The levels of Hoarders

I am a hoarder and it's moderately bad. I don't save garbage or anything like that, however my husband is pathologically lazy and leaves garbage and rotted food all over the house which makes my problem just seem that much worse. My thing is that I attach deep sentimental value to things I acquire. I feel that they become a part of me or that they represent the person who gave it to me or the context in which I received it and that by giving it up I'm disrespecting that person or memory. I also tend to personify things, so I end up feeling it's my responsibility to take care of them and I get very emotional if something gets "hurt" or god-forbid broken. And even though to an outsider (and even a lot of my family) it looks like just one big mess, I actually have things "just so" and have adapted their presence as part of my routine and a lot of the time I feel better just plain knowing it's there.

OpinionatedLady sad to say this but I have a best friend I have had for years and we are very close. but one day she took me to her mobile home with her ande when I walked into her living room I could see what she meant. she had said I would let you stay with us b ut we have no room when we said we could sleep on couches or the floor. actually maybe five to seven feet of her living room was bare and you could use the computer or walk to her easy chair. but the rest of the floor was literally covered with everything from clocks, radios, hobbies, etc and there was not even a path way to her television. It could be deemed a fire hazard not any food just stuff, toy dolls stuffed toys, greeting cards, furniture, none of which could be used as you could not get to 'it to sit on it or look at it or anything else.She is so neat and tidy about herself I was shocked to see this hoarding of every conceivable thing.I am not really a hoarder, I collect several things but I have a lot of space to move in and things are tidy and in their own places.

I am not really sure if the people or places I have seen would have actually been called hoarding or not. I think it was just a big mess of things that people just accumulated over time and was just too lazy to get rid of.

I think ,as in every addiction, it doesn't become a problem until it becomes a problem. By that I mean as long as a person or family can keep things under control it isn't a problem. WHen it begins to cause problems in the ranks and causing life to become chaotic, then it becomes a problem. I had an aunt that I think was a horder. I was quite young when she was around but looking back I think she was. She had clothes and 'stuff' in a trailer out behind their house and all over there house to where you could hardly get in and around. I was just a kid.

Now a days I think our time and sanity cost just as much as we save with buying bulks of things or clipping coupons. We have to minimize the clutter in our lives so we can free up space in our minds also. A cluttered home makes for a cluttered everything. I think some people are clutter bugs, not hoarders, because of the life they came from. They try to unclutter but things pile back up. If you are constantly trying to get rid of things eventually thing will become simpler. But for those who feel an ache in their stomach to get rid of anything, they may need more professional help. With some people there is a deeper issue to take care of first.

I know of someone who even stashed broken coffee pots citing that they were her wedding presents 40 years ago. I think those kind of people are hard to let go anything in their life and cannot move forward.