Pack rats?

[look 171]

what's the deal with pack rats? I have a very dear client begging for my help with the clean up of her's father's house (I really didn't want the job). Its vacant and the neighbor's have had it up to their necks and finally by court order, they are going to take the house because the damn thing is falling apart and filled with trash, so much so that one can not walk through the house and the rest of the yard. The homes are worth 1 mil around this poor guy.

I hired a clean up company and started with tossing whatever is in front of them into the two dumpsters and a large dump truck. As soon as I leave, the poor old guy, owner, stops the workmen dead on their tracks and started taking his trash back onto his property. I am talking about broken bed springs, broken wheel barrows, and rotted lumber and corrugated metals. I hear he has three other properties that are like this and they are all in neighborhoods that are in the million dollar range. How do people get like that? You guy know someone like that and what did they do to clean things up? Better yet, who's like that here? I didn't realize this but its very common and it happens all the time to folks. I can't wait for the rehap to start. He already specified that all the walls will be patched and are not to be taken out. what the heck did I get myself into?

Do they start that crap up at a young age? I have only seem older folks do this and usually senior citizens.

[cstreit]

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

[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.

[pavulon]

a cut and paste:

Without exception, hoarding is always accompanied by varying levels of anxiety and sometime develops alongside other mental illnesses such as dementia and schizophrenia. Recent neuroimaging reveals peculiar commonalities among hoarders including severe emotional attachment to inanimate objects and extreme anxiety when making decisions.

Hoarding both relieves anxiety and produces it. The more hoarders accumulate, the more insulated they feel from the world and its dangers. Of course, the more they accumulate, the more isolated they become from the world, including family and friends. Even the thought of discarding or cleaning out hoarded items produces extreme feelings of panic and discomfort.

[wdfifteen]

Wife wanted to know if this thread was about dyslexic Frank Sinatra fans.

[ckelly78z]

I'm not a minimalist by any means, but I try really hard not to accumulate stuff that isn't being used. We have a large burn pile out in the back field that twice a year produces 30 foot tall flames from old construction debris, tree trimmings, old beds, furniture, and other burnable objects. After the fire, I drag the left over metal components to the scrap yard and actually get paid a few bucks for the effort. I recycle anything possible to the local recycling bins and sell items that are still valuable.
I think the thing I don't understand is the need to collect things....whether it be bottle caps, antiques, or Porsches, if i'm not using it or see a need for using it, I don't want it. The "Hoarders" show seems to have the same story for every episode, in that some elderly, single person feels the need to hold on to every scrap and paper and momento that ever meant anything to them......."American Pickers" has alot of the same type of mentally ill people that are sitting on a gold mine of old motorcycles and parts, but won't sell anything, because at 80 years old, that old guy is going to get to that project soon.

[billybek]

There was an older gent in the neighborhood that hoarded Norton/Triumph parts.

Now, he wasn't a typical hoarder. He was very well organized and everything was kept out of sight. His home and garage were spotless.

I cant remember how many wheel sets, frames and engines came out of the garage attic and the basement of the house, but a bike builder from BC bought the whole shootin match and filled a cube truck and a car hauler with parts.

His hoarded treasure actually had value....

[glewis80SC]

I grew up like that, my Mom was a hoarder but for her it was printed material newspapers especially, she could not throw them out. Subscribed to several and had to read every page, clipped articles they filled the house. It made growing up tough, no friends in the house, my sister and I would clean it out but she would have it filled again. I had a lot of anger over it but as I got older and would talk to her about her life I came to understand the cause of it and all the anger went away. She passed a couple years ago I miss her everyday.

[look 171]

After reading all this, I understand it has some mental instability. This poor old guy is 75 years old and he's still there daily helping with clean up. I as the cleaning crew to get rid of an old tree stump (fire inspector demanded that it all has to go) and he fought me tooth and nail about how he can use it one day to make a coffee table out of it. This thing is fill with termites. It seems that many of these folks are in their twilight years who do not realize that and can't let things go?

You guys know any young hoarders? I have never a teen or young adult pack rat but I am sure they are out there.

[GWN7]

Also remember people that age grew up in a age where they generally had nothing growing up. When they start to acquire things it's hard to let them grow.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by GWN7

Also remember people that age grew up in a age where they generally had nothing growing up. When they start to acquire things it's hard to let them grow.

Yeah, I know. An Italian couple built the house in 1928 next to ours lived through the depression. When I was old enough, I help her repair a kitchen drawer. As soon as I opened that drawer, a ton of plastic bags sprung out. That was exactly what she said to me, the depression cause her to do this.

