"Hoarders" on A&E is fascinating

[nageov3t]

You guys need to differintiate between a Hoarder and a packrat. They arnt the same.

A garage full of old stuff from the last 30 years of living does not a hoarder make.

if you can walk between point A and point B in your house without having to navigate around multiple piles of crap, you're probably not a hoarder.

 

[SunSamurai]

What I hoard:

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/AdamK47/games14.png

Crap man did you just start installing games the moment you got W7 and just now finished?

Found it:

http://www.randomthink.net/misc/ebay/

MotionMan

Gluttony is a sick and sad thing. I dont understand why the son didnt apply a knife to the modem on the mothers computer. She was obviously embarrassed about it, so unlikely that she would of gotten it fixed easily.

 

[Modular]

As others have said, the show really just makes me sad more than anything else...

 

[pyonir]

Caught this for the first time tonight. I watched the TLC version last night and think it's a bit better. I'm morbidly fascinated by some of these people. I see hoarding tendencies in a couple of my family members...hopefully it doesn't start to get out of hand like the ones on these shows.

 

[rockyct]

The hoarders show should team up with the American Pickers show and have them buy some of the crap if it is actually valuable.

 

[pyonir]

The hoarders show should team up with the American Pickers show and have them buy some of the crap if it is actually valuable.

LOL, I actually had that same thought while watching an episode of Hoarders.

 

[rayray2]

What I hoard:

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/AdamK47/games14.png

Daikatana? lolz!

 

[Fritzo]

The hoarders show should team up with the American Pickers show and have them buy some of the crap if it is actually valuable.

And then sell the stuff on Pawn Stars!

 

[nageov3t]

And then sell the stuff on Pawn Stars!

I felt bad for that guy the other night who collected all kinds of "valuable" stuff and liquidated it for like $300.

I half wondered if he was suffering from dementia.

 

[nick1985]

I felt bad for that guy the other night who collected all kinds of "valuable" stuff and liquidated it for like $300.

I half wondered if he was suffering from dementia.

That dude who was knighted? He was crazier than a rat in a tin shithouse

 

[LumbergTech]

I saw this article on cnn a while back that stated a man found his missing wife's corpse under all the garbage in her house..she had been missing for a number of months...

 

[nageov3t]

That dude who was knighted? He was crazier than a rat in a tin shithouse

yeah. I assumed the "knighted" thing was just a figment of his imagination.

 

[SaDiZTiKStyLeZ]

My mom and sister are. Not as bad as the people I'm seeing in that show, from the brief view I gave it, but it's enough to cause problems.

Mom is an animal hoarder. Currently: 10 cats & 1 bird. The worst was after my parents got divorced. We had 17 cats, 7 ferrets, & 5 birds. The cats aren't in best of health, and is expensive to take them to a no-kill shelter, or find anyone who wants to invest the time and money into taking care of the cat enough to get it in condition it should be. Cat shit, piss, n vomit all over, as well as fleas...
She also likes to keep all her plants in the house. Cats getting into the plants and getting dirt all over. I don't care if she's been able to keep some of them alive for 10 years. I took the passive aggressive approach to getting those out of the house. Began killing them with pee. Took her almost 2 weeks to realize that. But she thinks I'm killing them with coffee. Any plant she puts in the house from now on is just going to be killed.
Furniture. She's gotten so many chairs and couches and tables over the years and nowhere to put them but in the way. I began doing shit to break those to get thrown out as well.
Lots of magazines, old newspapers, and paper stuff everywhere.
I think the worst food item I noticed was a 7 year old chicken. She was embarrassed when I brought that up and threw it out 6mo later.
Any time I've tried to address the issues just leads to arguements, and she uses the approach of changing the subject to something entirely irrelevant to the issue.

Sister still has garbage toys from when she was 5 stashed in her room. If there's open space to put something, then it won't be open for long.

That saying of blah blah whatever you are around will rub off on you, whether or not you want it to, applies here as well.... I think I deal with it alot better than they do. I go through every few months and throw stuff out that is completely worthless.
Alot of my stuff is still worth money, I post ads on craigslist, eBay and random sites, but just doesn't move at the rate I would prefer. I still do give that stuff away for free, even though some of it is still highly expensive. I'll give away my old toys to neighbors' kids sometimes. At least the ones that speak english.
Hot Wheels, legos, & micro machines are next to worthless. Instead of trying to sell them, I've been stashing those in geocaches while I'm out.

Now I'd just like to find that steady job and move out.

This does remind me: I think it's about that time to do some cleaning, and re-posting those ads around sites.

 

[magomago]

I thought I was a packrat until I saw this.

