Hoarders

[natausch]

In all seriousness my wife and I are not looking forward to the day we have to clear her mother out of her house.

About the only area we've been able to make any progress on has been the refrigerator. Just over half a year we cleaned it out over the course of an afternoon. One of the running jokes since then has been how some of the medicine in the fridge and a number of frozen items had voted for Obama. Even though it was frozen pulling out a slab of fish with a sell by date of 1990 was enough to turn my stomach.

Honestly I think this problem is much more widespread than people assume.

[billwmeyer]

My dad isn't that bad, but he can't get rid of anything he thinks has a value. He was raised during the depression on a farm that he still lives on. It was always amazing to me that he would need something, go to a pile of stuff, reach in and pull it out. The amount of money he saved was unimaginable. He would pull over if there was a box on the side of the highway, and unbelievably he would find something in a lot of the boxes that he could use. He would go to auctions and buy boxes of junk, and make his money back many times. He loved to scrap metal for some reason, a passion I never developed. This was one of his retirement plans. He was going to scrap the metal for extra income when he had time. Unfortunatly he never had much time, as my mom came down with lung cancer and there were days he couldn't leave her side. My dad is 89 now and failing, so I will be left to clean up the outside, and I will get only marginal help with his 2 story house. We have managed to get rid of some stuff, but there is a lot left. His house is not filthy, he doesn't hoard plastic containers or plastic or paper sacks or useless junk. But he has a lot of non-valuable stuff too.

Bill

[germdoc]

I just remembered that as my grandparents declined in their late 80's, we went to visit them. I had not seen them for several years. The house was filthy and INFESTED with roaches. I stuffed my pants legs into my socks to keep them from crawling up my legs. Yuck!

My mom called the exterminator that day.

It's sad when people decline that way...

[sparkeyjames]

My dad is a hoarder of tools. Never throws out a tool. Even if it's broken. As he says it can always be modified to do a different task. I'll give him this though it is neat and in cabinets and drawers. My mother however is a different story. If she had not gotten Alzheimer's she would have been a complete hoarder. She hoarded yarn and material you know the type that makes clothing and the like. Bags and bags of the stuff. The count when we finally went through it was 40 bags. Before that my dad had put his foot down and told her it had to be stowed out of sight. Thank goodness it was all in the basement. This did help to cut down on the clutter. My older sister is just as bad. She has one room in the house that you cannot even walk into due to the bags of material. My brother in law did what my dad did put his foot down and told her it has to be stowed out of sight and in one room. Me I hoard old computer equipment and books. All neatly in boxes. I'm also in the process of getting rid of all my old photography gear. So that will cut down on things by a few boxes or so. Anyone need a heavy duty Benbo tripod?

[TCOTTLE]

Yeah, I don't hoard food or trash, just old electronic equipment, tools, etc. It was organized chaos, but chaos nonetheless.

[cabinetman]

My dad is a hoarder of tools. Never throws out a tool. Even if it's broken. As he says it can always be modified to do a different task. I'll give him this though it is neat and in cabinets and drawers.

I save old and broken tools also. It's true, they can be modified. I have an affinity for keeping cords. When a household appliance or shop tool dies and is beyond repair, I'll cut off the cord and save it. I've used several of them to repair bad cords.
.

[drillman88]

I had a great aunt who passed many years ago who was a hoader. Her house wasnt crammed full of stuff she had it all in one or two rooms and the attic. I remember when I was a kid we had to go over and help because the ceiling in one room had collapsed under under the weight of newspapers and magazines. We had to clean up so it could be repaired. I dont remember everthing but this was in the mid 70's and my mom said there were some from the early 50's. My aunt still fought tooth and nail to keep them but there was no room for the repair to be done without trashing them.

[sparkeyjames]

The ceiling collapsed under the weight of newspapers and magazines. We had to clean up so it could be repaired. I dont remember everthing but this was in the mid 70's and my mom said there were some from the early 50's. My aunt still fought tooth and nail to keep them but there was no room for the repair to be done without trashing them.

Think about it. Early 50's magazine would now fetch top dollar in the antique magazine market. My father had saved some late 40's to late 50's Popular Mechanics mags. After one of his periodic magazine purges I found out that a couple of those issues were worth $1500 each. You should have seen his jaw drop. Followed by 'Oh well it's too late now' and a shoulder shrug. BTW he does not hoard magazine just keeps the ones with an article he really thinks he can do something with.

[sscherin]

I can understand a collection of things safely put away but in dealing with my mom time and time again I find valuables ripped, crushed, soiled, moldy or just plan mangled from being piled 4 feet deep in junk..

Imagine what it looks like at the bottom on a 5 year old pile of dirty laundry 4ft tall and 6 feet long sitting on concrete basement floor.

Pics are her living room before and after.
Other rooms were worse..

[bruce hylton]

I only keep those items that might be 'too good to toss' or repairable at some time in the future. I am RICH in unusable, repairable items also known to my friends as garbage. At least once a month someone comes by to find that one item that they need. Ten shipping containers[40 footers] would not be enough to clean my yard and shop to other peoples standards.