KFC Dumpster Diving Old Lady

[tollbaby]

That's only if it was served dry in the first place. I've had leftover white meat chicken, cooked many different ways (that I made), and never once dry.

Come to think of it. I'll get a rotisserie chicken, have some right away, and then a couple of days later make chicken salad out of the rest. Those are never dry, either.

It's KFC - KFC the next day, no matter how you store it, is dry.

[ThirdGenRetail]

Andara, you might want to have your family intervene there and get some of that stuff sorted into storage units... Either it was a great-grandmother or a great-great grandmother, but one of them was like that... She kept literally EVERYTHING Buttons and zippers in tin cans from old shirts, pants, and coats, etc. She kept money in mattresses, apparently... I'll need to verify with Mother about how much it was, but it was a LOT.

And then her house burned down and it all turned to ash.

Just a bit of warning there D: I hate to imagine that happening to someone else, especially with antiques D:

I think the pack rat factor turned into a gene in my family... My grandparents grew up in the Depression, instilled some stuff on my mother, aunts, and uncle... We don't pack rat to the extreme degrees, but we still do it... I've told Mother we should go through our stuff and donate clothes we don't wear to something like Good Will or something, because we've got a shed out back full of stuff, and our third bedroom only has a path because the rest is full of MORE stuff.

-Eyeballs two old computer towers- Not that I'm much better, but I at least TRY to control my clutter... Unfortunately... When it comes to cleaning... I'm stubborn as a mule *Sheepish look*

But, we're not too picky about the stuff we pick up. Our whole dining set cost about... $20 at a thrift store. Not bad, for the four chairs not even matching the table. My old TV was dying... Behold, convenience, a Blockbuster near us closed, and we ended up buying 4/7 of their TVs(First one, ideal one, the screen's almost black...). $10 a TV, for TVs that usually cost about $200 or MORE. But that was semi-necessity due to the old TV dying(Couldn't program a remote to it, if I wanted to turn the volume up/down or turn it on/off, I had to go up to it to do it... And it'd often turn the volume down instead of turning off. It turned off on its OWN a few times, too!).

While I'd not say no to free food(Another one passed down even to my generation of the family... And a co-worker a bit older than my mother had it instilled in him by HIS parents to never turn down free food)... I'd never dig in the trash for it! I'm borderline germophobic, I won't even touch MY trash without washing my hands in scalding water after wards, let alone eatery garbage of any kind! (Too many gum wads under desks during school, I guess?)

[Flying Grype]

ThirdGenRetail, I remember something on the news not too long ago about a hoarder who died in a house fire because he couldn't get out. There was all this flammable stuff, and not enough clear pathways, and the back door was completely blocked with stacked papers.

[ThirdGenRetail]

There we go, then Encourage hoarders to put their stuff in neatly organized storage units, then they can at least have a house and still move around... And still have their stuff!

[telecom_goddess]

My mother was born in 1920 and grew up in the depression (I however was not born until 1965 ) She saved all kinds of useless goddamn crap, like hundreds of pill bottles. My daughter just lives like a pig in her room and I"m constantly fighting to keep her from keeping garbage in there and dirty dishes for days on end.

I am just the opposite I like my house neat clean and tidy and won't hold on to much of anything. I have a few books/cds/photo albums/papers but I've also thrown out a TON of stuff. The last three moves I did I threw out even more crap. I can't stand hoarding.

Oh and btw as far as KFC goes...I got food poisoning there ONCE years ago and never went back. Never mind the chicken being dry....you're lucky if it's cooked all the way.

[blas]

After my Nanna died (my mom's grandma, also another horrible packrat, but it didn't get out of control until she got Alzheimers), my family went to clean out her house, and you would think they were kids in a candy store, my dad and my grandpa (mom's dad) and my great aunt and uncle went just ballistic.

They got me some old furniture, but actually threatened me, within an INCH of my life and position in the family, if I EVER sold or got rid of any of that furniture. If I didn't want any of it, speak now or give it to one of them, because this stuff is FAMILY HEIRLOOMS and does NOT belong in any secondhand store or in ANY garbage!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*sorry, the caps were necessary, very necessary, if you knew my grampa*

They were so important, that grandpa left ALL of the crap he took in my parents' basement for over a YEAR. Combined with all my dad's crap, that was just a huge mess like I described on the first page.

He even trudged his feet on coming back to WI and getting the stuff. Among it was a baby's highchair probably from the early 1900s, probably completely unsafe. "NO, THAT CHAIR WAS USED FOR ALL OF US KIDS AND IT IS TOTALLY SAFE! WE ARE GOING TO GIVE IT TO YOUR UNCLE FOR WHEN HE HAS KIDS!"....yeah and I'm sure my Uncle is going to toss it away.

