<p>For some reason I like the home-organization shows like Clean House. For that show, I had wondered whether people might have made their houses intentionally messy to get someone else to come in and clean it up and organize it. But Hoarders–those people and their emotional investments in their truly unbelievable messes seem very real.</p>
<p>Let me tell you, I have never seen a show make such an impression on anyone as that one does on my DH. I was watching it one day when he came in and he watched it with me. Later that day, we were going through the side attic and he was tossing things in to the Garage Sale/Goodwill/Trash piles like crazy! </p>
<p>I feel so sad for those people. I cannot begin to imagine a life like that. It makes me feel nervous and claustrophobic when I watch it.</p>
<p>The home office I am sitting in right now has a TINY resemblance to the rooms in some of those hoarder shows. It makes me uncomfortable to be in it. Mostly, it ‘belongs’ to DH and so I try not to impose my wishes on its upkeep, or lack thereof.
Still, the thought of our whole house slipping into this state is very scary.</p>
<p>Same here Splashmom. I love how it has gotten my DH to throw stuff out!</p>
<p>Every time I watch an episode, I feel the itch to throw something out!</p>
<p>I dislike reality TV shows, and generally refused to watch them. But, I do occasionally watch this show. It makes me sad to see people who have so little control over their lives.</p>
<p>My sister’s best friend was featured on Hoarders right after Christmas. You might remember- she had a consignment shop so hoarded both at the shop and at her home. My sister had a few cameo appearances (mainly the back of her) during the clean-up. It really is that bad, and her friend has made some progress, but still has serious issues. It is very, very frightening.</p>
<p>Music mom, my home office has slipped into disarray-- it’s too small! I do a big reorg and clean out about annually, and it’s definitely time again!</p>
<p>I stayed up way too late last night watching Hoarders, and its depressing. I feel bad, but i predict the small parts of their houses that have been cleared out by the end of the show will start to clutter right up again quickly.</p>
<p>This reminds me I’ve got a drawer full of cell phone chargers I shoul d really throw away…</p>
<p>We have a close friend that we suspect is a hoarder. The odd thing is , he really is a neat person by nature , but he lives alone and collects a lot of odd stuff her couldn’t possibly use…and they fill his kitchen cabinets to the point of not having room for what actually should be stored in there…for instance he has two cabinets filled with grocery store plastic bags. I save them too for when I walk my dogs in public places , but I can’t possibly find use for that many bags. Also , buys odd things in bulk…like warehouse store bulk…for instance furniture polish , but there literally isn’t a surface in his home to polish because it is all covered with boxes of more stuff he cannot use . He has three cats and I sometimes take care of them when he goes skiing with his friend. I counted thirteen bags of cat food…many of them opened when there are already duplicates all over the place. And the notes directing me how to feed the cats , where to feed the cats and which television stations to change for the cats…it is heartbreaking and he refuses to listen to anyone that urges him to get some help and throw stuff out. If you met him , you’d never guess he lives this way. He’s a great guy</p>
<p>On Television Without Pity.com, the two hoarder show boards are filled with people who claim they watch with a paper towel roll and a spray bottle right next to them. Every commercial break, they leap up and clean furiously until the show comes back!</p>
<p>Novelisto, that was not me! (but I do periodically get up and find something to throw in the trashcan).
