pack rat

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pack rat

A person who collects and hoards worthless items. Primarily heard in US. My old roommate was such a pack rat that, after six months, I could barely walk through the living room without tripping over his collection of junk.
See also: pack, rat
References in periodicals archive ?
For a person, life as a pack rat is one of obsessively collecting, say, newspapers, computer parts, food containers, or maybe all of these.
"A friend of mine lost his glasses to a pack rat," says Kenneth Cole of the U.S.
Pack rat piles: rodent rubbish provides ice age thermometer
If you have a tendency to be a pack rat, you might have a habit of holding on to things "just in case." To help overcome the pack rat habit, ask yourself the following questions before keeping anything: "If I need this again, can I get it again with reasonable effort?" The answer is almost always yes.
We're creatures of habit
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