Hoarding is causing me problems..

[aferguson]

I've never really even heard of hoarding, until a few days ago. I knew the word and what it meant but never understood that it was a mental condition and it could have severe consequences.

Last september, an apartment building in downtown Toronto burned. Nobody was killed but it forced 1000 people from their homes and there were seveal severe injuries. The Fire Marshall's report was released at the beginning on this month.

The fire was caused by a cigarette butt tossed from a balcony which landed on the balcony of a paper hoarder. The papers were stacked higher than the balcony railing and the hoarder's apartment was also filled with stacks of papers. So an intense blaze quickly developed and caused the devastating fire.

An 80 million dollar lawsuit has been started by tenants forced from their homes against the property manager.

So what?

Well. as a result there is now a wave of crackdowns sweeping toronto, looking for hoarders in apartments and condos. In my building, we are now being banned from storing any items (all, nothing) on the balcony.....balconies must be totally bare. I have been for years storing my excess XD out there, safely and neatly in thick plastic garbage bags. But unless things change it will all have to go by the end of August, which means renting storage space somewhere else in the city. An expensive nuisance to say the least.

It's funny, in what is quickly becoming a 'witch hunt' for hoarders, not one finger is being lifted to address the smoking issue. I guess hoarders are a softer target.

[flyboy_fx]

Send the excess to me! lol Jk.

[aferguson]

oh, ok......what's your address?

[RAD 2112]

Over the years, my father has become a hoarder.
He used to have his basement set up as a workshop for any projects that he needed to do around the house.
Nowadays, there is a ~2' path (racetrack) that's lined with stuff (4' high) that he has found or bought on sale.

HO trains used to be one of his hobbies, but he's got so much stuff up on the 3rd floor, he can't get to any of it.
It's a shame, really.

Fortunately, my mother keeps his stuff from overwhelming the majority of the house.
That being said, I have two major concerns in the event of either one passing:
1) If my mother passes away, I will have to check up on my father on a regular basis.
2) If my father passes away, I will need to take time off from work to help my mother sift through it all.

After witnessing it first-hand, I keep myself in check, because I never want to get to the point.
I enjoy collecting, but not to the point where it interferes with basic day-to-day activities.

[pickelhaube]

I went up to the attic to look for a few things and it was tough to navigate up there.
I need to thin out.
I think that I am into or past the hoarders stage.

[ram04]

I'm sure you could get all the help here to clean that nasty attic out

[tmanthegreat]

The hoarding tendency probably stems from a variety of psychological reasons (that I won't even go into as I'm no real expert) but then there are more practical reasons behind our tendency to accumulate things. For many of us, we simply like what we collect. When you factor in the fact that many of us have been collecting for over a decade and don't really liquidate our collections, stuff tends to accumulate...

Except for a few instances where I've sold a few items here and there, I've never gotten rid of my collection on a whole-sale basis and have much of what I started with. I keep my collection limited to being displayed in one room in my house, with some more stored in a closet and cupboards in that room, and the bulk stored in the storage attic... I know exactly what I've got in that attic, but its more than what I have down in my display room. Guess that makes me a hoarder as well

[aferguson]

i've been doing some reading on hoarding and it does distinguish between it and collecting. Hoarding tends ot be haphazard items, which the hoarder knows have little or no value or meaning but can't resist keeping. They also tend to just toss the hoarded items on the floor or anywhere they will fit and it gets to the point where the hoarder cannot move around in their residence, attracts bugs, rats etc and is potentially a health and fire hazard....all of which they know but don't care about and cant part with the items.

Collectors tend to accumulate specific types of items and display them with some care.

However, it's a fine line and if a collection were to get too huge it would no doubt be considered hoarding.

Here is a pic of a hoarders domicile:

http://www.theplan.com/hoarding/images/before.jpg

[Dauntless]

I agree there's a difference between hoarding and collecting. Though there might be a fine line. At least you are accumulating something of value.

It's our instinct, to be hunter gatherers no?

I too have been thinning out. What's good is sometimes I pay my mortgage with all I've "hoarded"

[aferguson]

i suspect there are evolutionary reasons behind hoarding, at least to some degree. It gets blown out of proportion by some modern day people though. Sort of like evolutionary programming gone wild.

