# Packrat? Hoarding?



## ericj (Jun 20, 2007)

*Packrat? Hoarding? You or in your family?*

Are you, or is someone in your family, a packrat/hoarder? This usually includes paper (common - newspapers, magazines, other periodicals, books, mail (junk/cards/notes/bills), etc), clothing (old and new), food, bags, knick-knacks, broken things, craft/sewing/yarn stuff, etc. Extreme forms may involve large numbers of animals, dangerous things, and human waste. Are there huge piles of things and small trails running through them, do they (or you) need to move stuff to allow others to sit or to sleep, or even avoid letting other people see the home?

My family tree has at least seven known people that have/had this. It is apparently some kind of anxiety disorder...

My uncle apparently had both SAD and this...


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## Perfectionist (Mar 19, 2004)

My mother and grandmother have hoarding problems.

I never really noticed it until my grandma moved from a big house to a small apartment. You have to turn sideways to walk in certain places and the showers have piles of papers and plants in them. At my mom's house, you have to move piles of papers to find a seat on the couch. There is an entire floor of her house that is unusuable and basically a giant jam-packed storage compartment.

I am the complete opposite and deal with stress by throwing things out. I cannot stand clutter and if I can't find room for something in a drawer or in somewhere hidden from view, it gets chucked.


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## Maiketh (May 7, 2009)

My mom is a packrat. All of her crap is in the sunporch and in her bedroom. Although the newspapers get collected in the living room for months at a time. She never throws stuff away so whenever my grandma goes there 2x a year then she cleans house. My brother tries too.


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## AceRimmer (Nov 12, 2008)

Yes, packrat is I. My SA got really bad when I went away to college where I was the poor kid and everybody was from rich families. Ergo I got crushed by the kids who needed someone to screw with. Constantly crapped on because I didn't have enough stuff or what I had wasn't good enough. I have a hard time throwing stuff out now as I'm irrationally trying to compensate. I don't even sleep in my bedroom because my bed is full of the boxes for my guitars and amps. I clean up every few months but it starts all over again. Yeah, I'm really messed up.


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## Scrub-Zero (Feb 9, 2004)

Perfectionist said:


> I am the complete opposite and deal with stress by throwing things out. I cannot stand clutter and if I can't find room for something in a drawer or in somewhere hidden from view, it gets chucked.


I'm the same way. I'm moving in two days and i'll be mad if i have more than 5 or 6 boxes of stuff(not counting table, chairs, a few desks and my bed).


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## Adam1203 (Jul 6, 2004)

My Mom is a hoarder, it can get pretty bad, sometimes there are whole rooms of the house that are unusable because of the mess. When it gets that bad I wait until she goes somewhere and then I load up my truck with the accumulated junk and take it to the dump. 

I think I have a little bit of the hoarding gene but since I see how horrible it can be I fight it as best i can, I used to have weird collections of things, like those little umbrellas you get in drinks at restaurants and things, or a big bottle collection. I used to have a room with a bunch of shelves along the walls and I would save the boxes from all of the computer games that i had bought and I'd put them on my shelves, my room looked like a video game store. But I've since thrown all of that stuff out and only keep the things i need.


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## No-Sturm-und-Drang (Jan 21, 2009)

Wow that is a lot of people in your family that hoard. Yes i clean for a hoarder from 2 to 3 days a week. She keeps everything such as reciepts, papers, pictures from magazines, you name it she has saved it. I think it is her way of comforting herself. She uses materials to feel better. Everyone uses something to comfort themself with such as internet, tv, food, sex, exercise, etc.These things are fine in moderation but the problem comes in when you overuse your comfort strategy. I think that the overusing would come in when you have that good feeling and you dont want to give it up. So you will do anything to get that feeling back again.


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## TorLin (Nov 14, 2006)

im a packrat i think.


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## jjyiss (May 6, 2006)

i never throw out/donate any of my textbooks. i spent so much money on them, that it would be wrong doing that. its nicely sitting on the top shelf in my closet, so it doesn't get in the way. 

another thing i don't throw out is all my university notes, and some of my high school notes. its all fit inside my printer cabinet inside my desk so that doesn't get in the way either. nostalgic reasons, im not sure. thats about it really.


