Hoarding

[Bigtallfatbloke]

Is hoarding a known phycological problem? I mean the total inability to throw away plastic bags, junk mail, cooking magazines, old unused handbags & shoes, travel bags, paper napkins, more paper napkins, plastic food containers like olive pots etc, empty mustard pots, pens, pencils, paper of all kinds, more paper napkins, nightlight candles, paper napkins, plant pots, hotel shampoo bottles, hotel towels, hotel soap, hotel shoe shines, hotel bath salts, hotel hair caps, airline cutlery, airline blindfolds, paper napkins.....

....I mean it is an illness right??? Is there a cure??

Signed
Swamped & Desperate of Essex.

 

[redjedi]

I don't think you have too much to worry about, I think we are all guilty of hoarding something......

although I would recommend you get rid of the handbags and (matching??) shoes

The images that conjures up at 9am is not at all pleasing

 

[Morrisette]

If it is a condition, then I suffer from it. I blame my parents, who indoctrinated me into the cupboard for old plastic bags, the pile of old yoghurt pots 'for using in the garden', the pile of old ice-cream tubs 'for something they've gotta be useful', boxes full of old Christmas cards, 'we can use these as labels', old CDs (good beermats), another drawer full of second hand sandwich bags, balls of brown wool, 'interesting' wine bottles......

Guess what my house is like! Minimalist? Not quite......

 

[Alan Frame]

Sadly, the first rule of hoarding is that if you keep something on the basis that it will come in useful one day, then it never will.

However, if you throw something away you find you needed it the very next day !

 

[Mr Phoebus]

airline blindfolds,

Is it a mystery trip?

 

[gbb]

Then of course, there's de-hoarding...clearing out some of the cr@p.

You finally decide enough's enough, summat's gotta go. You go through it (whatever it is, however much it is)....and immediately start thinking to yourself...ooh, i can't throw that .

i go through my stuff, and when i'm finished....you wouldnt know i'd done anything

 

[Speicher]

I am reading between the lines here, but I get the impression that BTFB is not talking about his own hoarding but that of someone else. The clue is that I have not seen him with a handbag (be it used or unused).

I do not think it is an illness, rather a compulsion. Some of it does have a use.

I would start with the paper stuff, and if it is clean, put it in the paper recycling, same with the magazines and junk mail.

Try to make a gentle start with whoever it is who has hoarded this. Then consult someone on here who can give you far more advice than I ever could. The compulsion does have a name, but I cannot remember it. I hope this helps just a teensy bit.

 

[John Ponting]

I fear BTFB may have been listening to the wrong radio progs

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/03/2008_42_thu.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Pack_Rat

 

[Arch]

yes, I think it can be a compulsion, and I think I could slip into it very easily. My Gran hoarded stuff, she had a whole cupboard full of soap - not fancy stuff, just special offer multipacks of Fairy and the like. And clothes from charity shops... I often have to make myself get rid of something that 'might come in handy one day'...

I often wonder if I'll end up living alone with 18 cats and 300 bags of used tin foil dishes....

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

..Yep..it's not me doing the hoarding...but I have to live amoungst it..and ..well...last week I spent every single waking minute blitzing the house. De Clutterred, de filthed and re decorated everyroom..it is now officially 'Shiney'. I threw out 19 plastic rubbish sacks full to the brim with hoarded rubbish...mostly plastic bags and paper....it's scarey how much junk was in here...now there is a little more space around me...I feel able to breathe. I even got the colours right and I think it's a good effort , and it only cost me £80 in paint. Totally knackered now though...not one inch of this place did I miss with detergent and duster. Every book, bottle, nik nak...cleaned...I deserved a medal I reckon.

First comment I got was..." cool, now I can mess it all up again"...said in jest I hope...

 

[Piemaster]

Some people on here seem to have a bike and bike bits hoarding habit.


I'm only surprised this isn't the first reply to the op

 

[buggi]

i think it is an illness. just like those people on life of grime. ugh.

 

[Twenty Inch]

Hoarding syndrome is recognised as an OCD. People with difficulty in problem solving and information processing are prone to obsessive hoarding. Often have limited social skills too.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Hording stuff is just something most people do. some hoard a lot, some hoard a little and with some its an illness.
Leading up to our house move earlier this year I almost caused a divorce and nearly alienated members of my family chasing people to clear cupboards and drawers. A couple of days after we moved I moved thirty boxes of assorted stuff into the shed. I suspect it will stay there until either the shed rots away or we move.

 

[Bodhbh]

i think it is an illness. just like those people on life of grime. ugh.

Heh, one of those documentaries you never forgot if you saw it. Then there was the one with novel use of the cheese grater.