Do you horde things?

[JanH]

Re: Do you horde things?

Coming from a family of chemically imbalanced people with multiples disorders, hoarding is a problem. Anxiety, OCD, or wherever it comes from, I have several family members that way. I think it is a controlling your environment issue. When you feel out of control, you want to protect yourself by keeping anything that might help you in the future. I also have been told that they are really enviromentally conscious, hoarding cardboard and cans and stuff to recycle, they just don't get it there--proscratinating and letting go problems.

[JanH]

Re: Do you horde things?

I found myself starting the process until I got medical help and therapy for management skills. It took awhile to get the process of letting go down, but now I don't even keep duplicate food anymore. I only keep a bunch of toilet paper and extra paper towels (dogs).

[LuxLiving]

Re: Do you horde things?

Hoard is such an ugly word. I stock my pantry - quite heavily some would say, others would say it isn't enough! I personally think it's a little on the low side right now, but my grocery budget has been cut in recent months to a very tight-ish small amount, so I've been hitting it heavily.

I think it is SarahH on here who has a link in her blog to some other pantry stockers. One particular one in my mind had gone over the line with a whole BIG long laundry basket full of deodorant & toothpaste toiletries in it. Way too many for most reasonable size families. I would in that instance go on over to the charitable side and either donate the items to my local women's shelter or stop taking the free w/coupon stuff home with me.

This said by a lady who is still using shampoo & conditioner I got free in 1996 *yes 96*! It's still good!! REALLY - right now in my shower as we speak. At that point in time I had to stop stocking it as I had way too much!! I am just now starting to reload the shampoo/conditioner section of my pantry which is a room in my basement. I am down to one bottle each of vintage 96 shampoo & conditioner. BTW, as a point of interest - at my house we use one bottle of conditioner for every two of shampoo. Makes sense since we all lather twice and only condition once.

I label my stuff w/a date on it & the price I paid with a permanent marker. The dating helps with rotating and the price helps me keep sale prices in mind when I'm out shopping again.

[JanH]

Re: Do you horde things?

That's a smart way of doing it

[Jacklad]

Re: Do you horde things?

BTW, as a point of interest - at my house we use one bottle of conditioner for every two of shampoo. Makes sense since we all lather twice and only condition once.

Do you really lather twice? I'm frugal with shampoo - I buy the cheap Suave 2-in-1, and lather once. Even when my hair was so long I could sit on it, I've never done the "repeat" portion of "lather, rinse, repeat".

Jackie

[cschin4]

Re: Do you horde things?

I don't really hoard or collect stuff. But, I do have a problem knowing when to part with something. But, if everything is "special" then nothing really is. I don't really have any sentimental attachments to things. I just don't know what to do with excess stuff. I have made big strides lately in getting rid of alot. I find having too much stuff to be very distracting and anxiety provoking when you can't find what you know you have. I have decided that I am "starting over". I am cleaning out the basement, drawers, etc. If I throw something out that I later "need" then I will just go buy another one. It may cost some money to lose perfectly good stuff, but I figure that peace of mind is much more valuable.

[mountainmist]

Re: Do you hoard?

Does one lead to the other? Did people who end up with hoarding ocd start out saving perfectly useful stuff? Did it start as a good idea, gone bad?

Is there any research about the childhood of these people? is it a response as one poster mentioned to being without at one time?

I personally see hoarding as well selfish..you might need it at sometime in the future, but in the meantime..why not share (or at least use it yourself!)? Not saying stockpile is bad, and the line between the two is a big fuzzy grey area (about a mile wide) just saying at some point people need to look and see if they are being selfish or frugal. (course if they are sick, they crossed the line long ago and don't care..or rather to sick to care)

Recent medical research showed that hoarders metabolize glucose in the brain differently from others, and somewhere or another I read that drugs used for some forms of senile dementia help some people who hoard.

Stockpiling a pantry and USING the items is NOT a version of ocd-hoarding.

For many years, many presumed that old people hoard because they lived through the Depression in the 1930s, but those MRI brain scans make this idea simply so much folklore.

Some researchers believe that it might be due to a serious strep infection, because if the antibodies to strep are removed from the bloodstream, the ocd vanishes for as long as the antibodies are gone - they take about 6 months to come back in numbers great enough to retrigger the ocd symptomology.

The research is all still very preliminary, in its infancy.

They aren't even sure if true clinical hoarding is part of the ocd spectrum anymore, because drugs used for ocd don't have any impact in hoarders.

Also, many seniors deteriorating into some forms of dementia start to hoard, but don't have a longterm lifelong history of hoarding.

[cschin4]

Re: Do you horde things?

I think we have so much "stuff" that people just get overwhelmed with the volume of stuff to sort through. When I wasn't feeling well, it didn't take very long for stuff to accumulate and take over the house. It can be labeled as an illness and may be in some people. But, I really do think some people just need some help in debullking.

[kealina]

Re: Do you horde things?

first off, congrats JanH for getting help for yourself... i wish more people could be that aware...
my FIL's family has hoarding tendencies so i've done some research so i can understand the family dynamic better...
it's so much more than just a clutter problem... i sometimes have clutter accumulate and DH and I do stockpile necessities when they are cheap but in no way do i consider that hoarding... if you use it, take care of it, etc i don't consider that a problem... what drives me nuts (like princessperky i think it's selfish) are when they keep things they aren't using that could be used by others and when they have so much stuff that something the could be useful ends up getting ruined...
also, i found a yahoo group that was informative and learned a lot...
in many instances in this group, if you helped a hoarder clean out they might resist or even get angry that you are "taking away" their stuff... not only that, but they are likely to fill the space right back up, within weeks, with more things... it's an issue of control and a lot of other complex issues and emotions...i read that hoarders have trouble letting go of everything, trouble sorting, and trouble determining the value of an item... it's the stuff but it's also how they regard their stuff...

[Ima saver]

Re: Do you horde things?

I would like to hoard money and throw it all in one room and roll around in it.

[kealina]

Re: Do you horde things?

I would like to hoard money and throw it all in one room and roll around in it.

lol.... ima McDuck and her money bin...

[JanH]

Re: Do you horde things?

Thank you, Kealina. It has been an enlightening and often hilarious process. But is it sad to watch my dad. He is such an awesome man, but he can't let go of anything! Drives my mom crazy because she is so neat and organized. My grandmother was a very intelligent teacher. From middle age to her death, she hoarded until they just had to abandon her home. You guys are right. If it was stuff you used, it would make sense. But they don't even know for sure what all they have and they can't find it if they wanted to. So they get more. And they often keep used things that should just be thrown away. I can remember finding a pile of used razor blades in my grandmother's house. In some people it is indeed an illness. As a lot of people say, you have to let go of some things before other things can come into your life.

[JanH]

Re: Do you horde things?

lol.... ima McDuck and her money bin...

THAT'S the name I was trying to think of!

[JanH]

Re: Do you horde things?

By the way, my grandmother lived on her farm so abandoning her home wasn't like being in the city. The family still uses the fields, but the house is abandoned.

[kealina]

Re: Do you horde things?

[QUOTE=JanH]Thank you, Kealina. It has been an enlightening and often hilarious process.
QUOTE]

i don't know how much you've looked into it but there's a website for children of hoarders... it's got a lot of information about coping when your parent is a hoarder...