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## Alone42Long (Apr 23, 2009)

Yeah I do this. Although it's nice to be able to pull something out from 20-30 years ago. If I had an airplane hangar in the backyard or lived in a empty grocery store it'd be easier.

I partly do it because I was punished growing up by having things I care about thrown away.
A grandmother 'collected' things too. Might have gotten the gene as well idk.

I'm in the process of building a really big shed out back to empty half the house. So I can do some repairs to the house & be able to have company & move forward with my life. I'll probably get rid of half what I put in the shed too.

It's a subconscious way for myself I think to never approach anyone as well. 
Since I'd want to have them over developing friendly relationships but as long as I'm like this I'd never feel comfortable enough to do that.

It makes it hard working on & repairing this 60 yo house since I'm to embarassed to have contractors over to work on it.(And I'm afraid of being ripped off)

I had 7 cats once upon a time about a decade ago. I narrowed it down to 2, 8 years ago & they keep me busy enough. They're the only love or family I have.

I've slept on the couch the last 12 years. Have a plan to get things straightened out the next 6 months to yr to at least a reasonably presentable state. Stuff costs to much to give away or throw away just to eventually want back or replace. 

Ever seen the show Clean House?
It's inspirational & comforting knowing theres many others out there with same problem. I'd be to nervous/embarrased to be on the show tho or do a yard sale.

When it was really bad I'd hurt my back sometimes twisting to walk thru paths or occasionally slipping on something. But its still home sweet home. ha ha


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## Jumplittlelisa (Jan 12, 2009)

I've never fully considered the idea of hoarding. Both of my grandfather's probably had this problem. One collected old antiques or mechanical equipment outside all over the yard and garage. The other collected cans of food, newspapers, magazines and alarm clocks.

My uncle also had this problem. The bedroom door could hardly be opened and he had his top bunk, closet and bedroom filled with porn & beer cans and boxes.

I'm not sure my problem has escalated to this extreme (well, esp. not the porn!). I do collect old birthday cards and holiday cards. I have a bookcase in my room that is ridiculously cramped with random junk.


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## BeachGaBulldog (Feb 13, 2007)

When I was in my early 20's I had tons of old Sports Illustrated and quite a few Playboys, and I eventually threw them out. I don't think I am as bad as I used to be.


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## Indy (Apr 24, 2009)

Logan X said:


> I'm the same way. I'm moving in two days and i'll be mad if i have more than 5 or 6 boxes of stuff(not counting table, chairs, a few desks and my bed).


Same here. Clutter drives me crazy. I love the feeling of living in a clean, open space, free of clutter.

On the flip side, my grandmother was a hoarder like no other. She saved _everything_. Thousands of niknaks, clothes (all shapes and sizes), shoes (mens, women's childrens), make-up, canned food (some greater than 30 years old!), silverware, boxes and boxes of silverware, newspapers, candy, baskets, bicycles and bicycle parts, tortoises (she has more than 20 as pets at any one time), rocks (yes, rocks), quilts, broken electronics, statues, figurines, board games, bed pans, rosaries, pocket knives, candles, children's toys, tree branches, guns (most broken/unusable), scraps of paper, taxodermy pets, plastic bags, dolls, (she was a dollmaker and had thousands of dolls, doll clothes, and doll molds) etc., etc., etc.

By the time we moved her out, in her mid 80s, she couldn't open the doors in any of the 4 bedrooms in home due to clutter. Hallways were impassable and fleas from her many, many cats, formed a thin layer of moving black specks on her carpets, sofas, and bedding. Aged dry goods resulted in rodent infestations and the piles and piles of belongings became a serious earthquake and fire hazard. Sadly, due to her hoarding, we had to move her out of her own home. Moving her out was the only way to get the house cleaned because she would not allow us to throw _anything_ away while she was there.

It broke her heart - and ours to clean out that home. Her mind deteriorated, and she died shortly after.

One of my greatest fears is that I'll inherit the hoarding gene. I overcompensate by throwing away everything. I move alot and am proud when I can fit everything I own into a one or two suitcases.