Now I just realize that I like to keep the sentimental items that have no practical value beyond knowing that it was my own work (old homework, reports, etc.....but now I'm thinking making high res scans might be an even better idea and then chucking away the originals if push every comes to shove)

 

[coreyb]

I have hoarding tendencies, but I can't relate with the people on this show. It's unreal how freaking bad their houses get. Dead animals, roaches, not being able to use your kitchen, etc.

 

[Whisper]

It's definitely a somewhat stark look into the often-debilitating tendency to hoard, and goes to show just how progressive many of our maladaptive, insidious patterns of behavior can become if left unchecked.

 

[wwswimming]

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

there are different hoarders. some hoarders are like Mormons, storing close to a year's food & water supply.

other hoarders just can't bear to do the thinking involved in throwing away stuff. i have one friend i worked with 20 years ago who was hoarding old BMW's at the time (i was one of the few friends that would help him move them from one warehouse to another). over time he paid $100K+ for his "i'm gonna open a BMW parts store dream".

which his wife didn't support. i was an usher at their wedding. i watched them go through the divorce process - his wife didn't support the BMW habit.

after they got married the friend started hoarding - everything. not so much hoarding as, having trouble sorting through their junk + buying computer stuff because it was on sale (they gave me a 48X CD-ROM once when i was visiting).

now their divorce is finished, their eldest daughter is looking at colleges ... and the friend is going to a "clutter support group". something like that.


i have the same problem, partially. e.g. last year i was doing some composting, and stashed a little more ingredients than i needed, resulting in a very interesting collection of 50 pounds of oak tree seeks aka acorns ... which sprouted.

so i went into the garage and - threw them away.

that's the part hoarders have trouble with. throwing away stuff they probably won't need, that has no value (except maybe to squirrels & soil bacteria).

the friend with the BMW parts will go to a support group meeting (one way to meet chicks, now that he's divorced), and just leave the stuff sitting & accumulating.


another engineer friend has the same tendency - and he has 2 1/2 acres to store it on. he brings home very cool stuff (he is a key employee at a graphite composites manufacturer). his wife gripes when his junk-pile overgrows the 1/2 acre allocated to it, but other than that, it's not a problem.


bottom line is, i think a lot of people hoard things because they hope they will be able to use it in a particular project. they identify with that project, it might be a future business (e.g. my friend's BMW parts). it is too painful to deal with the reality that they may never start that business.


Jeez, maybe i could become a hoarder counselor.

 

[MotionMan]

The people on that show hoard because of an emotional problem (loss of loved one is a big trigger), mental problem (just plain crazy) or an adjustment problem (chronic disorganization).

I actually find the latter the most interesting though the others are more dramatic.

MotionMan

 

[vhx]

I can't remember if it was hoarders, but it was a similar show. Basically the lady had a house like described here. Her obsession was garage sales and stocking up on junk she didn't need. Finally they got a bunch of stuff out for a garage sale (I don't even think it made a dent in the overal stuff). In the MIDDLE of the garage sale, she took off, went to another garage sale, used the money from her garage sale and purchased more useless crap. When she came back and showed her husband what she did, I swear I could see the words divorce in his eyes.

 

[blackdogdeek]

i love this show and the tlc one and a new one called animal hoarders or something on animal planet channel.

i think it's the same morbid curiosity that compels me to check out car accidents and create rubbernecking delays.

 

[JTsyo]

This is how evolution works. You might see it as a mental illness but if something happened where you needed those supplies, those people would get by while others suffered. The future generations would have the hoarder genes.

 

[rh71]

before this show started I had no idea this was a condition. My uncle is like this though not nearly as bad... he's always on the lookout for deals and piles up this stuff in his house... hallways are lined up with it and just a narrow passageway to walk through. The 2nd floor... hallway barely has a passage.

 

[wheresmybacon]

When my grandpa was alive he bought things in bulk and we always thought of him as a “hoarder”, but the show is obviously not related to hoarding in that sense. He didn’t have a problem throwing stuff away, he just had a room stocked with cases of whiskey, canned food, ammo; the important stuff.

The show on A&E is hard for me to watch. I guess these people must have some sort of illness, but it’s hard for me to “get”. I end up watching it once in a while out of morbid curiosity; like looking at a car wreck when you drive by to see if you can see severed heads or brains or something.

 

[wheresmybacon]

The hoarders show should team up with the American Pickers show and have them buy some of the crap if it is actually valuable.

Well the thing with Hoarders is 99% of that shit is garbage or covered in excrement or dead cats or something else vile. It really is making me sort of nauseous thinking about it.

 

[Thump553]

I watched that show once for a few minutes, but turned it off in disgust. It is basically exploitation of the mentally ill for commercial profit. Outside of the voyeur factor the show has absolutely no redeeming social value.

BTW I am a semi-packrat, can't stand throwing something away I may use some day. But I have the space for it and don't have piles of rotting food in my refrigerator.