I might have already mentioned on another thread that my mom’s cousin had a hoarding problem, with an OCD! Her stuff was neatly organized in boxes stacked inside her condo ceiling high with pathways linking the bathroom, the kitchen and the bedrooms…</p>
<p>I find this show fascinating. I’m always motivated to give stuff away/ throw stuff out after watching it.</p>
<p>My ex is a hoarder. While we were married, I confined his piles to the basement. He had stacks and stacks of newspapers that he couldn’t throw out until he’d been able to go through them looking for things to cut out. Once I took 25 bags of newspapers to the recycling center. He even kept S’s first teething biscuit!</p>
<p>After we were divorced, he went totally off the deep end. He has at least three storage units, costing over $900 a month, that are stacked to the ceiling with crap. Instead of just bringing useless things home from the thrift store like he did before, he picks up items sitting out by the dumpster and brings them into his apartment. “Someone can use it.” Old furniture, broken bicycles, you name it. There’s just a narrow path to get from room to room.</p>
<p>S got so fed up with the filth and the bugs that he told his dad he wouldn’t spend the night there anymore. That worked until we moved out of state. Now the only way for S to see his dad is to spend the night there. Poor kid.</p>
<p>“I have never seen a show make such an impression on anyone as that one does on my DH.”</p>
<p>This may be way off the deep end … but I think Hoarders affects men a lot because women traditionally take (MUCH!) better care of homes than men do. So it’s really scary to see a scenario where the caretaker, um, doesn’t.</p>
<p>
I’d be willing to bet if you suggested to your ex-husband that he get a hotel room when your son visits, he would do it. Because if he doesn’t, you report him to Child Protective Services. No excuses about cost of the hotel room when he is spending $900 per month on rent to store his junk. I can’t imagine exposing my child to that lifestyle. Your ex is obviously ill. Hopefully he’ll be able to overcome it, but it’s unfair for him to expect your son to live that way when he visits.</p>
<p>NewHope33, I agree. I am constantly getting rid of things and encourage DH to do so, too. I could live the life of a minimalist and be perfectly happy. Many times, when going through things, I have asked DH what a certain item is. Occasionally he’ll say, “I don’t know, but we’d better hang on to it just in case.” I say okay, turn around and throw it in the trash. Never once have we needed the discarded item.</p>
<p>It’s scary because I think there is a bit of a hoarder in so many of us. YIKES.</p>
<p>I can’t watch that show; it gives me the creeps. I watch tons of other stuff on TLC, but when one of the hoarding shows come on, I watch for a minute and I have to turn it off.</p>
<p>My MIL had tendencies. She had a ton of fabric in the basement. Once the hot water heater sprung a leak and got all the fabric wet. My husband started throwing the fabric out and she kept yelling, “I can make curtains out of it! Don’t throw it out!” </p>
<p>After she passed away, my husband cleaned out the house. Threw out lots of crap but also found a set of sterling flatware for 12 that he had never seen before in his life.</p>
<p>People are strange. All of them. Except all of us here on CC. ;)</p>
<p>My aunt is a garage & yard sale addict. The 2 guest rooms of her house & the garage are filled with ‘treasures’. My cousin tries to get her to toss stuff, but she won’t. At least it the place is not a health hazard - the first floor is quite clean. </p>
<p>I think most of us have a little hoarder in us - I have a dresser in my basement (picked it up curbside on ‘trash to treasure’ day - just a can of paint & new set of knobs and it’s great!) filled with fabric and a closet full of craft supplies in plastic shoe boxes that I can’t imagine living without. I worked with a stereotypical NYC yuppie several years ago that constantly bragged about how clutter free her 1000sf NYC apartment was. She kept giving me her copy of ‘Real Simple’ magazine when she was done with it until I finally told her I liked ‘stuff’. </p>
<p>I jsut wish DH would buy a file cabinet for the boxes of papers he has stacked in his den relating to the non-profit he’s chairman of. 50+ years of board minutes and financial statements take up lots of space.</p>
<p>I happen to like tools … tools that I use of course. DW is always after me … “why are you keeping this?” Well that’s a 7mm hex-drive, and I need it to replace brake pads in the Audi … which saves us $700 each time I do that repair. “Oh, well what about this one?”</p>
<p>The thing with hoarders … which all of you fine CC citizens are not … is that they are so disorganized. Yes there may be 800 bolts of cloth in the basement, but ask for a floral yellow print and they have no idea if they have one … or two … or twenty. And mixed in among the bolts of cloth may be clothes and sterling and a handbag or two. They have “stuff” … but ask them to list what they have, or where something specific might be, and they’re lost.</p>
<p>NewHope, there is a different type of hoarders - an organinzed hoarder, like my Auntie (I think she had some sort of an OCD). She knew precisely what she had in what box in her condo. I think what differentiates you (and my DH) from a true hoarder is that you do not simply go to a tool store just to pick up a few tools. You go with a specific purpose, and just keep what you bought after it served its purpose. I bet that you even replace broken tools and occasionally throw some things away. A hoarder does not have a specific purpose in mind for the items s/he acquires, other than “it might be useful someday to someone” and keeps piling up useless junk.</p>