Well, that certainly explains everything

To put it simply, I'm mentally ill. That came as a BIG surprise to me, perhaps not so much to others, but I was still surprised.

I thought my problem was that I taught school for twenty-nine years (actually longer, but it didn't count), and have been a crafter all my life. I thought this was a normal behavior, as long as it didn't overtake your life.
I am a, gasp, pack rat. Can this be like AA? Could this be the first step? But I don't see this as a real problem with the exceptions of running out of storage space and time to put said kept things away - both which are happening to me.

When you teach, you never know what kinds of things you need. When I was teaching (science for those who don't know), we had a lab that used the packing peanuts. That is an item that is not always easily found - especially when you need them! So I would save them. The only time there was a problem was when the bag would fall out of the cabinet and according to the law, it would open and, well, you know the rest.

I still tend to collect these peanuts. Now because I hear they are really good to put in the bottom of large pots that will hold giant plants. It makes the pots lighter and easier to move. If I only had time to repot my plants.

I have kept scraps of material from projects I have sewn in the past year. I'm not sure what to use them for, but I think I have an idea. I am making cloth coasters. I think they will work well for that.

For a long time, I kept my hero's magazines. I think she would be thrilled and appalled at the same time, but her staff would find a way to organize them perfectly - even if it meant building a new set for her show. I wish that worked around here.

In a perfect world, I would have the exact storage item and space for all my collected treasures. I would have time to put them in the storage item and in the specific place. Even better, I would remember WHERE I stored the item.

Yep, all those people writing about pack rats are right. We ARE mentally ill.