Everything You Need To Know About Hoarding Disorder

M

Meanderer

Supreme Member
"Have you heard of hoarding disorder? Maybe you know it under another name or have a general idea that it’s not psychologically healthy to amass huge amounts of personal belongings for no apparent reason. Many of us have known someone in the past who likely had a hoarding problem. Perhaps they packed several rooms of their home with worthless or nearly worthless stuff. Or maybe they were unable to walk safely through their homes due to the giant piles of trash and debris that they refuse to get rid of". (Read More)
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My late mother was a hoarder. She kept everything, even useless items like old newspapers and magazines, which you had to walk through the house stepping on. Every chair had piles of stuff on it, so there was nowhere to sit. Even the front door could only be opened enough to squeeze through due to piles of stuff around it. She was abusive to anyone trying to clean things out. After her death, cleaning out the house was a lengthy nightmare... 🙀
 
As someone who is fastidious about cleanliness and order, I find it very difficult to understand hoarding. I am morbidly fascinated by the TV Show “Hoarders.” Though I’m unaware of it, Ron says I’m shaking my head and grimacing the whole time.

While I completely understand that this is a mental disorder and that it’s not controllable by it’s victims, I am nonetheless disgusted to the point of retching by food hoarders. I watched part of one show and just couldn’t take it. 🤢
 
We had a couple of hoarders in the family and I probably could be one if I applied myself.

My family used to worry and comment about the large number of books that I owned. I always told them to be glad I hoarded books and not cats! ;)

When it comes to disposing of things cleaning, etc... I can see what needs to be done and play it over and over in my mind but am more or less powerless to do anything about it. Once I start I am fine and everything falls into place but I can understand how some people get stuck in that state of suspended animation and watch things deteriorate around them.

By this fall I hope to be through with my shedding and purging. I will be ready to fit comfortably and move quickly into a small studio or one-bedroom independent living apartment when the time comes.

Over the years I've made friends with my brand of crazy and we've learned to peacefully coexist.

“When someone steals another's clothes, we call them a thief. Should we not give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not? The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat unused in your closet belongs to the one who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the one who has no shoes; the money which you hoard up belongs to the poor.” - Basil the Great
 
Don't remind me ;). I do some, like my personal collections of this & that, but my parents might be considered prize winners.
My mom would go to garage sales and just buy them out with no rhyme or reason, come home and just stuff things wherever she could. I've found 30 gallon trash bags of curtains and drapes in the attic, cellar and loose ones in a window seat. Didn't even matter if they actually fit the windows in this house...

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My dad would keep non-functioning appliances (you never know when you'll need a part), broken & rusty tools, and scraps of just about any materials. I found eight electric mixers in the cellar when I cleaned it out last summer. I assumed the motors had stopped functioning and tossed them all.
Now I'm having to sort through it all in preparation of selling their house I've been living in the last 46 years.
 
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I, on the other hand, keep thinking that I do not have children and therefore what is the purpose of owning so much.

I can control myself from wanting needless items that I see at stores.

I also continue to declutter and give to Goodwill.
 
debodun said:
Don't remind me ;). I do some, like my personal collections of this & that, but my parents might be considered prize winners.
My mom would go to garage sales and just buy them out with no rhyme or reason, come home and just stuff things wherever she could. I've found 30 gallon trash bags of curtains and drapes in the attic, cellar and loose ones in a window seat. Didn't even matter if they actually fit the windows in this house...

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My dad would keep non-functioning appliances (you never know when you'll need a part), broken & rusty tools, and scraps of just about any materials. I found eight electric mixers in the cellar when I cleaned it out last summer. I assumed the motors had stopped functioning and tossed them all.
Now I'm having to sort through it all in preparation of selling their house I've been living in the last 46 years.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that. Now we know why you are a hoarder, to bad you couldn't change.
 
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