Have you ever gone from the hoarding phase to the opposite side?

It seems like this works in generational cycles. My grandparents tend to not keep much while my parents keep a lot. I was appalled by how cluttered my parents’ house was, so I think I learned not to be like that.

I grew up around someone with hoarding tendencies (my mother). In my very early adult years, I struggled a little bit in identifying my attachment to stuff as being a source of unhappiness. I had a difficult time letting go of it all, and I would place nostalgic or sentimental value to the smallest things.

After college my girlfriend (now wife) were moving out west. In order to fit everything, we ended up giving stuff away, having a yard sale, and throwing away everything else. What I thought would be upsetting was incredibly liberating. It was such a good feeling that when we arrived in CA, I got rid of more crap that I had dragged across the country. Then more.

Owning stuff now makes me very uncomfortable and uneasy. The less stuff, the better.

I keep a LOT of sentimental stuff. There are so many things in my life I just never want to forget. A tangible item connected to it brings back a much much stronger memory.

Also, when we had to sell my mom’s house for her to go into a nursing home, I got a ton of family things. My mom had inherited all from her parents. So, I have a ton of my grandparent’s things and my mother’s.

I am the youngest of 7 children and no one else wanted all that I kept. I can’t just throw it away. It is my history.

I’ve never been a hoarder, but I have passed the phase were I buy new things for the house. I’m slowly giving things away to my kids.

When I moved to back to the States, I shipped forward two rooms of Art Deco and Art Nouveau furniture and accoutrements, a large coin collection, some wine, 11 pieces of art and 26 boxes of books that I positively could not live without.

Today I possess no art, no furniture, maybe 3 books and the change in my pockets is the only coin I own. I’m definitely in my minimalist period.

Yes like @Dutchess_III I haven’t been a hoarder but I do have a lot of stuff (being in the “marital home”) and I am now at a phase of life where I don’t want to acquire more things. As I have the energy for it, I am gradually clearing out various closets and areas of the household.

Beware of your possessions, or they’ll end up possessing you.

Still in my hoarding phase. Will let you know if I ever leave the dark side. If I can find the phone

I don’t hoard in a traditional sense. But I used to hoard data. Around 2002 Bittorent became a thing. Problem is my iMac only had a 20GB hard drive in 2002 and DVD burners were crazy expensive.

For some reason, by volume my possessions were 75% burned CDs. And we are talking stupid shit, like episodes of That 70’s show and 24 that I would never watch again. There was no real reason to hoard that crap on CD. But I wasted time and money burning them to CD.

I go through many, many rounds of hoarding and purging (when I can’t stand the clutter).

I also hoard pictures that give me great ideas for drawing, but I never get to it and my picture file just gets larger and larger :( Unlike everything else, I never clear it because I MIGHT want to use these colours/draw a pose like that/etc.

@girassol Ha! I also hoard pictures for drawing and collage reference. I’m not even sure why I still do it. It’s pretty archaic considering we can just pull up images online and print them. :P

I’ve done the reverse. I was a bit of a minimalist until the end of college. Things that I think contributed to this change:
– my brother sold off or gave away my belongings that I had left at home
– I went through a messy break-up with my fiancé/boyfriend (and our shared circle of friends)
– I discovered this whole reuse culture in the Bay Area, everything had potential, nothing was trash
– the whole DIY movement kind of took off around this time (~1999), which compounded the previous reason

@girassol yes, there is always that MIGHT need it in the future at some point! :-)