The apple doesn't fall far

I come from a long line of pack rats. Well, I am third generation, at least. My maternal grandmother was great for not throwing anything away. She was also great for taking salt and pepper shakers from restaurants, but that is neither here nor there. My mom inherited the pack rat trait, and her home is filled with what I lovingly call: crap.

Maybe six months or so ago, I went to my mom's house to help her clean out one of her closets. I was excited to throw away every dried flower arrangement I saw, as well as every holiday themed sweater or sweatshirt. And my oh my, there was a sh!tload!

There were many clothes that were still in the dry cleaning bags, and I can understand that. I often keep clothes in the bag to avoid dust and cat hair. However, when I went to take a look at what was in this particular dry cleaning bag, the receipt was still attached to the bag, and the receipt was from the dry cleaner in the town I grew up in, not in the city where my mom currently lives. No big deal right? Well, my mother moved to her current home in 1998. 1998!!


Isn't there some rule about cleaning out your closet, and if you haven't worn it in a year or something like that, you aren't going to.

The other day I was on the phone with my mom and she is getting ready to go on a trip, so she cleaned out her refrigerator so she wouldn't come home to any odd smells. She told me that she found the box of baking soda she put in the fridge to keep it fresh. She had even written the date on the box so that she would know when to replace it. The date on the box? 2004! I think that box of baking soda soaked up all the stink it was able to in 2006.

Recently, I was cleaning out my closet and found an old plastic box thingy, and it had a prescription label on it. The date on the label? 1968.


me: "Hi, my name is Natalie and I'm a pack rat."

PRA*: "Hi Natalie!"


*PRA=pack rats anonymous