do you know a HOARDER?

[vash]

i know two. one person lives across the street from my MIL. the house is wall to wall stuff. my good friend's dad is also a hoarder. wall to wall stuff. pathways of boxes throughout the house. amazing.

this is a type of OCD right?

[trekkor]

Sorry to say, I do know one. Family member. They are making good progress to dig out.


KT

[porsche4life]

My dad isn't the pathways through the house bad... Only b/c he has 10acres and 4 metal buildings....

[campbellcj]

My parents as well as my in-laws both bought 2nd houses that I am convinced were acquired largely to hold more 'stuff'. I think there's something about the generation that grew-up in the post-Depression (1930's-40's) era that led to increased pack-rat tendencies.

I am overtly anti-clutter. I still have a lot of 'stuff' but I actively get rid of 'stuff' frequently.

[imcarthur]

The house where I store my car in the winter (b-i-l's but rented to 2 lesbians? for the last 15 years). The reclusive one has bins filled with Princess Di photos, clippings etc. Lots of them. Everywhere.

Ian

[glewis80SC]

I grew up with this my mom is a hoarder, her main thing was any printed material so the house was full off TONS of newspaper etc. She hoarded many other things but printed material was the worst. It is a progressive type of OCD, sometimes I'm ok with it then sometimes it makes me enraged. Growing up was pretty tough, especially for my older sister.

[slodave]

Where's Byron?

[porsche4life]

Oh geez.... Thats no joke...

[Chaos Theory]

I've discovered I'm the complete opposite, almost to a fault. I have moved so much in the last 5 years that I have am compelled to get rid of anything I am not immediately using. Many times I will realize I need and/or want what I have recently sold/gave/thrown away.

The most recent example of this is I had a very extensive coin collection from all over the world, and pretty much every single Canadian coin dating back to the early 1900's and I took them all out of their packaging/cases etc etc and used the change to buy coffee each morning because I got fed up with worrying about them and having to move them from place to place to place.

And yes I am still using my Porsche, LOL.

My mother was getting a little overboard with various things she was collecting and I think it drove me so crazy and clausterphobic that I have really become quite minimalist.

[911pcars]

George Carlin theorizes that people buy bigger homes so they can hold more stuff. So true.

Sherwood

[s_morrison57]

Wayne,having lots of cars is collecting, not hoarding, every miner and/or driller is a pack rat hoarder, if its new and shinny we want/need/desire it

[onewhippedpuppy]

My parents and grandparents. My grandfather's garage looks like a junkyard. Sad, because somewhere in the mess are multiple Model-As and a '36 Ford.

I'm distinctly anti-clutter. If I haven't used it for a while, it goes in the trash.

[Scuba Steve]

My grandma was like this - made much worse due to the fact that she managed an apartment complex for 35 years or so and kept literally everything that people left behind. It took three years to go through and move all the stuff after she died. This was made much more complicated due to the fact that she would box up junk but mix important things like old pictures in with it so we had to go through absolutely everything.

It was pretty bad - a 4 bedroom place filled, closets nearly to the ceiling. Plus two storage sheds out back.

[KNS]

QUOTE= My dad isn't the pathways through the house bad... Only b/c he has 10acres and 4 metal buildings....

When the day comes that you father passes away (sorry, not a happy thought), you face the unenviable task of sorting through those four metal buildings and figuring out what to do with all of that "stuff" (unless his will spells it all out).
I wouldn't call myself a hoarder but it was that thought that made me reduce some of the clutter in my life after a loved one passed away. I wouldn't want to leave my wife with all that, she'd have enough on her mind as it is.

EDIT: Scuba Steve just sorta covered the same thing.

[VaSteve]

There was a show on A&E over the summer. I watched most of the episodes. It's a really crippling disease. It's sad almost....this tears apart people's lives and they really are cognizant of the problem and seem to be able to operate normally for everything else. They just can't do anything about it, they become so overwhelmed.

[Dave L]

I think we ALL know a hoarder

[wreckersteve]

My dad is more of a pack rat. He gets offened when he offers me stuff and I say no. I am anti clutter. When the wife and 2 stepkids moved out I have loved that my house feels so roomy with out so much stuff.

[s_morrison57]

Dave L , thats not hoarding that's a very nice and valuable collection. Are any for sale, I know sale is a swear word to a hoarder- I mean collector.
Your a Manager with a brain, and you have a Fuchs collection, what else is there that your not telling us. Please don't say your a Leaf's fan, as a die hard Canuck's fan that would border on absurd, especially considering their start, we may have to send Don Cherry over to talk some sense into a "good Canadian Kid "
I'm over the edge with envy

[Dave L]

the Fuchs arent mine (I wish!) they are RacerBVD's, a well known "collector" off all things Porsche.

BTW I am a Canadian, I paddle rivers, I am not a drunken goon in the stands claiming to be Canadian because I watch hockey.

Back to the subject at hand.

Being a hoarder in the extreme sense seems fairly scary, I watched some of those episodes on A&E or TLC and there were certainly some mentally sick people. I think the primary fear comes from a fear of being "with out" As mentioned by someone else quite a few are from the depression era but I would also think that those that grew up poor or were poor at some point in their like are susceptible.

[varmint]

stopped counting after 2000 books. it's getting out of hand. never had a problem when i lived in a house with a fireplace.