I don't want it to be sterile, but I also don't want the teetering piles of stuff everydamnwhere. I am pondering ways they can  help in the process. They can choose which toys we discard, and which clothes they like. Hopefully, my husband will see the changes and join the process, too.