hoarders

how to you stop family member from hoarding things?

my mother is a hoarder. She brings home junk of all types.

I am so tired of cleaning up the house of junk.

Hi, my name is Peter and I am a hoarder.

Trust me when I say it is not an easy habit/behavior to break, my mother was a hoarder, she was child of the Depression and valued everything regardless if she would ever actually need the item. I think the behavior is a combination of genetic predisposition, such as having OCD, learned and environmental factors. I know I have a touch of OCD tendencies, combined with exposure to my mother’s hoarding predilection and growing up relatively poor; I have a tendency to drift towards hoarding behaviors. It is difficult to explain to someone without these tendencies how hard it is, emotionally to get rid of things. For me, I can and do get rid of things, but sometimes it sometimes requires emotionally wrestling with myself.

Most hoarders, I suspect have great intentions of being organized, but it starts to get away from them and before they know it, they are surrounded by stuff and sometimes even what most of us would consider garbage. If the situation is severe enough, assistance of mental health professionals will be necessary to really effect a true change in behavior.

Good luck-
Pete

Yard sales can convert junk into cash.

I am a hoarder.

I am also very organized.
I love garages, sheds, basements, storage racks, and more!

I do extensive research before making a purchase.

I love amazon.

I love yard sales.

These are expensive in both time and money.

Hi Pete. My name is Lono, and I'm a hoarder.

For Picard: Craiglist - build (or empty) an open carport, then post the junk as FREE to FIRST TAKER. In other words, dump it on another hoarder. If its really junk (defn: no takers on Craigslist), you mother may have a problem, and that is poor selection...

4 severe hoarders on my wife's side of the family, to the point that the Fire Dept took over an hour to clear an aisle to get one of them out of her house. Two of them lived together, they supported each others hoarding tendencies, until one complained to relatives to remove her sister from her life, she literally had no more room for her hoards. Unpacking their house was like opening a huge warehouse/time machine vault, including newspapers, records and stuff from the 50s and 60s. Elderly, stable and sufficient retirement pensions, children of the Depression but I'm not sure if that explains it all, they had their quirks too. If things are that bad, take Pete's advice and talk to a mental health professional.

Yes, I guess yard sales can convert cash into junk just as easy.

I am a pack rat too, big time.
If there is any empty space I will fill it up with saved items and pending projects.
Maybe the thing to do is start using the stuff up?
Got Art?
Oh Well, Enjoy the junk.

I used to buy more on CL but living at least 1hr away form the deals I haven't gotten anything in 6 months!

You can make decent $ buying and reselling too.

Hi Peter, Hi Lono, my name is Russ and I too am a hoarder, although I prefer the term stockpile.

If something is good, buy two, plus a spare and then another 'cause if you lose one you'll still want two plus a spare. . . and the mini too Hoard? No, that's a collection.

One man's junk is another man's art/treasure. My parents also came through the depression and WWII. Mom had a Mormon background.

Russ you sound like me.

When I find something I like I buy multiples.

I have multiple pairs of the same shorts, pants, shirts, shoes, etc.

I`m returning 10 pairs of identical pants (other than color) to LAPOLICEGEAR because their sizes were WAY off Bummer, would have been a great deal and held my 'work pants' for another 10 years probably.

I'm not too much of a hoarder... but my GF thinks so.

To me, a hoarder is like the above example, keeping crap for an eternity. Buying 10 pairs of pants is something else entirely, though probably no less crazy in the long run.

For example, I have probably 5 backpacks for camping, a dozen knives, and about a dozen flashlights. Am I hoarding? No... cuz I try to sell them every few months to get more of my money back to get new ones!

i think of a hoarder as someone who buys in excess in a time of general need..like during WW2 buying 50 pounds sugar and the hell with everyone else..packrats are harmless collectors of stuff and what we have here on this site i would assume to be stockpilers,which are close to but not real hoarders as there is no general need of a scarce item..like gas or sugar.--ok i sort of confused myself but you get my drift..

Yeah, because we wouldn't want the strong to survive as nature intended!! Grrr. People should be able to buy whatever they darn well please w/out people being jelous that they can't afford it and thinking they should "Spread the wealth" with the rest of the population because they are so very much less fortunate.

Life is hard and those who work harder / smarter are rewarded. They shouldn't be punished because they can buy things.

