Hoarding??

**momof2joys** · 02-05-2009, 07:48 AM

Last night I was watching this show on TLC, Help! I'm a Hoarder!! The whole time I am watching that I am thinking, they just need to declutter and part with all the junk, I didn't realize that it was so much more than that!! It was very interesting to see how 2 totally different people hoard things. One lady, who was on the verge of being evicted, didn't have more than 2 feet of walkable space at any spot in her apartment!! While the other family (husband and wife) hid their hoarding in the upstairs of their house, everything looked normal downstairs, but when you went upstairs they had stuff shoved in rooms and the doors locked!!

The doctors on this show also stated that most people become hoarders because of a parent who was, or have lived with major stress or trauma!! They also said that hoarding to the need to find something useful for every item and in a way to save items they find!!

So here is what this show got me to thinking.....I need to really clean my house!!! I am by no means a hoarder by defination, but after watching that show last night, it just makes me want to be so much simplier!!! And, is being frugal sort of like hoarding (not the extreme) with saving plastic butter containers or reusing the baggies, continous saving of items to use later???

What do you think, do you know someone who is a hoarder or do you suffer from this???

DISCLAIMER: I in no way intend to hurt anyone's feeling or single them out, if I have facts wrong feel free to correct them!! It was just an interesting show and thought that this would be the place to get a good opinion of it!!

**nancycg56** · 02-05-2009, 07:53 AM

I DVR'd this show to watch today. Thanks for reminding me to watch it.

**Natalie** · 02-05-2009, 08:31 AM

Sometimes hoarding isn't hoarding everything, it's hoarding maybe one or two types of things. I've seen or heard of cases where people hoard pets (someone thinks they're saving the cats from a bad life on the street, but it's actually worse 'cause of the situation of to many cats she's "saved"), an other things. Maybe a person hoards t-shirts (okay, I have to many...), or trinkets of some kind, or...

And sometimes, things just get out of hand!

**Momto2Boyz** · 02-05-2009, 08:35 AM

I've seen shows like this before (I think Oprah did one, and the lady had so much junk throughout her house...but especially, in her garage that she had a racoon living in her garage and didn't even know it)!

When I used to own a resale shop, I had a woman who would always come in and pick up odd assortments of things. As I got to know her, (she was super nice), I found out that she had an adult disabled daughter who lived with her. Then later, I found out through someone else, that she was a "hoarder". I felt bad doing it, but I stopped selling to her after that. Once I explained why I wouldn't sell to her anymore, she thanked me. She says she just can't stop her self from purchasing things she doesn't need. I'm sure she has kept on purchasing elsewhere, but I felt a little bit better about not contributing to her problem. Especially becuase her daughter was in the home too.

**NewLeaf** · 02-05-2009, 09:23 AM

I saw that show last night. I felt so sorry for those people.
It made me want to clean out my basement (lol)!!

I don't consider it hoarding if you use it on a regular basis. If it is something just "lost" in the pile and you haven't used in a year then OUT IT GOES. My dh and I clean and toss ea. April when our town does a free pick up. The hardest thing for me to part with right now is toys. My youngest still plays w/most of them and we rotate tubs of toys to keep up interest. But I hope to involve him this year in culling down the toys. He has mild aspergers and tends to want to keep collections.

Sometimes if I am having a hard time letting something go, I will put it in a box and "see" if I need it. If time goes by and I didn't get it back out then in April OUT IT GOES!!!

About two years ago we had laminate wood flooring put down in our entire house (it was a gift). My ds had asthma and the old carpet was just contributing. I had to box up everything and put it in the storage room while the installers were here. Well, it felt so clean and light without all those knick knacks and extraneous stuff that I never did put most of it back out. I will probably get rid of it. But I am keeping the china , I just never got around to putting it back in the china cabinet.(LOL).

**Michelle68** · 02-05-2009, 09:45 AM

We also watched this show. I feel really bad for the people that they covered because I know it's an uncontrollable compulsion on their part. I've actually been in the homes of a few hoarders throughout my years of working in home health care. I hate lots of clutter and I really don't stockpile because of this. I've wanted to start a stockpile, but I sometimes wonder if those who are avid stockpilers start feeling overwhelmed by what they are stockpiling. I'd be really interested to know how y'all handle that aspect of stockpiling. I think that's the biggest reason I haven't started my own stockpile--seeing the homes of hoarders and not wanting my home to become like that.

