Bargain hunter extraordinaire.....?

Not only does my DH hoard things which will 'come in handy later' but when his father died over a decade ago and the DH went up north to oversee the house clearance he came home with 'handy things' (like pieces of wood!) his father hoarded 'for later' near the middle of the last century. Needless to say they are still festering in the garage waiting for that special day when a manky piece of aged wood is the only thing which will complete the invention to rival the internet.

I will not complain though. The DH has just had the OK from the doc's that the cancer biopsy has got the all clear. I would put up with any amount of old tat to keep the hoarder around for a bit longer.

DH's family nickname is 'Steptoe'!
He's obsessed with things that may 'come in useful' at some point, and the shed is chock a block with 'stuff'!
However, he actually makes good choices in what he gathers, we have a 10ft x 20ft greenhouse which he got from a work colleague who was throwing it away. We took it down in pieces, labelled them, and rebuilt it in our garden, all for the price of a crate of strong ale!
Our water feature was another freebie, the base and workings again from a colleague, and the enormous piece of slate from a neighbour who was moving to a flat. The slate was a bit of a fiend to drill through, but it looks beautiful and it cost nothing!
I dread him taking anything to the local tip, as he almost always comes back with just as much as he took!
But.....we have a lovely drop leaf wooden table in the garden, made by DH from pallets he picked up at the tip, brackets to hang pots from the garden fence posts, again courtesy of the tip and a mosaic covered small table; he found the broken tiles at the tip and I designed the table to use them on!
Oh, I almost forgot the raised vegetable beds, again made with pallets from the tip!
Although the 'stuff' drives me to distraction, I keep quiet about it, because most of it turns out to be useful at some point!

I love hearing about the things that have been useful, recycled (do I mean upcycled?) but this thread really hits home. We got together late in life ten years ago. I've moved house many times so have never had the opportunity to be a hoarder, only keeping a few special things each time. On the other hand.... let's just say that when OH finally sold the house he and his late wife had lived in for thirty five years it was a nightmare emptying the cupboards, loft, garage and greenhouse. Why keep your broken kettles in the loft? They will not be useful one day, that's why you bought a new one. I have banned him from putting things in the loft - the shed and garage are bursting at the seams. It wouldn't be so bad if it was tidy but it's just chucked in. When he wants something he can't find it so has to go out and buy it anyway. I can't stand it so just don't go in them. It's a pain as access from the front to the back of the house should be through the garage. I complained yesterday and was told 'Well, you just have to move the bikes, the ladder, a few boxes and you can get through' I don't think so. Rant over.

Can't say hubby is a hoarder but he is an excellent shopper!

Every time he goes to buy a loaf of bread he says they ' insisted ' I take home a ' free ' bottle of whisky again. Hmmmmm.

We also have a loft full of stuff that my DH won't contemplate throwing out. And in the garage and in his shed and in his study. He has collections of old video tapes, recordings of Shogun, all the Bond movies etc, etc and of course we don't have a player any more and no one wants them not even the charity shops or the tip. No one knows what to do with them and they can't be recycled. Boxes of books. Every time we have a sort out stuff just gets moved around. I like the previous idea of sneaking stuff down to the tip but I'd feel so guilty. It's not mine to throw out!

My DH is a different type of hoarder. When he finds something after a difficult search he has to buy lots in case he can't find it again. This is bad enough for things without sell by dates but he does it with food. 20 packets of bulgar wheat as I had trouble finding it - I don't think we can eat it all before the sell by date. Another thing was a hot sauce he liked, it lasted so long that I ran out because I hadn't had to think about buying it for three years.

I had an uncle like that queenmab99 - going to the dump was his passion! There wasn't anything he couldn't find at the dump - well that was his line to his wife, and that was his excuse for never ever buying anything new from a store. But honestly his house and garage was full to the rafters with odd looking junk and half completed projects that were always missing the crucial pieces! His wife, my Aunt, just couldn't talk any sense into him and this passion for bargain hunting at the dump became a complete obsession the older he got! He was really weird in the end.

Katek I would encourage your husband to sell things on Ebay more often. I am just about to go to a 4 x 2hr session class over the next 5 weeks ( Feb half term no class) to learn to buy and sell on Ebay.

I tend to have too many things. When I was at work I had a large enough wardrobe not to run out of clothes if anything happened and to be able to go to interviews at a moment's notice, or to a funeral etc. Now I am consolidating and reducing and refocusing my wardrobe.

I have too many items in the kitchen where I am now focusing on lighter weight ware, that fits in the over two to a shelf. A friend with a family has taken some larger dishes.

However I still have stuff from work, mother's stuff, father's stuff - am going to family history course to help decide how to resolve this by creating legacy folders and maybe going on to write a memoir. I also have unwanted gifts which I used for raffle prizes etc.

I send husband food shopping if I can. He loves Aldi and Lidle as they have some really useful things. He is good at getting rid of things at the tip were apparently the people on duty are helpful. and they do not have food bargains 2 for the price of one. When he goes to Waitrose I get all sorts of things I've not planned for. If I don't know what I'm going to do with them I freeze them to give me time. Hence 2 marvellous pork chops out of the freezer one evening when we had nothing very appetizing on the menu.

CORRECTION FOR LAST PARA ABOVE

I send husband food shopping if I can. He loves Aldi and Lidle as they have some really useful things. And they do not have food bargains 2 for the price of one. When he goes to Waitrose I get all sorts of things I've not planned for. If I don't know what I'm going to do with them I freeze them to give me time. Hence 2 marvellous pork chops out of the freezer one evening when we had nothing very appetizing on the menu.

DH is also good at getting rid of things at the tip were apparently the people on duty are helpful.