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## sc47 (May 17, 2009)

My soon to be mother in law has boxes stacked up to the ceiling in every room of her house. My fiance's brother will pick up stuff off the street and keep it (once he came home with a bowling ball he found on the side of the road) He will keep everything.


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## CharlesNotInCharge (Jun 27, 2009)

My mother is a hoarder and she is very resistant to any effort by anyone to try to get things under control. I think my dad has given up and moved to his garage (and his happy place). I have lots of experience with eating on my lap because the table is piled up with stuff. Now that my parents are getting older I am very concerned about their health and well being.


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

Fear of letting go of things - like scrapbooking life. I have it to some extent. I really need to throw out some stuff.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

My name is Karl and I'm a packrat. I can look around me and see at piles of papers and boxes. I would have to clear a path if I wanted to open the closet in my bedroom. Things often get lost in my mess. It once took me a full year to locate an annuity policy that I had misplaced. Turned out to be in one of my many boxes.

When my brother died at age 45 I finally saw his place for the first time in nearly a decade. Any psychiatrist who saw it could have instantly have diagnosed OCD. We found over $100 in change. Not in a jar, but randomly scattered all about the place in every room on every surface including floors and hidden under massive piles of paper and everything else. It looked like the place had been bombed with exploding piggy banks. The spare bedroom was the worst, I had to walk on bads of junk as it was literally impossible to even find the floor. His bathtub was used a storage facility filled with all manner of junk. He never was diagnosed nor even sought treatment, though it's blatantly obvious he had OCD when he had nearly a decade of junk mailed piled waist high. When the place was finally cleaned out the junk took up the entire area between street & sidewalk and extended for the full length of the property.

My 56-year-old brother has been on meds for OCD for the last decade and has done therapy as well, even with therapists coming to his home. This is a man who, last I saw, was still collecting prescription anti-fungal creme for jock itch. He was up to about 80 or so unused tubes, but kept filling the script as if 70 wasn't yet enough!? Just one of this many collections that are far too numerous to list.

It seems very clear to me that there is a genetic component to this. I couldn't have learned OCD from him since he was already 20 and gone to college when I was born.


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## JS86 (Jun 16, 2009)

I suppose I hoard all of my university notes and books, plus keep a whole host of cut-out articles from the newspaper. The thing is they are all stored somewhere out of the way, like under my bed or in the cupboard.

My room was in a state of controlled mess until recently, though. I was keeping little knick-knacks here and there and it piled up in drawers and the like. When I changed by drawer over, that was the time where I really started cleaning out my room and threw a lot of junk out. I am still in the process of finding stuff to throw out once in a while, but currently it is mainly finding things I really don't have any use of anymore and has re-sale value, so I'm using eBay for that.


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## shyvr6 (Feb 18, 2008)

My mom is a bit of a hoarder.


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## Shauna The Dead (Jun 16, 2005)

I'm pretty bad for doing this...I keep all kinds of old papers, receipts, boxes, etc... awhile back I found receipts from about 5+ years ago...so I did throw those away. lol


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## Some Russian Guy (Mar 20, 2009)

i don't throw out my failed and obsolete hard drives
i hoard them


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## southward (Jul 25, 2008)

Unfortuantly, yeah I am one too.
When I was younger I was such a minimilist/clean freak, but now it's a complete 180.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

shyvr6 said:


> My mom is a bit of a hoarder.


So is mine, which might explain how she produced three sons who excel in hoarding.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

Shauna The Dead said:


> I'm pretty bad for doing this...I keep all kinds of old papers, receipts, boxes, etc... awhile back I found receipts from about 5+ years ago...so I did throw those away. lol


You're only 25, so you can't have that much in relative terms. Hording becomes more of a problem with age simply because an extra decade or two or three means lots more time to collect lots more junk. I recall some documentary on hoarding where they said it was often middle-aged people who first sought treatment for their hoarding, since by that time they've collected so much that they can't deal with it any longer.


