Hoarding or saving? Where do you draw the line?

[ladyhk13]

I have a habit of never throwing away hardly a thing. DH blows out the knees of his jeans and I have a pile for that...the zippers will come in handy some day, the pockets could be removed and sewn on something else (don't know what yet, but I know I'll need them someday), the rest of it will be cut up and made into a quilt. I find fabric that I like for $1.00 a yard and I buy the whole bolt (ok, it's 20 yards but I may have to make clothes with it, or reupholster a chair or braid it into a rug or make a quilt or trade it for something else I need). I find canning jars or lids on sale and I buy every case/box the store has because I know that I'll use them someday...maybe not this year but next...or maybe there won't be any available next year. I start eating yogurt around this time of year so I can save all the containers to start my seedlings over the winter...gonna be lots of them. If I buy new feather pillows I will save the old ones in case I need the feathers for something else. I save the little moisture absorbant packets that come in my pills or in beef jerky and put them all in a big bottle to reuse later......
Does anyone else do this kind of stuff? When I look at things I hate to throw them away if I think I can use them again later for something else. I have plastic bins of material just waiting to be used and old jeans to become someone's quilt to keep them warm when we one day have no power. I don't know if that's the survivor in me or me being a hoarder? Everything is nice and neat and put away so it's not like you see on t.v. but does that make a difference?

[LUNCHBOX]

I think organization makes it saving. You also have plans and uses for the items you keep, thats more than what they portray on those tv shows. If it gets to where you can't walk around in the house then rethink it.

[ladyhk13]

Well I guess I'm still safe then. I keep things in those Rubbermade tubs in closets or on shelves or in the attic. I don't like clutter and everything has a place and my DH is the same way. I did tell him the other day though that we should go out to our range (we have a shooting range on our property) and dig up all the rifle bullets and melt down the lead from the copper. There has to be a use for each one of those...as much as we've put down range there's gotta be a lot of it! Why let it go to waste?

[LUNCHBOX]

If you can get the lead and re-cast it for a muzzleloader that would come in handy. Or even sale the lead/brass and put that $$$ towards something else. (that idea free from the gear pimp)

[ladyhk13]

Probably better to hang onto it and reuse it ourselves...we sold our brass a couple of years ago to a gun shop and made pennies on it. Would have been better off keeping it and reloading it (which is what we do now). Lessions learned. Might be a tradeable item later (the lead)? We don't use muzzle loaders but someone else might and could use it.

[LUNCHBOX]

Good for you on the reloading...you can use the brass and lead in that case. If not, you could still trade it away now or later.

[ladyhk13]

Yup, got my own reloader...can do 9mm and .45. DH does all the rifles on his because he does custom bullets for each rifle we have. We have our bench set up with my reloader on one side and his on the other.

[JustAPrepper]

Dang, Lady! You and I must be on the same wavelength lately! I've been wondering the same thing! I was just thinking yesterday that I feel like I'm already living in during a depression where nothing gets thrown away without careful consideration as to what other purpose it might fulfill.

I save the grocery bags from Walmart but only there because they're white and presently I use them in the bathrooms. Our bathrooms are white so it still looks nicer than having a brown plastic bag from other stores. I fold them all up nicely and put them in gallon ziplocks and stack the baggies neatly on a shelf.

I save bread ties because I use them in the garden. Toss them in a ziplock and put them in a drawer.

I save glass jars of all shapes and sizes. They come in handy for all kinds of things, especially homemade mixes and such and I don't have to use my canning jars.

I've started opening my canning jars carefully and saving the used lids...just in case. I've heard that some old timers used to do it and reuse them. I know you're not supposed to but if things ever get desperate, well, desperate times call for desperate measures.

I wash and reuse tinfoil if it's just a piece I used to temporarily cover something.

I'm sure I do more but that's all I can think of right now.

[mollypup]

I like watching "Hoarders" tv series for some perverted reason. I understand that these people really do have an emotional/mental problem with being unable to throw anything away, and the really sick ones can't even throw their personal waste away. So, I seriously doubt you are a hoader Ladyhk13. Since you keep everything neatly stored and like Luncbox said, if you can easily walk around then you're probably o.k. If you have stuff saved for like 20 years with the intention to use it, but have never used it, it might need to be discarded, I don't know.

My husband wants to accuse me of hoarding but he really knows I'm not. I keep our prep stuff in the basement, neatly organized, and it's purely prep stuff. I don't go on shopping sprees and bring home useless items that do nothing but take up space. The upstairs of our house is nice and clear of clutter and I like it that way. The basement is easy to walk around except for the pile of lumber I got at Lowe's for next to nothing. I bought that to board up the windows when SHTF. He just doesn't like that I prep or the reasons why. I won't go into it as you already know all about it, but needless to say we aren't on the same page as far as prepping goes.

I do let go of clothes that have worn out, haven't thought about the uses you have for them and maybe I should. But the clothes that are still good but the girls have outgrown I give away to charity. Maybe I should keep them for barter or just for gifts, but I don't like them taking up my prepping space downstairs.

Hoarding is very different from prepping, but I can see how the boarder between the two can get blurry to some people. I was in a hoarder's house once when I was a teenager and I couldn't believe my eyes!!! Stuff was all over the place and literally stacked nearly up to the ceiling. I was real skinny then and had to turn sideways just to maneuver down the hall to my friends room. That wasn't prepping, that was hoarding. My heart does go out to hoarders though, they're usually real sweet people but with a serious problem. I guess they have to hit bottom too with their disease just like addicts and alcoholics. When the hoarding is ruining their lives and making them miserable they might ask for help.

I'd love to learn how to make braided rugs out of old bluejeans! I think they would look awesome and last for years.

[Gunfixr]

Prepping is acquiring items of need in advance of needing them when they might be unavailable.
Hoarding is piling up everything you might think you could possibly want or need, to the point of excess.
Clearly, the definitions have gray edges. Hoarders typically suffer from a form of OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), and they have varying degrees of control over what they do. Preppers have total control over what they do.
Based on what you've said, you're both a prepper and a hoarder. This is not meant as an insult, as we are exactly the same way, so I speak from experience. Not throwing away broken items because you might be able to use parts from them is classic hoarding. A lot of this comes from older generations who lived through the Depression, and had to do this just to survive, as they could not get replacements for many things. Thus, any kind of repair parts were like gold. We get much of this from family.
I won't throw anything away that has something as a part of it that I might be able to use. My Dad is this way, as was his mother. I like to watch the show "Hoarders" also. They are really us having gone to an extreme level. Things that we still see as junk to be discarded they do not, and therefore keep. It's all a form of OCD, theirs is just much worse.
I hope I'm not raining on your parade, I'm not trying to. Like I said, we at this house are the same. Some hoarding isn't necessarily a bad thing, so long as it doesn't get out of hand.
My kids have it, and their rooms actually got to the point where they looked like the tv show houses. I cleaned them, with a shovel and garden rake, and a pickup truck. Two fullsize pickup loads from my son's room, one from my daughter's. And they still have stuff.