But as cavepeople, it would have been in our best interests to hoard things during times of plenty, to be used during times of need.

[flyboy_fx]

What ever must be thinned out send to me! LOL Im still working on becoming a hoarder. Jk lol

[MCalamari]

The question is: Wall-E, collector or hoarder?

My previous apartment had a rule about no storage in the water heater area on the balcony, but the apartment really did not have but a few closets ... none of which were large. That and other things really helped me decide it was time to collect or hoard some debt.

[gburch]

Having gone on a "clean up, throw out and organize" crusade in my mancave earlier this month, I can testify to the liberating feeling that came from having done it. I also now have more room, so if anyone else is going to go on a similar crusade, I can provide a clean, well-organized home for those 1/18 items you'll be getting rid of ...

[jbell]

Being a professional firefighter I've seen it all. Unless you have many cats, alive or dead, your problem is really not serious. True hoarders have a ton of cats, the dead ones are usually tossed in the basement along with all the empty cat food containers.

[tmanthegreat]

Having gone on a "clean up, throw out and organize" crusade in my mancave earlier this month, I can testify to the liberating feeling that came from having done it. I also now have more room, so if anyone else is going to go on a similar crusade, I can provide a clean, well-organized home for those 1/18 items you'll be getting rid of ...

I can agree to that "liberating feeling" A couple years ago, I sold off some of my excess 1:18 and 32x items via ebay and the board to make space and also cleaned out my storage attic of over a decades worth of empty boxes, etc that I was saving for really no reason (I filled up a dumpster to give one an idea of how much I cleaned out!) So I had a bit of space that I didn't have before... It didn't take me long to fill some of that space back up - of course my brother cleaning out his closet and stashing it my attic as well didn't help. I'm lucky the ceiling doesn't collapse

[Light.Inf.Scout]

I need to thin out.
I think that I am into or past the hoarders stage.

Me too...too much stuff. I have two rooms full of toys plus some in the garage/closets...LOL. Need to get rid of some

[aferguson]

i've become interested in the subject of hoarding. I've never really been aware of it before. In Ontario, Canada, where i live, there are fire regulations about hoarding and people can be ordered to reduce the clutter, however, the human rights laws are very strict here and it is nearly impossible to evict a hoarder, so if they don't cooperate there isn't much that can be done about it. Hoarders are considered to be mentally disturbed and as such are one of the protected groups of people.

This is in contrast to a story i stumbled upon about a 76 year old man in the US, who was a paper hoarder. One day when he was out, the police came by his place (cant remember why) and discovered his hoarding. He was evicted within 24 hours. A week later, with no home and the loss of his precious posessions, he committed suicide. I was rather astonished by the harshness of the situeation. The man was not even given the chance to clean up his apartment....just evicted without appeal, and within 24 hours.

It's amazing how little attention the smoking issue has received in the hoarder appartment fire i started this thread with. Smoking is the number one cause of residential fires and the number one cause of fire related deaths yet little is done about it. The Ontario government considered banning smoking in apartment buildings but the gov't felt it was too instrusive of them to tell people what they can't do in their homes. It's a hot issue , as most smoking related issues are, with a bunch of crazed addicts on one side and another bunch of self righteous do-gooders on the other.

Some of the hoarding is unreal...the cats mentioned above (animal hoarders). Some hoarders places have even contained mummified remains of cats, rats etc. Refrigerators jammed with rotting food....so full they can't even be closed. Incredible.

Makes me feel less ashamed of my Panther tank i have on the floor.

[ram04]

This reminds me of a old guy who ran a auto alignment shop here, he was old school, didn't use any electronic equipment, had the old pit and rack type set up.

Thing was to go through his shop there was just a path, things were waist high stacked everywhere, there was even some kind of kit car he had built years ago that you could just see some of, but the guy was the best.

[acisne]

I buy distressed properties for a living and last summer I bought in short-sale a 1 story house. Last time I saw the seller was at closing and he left the attic and two bedrooms full of stuff. We donated a bunch of Christmas stuff, but after that, it took two dumpsters to haul it all out. I know that there were personal stuff like photo albums and memories, but they guy just vanished so it all went in the garbage.