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## SAgirl (Nov 15, 2003)

Every year when the semester is over, I throw all my school papers out from the previous year. My room was a mess for awhile, but I cleaned it. It's pretty clean now. My room has never been in a state where I couldn't walk on the floor. I could never live like that.


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## WhimsicalInWV (Jun 10, 2009)

Logan X said:


> I'm the same way. I'm moving in two days and i'll be mad if i have more than 5 or 6 boxes of stuff(not counting table, chairs, a few desks and my bed).


Yeah, that's more like me. I've moved on average every 1.5 years since I was born (just happens) and we're about ready to move again in a couple weeks (hopefully permenant this time... well I hope to move out one day). I'm really selective about what I keep, I get tired of lugging it around:mum


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## JS86 (Jun 16, 2009)

max4225 said:


> There's a box filled with 7 years worth of my notes and homework from 1990 to 1997. It's pretty easy to look that stuff up. Do I dare just toss it all out and start fresh?


If it is not anything related to higher education, definitely throw it out. I still keep some of my university notes, books, essays, and the like from old courses, since I still find them useful from time to time, but the rest is useless.


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## styler5 (Oct 7, 2006)

Yup, mostly computer files and gadgets. I have a 1tb and a 500gb external hdd which are almost filled up and 1000+ youtube favorites. D:


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

max4225 said:


> Most of the stuff I hang onto there's more this odd emotional attachment than actual usefulness? I'm way too sentimental about these things.


I'm probably the least sentimental person around. I keep things that could theoretically have some future use, no matter how remote that use may be.

Growing up my mother would always say: "If you throw it out this week, you're just going to have to go out and buy it next week." She claims no memory of ever saying that even though she must have repeated it only a few thousands times to burn in into my brain for eternity.

My brother, who is 20 years older than me, didn't get that saying. I guess she hadn't come up with it yet. Instead he say he got a story about starving kids in India. Well, he sure as hell wasn't going to be one of them. He bought a house in 1989 and started hoarding food from food pantries. We had no idea he was doing this till 1998 when he brought over car load after car load of can & boxes of mostly expired garbage that nobody would want. He actually had 90 or so pounds of rice -- yes, I counted it. It filled an entire room and must have been literally a ton of food.

Be careful what you tell your kids -- they just might listen.


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## White Rat (Jul 13, 2009)

I'm definitely a hoarder, both in the physical sense (my room is filled with stacks of books, my monitor is covered in Beanie Babies, my desk with animal figurines and mugs full of pens and art supplies I've never used, and a floor covered in board games and electronics and newspapers and MORE books) and in the digital sense (a hard drive full of more images and documents and programs than I'll ever need). It only got worse once I discovered the joys of eBay, thrift shops, and yard sales.

Fortunately I'm young, so I haven't acquired so much stuff that it's become a fire hazard, and I can also bring myself every few months to throw out the things that truly, indisputably have zero worth (glass bottles, damaged newspapers, torn clothing, and so on), so I rationalize it while I still can.


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## stoney7713 (Jul 3, 2009)

I'm bad about hoarding things, I keep parts of broken items, you never know when those parts come in handy fixing other things. 

Honestly to all of you its not a bad thing at all that you hoard things. I cannot count the times that my hording has helped me or someone else. "Oh I can fix that let me grab this and this..." "I've got all that data saved so go ahead wipe that hard drive clean I can reinstall all of it." "Oh you need a power cord? what voltage lvl? Here try this one..." 

I do clean out the junk pile every once in awhile, I do find things that I forgot I even had, but in the end I don't see it as being bad. 

Grant it I wish I was a little cleaner, I do like a spotless house but in the end I try to keep my junk out of sight out of mind so other people don't see it.

Then again maybe I'm just fooling myself....... I'm a pack rat!!!!!!!!!


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## rainsong2775 (Oct 8, 2010)

> I am the complete opposite and deal with stress by throwing things out. I cannot stand clutter and if I can't find room for something in a drawer or in somewhere hidden from view, it gets chucked.


My younger sis and her husband struggle with hoarding, too ... have a hard time throwing uneeded, worn out, broken stuff away.

