from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. The behavior of a packrat; a tendency to collect miscellanea or bric-a-brac, often to excess.
Sorry, no etymologies found.
My father is the faint echo of my grandparents 'need to cling to everything they ever owned, and I am the faint echo of that cannonshot of packrattery, and even so I am still made as happy by possessions as my wife is made unhappy by posessions.
We've been together for 10 years, and through a combination of reading/education and arguments, his packrattery is somewhat curtailed.
In your digital life, packrattery won't crowd you out of your house.