"Hoarders" on A&E is fascinating

[nageov3t]

my dad is completely a hoarder, but thank god it's never gotten "that" bad (though growing up, my friends and my sister's friends always joked about our basement being known as "the grocery store").

you'd think if you get so bad that your children are taken away due to unsafe living conditions, you'd throw some damn shit into the garbage.

I've kinda taken the opposite approach after living with my dad's mess... I don't keep anything in the house in the way of cleaning supplies, groceries, etc except what I have to. I never have more than 3-4 days worth of food in my apartment.

 

[vi edit]

My wife's parents are. Last time I was there they had over 50 sticks of butter in the freezer. You need a fucking sherpa expedition team to navigate through the mountains of useless crap in the basement. They have 40 bottle of BBQ sauce on a storage rack.

Why?

Because they might need it.

 

[SonnyDaze]

My wife is watching that and looking right at me.

I'm not a hoarder. I just like to keep stuff.

 

[imported_Imp]

Daddy is like that. Only way he's kept in control is by his family. We have the biggest backyard in the neighbourhood, but it's unusable cause of his shit. We tried trashing it, and he went berserk.

I saw one episode of that a few weeks back. Holy shit.

 

[FoBoT]

yes, but it is scary/sad
some of these people have serious mental health issues

 

[Number1]

I watched an episode this week. I was thoroughly disgusted. What a bunch of pathetic delusional losers.

Sick, sick, sick and then some.

Where is the barf emoticon when you need it?

 

[zerocool84]

Yea those people on there are really crazy. My mom keeps almost all of her old stuff but she's not a hoarder cus it doesn't affect her life.

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: Number1

Where is the barf emoticon when you need it?

 

[PottedMeat]

Originally posted by: vi edit
My wife's parents are. Last time I was there they had over 50 sticks of butter in the freezer. You need a fucking sherpa expedition team to navigate through the mountains of useless crap in the basement. They have 40 bottle of BBQ sauce on a storage rack.

Why?

Because they might need it.

You can never have too much butter.

BBQ sauce on the other hand... my dad keeps buying those crappy kraft bbq sauces but never eats them. Last time I looked there was one from ~2000.

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: vi edit
My wife's parents are. Last time I was there they had over 50 sticks of butter in the freezer. You need a fucking sherpa expedition team to navigate through the mountains of useless crap in the basement. They have 40 bottle of BBQ sauce on a storage rack.

Why?

Because they might need it.

I kinda wonder if it's because he was denied so much as a kid... his family was pretty well off but, for example, he was only allowed to have 2 outfits (one for school, one for church). he saved up money from his job once and bought new clothes and my grandfather made him return them :/

but seriously, he's got 3 refrigerators, a chest freezer, a pantry, and he had shelves installed in my old bedroom to store stuff in.

everything is so much better FRESH anyways, idk why you'd want to freeze stuff like meat or cheese.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Yeah, I don't get it. I'm really the opposite. If something has been sitting around for too long, I'm probably not going to use/eat it. That's why I generally throw stuff away after it's served its purpose for me.

 

[wiredspider]

Never seen that, might have to catch it sometime.

I horde stuff because I got it on sale

 

[lifeobry]

Hoarding is beyond my understanding. I think it's some kind of primitive "saving" instinct taken to some deliriously extreme heights.

 

[MotionMan]

The people on that show are mentally ill and need more than a two day cleanup. Makes good TV, though.

I record them both, but I prefer the show 'Clean House'.

MotionMan

 

[Ika]

I just read a book involving hoarders... crazy stuff. The Broken Window by Jeffery Deaver.

 

[lxskllr]

I hoard to an extent, but not like the people on TV(I haven't seen that show, but I'm familiar with the problem). I save mechanical parts and stuff to fix things, and I buy a lot of groceries from Big Lots. If Big Lots has something you like, you better stock up, because they probably won't have it again for awhile, if at all.

 

[CRXican]

I was watching it weekly but skipped tonights episode. It gets repetitive and the people are so pathetic it's annoying. Some of them want to look at and touch every fucking thing before they decide to keep it or not and most times they want to keep it.

Clearly they have some sort of issue but what they need to do is take them away from the house, let the cleanup crew get rid of all the crap and THEN they can try and treat them.

 

[nerp]

The show is really about mental illness.

 

[Juddog]

I'm a mild hoarder and try as hard as I can not to be but just have a problem throwing things out that I can find useful in the future; although of course I am not nearly as bad as the people on that show (I have a small storage room worth of stuff in the basement). My wife is the opposite; every time we move she goes through everything and ends up throwing out a ton of stuff.

 

[rudder]

As soon as you throw it away.... you are gonna need it.

But yeh some of these people are just plain insane. The one lady was so worried about children's services coming back and knocking on the door. Yet she did nothing to clean up her crap. She had several weeks to clean it up.... but it just sat there.

 

[Miramonti]

I'm nothing compared to a true hoarder, but I don't like to throw things out or get rid of things that might have practical usefulness later, particularly for fixing things.

My wife would ask me 'Why are you going to keep that?' I'd tell her "I like to have solutions before I have problems." And with all of the things I've pulled out of my @ss to solve situations that she's been shocked and impressed by, she's convinced and doesn't even bother me about it anymore.

 

[MotionMan]

My parents have hoarding tendencies, but keep most of the stuff in the garage and one file cabinet in their office. Otherwise, they keep a very clean house.

My wife and I have had hoarding tendencies, but we have instituted a rule that if we have not used it in 12-24 months, it gets thrown out. It is not a hard and fast rule, but it has served us well in the past 10 years.

I would say that I hoard computer files. For example, I have all my e-mails going back to about 1994.

MotionMan

 

[HannibalX]

It might have already been mentioned but a lot of these people grew up poor and many are depression era kids. Growing up they didn't know where their next meal was going to come from. Now as adults, they have more resources (money) and can afford to buy some easy insurance in the form of non-perishable food items. I don't fault these people one bit.

Now, hoarding JUNK is another thing which I don't understand.

 

[bignateyk]

My wife's parents are like that. I am the opposite. If I see something in the house or garage that hasn't been used in a year, I get rid of it. I only buy enough food for what I am currently using.

 

[K1052]

My mom is a hoarder and it's getting worse with age. The house was so full of crap the last time I went home that when I got back to my place I had the irresistible urge to clean my entire condo top to bottom and throw out absolutely everything that could go.

I've got a full freezer but that's all frozen stew/chili/pasta sauce and some veggies.