a hoarder.

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by JD159

I think that is what you call a Faux Pas

Nice. 10/10!

[1990C4S]

I just hoard projects. I have six or eight laying around at any one time. No big deal.

It isn't remotely OCD.

[ckelly78z]

My problem right now (not really a problem in two big barns on 5 acres) is the number of vehicles that we have on our property.
-My wife's newer Jeep Liberty,
-my wife's 03 325 BMW convertible,
-my 85.5 Porsche 944,
-my 04 Mustang GT,
-my 99 powerstroke 4x4 diesel F250,
-my wife's old (blown head gasket 4 years ago) 97 VW Cabrio,
-my son's 87 Dodge pickup
-my daughter's 96 F150 (blown head gasket)

I need to find the time to finish some projects, and sell a few cars to make more space. I won't be filling up the space with more stuff, just room for my son and I to build a nice shop with a lift in it.

My wife needs to get rid of a bunch of stacks of magazines, and craft projects, that clog our bedroom, other than that, the house is pretty neat most of the time.

[Bill Douglas]

I'm one of those nutters who hoard stuff too.

I want to do a makeover on a room in the house, and have nowhere to migrate my important belongings to. I'm really having trouble biffing those shirts I haven't worn since 1985

At least I admit it.

[GWN7]

We went to a call one night and arrived at the same time as the ambulance. So there was 6 of us to go to a male 53 unwell call. I was last in the door or I should say that's as far as I could make it in the door. This was a 1000 sq ft bungalow. I looked up at the ceiling and the wall drywall had pulled down from the ceiling by over a inch due to the weight load on the floor. The basement had a trail to the washer/dryer with crap piled to the ceilings. It was supporting the main floor load. The patient was sitting on the couch in the living room. There was another couch on top of the couch he was sitting on. Bunk bed couches. The hallway to the three bedrooms had stuff piled along it and hanging off the door frames.

I went back to the station and had the home flagged "Do Not Enter if on Fire"

About a week later we get a call for a male sleeping on the blvd.. It was the same guy from the house. He was having a little nap on the way home from the bar riding his bicycle. I told him his house was flagged do not enter and he said he was working on it. Every time his wife went out he would toss a bag or two of the crap. The only problem was she usually brought home more.

[foxpaws]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

A true friend would have never shared that particular observation. YMMV.

He was a friend - but it was the truth - I saw him lots, just not at his house after a while, but lots of other places. It is just part of who Grady was. He hoarded Porsches and Porsche parts too... I don't think it was a secret, and he obviously wasn't too worried about it - he had people over to his house.

I know he is kind of revered as a 'sage' of sorts here - but he was a real person, with foibles and everything. I would imagine the last thing he would want is for anyone to put him on a pedestal. If you knew him at all he certainly wasn't a pedestal sort of guy.

How well did you know Grady Seahawk?

[1990C4S]

If I was a hoarder (I'm not), and if I let someone in my house to plainly see I was a hoarder (I wouldn't), then I don't think I would be horrified if that someone said (after I'm dead, which I'm not) 'yea, he was a hoarder'.

[JD159]

Originally Posted by 1990C4S

If I was a hoarder (I'm not), and if I let someone in my house to plainly see I was a hoarder (I wouldn't), then I don't think I would be horrified if that someone said (after I'm dead, which I'm not) 'yea, he was a hoarder'.

Nice. 10/10!

[Don Ro]

