Celebrate Pack-Rat Day: Ideas to Get Organized on May Holiday

Let's be realistic: Many of us have a tendency to put things away, hoping or planning possibly one day to use the item again or even for the first time. No matter what you call it - being a clutter bug, collector or slob - this is actually having a pack-rat mentality.

Although there is no known creator or origin of this holiday, May 17 has been set aside to observe Pack Rat Day. And while this idea may seem frivolous to some, it may be a relief to others. Take Fred Sanford from the hit television show Sanford and Son, to many he may have been considered a junk man, but to him he was sitting on a gold mine of specialty items.

Sad but true, we're all guilty of it. We stash things away and use the excuse "we'll get to it later", or "I may need that at some point in time", or even "someone may need it" - so on and so forth. Our homes, cars, offices, closets, beds, garages, attics are just some places we pack rat. Mail, clothes, pictures, appliances, old tools, and other treasures are just a few of the items we clutter into places.

People who are organized are sometimes called neat freaks, anal retentive and even obsessive-compulsive. These folks feel if their surroundings are unorganized then their lives are unorganized. When they are unable to find things easily they can quickly become completely overwhelmed! When a neat freak and pack rat live in the same environ or home, this is a situation ripe for anxiety, anger and misunderstanding.

The two different personality types need to learn to communicate about how it feels to live in an unorganized - or an over organized environment - and come to an agreement on the level of orderliness or disorderliness. The remaining part of this article is going to talk to the Pack Rat and provide some ideas about how they can become less of a hoarder and keep their agreement with the neat freak.

OK? Now, for those of us who have trouble with keeping or needing to many things, here are a few ideas about things you can do on May 17 - National Pack Rat Day - to start to make a change in your surroundings. If you live in a family that has a pack rat lurking around, you can start to take charge of your communal lives while at the same time making things fun, although a bit challenging, and possibly even profitable. The idea is to initiate a Pack Rat Day event for May 17. If you are reading this after May 17, have no fear. This strategy can work well on any day of the year.

To keep things running smoothly on Pack Rat Day, each family member should be responsible for a specific area of the home to clean up and organize. Give everyone a certain time limit to complete their task. Ensure that each person understands they have the responsibility for placing items neatly, into three separate piles; one pile one for throwaway, another pile two for donating, and a last pile for going into a garage sale. This is where the profitability mentioned earlier comes into the picture.

When all the areas or rooms in the house are sorted into these three piles, someone has to be responsible for taking all of the items in the trash pile to the trash and someone else, or maybe even the same person, has to take all of the giveaway items to where they are going to be donated. You can even get a receipt from many donation centers to be used as a tax deduction on your year's taxes. Another profitable aspect of cleaning up!

Now that things are finally back in order and in their appropriate place. It's time to take care of the last pile of items - the garage sale ones. Each individual is responsible for collecting any and all of the garage sale items that they have ownership of together in a neat pile and tag them with their initials and the price they want for each item. At the end of the garage sale, the money collected is split according to the tags for each family member.

The whole motivation for all this work is that everyone gets to keep the money their items brought at the garage sale. But...there is one catch - they can only buy items that will help the family stay de-cluttered. Things like storage containers for toys, labels, book shelves file organizers, shoe racks and/or shelves etc.

Rest assured that when Pack Rate Day, May 17 rolls around next year, all the procrastinating, mumbling, grumbling and lolly-gagging the family members did the previous year will seem like a figment of their imagination. If you plan your Pack Rat Day event well, all the hard work that is put forth will feel like fun and that it is worth the work. The family will not only have had that opportunity to spend quality time together but they will have earned some money to boot!