[hotrodrock]

Aferg, one of the more popular shows on TV is "Hoarders". May not have it where you are, its a cable channel. Hoarding is not limited to just things that have no value. There are people who have items stacked to the ceiling that they have bought over a period of several years and never opened (sound familiar). Hoarding is usually recognizable in that once a hoarder has something, they can't bring themselves to get rid of it, even if its something totally useless. They could have a broken bottle, but they are convinced in their mind that it could be useful someday. Some people can't get rid of things that remind them of people, pets, or certain times in their lives. One guy had mounds of cat hair that reminded him of his dead cat. He thought it would disrespect the memory of the cat to get rid of it.

Some of the hoarding is not very harmful, but some of these people need serious therapy. They will even become violent if any attempts are made to remove totally useless items. It has destroyed a lot of families when a family member cannot come to grips with their hoarding.

If you can find the program on TV where you are give it a look. Some of the programs are not easy to watch since, as someone said in another post, some of these people live in some of the filthiest conditions imaginable.

[aferguson]

that's interesting.....i'm a bit like that with bits and pieces i find that i think may be useful for a tank or aircraft project 'some day', but at the time i have no idea what i will ever use it for. I've collected odd bits of plastic and metal for this purpose. However, i have ended up using many of the items i've squirreled away over the years albeit only about 5% of what i've accumulated.

It's only about one garbage bag full of stuff though.......not a houseful, but it's a similar thing...so i can understand the hoarder mind set a bit.

The rotting food i don't get though....

[Jnewboy]

I love the show Hoarders, my favorite episode was the woman who was hording her own shit (literally) in bags in her closet, I dont get that one, everyone I know puts those bags in the garage or the spare bedroom

[Threetoughtrucks]

I knew a MV collector who I would never have suspected was a horder but this guy could not stop buying.

I knew he lived in a super rich town here in Jersey (each house had to be on a five acre lot and his lot was 10 acres and his next door neighbor was a US Senator).

Anyway this guy was the "paint guy" in my club. The club bought original shades of paint in lots of 50 or 75 single gallon cans. This guy volunteered to keep the paint and I wanted some so he invited me up to his house. Driving up, I'm passing these big estates. Mansions. Anyway, I get to this huge mailbox painted OD green but just a path into the woods. I drive into dense woods and come to a tiny rundown ranch house dating from the 1950's. Surrounding the house in a falling down 10' high wood fense. The place looks like a fort. Behind the fence is his collection of 2 1/2 ton and 5 ton trucks, even a couple of halftrack hulks about 15 ranging from prestine to hulk. He's telling me his Dad built the house in the early 50's and his neighbors hate him and his trucks. They passed an ordinance just for him to hide his trucks behind a tall fence. He takes me into a normal kitchen to have coffee and then to get the paint. The rest of the house in piled to the cieling with military surplus, boxes, bags and loose stuff. Everything from engine parts and canvas, to gun mounts and tires. He has narrow paths in every room to walk and like a path from his couch to a TV. The paths are 2 foot wide. The whole house. The paint is in the basement so we go down and there is a path around the edge and more stuff packed to the cieling in the center, except for his oil burner. He had one small barn outside packed with entire engines, transmissions, a million tire chains, some unused, big heavy stuff.

This guy went to surplus auctions and bought and bought. Everything from bins of used clothes and boots to old mess kits to new boxes of stuff where the paint has worn off the box and nobody know what is inside.

A hoarder......... interesting stuff, but still hoarder. Since his Dad died, all this guy's money went for auctions and trucks and real estate taxes. His taxes would be more but he sold 10 Christmas trees a year and in NJ he was qualified as a "farm" with super low taxes.

TTT

[aferguson]

yes that's hoarding. When what you collect interferes with the normal use of your residence and is far in excess of what you'll ever be able to use in your lifetime, that is the beginning of hoarding, according to the definition.

[Jnewboy]

yes that's hoarding. When what you collect interferes with the normal use of your residence and is far in excess of what you'll ever be able to use in your lifetime, that is the beginning of hoarding, according to the definition.

So I should get rid of my 214 FoV 1/16 King Tigers?, naaa I need more!