Yeah...that whole hoarding thing...never could understand it.
.
~~~~~~~
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[sugarwood]

Did some light reading on the subject:

Keep in mind, however, that the patient often is torn about their hoarding. "Really what it comes down to is many, but not all, [of those who] have this compulsive hoarding problem are really ambivalent," Rodriguez says. "Part of them wants to get help, and part of them doesn't want to get help. Hoarding is serving some useful goal in their life."

Specify if: With excessive acquisition: If difficulty discarding possessions is accompanied by excessive acquisition of items that are not needed or for which there is no available space. (Approximately 80 – 90 percent of individuals with hoarding disorder display this trait.)

With absent insight/delusional beliefs: The individual is completely convinced that hoarding-related beliefs and behaviors (pertaining to difficulty discarding items, clutter, or excessive acquisition) are not problematic despite evidence to the contrary.

.... a person with this disorder will usually collect so many things over a long period of time, that the actual use of any given item — or indeed the person’s normal living space — is next to impossible. The clutter collected over time impedes the person from living in their apartment or home in a normal manner.

[sugarwood]

I know a guy like this:

Upon approaching the house for the first time visible signs of neglect were evident. Paint was peeling off the woodwork, gutters were broken, shutters were missing on some windows, bushes were overgrown and beginning to creep through gaps in the structure, and cats of various sizes, colors and ages were scurrying about.

Superstitious thoughts about discarding items, feelings of incompleteness, and persistent avoidance can also prevail (International OCD Foundation, undated). An example of these three elements is a hoarder who was persuaded to give up a toy yellow swan. But not before she took numerous photographs of the swan, and videotaped and narrated its departure (Frost & Steketee, 2010). In this case the hoarder was trying to preserve ownership through photographs, and utilizing a lengthy avoidance procedure to compensate for the loss she was experiencing.

Another aspect related to the desire to retain objects is the notion that they might still be usable, or that someone else might want them. For example, a rusty watering can with a hole in the bottom. It can no longer be used for its original purpose, but a hoarder could come up with a list of reasons for keeping it (e.g., sentimental value, plans to repair the hole and re-use it, painting it and using it as flower pot). In reality it is unlikely that any of the reasons for keeping it will occur, and it will remain as it is.

Hoarders who actively acquire possessions are likely to be more difficult to work with because of underlying obsessive compulsive behavior. Personal experience of hoarders who acquire actively has found them to express intense connectivity with their possessions. Some have described a sense of security from being surrounded by their possessions, and one elderly hoarder used the analogy of them being like the walls of a castle.

The absence of embarrassment could be attributable to the lack of insight that manifests itself with hoarding behavior. Hoarders are known to derive pleasure and feelings of safety from their possessions, and form strong attachments to objects. Consequently, this is ‘normal’ and is not something to be embarrassed about.

It is theorized that in many instances elderly hoarders prefer social isolation because it provides them with privacy and enables them to acquire, actively and/or passively, without necessarily drawing attention to their behavior. The term social isolation is used in two overlapping contexts. One is the deliberate withdrawal into the sanctity of the home; the other is a geographical context in which hoarders live in remote areas, often some distance from their nearest neighbor, or shielded from view. Hoarders who live in remote areas are generally harder to detect, and the collection of objects frequently extends beyond the confines of the home and can include larger and more assorted objects (e.g., fridges, stoves, tools, cars). Anecdotal knowledge of a geographically isolated hoarder found over 20 cars, many of them vintage, scattered about the property.

[DanielDudley]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

A true friend would have never shared that particular observation. YMMV.

It was an observation, not a judgement. Et Tu ?

[sugarwood]

I think people who have 8 concurrent uncompleted projects are more of some kind of ADD or impulsive behavior issues, not hoarding.

[Baz]

Tools get a pass......you can never have too many tools!

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by sugarwood

I think people who have 8 concurrent uncompleted projects are more of some kind of ADD or impulsive behavior issues, not hoarding.

Yes, ADD I can admit to. That's a very good point.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Seems like there was a similar thread to this a while back.
Okay-I'll share:

My father is a hoarder and it has been incredibly destructive.
He filled a house up with stuff. Numerous storage facilities (I don't know how many).
He used the equity in his house to finance a second house which has since filled up with stuff.
About 5 years ago the neighbors called the city on him (for good reason) and I spent a week just to get to the front door. The article Sugarwood quoted describes the situation to a tee.

This was something that had brewed for a long time. As a college grad, I spent an entire summer fixing the house, and barely made a dent. When his method of fixing the roof became finding bigger buckets to catch the drip.... Man... that just sucked.

As far back as age 19- I realized the only way to clean house was to go behind his back.

I remember going back to my childhood house and digging through about 6 inches of dirt to get to the driveway. It really was like an archeological expedition- sifting through layers of detritus. The leaves had literally fallen over the years and become dirt. When I got to the bottom, I found a rotted throw rug from the 1970's which looked about as good as that dead lady Jack Nicholson found in the Shining's Overlook room 217 bathtub . My dad got out his garden hose, sprayed it down, as if to use it for a party 30 years too late. I found a phillips head screw driver with a broken tip- tossed it behind his back. He found it and put it back in his tool kit. I asked him what purpose it would serve. He said he could make and awl out of it. This was with city officials breathing down his back.

My recent garden tractor project- he really does have about 6-7 laying around. I can't count. None work.

Jesus...

Anyhow- he had a stroke and has advanced dementia. He talks of all his old porsches- and porsches he never owned.

and. yes- he had about 3-4 old longhoods laying around the yard. And a 914. And three mercedes. There 'might' be one 912 chassis that could be restored...I could always use the sunroof clip out of another 66 912, or maybe the entire roof clip somewhere else in the garage... but god- Then I will become him. He had more projects than could be done if he lived to be 200.

When I sit awake at 4:00 in the morning petrified- this is one of the issues that does it.
Tough stuff.
ugghhhh......

I find myself throwing out perfectly valuable stuff just to spite his demons- which I know reside in me.

Anyone want a 951 turbo short block for free?
Please come and get it

The funny thing is when Foxpaws mentioned Grady was doing the same thing, I didn't think of it like some embarrassing revelation like child porn. I thought it was normal. A normal life passage, like getting bad osteoarthritis or something. I just live in denial of this one day at a time until he dies, and then we'll take it from there.

I estimate if I quit my job entirely- it would take a year to sift through it all.
A rational person would just hand it to an auction company. But when it is a pile of crap lined with 1965 porsche parts, spoons, altec lansings, numerous marantz receivers, etc... It's a pile that deserves some care. Who knows.

(edit- Funny story) About 13 years ago- my dad asked me for $ so he could buy a truck to take stuff from house one to house two in the mountains. He said he would pay me back (and he did)...but that not the point. What did he buy? A U-HAUL BOX truck!!!!

[1990C4S]

That is a terrible burden. You have my sympathy.

My father is not that bad, but his theory was 'move every ten years, otherwise you accumulate too much crap'. But he hasn't moved since 1952....

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Originally Posted by 1990C4S

If I was a hoarder (I'm not), and if I let someone in my house to plainly see I was a hoarder (I wouldn't), then I don't think I would be horrified if that someone said (after I'm dead, which I'm not) 'yea, he was a hoarder'.

I love this btw... pure Jack Handy!

[URY914]

One sure cure for hoarding is packing for a move. We moved last year from a pretty good size house with loads of storage space to an apt and two storage units. Just ought a house that is much smaller. I purged some good crap when we move out, now I need to purge more crap to more in. It has been painful.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by foxpaws

but he was a real person, with foibles and everything.

The original statement was absolutely geared towards your personal idiosyncrasies and not Grady's. I see no harm and no foul, whatsoever.

You stated you were on the far end of the tidy (non-hoarder) range and it drove you nuts to walk through growing piles of car parts "dirty laundry" at Grady's abode.

That's you and you qualified your foible as a foible.

One of the greatest threads in this entire website is when Grady snagged the Fuhrmann four cam. If you tripped on that engine stuffed in the piles, you knew the guy. I wish I could say that.