[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by cstreit

Watch the show "Hoarders" and you'll see. It's definitely a mental illness.

Absolutely. Even in the cases where they are successful in convincing an owner to clean up a property, they often fall back into the same trap and just start hoarding more junk.

My in-laws bought 40 acres in a great location in central KS years ago, but one stipulation was that they had to help the owner remove all of his stuff. The property had a farmhouse, two sheds, a large barn, and three mobile homes........all packed to the roof with junk. The barn had probably 30 old push lawnmowers, stacked to the ceiling. One of the mobile homes had old band uniforms that he had bought for $1 at an auction. The property also had around 35 old vehicles (none of value), 5 tractors or combines, other farm equipment, and hundreds of tires. We hauled everything to another piece of property that the man owned, and with his blessing simply dumped it into a big pile with our dump trailers. The real kicker was his insistence that we cover it with plastic, then he produced an ancient plastic sheet that was full of holes. I think we spent three months worth of evenings and weekends hauling everything away, then my father-in-law knocked down every building.