Am increasingly convinced that Compulsive Packrat Syndrome (CPS) is its own disease, worthy of study and a listing in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Heck, maybe it alert does, I mean there are reality TV shows.
The problem, fundamentally, is that CPS reinforces itself just often enough that we continue to save ALL THE THINGS.

Witness, the extra critter cage that languished in our basement over a year, but was there when we needed it so we had a ready home for swallowtail caterpillars that obliterated enjoyed my dill to the point where they might have starved without my daughter’s beneficent intervention.

As much as I love the idea of simplification, it’s hard to purge belongings when crap-in-the-basement saves the day, yet again!