Do you horde things?

[vsjhoc]

Poundwise is correct (as usual) -- there is a range of behavior from sensible storing to pathological accumulation. I always keep the original boxes that stuff came in -- computer, printer, stereo, etc. I never met a box I didn't like.

There was a link here somewhere (of course I can't find it now) to a video called "messy house." You literally couldn't walk around. It was pretty obvious there were some psychological issues there. Hoarding is also a symptom of certain types of drug abuse.

[jaksilee]

Yep, Meat and toilet paper. A hold out from a time when they were in short supply in my family as a teenager.

[Ima saver]

What would hoarding have to do with drug abuse? Not arguing, just curious??

[lrjohnson]

Ima: Speed freaks sometimes hoard. (Amphetamine addicts. Meth heads.)

The messy house thing I think was on youTuvbe and someone posted the link in "Everything Else." In that case the husband was positing OCD.

[kealina]

a lot of people think the pathological hoarding is related to anxiety and OCD... didnt' know people who have drug abuse problems do that too... interesting...

[shengmei]

Of course. Things just naturally look better grouped together by category.

[vsjhoc]

Originally Posted by lrjohnson

Ima: Speed freaks sometimes hoard. (Amphetamine addicts. Meth heads.)

The messy house thing I think was on youTuvbe and someone posted the link in "Everything Else." In that case the husband was positing OCD.

Thanks for clarifying all my vague comments and finding the missing (hoarded??) link.

[mountainmist]

Originally Posted by poundwise

Stockpiling things with an eye towards potential needs in the future is one thing. Accumulating and/or hanging on to things for no legitimate reason is just foolishness. I have a friend with what I call 'pack-rat' syndrome. He keeps everything. His house, attic, storage sheds (yes, plural) are all full. If his wife tries to have a garage sale or to toss anything he is opposed to the idea in nearly every instance.

If you hang on to rewards points that could benefit you, and you aren't hanging on to them in order to save up for some specific future benefit, I think you have to regard that as problem behavior. I don't mean this to be insulting, just addressing what may be a factual problem. If you take food you don't need just because, and save things compulsively that you know you don't need to save etc. you may need to speak to a personal counselor.

I agree with you, there have been numerous articles over the past decade about an epidemic of hoarding useless material items, particularly among senior citizens. An actual epidemic requiring task forces to go in and clean homes - from the health & fire departments and with scads of social workers & psychologists. Hoarding stuff you don't use, and will not use is a form of OCD, and if you do an online search you'll find a huge amount of information about it. Procrastination can be a symptom of OCD.

There is a difference between storage of valuable items and hoarding. There is also a big difference between a messy cluttered home, and a hoarder's house. Big world of difference.

[mountainmist]

Originally Posted by poundwise

Stockpiling things with an eye towards potential needs in the future is one thing. Accumulating and/or hanging on to things for no legitimate reason is just foolishness. I have a friend with what I call 'pack-rat' syndrome. He keeps everything. His house, attic, storage sheds (yes, plural) are all full. If his wife tries to have a garage sale or to toss anything he is opposed to the idea in nearly every instance.

If you hang on to rewards points that could benefit you, and you aren't hanging on to them in order to save up for some specific future benefit, I think you have to regard that as problem behavior. I don't mean this to be insulting, just addressing what may be a factual problem. If you take food you don't need just because, and save things compulsively that you know you don't need to save etc. you may need to speak to a personal counselor.

I agree with you, there have been numerous articles over the past decade about an epidemic of hoarding useless material items, particularly among senior citizens. An actual epidemic requiring task forces to go in and clean homes - from the health & fire departments and with scads of social workers & psychologists. Hoarding stuff you don't use, and will not use is a form of OCD, and if you do an online search you'll find a huge amount of information about it. Procrastination can be a symptom of OCD.

There is a difference between storage of valuable items and hoarding. There is also a big difference between a messy cluttered home, and a hoarder's house. Big world of difference.

[PrincessPerky]

Does one lead to the other? Did people who end up with hoarding ocd start out saving perfectly useful stuff? Did it start as a good idea, gone bad?

Is there any research about the childhood of these people? is it a response as one poster mentioned to being without at one time?

I personally see hoarding as well selfish..you might need it at sometime in the future, but in the meantime..why not share (or at least use it yourself!)? Not saying stockpile is bad, and the line between the two is a big fuzzy grey area (about a mile wide) just saying at some point people need to look and see if they are being selfish or frugal. (course if they are sick, they crossed the line long ago and don't care..or rather to sick to care)

[Ima saver]

I don't hoard anything. I try to have 2 of everything on hand. that way, If I run out of aluminum foil, I have another one in the pantry and then I put it on my gorcery list. My dh can't seem to bring himself to throw away nails. He had millions of nails in the garage. Moving the stuff in the two garages would probably be the hardest part of moving.

[JanH]

Coming from a family of chemically imbalanced people with multiples disorders, hoarding is a problem. Anxiety, OCD, or wherever it comes from, I have several family members that way. I think it is a controlling your environment issue. When you feel out of control, you want to protect yourself by keeping anything that might help you in the future. I also have been told that they are really enviromentally conscious, hoarding cardboard and cans and stuff to recycle, they just don't get it there--proscratinating and letting go problems.

[JanH]

I found myself starting the process until I got medical help and therapy for management skills. It took awhile to get the process of letting go down, but now I don't even keep duplicate food anymore. I only keep a bunch of toilet paper and extra paper towels (dogs).

