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Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,162
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: Do you have a HOARDING problem?

@nevergivesup I have to guard my criticism of others because I function best in order. but it is a touch point for me. I married into a sloppy family; met hubs in college when I was 19 and didn't live with him before we married. Top reason for friction in marriage - to this day - has been his sloppy nature. He has improved. My impatience has not. Shared a hotel room with sis-in-law a year ago. Guess who threw her stuff around and took over every countertop? Never again. Hubs will get calls to go to in-law's 800 sq ft apartment because they've misplaced phone, remote control, debit card, meds, billfold, bills... I can't. Thanks for the vent     

"I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees." Henry David Thoreau
Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,554
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: Do you have a HOARDING problem?

I don't hoard, nor am I a minimalist.  Hoarding is a destructive illness.  Extreme minimalism is wasteful in a different way.  Most people live somewhere in the middle of normal.

 

An article in The Atlantic brought to my attention a new book of poetry: Hoarders by Kate Durbin.  The Atlantic article makes one want to read how she puts this human condition to poetry.  

 https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/04/hoarding-ae-reality-tv-kate-durbin-poetry/618610... 

 

At Amazon:

In Hoarders, Durbin deftly traces the associations between hoarding and collective US traumas rooted in consumerism and the environment. Each poem is a prismatic portrait of a person and the beloved objects they hoard, from Barbies to snow globes to vintage Las Vegas memorabilia to rotting fruit to plants. Using reality television as a medium, Durbin conjures an uncanny space of attachments that reflects a cultural moment back to the reader in ways that are surreal and tender. In the absurdist tradition of Kafka and Beckett, Hoarders ultimately embraces with sympathy the difficulty and complexity of the human condition.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,765
Registered: ‎03-13-2010

Re: Do you have a HOARDING problem?

[ Edited ]

PURGED from Basement - Four more hair conditioners - Borghese Hair Mud - Bought prolly TEN years ago.

 

EDIT:
Is ShopHQ still on the air?  Woman LOL

 

 

"The less you respond to negative people, the more peaceful your life will become."
Valued Contributor
Posts: 573
Registered: ‎04-24-2010

Re: Do you have a HOARDING problem?


@jeanlake wrote:

@nevergivesup I have to guard my criticism of others because I function best in order. but it is a touch point for me. I married into a sloppy family; met hubs in college when I was 19 and didn't live with him before we married. Top reason for friction in marriage - to this day - has been his sloppy nature. He has improved. My impatience has not. Shared a hotel room with sis-in-law a year ago. Guess who threw her stuff around and took over every countertop? Never again. Hubs will get calls to go to in-law's 800 sq ft apartment because they've misplaced phone, remote control, debit card, meds, billfold, bills... I can't. Thanks for the vent     


I definitely can sympathize with you. Clutter and disorganization gives me major anxiety. I grew up in a small apartment but my mother was very clean and tidy, we didn’t have extra items to hoard and both parents kept their modest financial affairs in perfect order.

My in laws were the opposite; wasted money on frivolous items they didn’t need and couldn’t afford, indulged their irresponsible children and somehow my husband, the eldest and responsible one, was always expected to straighten out their messes. Their environment reflected this; messy, chaotic and cluttered. Fortunately for me my DH reacted to his upbringing by doing the opposite; very clean, organized and helpful except for his garage but hey, nobody’s perfect. I’m sure he could point out a few of my failings!  Hang in there!

 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 14,294
Registered: ‎11-03-2018

Re: Do you have a HOARDING problem?

I am not a hoarder or a collector or a keeper of many items. I get visibly anxious when I see too many items around or closets and drawers overstuffed.    When I open a drawer, I want to see every item there.  I don't want to go searching for something or move 10 things around to get to something in the back.

 

I have no problem keeping backups of things I regularly use.

 

What really drives me crazy is my sister will buy something on sale or clearance just because it's a good buy with no intention of using it or needing it.  Then she'll "drop it off" and I'm left to dispose of it.  My mother did the very same thing.  

 

I don't let things accumulate at all.  I deal with the mail daily and other paperwork so it doesn't become a nuisance.  

 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 21,733
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Do you have a HOARDING problem?


@Bri369 wrote:

I am not a hoarder or a collector or a keeper of many items. I get visibly anxious when I see too many items around or closets and drawers overstuffed.    When I open a drawer, I want to see every item there.  I don't want to go searching for something or move 10 things around to get to something in the back.

 

I have no problem keeping backups of things I regularly use.

 

What really drives me crazy is my sister will buy something on sale or clearance just because it's a good buy with no intention of using it or needing it.  Then she'll "drop it off" and I'm left to dispose of it.  My mother did the very same thing.  

 

I don't let things accumulate at all.  I deal with the mail daily and other paperwork so it doesn't become a nuisance.  

 


Hey, get out of my sweater drawer! @Bri369


~Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Super Contributor
Posts: 371
Registered: ‎01-31-2016

Re: Do you have a HOARDING problem?

My issue is the "stuff". I had no choice in doing a mass purge. We had our kitchen remodled and basement majorly waterproofed within the last few months and boy the things I threw out. Mostly expired spices in the kitchen and a few items I haven't used in years. With the basement literally ripped apart there was enough of the stuff to fill a large pick up truck. Glad our Township had a spring cleanup dumpster available for the residents.