A discussion about "hoarders" and "hoarding!" (quit, vision)
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My MIL claims she's not a "Hoarder" though when you go to her house everything is neat and nothing is out or in the way. My husband and his brothers swear that she hoards things but you don't see it because it's hidden in closets, drawers and basement. They say she has 4 coffee pots in the basement that are either broken or just sitting there collecting dust. Get rid of them! She will save newspapers for 1 month before getting rid of them. I would say she is a mild hoarder. But no one will know exactly how much she has saved or not gotten rid of until she dies.My oldest BIL hoards too but it isn't as obvious like on those shows. He reads hemmings motor news, has stack of them from last year that he either has not finished reading or has read but has not thrown out. As soon as my husband is done reading a magazine it goes in the garbage.His wife saves junk mail for months before throwing it out. I don't know why but she does. Though I know some hoarders I have never experienced or known anyone with severe hoarding like on TV. It's one thing if you have a hobbie and like to collect certain things. My MIL likes french lead crystal and has about 25 peices that's fine but when you start collecting newspapers, empty cans, plastics or stuff that's broken then it becomes ridiculous. You cannot reason with a hoarder either. My uncle was one and I tried to help him clean his house because he was disabled. He was following me everywhere and inspecting the trash before I took it to the curb. He wanted to save broken flash lights. We argued back and forth and I saw I wasn't going to win so I gave in and said keep the flash lights. His home was not severly hoarded but enough that we wanted 1800-got junk to come but he would never allow it so they were never called. It took me 5 hours just to clean 3 rooms. It made a big difference. Since his wife had left him and took the kids (not because of his hoarding but because she could not handle his disability anymore, she hoarded and never cleaned up either)I decided that whatever he wanted to keep we would put in one of the extra bedrooms and keep the door closed. Sadly he died a year later from diabetic complications.
I won't bother to go thru my mom's stuff. I don't have the time, the money, or the inclination. When she is gone, I will take a week off of work, clean the whole mess out of her house, and hope her home is not condemed. I will call those folks.."1-800-Got-Junk" for a huge dumpster on the driveway.
Not looking forward to the whole mess.
One way to handle it!
Be aware, once you start, you are compelled to finish. so, either get rid of it all, or be prepared to sort through it all. In my case, there were treasures among the trash. Stuff I would hate to lose, including an old, Victorian era photo album, my grandmother's wedding rings, etc. Its a chore, either way!
`The tv show seems to exploit some elderly who are very physically and/or mentally disabled. I think its wrong and feel sorry for some of the people.
I had to take care of my dad he collected stuff in the stored it in the garage/guest house . It was just magazines and such but still had to be cleared away.
I sort of agree but I believe they have to give consent to do the show. Still, they may be bullied into by their kids and as much as I hated mom's hoarding habit I would not have done this to her.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jasper12
I won't bother to go thru my mom's stuff. I don't have the time, the money, or the inclination. When she is gone, I will take a week off of work, clean the whole mess out of her house, and hope her home is not condemed. I will call those folks.."1-800-Got-Junk" for a huge dumpster on the driveway.
Not looking forward to the whole mess.
You might do that and you might not. The reason I say that is that as mom's dementia got worse, she began to squirrel stuff away in odd corners and coat pockets and all and once my brother found some very expensive jewelry that she thought she'd lost--in a jacket pocket. We had to go through every pocket of every garment in that house b/c my cousin has lost a very expensive bracelet in her house a couple of years before plus we didn't want to miss something like a bank bag of money or something. I did find one with a couple of hundred but that was it. She also hid other valuable items in strange places and at one time we found 25 pairs of scissors under a mattress. I hate to think of the feng shui for the person sleeping in that bed!
We started by renting a dumpster and throwing away anything that we wouldn't be able to sell at auction. I think we kept more than we should have but that's another story. Then we hired an auction company but we did most of the sorting and hauling ourselves and this house was quite large and full of stuff and some of it was really nice. All told, the auction didn't net much--less than $25k but we breathed a huge sigh of relief when that was done. Still haven't sold the house but my lovin sis gets that, lol, since we couldn't sell it. (This is the sis that is a sociopath and abandoned her kids and didn't lift one finger to help us.) Several of us took a week off work to do the auction and now we have another smaller one coming up.
I sort of agree but I believe they have to give consent to do the show. Still, they may be bullied into by their kids and as much as I hated mom's hoarding habit I would not have done this to her.