I am sort of in middle ground here. I know I keep too much of certain things (crafts/clothes that I will never wear/old paystubs) but I am adamant organizer of cupboards and closets...I don't let my things take over the house.
Plus, I love decorating the house. (I wouldn't be able to if it was a mess.)

Our older sister is the opposite of "hoarder." 
Her apartment could pass a military-style inspection. 
She over does it a bit. Throwing out the kids' school projects and old toys "they don't need anymore". 
I'm afraid her over zealous cleaning is going to foster pack-rat tendencies in her children.


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## Cedilla (Dec 25, 2009)

Hoarding runs on my dad's side of the family. His parents were pretty bad hoarders. My grandpa used to buy a new car every couple of years, and just park the old one in the yard. He bought a motorcycle back during the gas crises of the 70's, but a couple of hundred miles on it, and parked in the shed where it sat until he died, in 02. Their house was filled with stuff my grandma ordered, or bought and never taken out of the packaging. Seriously when they died and we had to clean out their house, we removed several thousand dollars, or random stuff like cookware, and clothes, and trinkets.

My dad is a hoarder as well, just not as extreme, probably more of a packrat. He holds on to a lot of junk, but lately he has been letting go of it, since he rents a tiny bedroom.

I am a packrat, but my brother is not. However I lost almost all my stuff around three years ago, and I've been building junk back up again. I only do it, because I hate needing something, then realized I threw something out that I could have used. I have broken right side rearset from my motorcycle, from when I dropped it several months ago, when I got a new one, I put the old one in a box, with an old coil-pack from my car, which may or may not still work. I have a shirt in my closet that has a big hole in the back, and I will never wear it again, but I keep it just in case I ever feel like stitching it back up. Also I keep all my old bills and bank statements, and I used to keep all my junk mail, but I've since stopped, but I've yet to sort through my old mail, to throw away the junk, because its far too daunting a task.:no

N E ways that is my story and I am sticking to it.


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## Shrinking Violet (Oct 11, 2010)

My Dad is a hoarder, and it's a very frustrating thing. I believe it's a kind of anxiety disorder, so it can be genetic in the sense that you might have a predisposition to that kind of emotional makeup. However, there's also a large behavioural component (that can be controlled). Hoarding seems to be about comfort - it's kind of an addiction to "things," and addictions are normally about unhealthy coping mechanisms. Feel anxious... collect more stuff... feel ok again for a while. But like all addictions, it comes with a price - your physical life becomes disorganized, cluttered, and even more stressful.


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## caflme (Jun 7, 2009)

Everyone in my family has a tendency toward this ... but my dad and sister are the worst. My dad always has been but got worse after my mom died. My sister has always been that way but got way worse after her oldest son died in a car accident. We all grew up seeing it... and living it. It's the 'I might need/use this someday' mentality. The loss of the value of what was paid for something... or the intention for it to go to someone who needs it someday or to pass it on.... there is a ton of reasons but it all comes down to fear. Fear of letting go, of losing something you think has value, assigning value to things or letting things replace feelings. 

I get better and then relapse... I was doing real good up until a few years ago and then gave up and my garage filled up with junk and my shed... I was good about keeping stuff out of the house until the garage and shed were full and then boxes started accumulating in a spare room - not good.

Yesterday I cleared out half of my garage and it looks awesome... I hope I'm on an upward trend at purging stuff from my life... I'm way happier without the stuff, I feel lighter and less stuck.

I think it is linked to anxiety and depression... the more depressed I am the less I throw things away.


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## Manic Monkey (Sep 6, 2010)

I do hoard, somewhat. Each decision I make and each path I take is constantly shadowed with me being in the knowledge there is no undo button, once a decision has been made it has been made, and once I have thrown an item out it has been thrown out, forever. It began with a small pile of belongings I would "keep for the memories", but it has become a case in which I have a lot of belongings, such as old clothes and old birthday cards, that are no use for me cluttering up my room, but I cannot bring myself to throw them out.


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## orchdorch925 (Aug 26, 2010)

I kind of am. I keep everything. If it reminds me of anything ever, it's kept. I have papers from elementary school, which was 10 years ago.


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