Are You a Hoarder?

Its sad to see the degree people keep stuff that they should have tossed long ago. I'll admit there are a couple dishes in my sink right now, but I try to only wash a full sink of dishes to save on water. I live in a state with a water shortage.

Oh I got interested in this show too. I grew up with a grandpa who was quite a hoarder. He even liked keeping things other people threw away! As a result, I became just the opposite. Just last night I put together a big bag of old clothes to give away to the typhoon victims in my country. Also, I do a cleaning-out-my-closet sale sometimes and that earns me good money. When there is something I don't use and I haven't used for a while, I decide it will be better off with someone else. Of course there are some times when I would suddenly need something I had long ago given away, and I would regret it a little bit. However, I'd think I'd regret it even more if my flat got so full of stuff.

I like the sound of the TV program called "Hoarders" and the movie called "Grey Gardens" must have been really grim. I liked seeing a clutter clearing program called "Making Space". When a item I often buy becomes buy one get one free I get loads of that item. I found 16 toilet rolls for £5 so I got that knowing it would take me ages to buy that many. So if it an excellent bargain I will get it. My bungalow isn't perfect and I regularly don't know where to find what I am looking for. I throw out garbage or recycle it. I find some things are emotional clutter and I feel I can't let go of them. Last year I paid for 6 hours with a professional clutter clearer. I broke it down into 2 sessions of 3 hours. I was trying to get my house ready to sell and it was rather cluttered. Amazingly she helped me to make a huge difference leading on to the second viewer agreeing to buy my house. It let me move to my bungalow which is ideal as I have a disabled son in a wheelchair. My goal is to have a place for everything and have everything in its own place.

hi anne I myself have never been a hoarder as I like things orderly so i do not trip over something and take a fall. but my best friend has a mobile home and on myG the living room is wall to wall stuff.I mean she cannot get to the TV to turn it off if she misplaced the remote control . there is no paths around the stuff and its clean not trash but stuff, lots and lots of stuff.yet she is very neat and very clean with her own person. I just was amazed at seeing her living room just packed with furniture and odd and ends of keepsakes and it just looked like they never ever threw anything away.I wonder what makes people do that? I live in a room with a roommate and no no way could we hoard anything. we have a huge dresser apiece and it holds most all our belongings. plus we must keep a clear path for each other so at our ages we do not trip and have a bad fall.

For some reason years ago I decided collecting things was not for me. I wanted to be in a position if I had a fire and my house burned down and I lost all material things I would be ok with it and not a slave to possessions. I have no idea why I would think thay way eccept maybe in a past life I lost everything in a fire? LOL but them I don't even know if I believe in past lives...

I have an aunty who is a big hoarder and her house is always a mess no matter what. She has moved from 4 homes and each home was like a pig sty, it was so bad. All the stuff she brought from clothes to television, she would just leave it lying around the house. It was so bad and messy that you couldn't navigate around the house without hitting into something. her home was like a land mine! And each time she moved the house would be spotless for like 1 day and the next it would be filled with trash again. She simply buys and buys and never uses them. She doesn't even give them away either! I sometimes hold onto some of my old stuff like my childhood toys and clothes I've bought but haven't worn but I would always pack them away neatly. I can't stand mess and clothes lying everywhere.

I watched part of "Grey Gardens" as part of my paackage with my DVD club recently, but only a small part; I found it a sad documentary. I am a hoarder though; I have carrried memntos about with me wherever I've moved for many years; and while many of the mementos are precious, or valuable insights into my past, others are not...I mean things like train tickets, magazines, documents of every kind; and yes many old clothes, most unwearable. I've recently started filling giant black bin bags with them all. But I never keep anything unsanitory; I'm a neat and tidy hoarder: I would never hoard trash. And my apartment is very neat.

no i am not, i go through my clothes about once a year and get rid of stuff i dont wear. however, the older generation or someone that has grown up poor tends to keep everything because they know what it is like to have very little.

Yes, I do keep a lot of things and yes it is hard for me to let somethings go. But I am not a hoarder to the that exteme. If it becames unmanageable I will let it go. I have a routine that I go by and I stick to it, well most of the time. My routine is that if I don't use it in a certain length of time I discard it. It works for me. I watch the show hoarders and it has helped me out a lot and brought a lot of awareness to me. I watch myself more closely now. Not that I would ever be that disorganized or filthy. I clean houses for a living so I know what to do. Be blessed.

Hi Anne25penn, I love "Hoarders"! I think it is a great show. My best friend's husband is a hoarder. I, on the other hand, am an extremely organized person. I am not a hoarder. I consider myself a neatnick.

