From whence it started, I do not know. I remember buying things which I now tend to
hoard, on an as needed basis. But, at
some point, that stopped, and I started a buying frenzy.
I remember when Sarah was a child, I started taking
advantage of back to school sales. Instead
of buying 5 notebooks, I bought 10 or 15.
Instead of buying 2 or 3 glue sticks, I bought 10 or 15. Same thing with wrapping paper, especially
when her school would have fund raisers.
I would buy several rolls of gift wrap, plus several rolls of holiday
wrap when on half price. So fast forward
to 2019, I still have several notebooks and about 40-50 rolls of assorted gift
wrap. You can never have enough…. until you do.
And I do.
When we moved into this house with its separate library, I
believed I had carte blanche to buy as many books as I wanted. Lots.
In my previous blog, I talked about my book hoarding. Then, I went on a no spend year and stopped
the madness. Slowly, I have been giving
away or donating books as well as finally reading those I had not had the
chance to previously read. I use the library
when a new book comes out. Put on hold,
pick up, then read and return. Now as we
are getting ready to downsize, I am going at this book business a little more
aggressively.
This carries on with my sewing habits (tons of fabric) and
crafting supplies. I am not getting rid
of any of these as I do believe when that day comes when I am officially
retired, I will use every sheet of beautiful paper, probably 1000s of them, as
well as every yard of fabric.
The latest discovery of my hoarding occurred when I decided
to organize my recipes. I am embarrassed
to admit to you, though I will, in an effort at self-healing, that I have
thousands of recipes. I have four legal
red ropes filled with recipes. Two
recipe boxes and one decorative cardboard box…filled. In one email box, I have 450 saved recipes; in
the second email box, 410 recipes and in my favorites, over #1000 saved. All told, well over 3,000 recipes!!!
To organize, I started with the red ropes first. Sorted recipes by category and weeded out
those recipes that I know I will never make.
MHN is a Jewish lactose intolerant vegetarian. (I might as well have tossed all the recipes in
the trash!!) I am cutting waaay back
on the amount of beef and pork which I eat, so many of those recipes met their
demise over this past long weekend. My largest
collection of recipes is in the “Goodie” red rope. Cakes, pies, cookies, cupcakes and the like. Not so quick to lose those!!
So, aside from getting ready for the downsize, I am entering
this assignment in anticipation of my new year resolutions. Yes, I have already written them. As Rosh Hoshana approaches, I haven’t yet
decided at which new year these resolutions will commence, so stay tuned. 😊
(PS. Interestingly
enough, my daughter exhibited hoarder tendencies with beanie babies and lip balms;
graduated to purses and shoes and now, as a sculptor, its her tools. Her collection would make a grown man cry!)
