Is hoarding a disease?

[admin]

I just went to a friend’s house. Not a good friend obviously because it’s my first visit. But OMG, shit everywhere in the place. He said wife is a hoarder.

When is too much stuff over the line?

What about the flip side where someone is a neat freak? That would be me.

Kinda on topic cuz it has to do with livability of real estate, salability, and first impressions of a home.

[CA renter]

Some think there is a genetic tendency to hoard. Those who live through deprivation have a tendency to hoard, as well.

Sickness? Maybe, at least when one lives in the “land of plenty,” but if one lives in an environment where scarcity is the norm, is it a sickness, or is it common sense?

[NotCranky]

If the person isn’t completely problematic , I would try not to worry too much about how they differ from me….that could be a disease.

[Reality]

I’ve seen a show called Hoarders once or twice. Those folks are over the line. Using the bathroom at a gas station because they can’t get into their own because it’s full of junk. Junk in the living room stacked to the ceiling.

Don’t know if it qualifies as a disease or if your buddy’s case is that severe. But I couldn’t imagine living like that.

[ucodegen]

I just went to a friend’s house. Not a good friend obviously because it’s my first visit. But OMG, shit everywhere in the place. He said wife is a hoarder.

When is too much stuff over the line?

Here might be some fairly good tests;
* When the disorder is disruptive to your own, or of the lives of loved ones – it is excessive.
* When the ‘hoarder’ ends up buying something even though they know they have one of those, somewhere around the house, but the amount of time to try to find it would exceed the cost and effort to buy another – it is excessive.
* When the ‘hoarder’ buys something because it is on sale, or gets it ‘free’, even though they do not need it in the foreseeable future, may not really know what it is or does – it is excessive.
* When the collection of ‘stuff’ makes it difficult or impossible for the ‘hoarder’ to do the things they want to do – it is excessive – it ‘takes over’ their lives.

[scaredyclassic]

hoarding cash is kind of a disease, unless it’s done intelligently.

hoarding canned goods and ammo is a disease unless the SHTF.

I guess the reality is hoarding useful things is just being prepared.

it’s sometimes difficutl totell who is getting prepared and who is just nuts.

[FlyerInHi]

The hoarding in this case is nothing useful. Boxes, misc stuff accumulated over time.

I can understand that hoarding was an advantage when we were cave people. So does that mean that neat freaks are genetically more advanced for a modern world of plenty? But if SHTF I guess I would wish I hoarded useful things.

I do have thousands of ammo hoarded in my closet I got on sale before prices shot up. They do pack neatly very nicely and don’t take much space. Oops don’t tell the NSA.

[spdrun]

A family friend who survived a Soviet concentration camp as a young child, and then wandered with her family for the first 10 years of her life (since they were stateless after being expelled from the USSR) turned out to be a hoarder. Maybe privation at an early age encourages people who are already susceptible to start hoarding.

[bearishgurl]

I think hoarding is a form of OCD. I know people who hoard stuff that they got mostly “free” or nearly “free” from taking stuff someone else sat on the curb and “marked” free on, taking stuff for free (or buying from a garage sale) items other people wanted to get off their own property. Obviously, the hoarders are never going to do anything with these items and only took them because they were offered to them for free. I even know someone who has purchased every single vehicle he ever owned (and was “totaled”) back from the insurance co for salvage (for hundreds), even though he had neither the skills nor the resources to fix them to be roadworthy. And he’s in his 60’s …. Needless to say, these people’s houses, garages and lots look like a junkyard and are very difficult to navigate.

I could never live with a junk hoarder and the ones whom I know have lost all credibility with me over the years. I personally think they’re wacky.

Hoarding food is another story and is fairly common with the 80+ yo set (who may have experienced deprivation during the great recession). The problem is that most of it gets severe freezer burn or expires long before they can possibly use it. I feel sorry for their heirs who will eventually have to take a month off work and rent a 32 ft+ rollaway to clean out their homes after they pass away.

Hoarding has gotten a lot more common in the past 30 years or so since so many goods sold in the US are imported from Asia cheaply and sold in the US cheaply, causing Joe and Suzy 6P to completely fill up their garages with junk within just 3 years of buying their first home. Easy come … easy go. Most people don’t keep many things anymore …they just dump them and buy all new stuff at the new destination if they move long distance due to the high cost of storing it and moving it … that is, unless the military or DOD is moving them … and even then the member/employee has a strict weight limit according to rank.

[poorgradstudent]

I tend to view Hoarding as more of a symptom than a disease. It’s often a sign of depression. There’s also degrees, where some people hoard things that at least have some objective value to outsiders while others truly hoard junk.

Neat freaks are nice to visit but extremely difficult to live with. I think for a marriage it’s good to have similar preferred degrees of messiness.

There’s a fairly wide range of what I’d call “normal”.

[scaredyclassic]

I have had as many as 20 bicycles or so.

[barnaby33]

I have had as many as 20 bicycles or so.

You bastard, you’re stealing mine aren’t you?
Josh

[FlyerInHi]

[quote=poorgradstudent]
Neat freaks are nice to visit but extremely difficult to live with. I think for a marriage it’s good to have similar preferred degrees of messiness.

There’s a fairly wide range of what I’d call “normal”.[/quote]

Do you mean nice to visit because their houses are fresh and clean? Or that you only want to visit a short time?

I think I’m difficult to live with.

[moneymaker]

Interestingly neat freaks and hoarders are usually both OCD. I’m the type that likes to have 2 of everything, does that make me a hoarder? 5 years ago, just after moving in I created a survival kit in a 32 gallon trash can. Now of course all the food is tossable and I loathe to go through it and spend the time, in hindsight it was a waste of time and money, but had we had the “Big One”, it would have been wise and prudent.

[svelte]

Man do you know how long it’s been since I’ve owned a bike?

I think I’m gonna buy me a bicycle. Yes I do.

[Author]

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