I am not a hoarder. I hate things piling up and it makes me sick seeing a lot of things that I really don't have a need to anymore. Being a hoarder , I guess, has something to do with mental disorder, not in a gross way but somehow this is in fact originated or triggered/developed because of a subconscious thought that we might be needing those things again in the future. This is very true especially to a person who suffered poverty or scarcity. We can not blame these people but hoarders to the extreme are just well, extreme. I don't think I can live with a person like that nor I can live in a place where there are trash everywhere. I can nver be happy with that.

No, I wish I was a collector but I can't seem to continue anything. I had a post card collection once, it was the longest, it reached 400

I am a hoarder of some sort. It begun as a hobby that turned out to be hoarding. I am referring to books. My mom use to say that our house will burn with those around since they are made of paper. Now I seeing that most of the books I owned was destroyed due to dripping rain water from the roof I throw them out. I got lots of other things to do than hoard so for those who have this addiction it might be because your bored that's why you hoard.

I remember "Grey Gardens" and also have seen the TV show Hoarders. I don't understand how people can live in this manner. My home is cluttered at times, but the trash goes out and the clutter is just everyday things that are out of place. And I start to feel overwhelmed really quickly and things get picked up and put away. It doesn't happen as often now that my and my husband are empty nesters! However, my husband and I recently purchased some items from an estate auction. When we went to the house to pick the items up, I was shocked at the state of the house. The lady had lived there her entire life and she was a hoarder! The amount of stuff in the house was unbelievable. Stacks of newspapers, old bottles, everything imaginable. It was shocking to see a home in such a state. It made me want to go home and clean my own house! And now when I think my house is past due for a cleaning, I think about that lady's house and I'm motivated to get up and clean clean clean!

Thankfully I am not a hoarder. Of course the lack of room I have around here does help about then. Then again, maybe not, as I have seen some of the things hoarders do. I do admit that they are rather creative in their use of space. Granted, it is creativity for all of the wrong reasons, but hey, you got to really take what you can get a lot of the time. Still, I think that there are a lot of times where I clean house and it is very hard where I have to throw out a few things that I might want to. I think that's how hoarding gets started when you think about it. When you get emotionally attached to a few things, you get emotionally attached to everything. Some people hoard a little but there are some that astound me with how insane that they are with their hoarding. Over the top and I think that some hoarders out there are judged as insane by their fellow hoarders.

I admitted that we keep things but it neat and nice ways. All of my family like to keep things we 'might needed'.We keep them in a box and neatly place them unlike in what we have seen in that series. Since we are altogether more than five adults in this family, I am sure you could imagine the space left for ourselves after we use it to place our things. Not much left. Me myself, I like to keep books. And the only space I have to keep my books are my bed. So my bed is off now since I am using it to keep my books and other thing. When there is no more place for me to keep my books on my bed, I will make sure I throw some of my old things when I needed space for the new one. My principle is to make sure I don't need them anymore, throw it away and only then buy the new one. Otherwise I will not buy new thing as I don't have space to place them in. But I share my rooms with the other three sisters and they have lot more things than I have. I keep reminding them that it is not a good thing to buy and keep new things when there is no place to keep it but they refused to listen to it and keep buy new things. They said they bought the new because they can't reach the old one as it behind this and that stag. And when I reach my kitchen I can see so many clean plastic containers and other old things that we don't used anymore but they keep them like you said 'we might use it someday' and they have the same thought too. My dining room is clean and neat but the rooms are messy with so many things. Thank god we don't have a habit eating and drinking at room so there are just clothes and other stuff in there but there are so many of them...Now, whenever I saw old things or the one we don't use mainly in my kitchen as I can't touch my sibling stuff at their rooms, I will quickly throw them away even if my mom insist that 'we might need it someday'. I always argue it with my mom and eventually she will follow me as I will give her some time and if we still do not use it, I will get them out of the house. Right now, I am thinking how I can talk to my sisters to stop keeping and buying new things as I can see there is no space left to do so..

i am not a hoarder and i hate to keep trash or things that i dont use anymore. i did have a friend who was a hoarder. she used to keep every plastic spoon or fork or paper plate or old tickets that she and her boyfriend used when they were going out and so she had a one big box for it. it was funny of her but she was happy. they eventually broke up with other reasons.

I am guilty, but little by little I began to give it away to those who will ask for it, I never said no to all who ask things from me. And I always decluttered either I sell it or just simply give it away. Now I hold myself to hoard only that I would consumes and will be use by me like soaps, perfumes, and cosmetics. But for accesories and clothes I think twice, thrice until I lose my interest on it.