You might do that and you might not. The reason I say that is that as mom's dementia got worse, she began to squirrel stuff away in odd corners and coat pockets and all and once my brother found some very expensive jewelry that she thought she'd lost--in a jacket pocket. We had to go through every pocket of every garment in that house b/c my cousin has lost a very expensive bracelet in her house a couple of years before plus we didn't want to miss something like a bank bag of money or something. I did find one with a couple of hundred but that was it. She also hid other valuable items in strange places and at one time we found 25 pairs of scissors under a mattress. I hate to think of the feng shui for the person sleeping in that bed!
We started by renting a dumpster and throwing away anything that we wouldn't be able to sell at auction. I think we kept more than we should have but that's another story. Then we hired an auction company but we did most of the sorting and hauling ourselves and this house was quite large and full of stuff and some of it was really nice. All told, the auction didn't net much--less than $25k but we breathed a huge sigh of relief when that was done. Still haven't sold the house but my lovin sis gets that, lol, since we couldn't sell it. (This is the sis that is a sociopath and abandoned her kids and didn't lift one finger to help us.) Several of us took a week off work to do the auction and now we have another smaller one coming up.
stepka, I'm sure they have to give permission to do the show, but sometimes the hoarder refuses to give in to the kids pleas to clean up and if the municipality is threatening condemnation, an outside entity may be the only thing that gets the hoarder to agree.
There have been a few shows where the clean-up is only partially done when the city inspector comes in and says okay since some progress has been made.
When there is actually vermin in the house, or mold, I think the kids have to go to court and have the hoarder declared incompetent. No one in their right mind lives in a house with no plumbing and rodent droppings on every surface.
How about those people stocking up supplies in case of an attack, I guess they are hoarders too. I've read that Mormons are required to keep up to a years supply of food. If that woman had 200 cans of soup, who knows how she got it or why, its her business anyway. As long as she isn't bothering anyone else or hurting anyone. Of course its sad her place was in a state of disrepair, its sad to be sick, poor and alone too. As far as the cages, I might have suggested she move them to the garage if they were in the traffic lane. She might have figured she might need them someday and better to hang on to them than buy new ones at a later date. I see that as no big deal.
The woman was trapped in a hell...as I was going out the door...there she stood in this little valley in the junk...quiet tears were flowing down her face...I don't understand how you could attempt to justify here existence as even remotely being normal...she was stark raving mad - logic dictates...that the 5 gallon drum of coffee would go bad before twenty people could consume it...YOU are not making any sense
Stock piling food show a total lack of confidence and a dark out look on the future...the only thing that will save you is intelligence and faith...it was a couple of years ago...when I saw the 200 cans of soup....if I were to go there it would still be there....it will rot.................................
I think it's one of many ways people express their anxiety.
It is worse than that...When a person puts their faith in objects and not themselves or God...it is being in a severe state of spiritual bankruptcy. The things that keep us safe in the material world are non-material things....hope...faith...confidence and self esteem...are key...I was helping my brother...move some things ...from his dead father inlaws house...it was torture...1000 miles of travel and heavy labor...CASH and freedom is the new wave of the future...to hell with being a beast of burden carrying or storing things you will never really need....travel light as they say---through this journey called life...
A bit of gold in your pocket...one carry on bag....and the world is your...better than sitting in a dungeon called hoarding.
It is worse than that...When a person puts their faith in objects and not themselves or God...it is being in a severe state of spiritual bankruptcy. The things that keep us safe in the material world are non-material things....hope...faith...confidence and self esteem...are key...I was helping my brother...move some things ...from his dead father inlaws house...it was torture...1000 miles of travel and heavy labor...CASH and freedom is the new wave of the future...to hell with being a beast of burden carrying or storing things you will never really need....travel light as they say---through this journey called life...
A bit of gold in your pocket...one carry on bag....and the world is your...better than sitting in a dungeon called hoarding.
This is my goal in life and I"m working toward it. I have inherited my parents hoarding tendencies but I found myself so horrified by it that I'm fighting it tooth and nail and I"d much rather travel light. When we went on our RTW trip we had 4 tops and 4 bottoms apiece to wear and everything fit into a backpack and we bought few souvenirs and we were happy. I remember that on Christmas, our treat was our favorite box of cookies (in Australia--they have something called Timtams and they were so good!) and that's it--something consumed and then it's gone so we didn't have to carry it.
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