**HisDaisy** · 02-05-2009, 10:02 AM

My grandmother was a hoarder. She kept everything that came into her house. When the TV broke she stacked another one on top. Her house had paths to get everywhere. She had every Reader's Digest and Reader's Digest condensed Book.
When we cleaned out her house after her death, we found out that she had taken the garbage out in years. We also found that she had some plumbing issues, but that is all I will say about that.
She never let anyone into her house. She also would not travel because she thought that someone would steal her stuff.
It took us months and a few industrial dumpsters to clean out her house and it was a very small house.
Very little was salvageable.
On the bright side we learned that Simple Green is a wonderful cleaner.
Yes, hoarders in a mental illness. My grandma was a child of the Great Depression and we believe that that contributed to her illness.

**MommyTrap** · 02-05-2009, 10:13 AM

My neighbor was a hoarder she passed away two years ago this fall. Her daughter and son-in-law are still trying to sort through all the stuff. I was very close to her and tried to help her as much as I could. I spent hours cleaning out her fridge, freezer, a few cupboards and kitchen counter one Saturday only to find she filled it up again within a few weeks. It is truly a sad mental illness as all mental illness is. Her house was also very very dirty and smelly she used to get fruit fly infestations. She had two dogs and couldn't get around very well so the dog ended up relieving themselves in the house. gross! But she had a heart of gold and I loved her.

**G'MaDebbie** · 02-05-2009, 10:31 AM

One of my tenants in the mobile home park is a hoarder. He is also a diabetic and when he didn't show up for work one day and wouldn't answer his door, his co-worker called 911. When the paramedics tried to get into his mobile home, it was almost impossible to get to him due to the large amounts of "stuff" in his home. The county health department as well as the fire department "ordered" him to clean out his home, it took 3 dumpsters to get rid of it all. Not only is hoarding unhealthy, it is extremely unsafe to live like that in case of a fire or other emergency.

**momof2joys** · 02-05-2009, 10:42 AM

Michelle68--you brought up a good point, does anyone else feel like their stockpile might be sort of like this?? I sometimes do, but that is because I still need to find a storage shelf to go into my basement to put it on and out of the way!! How about others???

I also want to mention that it is interesting to see others are up late like me...LOL!!

**rudypoo98** · 02-05-2009, 10:54 AM

My ex mother-in law is a horder,she grew up very poor.She saves milk jugs,tuna cans,coffee cans she has by her stove full of grease.Her silverware draner is a vegetable can with holes poked in the bottom.She sells eggs had her egg money in a can by the kitchen sink.My ex father-in-law gets tired of the mess decides to clean house while she's at work backs the truck up to the back door and starts throwing.He hauled off 2 loads filled up to the top of his stock racks was on the 3rd when she got home and started in on him for throwing away good stuff.She was really mad tho when she discovered he had thrown away her egg money ,$8.

**fernykins** · 02-05-2009, 10:59 AM

My older sister is a hoarder. I keep telling her her home is a death trap. Her thing is paper and material........ It comes from our parents moving every year and just leaving everything that belonged to us kids. I will be helping her with the material..... We are doing memory quilts for all 7 of us kids about our grandmother. So That will take care of some of it. I'm also trying to get her to list some of it on ebay.... I know the older I get the less I can stand the stuff....lol
Fern

**UUMomof3** · 02-05-2009, 11:05 AM

Hoarding: Not even knowing what you have, because you have so much of it. And still buying more. Not being able to let go of stuff even if you know it's doing you no good.

Stockpiling/frugally re-using: knowing what you have and using it until it's used up. Only buying more when you really need it or if you know you'll make good use of it. Knowing if you won't use it, and passing it along to someone who will.

I'm afraid my mom is a borderline hoarder. Or something akin. She lives alone, and shops at Sam's Club "because it's cheaper". In what way is it cheaper to buy 5 pounds of lemons, so that 4.5 pounds will rot and bring flies? I'm sure 5 pounds of lemons is more expensive than one or two lemons, even at Sam's Club.

**Milly** · 02-05-2009, 11:13 AM

here's a link for anyone interested in one of the first cases of compulsive hoarding on record.

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collyer_brothers"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collyer_brothers[/ame]

I think this is largely a modern phenomenon (post WW II). During the Great Depression, most people didn't have enough as it was, and before that there were just not that many consumer goods available.

This is an interesting subject, though. I'm not really a hoarder, per se, but I do have a tendancy to start projects I don't finish and thus have project 'stuff' around.

**Debbie-cat** · 02-05-2009, 11:21 AM

My Mother is a hoarder. I use to be too until I really started to spring clean one year. I then realized how much junk I had that I didn't need and now it is the simple life for me!!