I can understand if they kept or really wanted their crap, but most of it just sits there and doesn't move. And they threaten me within an inch of my being if I get rid of what I have?!!?!?

[wagegoth]

Blas, depending on what your dad has, maybe you should put a call in to those weird guys on "American Pickers." They might buy a bunch of it.

[XCashier]

I'm watching one of those Hoarder shows and this one lady bought the house next to hers just to store stuff.

That Hoarders show can be scary. I saw an episode where an elderly woman had, amongst tons of other clutter over sixty pet birds in her house!!! There were feathers and droppings everywhere, stuff had holes eaten in it due to the acidic droppings, and when the cleaners started shoveling through the clutter, they found ancient, rat-eaten phone books and mummified rodents.

My grandma wasn't quite that bad, but after she died, Mom started cleaning the place and threw out three large garbage bags of coffee cans and margarine tubs! I don't think she's made much progress since, that much garbage and nobody to help out is very intimidating.

[Magpie]

At least margarine tubs aren't really garbage so much as they are necessary kitchen supplies. She had a problem of scale only... (Coffee tins are necessary kitchen supplies too, how else are you supposed to bake a real babka?)

[BookstoreEscapee]

There we go, then Encourage hoarders to put their stuff in neatly organized storage units, then they can at least have a house and still move around... And still have their stuff!

Yeah, the problem with that is if they don't address the root cause of the hoarding (generally related to anxiety disorders such as OCD) the person is just going to fill up the space again with more crap.

That Hoarders show can be scary. I saw an episode where an elderly woman had, amongst tons of other clutter over sixty pet birds in her house!!!

I saw one where they had about 17 dogs (including one who'd just had a new litter of puppies). They removed the dogs to shelters, but they thought they'd have to put down the oldest one. They ended up being able to treat him and he was living happily at the shelter at the end of the episode.

I admit to being a bit of a clutterbug, but watching those shows makes me feel better about myself, at least. I don't keep actual trash, and there are no rotting food scraps or animal droppings in my place, at least. It truly is clutter but I can move around my apartment (mostly it's in my room since I have a roommate) without risking my life. I remember one woman who described her completely unuseable bathroom as "cluttered" and I thought, "no, my room is cluttered; that is just sad."

[wagegoth]

That Hoarders show can be scary. I saw an episode where an elderly woman had, amongst tons of other clutter over sixty pet birds in her house!!! There were feathers and droppings everywhere, stuff had holes eaten in it due to the acidic droppings, and when the cleaners started shoveling through the clutter, they found ancient, rat-eaten phone books and mummified rodents.

It was the woman with all the cats that freaked me out. They found so many cat carcasses in the garage, it was like an Egyptian tomb. Then, they found more IN the house, along with other rotted, disgusting things.

[mattm04]

I know a older women who will save plastic Ziploc bags, even if they say had raw meat in it. Just rinse it out and good as new, OW says. Uh, no.

They wonder why no one will eat their food. I did once and some some quality time staring at the Throne.

With me, clutter such as paper, etc, never rotting food etc will may build up for a few weeks before I go thru it all. If i know I don't need it i immidealty toss it, but if i have a question it goes in a pile and then if after a few weeks I know i have no need for it, it goes bye-bye. Otherwise I will file it.

[Kogarashi]

The closest I've come to keeping trash around are occasional piles of mailers and stuff that I plan to go through "later," and one box of magazines and the like that I actually plan on shredding to use as packing materials. The rest of my mess is "clutter," not trash. I'll admit that I'm a bit of a pack rat, but nothing near a hoarder.

And as a plus to my parents, from whom I get those pack rat genes, they're cleaning out their house this week and holding a yard sale!

[wagegoth]

I've learned to go through the mail as soon as I get home, or it just piles up and things go missing. Important things. I don't even sit down on the way to the garbage.

[XCashier]

At least margarine tubs aren't really garbage so much as they are necessary kitchen supplies. She had a problem of scale only... (Coffee tins are necessary kitchen supplies too, how else are you supposed to bake a real babka?)

Yeah, but how many do you need? One or two, sure. Not three 55-gallon sized trash bags full!

We've got a lot of junk acquired, too. Fortunately almost all of it is in a storage room (the apartment is reasonably tidy), and we'll be sorting that out next week. If you don't keep an eye on what you've got (ie, tidy up every few days and throw out the excess), it does accumulate.

There's a fine line between "plenty" and "too much".