[LuxLiving]

Hoard is such an ugly word. I stock my pantry - quite heavily some would say, others would say it isn't enough! I personally think it's a little on the low side right now, but my grocery budget has been cut in recent months to a very tight-ish small amount, so I've been hitting it heavily.

I think it is SarahH on here who has a link in her blog to some other pantry stockers. One particular one in my mind had gone over the line with a whole BIG long laundry basket full of deodorant & toothpaste toiletries in it. Way too many for most reasonable size families. I would in that instance go on over to the charitable side and either donate the items to my local women's shelter or stop taking the free w/coupon stuff home with me.

This said by a lady who is still using shampoo & conditioner I got free in 1996 *yes 96*! It's still good!! REALLY - right now in my shower as we speak. At that point in time I had to stop stocking it as I had way too much!! I am just now starting to reload the shampoo/conditioner section of my pantry which is a room in my basement. I am down to one bottle each of vintage 96 shampoo & conditioner. BTW, as a point of interest - at my house we use one bottle of conditioner for every two of shampoo. Makes sense since we all lather twice and only condition once.

I label my stuff w/a date on it & the price I paid with a permanent marker. The dating helps with rotating and the price helps me keep sale prices in mind when I'm out shopping again.

[JanH]

That's a smart way of doing it

[Jacklad]

Originally Posted by LuxLiving

BTW, as a point of interest - at my house we use one bottle of conditioner for every two of shampoo. Makes sense since we all lather twice and only condition once.

Do you really lather twice? I'm frugal with shampoo - I buy the cheap Suave 2-in-1, and lather once. Even when my hair was so long I could sit on it, I've never done the "repeat" portion of "lather, rinse, repeat".

Jackie

[cschin4]

I don't really hoard or collect stuff. But, I do have a problem knowing when to part with something. But, if everything is "special" then nothing really is. I don't really have any sentimental attachments to things. I just don't know what to do with excess stuff. I have made big strides lately in getting rid of alot. I find having too much stuff to be very distracting and anxiety provoking when you can't find what you know you have. I have decided that I am "starting over". I am cleaning out the basement, drawers, etc. If I throw something out that I later "need" then I will just go buy another one. It may cost some money to lose perfectly good stuff, but I figure that peace of mind is much more valuable.

[mountainmist]

Originally Posted by PrincessPerky

Does one lead to the other? Did people who end up with hoarding ocd start out saving perfectly useful stuff? Did it start as a good idea, gone bad?

Is there any research about the childhood of these people? is it a response as one poster mentioned to being without at one time?

I personally see hoarding as well selfish..you might need it at sometime in the future, but in the meantime..why not share (or at least use it yourself!)? Not saying stockpile is bad, and the line between the two is a big fuzzy grey area (about a mile wide) just saying at some point people need to look and see if they are being selfish or frugal. (course if they are sick, they crossed the line long ago and don't care..or rather to sick to care)

Recent medical research showed that hoarders metabolize glucose in the brain differently from others, and somewhere or another I read that drugs used for some forms of senile dementia help some people who hoard.

Stockpiling a pantry and USING the items is NOT a version of ocd-hoarding.

For many years, many presumed that old people hoard because they lived through the Depression in the 1930s, but those MRI brain scans make this idea simply so much folklore.

Some researchers believe that it might be due to a serious strep infection, because if the antibodies to strep are removed from the bloodstream, the ocd vanishes for as long as the antibodies are gone - they take about 6 months to come back in numbers great enough to retrigger the ocd symptomology.

The research is all still very preliminary, in its infancy.

They aren't even sure if true clinical hoarding is part of the ocd spectrum anymore, because drugs used for ocd don't have any impact in hoarders.

Also, many seniors deteriorating into some forms of dementia start to hoard, but don't have a longterm lifelong history of hoarding.

[mountainmist]

Originally Posted by PrincessPerky

Does one lead to the other? Did people who end up with hoarding ocd start out saving perfectly useful stuff? Did it start as a good idea, gone bad?

Is there any research about the childhood of these people? is it a response as one poster mentioned to being without at one time?

I personally see hoarding as well selfish..you might need it at sometime in the future, but in the meantime..why not share (or at least use it yourself!)? Not saying stockpile is bad, and the line between the two is a big fuzzy grey area (about a mile wide) just saying at some point people need to look and see if they are being selfish or frugal. (course if they are sick, they crossed the line long ago and don't care..or rather to sick to care)

Recent medical research showed that hoarders metabolize glucose in the brain differently from others, and somewhere or another I read that drugs used for some forms of senile dementia help some people who hoard.

Stockpiling a pantry and USING the items is NOT a version of ocd-hoarding.

For many years, many presumed that old people hoard because they lived through the Depression in the 1930s, but those MRI brain scans make this idea simply so much folklore.

Some researchers believe that it might be due to a serious strep infection, because if the antibodies to strep are removed from the bloodstream, the ocd vanishes for as long as the antibodies are gone - they take about 6 months to come back in numbers great enough to retrigger the ocd symptomology.

The research is all still very preliminary, in its infancy.

They aren't even sure if true clinical hoarding is part of the ocd spectrum anymore, because drugs used for ocd don't have any impact in hoarders.

Also, many seniors deteriorating into some forms of dementia start to hoard, but don't have a longterm lifelong history of hoarding.

[cschin4]

I think we have so much "stuff" that people just get overwhelmed with the volume of stuff to sort through. When I wasn't feeling well, it didn't take very long for stuff to accumulate and take over the house. It can be labeled as an illness and may be in some people. But, I really do think some people just need some help in debullking.