Hoarders

Things I holdo onto:

So I was watching Dr. Phil the other day and the topic of the show was hoarders. There were guests on the show that held onto everything and I do mean EVERYTHING. One lady actually stored every outfit, picture, toy...pretty much anything that was touched by her daughters in her home. One time while cooking....she accidentally dropped a noodle into the burner of her stove. She actually turned her stove off, recovered the noodle, washed it off and put it into a velvet cloth where it sits on her counter today. Needless to say, her house was a mess. Another guy was tearing his family apart because he refused to throw away the piles and piles of junk in every room of his house. His wife moved into a trailer outside of their house and his son had a nervous breakdown. But he was still upset when a family member decided to toss some of his things out.

So I got to thinking...I have a messy life. Here are the things I hold onto...

I hold onto clothes. Mainly old t-shirts that I tell myself will be of good use as nightgowns.
I hold onto papers. Flyers, scraps of papers with phone numbers on them, papers from college courses, old bills and notices, applications and forms. Sometimes I'll come across papers that I've written my freshman year and pat myself on the back. lol, what nerve!
I also keep a lot of newspapers, because I feel it's important to keep up to date on what's going on in the world. Guess I forgot that I have to actually read them to find out.
I hold onto shoes. I have a lot of old shoes. They fill my closet and the shoe rack on my door.
I hold onto boxes. Where else would I put all my stuff. I think I need the boxes.
I hold onto every compliment I get. You never know when you'll need to remember a kind word.
I hold onto every love letter/poem I've ever gotten. Guess this goes into the papers category.
Sadly, I hold onto every long-winded, vicious letter/email I've ever gotten from an ex boyfriend. And despite my wonderful character...I've gotten a few in my day.
I hold onto friends. Even ones that I haven't talked to for a while. I still consider them my friends, even if they've long forgotten me.
I hold onto every argument I've ever had with anyone outside of my family.
I hold onto grudges. :-(
I hold onto loose change. You never know when you're going to need that extra penny.
I hold onto old dreams and goals. Even though I know I'll probaly never be a journalist, it doesn't stop me from writing these articles.
I hold onto the hope that this world will one day get better and I'll be alive to see it.
I hold onto any drop of wisdom that I get from my mother and/or older, wiser people.
I hold onto cd's. I have so many mixed cd's I don't know what's on them anymore, so I keep them all.
I hold onto the junk on my computer's hardrive. Which is really slowing Emma down (Emma is the name of my computer).
I hold onto relationships that will not work with guys that I know will not make good boyfriends or that I'm not compatible with.
I hold onto bottles of water. I have a million of them floating around in my car.
I hold onto pictures...even the most indistinguishable ones...where you can't tell what's going on through all of the blur. Tearing or cutting a picture up in front of me is sacreligious.
I hold onto books. I have dozens and dozens of books. Even little pamphlet, paperback type reading material.

So there! I've held onto a lot of things in my life. Maybe I need to sort through this article and decide what I should let go.