Do You Hoard Or Know A Hoarder?

I think to a certain degree we all keep some stuff for various reasons. But I don't classify it as hoarding until its so bad that a person can't move around their home. That every area of their house even the bathrooms is piled full of stuff that they didn't throw away. Yes, I have watched that reality show Hoarders, Buried Alive and when I look at how these people live I realize that the clutter in my home is mild. I saw one episode where the woman's house was so bad that mice were literally taking it over. The house was so bad that there was nothing that could be done to save it, in the end it had to be torn down. It was a sad situation but the sadest thing of all is that the woman never did actually see that she had a problem or how bad the situation really was.

 

A number of years ago, I had a friend who was a hoarder. It was terrible, if you went to her house, you could barely get in the door. To see her away from home, you would never know. She was always clean and dressed meticulously. One time she was in the hospital, and with her permission, her brothers, sister and I went into her home and cleaned it out. There was so much piled a the curb in bags that neighbors wanted to know if she had passed away! The sad part is, it only took her about 4 months to get it back to that condition. She was a wonderful woman who would do anything she could to help someone, but she just could not stop herself from accumulating stuff.

 

I have never been much of a hoarder, but sometimes I find it hard to get rid of things that are like new that I will never use. I do not keep old broken items and I am good at making donations each year to the thrift store, but I could improve some. I have a storage room in my basement that desperately needs to be cleaned out.

 

I'm not a hoarder and have never had a direct relation to one, but my boyfriends mom is a hoarder. We watch the show Hoarding: Buried Alive, and he's always like, 'my mom is like that'. He says they can't open the front door fully and even use the master bath because it's full of stuff. She sleeps on the couch because her room is full from the floor to the ceiling. She also has 2 storage rooms full from floor to ceiling with stuff as well. I'm not the neatest person, but I just couldn't see myself living that way.

 

I hoard just a little bit because I'm infatuated with owning cool stuff. Usually I go to thisiswhyI'mbroke.com and I order stuff, and one day it will probably bankrupt me. But it's just too good to pass up.