(This isn't meant in the way of taking food from a little kids mouth kind of thing either. I just get tired of people saying what you should and shouldn't buy because you may hurt someone elses feelings or they may go w/out food longer... teach them to work harder??? or am I being rough)

http://www.aetv.com/hoarders/

I have heard that differentiation before. Stockpiling occurs before a crisis and is good because the person is prepared beforehand and won't need to draw from available supplies; a hoarder buys and hoards critical items during the crisis taking from the available supplies. Packrats just keep everything regardless.

Hoarder, Stockpile or Packrat I have been called all of these and probably am some version of all three. I am a very busy person both in my personal and professional life; my work, community activities and hobbies all are equipment oriented so I have a lot of stuff. My trouble is that my gear is not well organized, this is a big frustration to my wife.

My wife and I have different opinions on how things should be stored. I like my gear organized in labeled Rubbermaid boxes on shelves, like a warehouse but this is a time consuming process. My wife just wants it out of sight, it does not matter where or in what state, just so that guests do not see the clutter.

Some of our biggest arguments have been over where my wife has stored (hidden) an item of mine.

Mike

I am glad I am not as bad as the people Red Flair's link shows.
I can still pile up impressive piles of junk if I am not careful though. Usually it is expensive junk but it is still junk if it is not being useful.

I think Hoarding is a natural human trait. It might be genetically programmed into us. Even other animals hoard stuff up to prepare for winter.
It is when it goes out of whack and we get too much junk that it becomes a problem.

Seriously though, there is a difference between hanging on to some junk/stuff or being a gear addict (my problem) ... and REAL hoarders who cannot let go of things to their and their family/friends' detriment.

Very recently we saw a television series called Hoarders - or similar. It was very VERY sad. People who hoarded pets, trash, old food, paper, ...

Some of these people were seriously considering suicide.

The real thing takes an expert - just like any other psychosis.

I think i`m considered a stock "piler" and "stuff" addict.
Stock pile the cheap things in usage, and the "stuff" I get when I research and find the best stuff for me....

I don't keep trash or random things (to most people).

I try to toss or find a use for stuff I don't need or don't foresee needing... I keep steel, wood, etc because of so many usages though

If you have stuff that can be useful and/or used by someone else, they you are a stockpiler. If you can easily part with your possessions you are generally ok. If you can go through a pile of stuff, divide it into keep and toss, you are doing good. But when the entire pile of stuff becomes "keep"... well...

If you keep stuff that has no possible value to anyone but you, and the reasons you are keeping these items seems odd to other people, and there is no way in God's green earth you are going to part with your stuff, then you are a hoarder.

The people on A&E are sad examples of typical cases.

I keep stuff that I can see someday using. However I also know that some things have outlived their usefullness and out they go.

Me, too. I get it from my father's side of the genepool. I fight it every day.
I tell everyone that I belong to Accumulators Anonymous: it's a twelve step program, too: it's only twelve steps to the dumpster.

Been thinking on this more, thought back to being a kid (I had to think real hard it was so long ago) and remembered always being attracted to the basements, garages and barns of neighbors and friends that were stacked with stuff everywhere, baby food jars with nuts, bolts, etc., piles of this and that. My imagination would just abound of all the cool things that could be built, the fascination with the dads and moms who could fix and build anything with what that had around. The museums, movies and stories of the wizards, explorers and such, piled deep in dust covered books and things of the natural word, all shaped my idea of what was valuable to keep around. Sometimes it is hard to separate what is hoarding with the good intentions of a creative mind.

Pete

Nicely put, Pete! That's me, too!

The stuff I have is useful, and I can't afford to buy very much, so I really do have to hang on to what I have. But mixing that with ADD, I (strongly) tend to descend into CLUTTER. You give me a flat surface and I can cover it. I have stuff on the kitchen table that I haven't seen for quite a while. It does have the advantage of keeping my most mischievous cat off the table, simply because he's found that it's just too dangerous.

One of my sisters is a clean freak and will discard what she doesn't use to Goodwill.

My other sister discards everyone else's stuff to Goodwill.

Sue

Junk stores, hardware stores, scrap yards....
What you said really is true Pete.
I always have the intention of using every bit of junk I ever bought, found, was given or dragged home from the dump for something.
However. I have sometimes found myself picking up things that are real junk just because of "There must be something I can do with that!" type thinking.

I also have a tendency to collect multiple versions of items as I search for the best one.

Quite a bit of the stuff got used, some of it got used a lot.
Some of it also got either sold off, gifted to unsuspecting innocents or returned to the dump whenever I moved.

Big Edit:
Having an inventory of emergency supplies is not hoarding. It is simply basic preparation.
It is quite separate and different than my junk collecting habit.