[tabs]

I feel so anxious saying this, but I am guilty of having this mental illness...

My Mother grew up working poor and suffered through the 1930's Depression. She would not have 1 or 10 empty Mayonnaise jars but 100 jars, then there was paper towel and toilette rolls, Aluminum pie plates, egg cartons etc etc etc and pray tell if you tried to throw one thing away she would cry saying, "I might need that!" She also liked to collect Thrift Store junk, after they passed away it made for a nice Estate Sale.

Now for my own depravity I am a Treasure Hunter, I started out panning for Gold up in them thar hills...but discovered there was better and easier treasure to be found collecting spoons. Then from there one thing leads to another and it just gets worse, after Sandy passed I found Thrift Stores. Now the stuff is piling up around my ears, shoes are having baby shoes oh my!!!

Also as I have said I am a member of the Imelda Marcos Shoe Fetish Association where the minimum number of shoes to be a member is 100 to be a Silver Member is 250 a Gold member is 500 and Platinum is 1000 pairs of shoes.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by tabs

I feel so anxious saying this, but I am guilty of having this mental illness...

My Mother grew up working poor and suffered through the 1930's Depression. She would not have 1 or 10 empty Mayonnaise jars but 100 jars, then there was paper towel and toilette rolls, Aluminum pie plates, egg cartons etc etc etc and pray tell if you tried to throw one thing away she would cry saying, "I might need that!" She also liked to collect Thrift Store junk, after they passed away it made for a nice Estate Sale.

Now for my own depravity I am a Treasure Hunter, I started out panning for Gold up in them thar hills...but discovered there was better and easier treasure to be found collecting spoons. Then from there one thing leads to another and it just gets worse, after Sandy passed I found Thrift Stores. Now the stuff is piling up around my ears, shoes are having baby shoes oh my!!!

Also as I have said I am a member of the Imelda Marcos Shoe Fetish Association where the minimum number of shoes to be a member is 100 to be a Silver Member is 250 a Gold member is 500 and Platinum is 1000 pairs of shoes.

I am talking about trash. What you have there is not trash. Well, maybe they are

[Evans, Marv]

If it were me, I just don't think I'd become involved with it.

[silverc4s]

Watch Aamerican Pickers. They visit these folks on a regular basis.

[look 171]

Marv,

We've done a tremendous amount of work for her over the years. When her kid bought his home, she gave us a blank check (up to a certain amount, of course)and ask me to make sure to not cut any corners because of price and that her kid will never know anything about the additional money. She knew his funds were limited. Her and her husband knew that I will get the job done and save the house. They are very nice folks so I felt that I had to help. I didn't really have a way out. This one is all about relationship and not about money.

[Evans, Marv]

Then you are your usual good guy. The world needs more people like you.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

Then you are your usual good guy. The world needs more people like you.

Thanks you sir, but dumb guy is more like it.

[oldE]

A friend once told me of having to clear out an elderly lady's house after she died.
The stacks of newspapers and paper bags were sort of expected. The thing that stuck in his mind was the box labeled, "Pieces of string too short to use".

My parents raised part of their family in the Thirties. I remember a drawer full of paper and plastic bags, but that was about it.

Best
Les

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by pavulon

a cut and paste:

Without exception, hoarding is always accompanied by varying levels of anxiety and sometime develops alongside other mental illnesses such as dementia and schizophrenia. Recent neuroimaging reveals peculiar commonalities among hoarders including severe emotional attachment to inanimate objects and extreme anxiety when making decisions.

Hoarding both relieves anxiety and produces it. The more hoarders accumulate, the more insulated they feel from the world and its dangers. Of course, the more they accumulate, the more isolated they become from the world, including family and friends. Even the thought of discarding or cleaning out hoarded items produces extreme feelings of panic and discomfort.

From here:

The Psychology Behind Hoarding
When does cluttered turn to hoarding?
Posted Sep 05, 2014
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hope-relationships/201409/the-psychology-behind-hoarding

Hoarding is considered an offshoot of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), but recently this categorization is being reevaluated. It’s estimated that about one in four people with OCD also are compulsive hoarders. It is possible that some time in the future hoarding will become its own distinct category. In the meantime, it’s very real, and more and more people are opening up about the difficulty hoarding presents in their lives..........................................

Researchers, doctors and psychologists continue to search for effective treatments for hoarding, and Americans continue to observe the accumulation on the TV screen. When a world is awash in anxiety, worry, and fear, and when accumulating things becomes a way to deflect and manage those feelings, the stack will keep getting bigger and bigger.

Odd, I thought the Wiki page on this topic said it was related to depression.