the.com/pack rat
A person who keeps everything because 'might need it later' is a lifestyle, not a plan.
means Someone who compulsively hoards possessions, unable to throw anything away on the chance it might someday be useful.
from Borrowed straight from the actual animal — the bushy-tailed woodrat of North America, nicknamed 'pack rat' because it stuffs its den with any shiny or interesting object it finds, often swapping one item for another rather than just adding to the pile. By the 1800s Americans had turned the rodent's habit into a label for people with the same magpie-ish instinct to collect and keep.
- origin
- named after a real rodent that hoards shiny objects
- the swap
- wood rats literally trade items, dropping one to grab another
- modern form
- now mostly manifests as 47 open browser tabs
- diagnosis
- clutter plus sentimental justification equals certified pack rat