The Pack Rat Artist

How do you deal with pack rat artists and how do you cope with being one?

I inherited of a lot of great traits from my dad I think but one of the not so cool ones is being a pack rat.

There is a positive aspect of this I think, that maybe more people should think about, which is to not throw everything away. Especially things that can be reused such as packaging, parts of what I would call solids: metal, wood, glass,… Durable items that can be reused or repurposed.

However, the negative aspect of the pack rat syndrome is when we keep too many materials that we will not use for years. Or when I find myself with a stash of yarn, fabric, beads,… that I feel I won’t be able to use during my time on this earth. I realize that I could let the yarn stores, bead stores be my back stock and that I don’t need to fill my house so much.

Knowing this about myself as they say is half the problem solved. I am not in denial. But I need to work every day on not being tempted. A friend told me once “I don’t need to own everything that I find beautiful” which makes a lot of sense and I need to work on this seriously.

This is one of these constant resolutions for me as someone who does not make New Year’s resolutions. Instead I have year round reminders of what I would like to change in myself and work on every day.