Lamp Shades, Toothbrushes and Plastic Silverware

I continually point fingers at Darin for hoarding his old clothes.  You know, the ones that fit in high school that are definitely going to fit again, except they're so out of style, who'd want to wear them if that dream did come true?  Yeah, he keeps 'em all.  Or kept them all, until I got my hands on them.  However, every time we move it becomes abundantly clear that I should really be pointing the finger at myself.

I have a problem.

I am a collector.  Of toothbrushes (you never know who's going to forget one while visiting), plastic silverware (because every time I throw a party I buy a new box and never get rid of the ones that aren't used) and apparently, in this recent move, of lamp shades.  Box after box after box was added to the towers we were creating in the living room.  Darin asked the simple question of "why do we have so many lamp shades?" To which the simple answer should be, "Because we have a lot of lamps."  But no.  No we don't.  I was hoping when I opened all the boxes there would only be one shade per box.  But again, no.  There were two, sometimes three, per box.  Seriously.  What is wrong with me?  I am apparently very cheap because in reality, I get rid of ugly lamps, but I keep the shades "just in case" I need them for a new lamp...they are so expensive!

Whenever I start to stockpile items Darin and I call it "pulling an Aunt Joyce"...out of love for my Aunt Joyce.  When she passed away and I was helping my family clean out her house we came upon box after container after drawer of plastic silverware.  We all laughed about the Apocalypse coming and her being more than prepared.  But who do you think went home with all that silverware...after it was washed and dried?  Me.  Why didn't we just throw it away?  Because it was perfectly good silverware!  Plastic silverware.

So, you see, every time I come home with more toothbrushes "because they were on sale" or Bath & Body Works hand soap (we currently have 7 of those in the linen closet...and one at every sink), or, heaven help me, more plastic silverware, Darin makes fun of me for pulling an Aunt Joyce, I make fun of myself for pulling an Aunt Joyce and then I smile that I had an Aunt Joyce to joke about.  It makes the cycle much harder to break.