Hoarding
I mentioned this week on Facebook and Twitter that I’d caught a few episodes of the A&E show, HOARDERS, which is about men and women who, more than being pack rats, suffer from a psychological inability to let go of items, even if the sheer amount of stuff is threatening the quality of their lives, they face legal action, or their health is at risk. It’s one of those shows that’s on the verge of being terrifying, actually, because with certain things, I can see how easily this can happen.
Luckily, my tendency runs to clothes and books — which probably aren’t life-threatening (although there is a stack of books by my window that has tipped over a few times) and aren’t going to get me into trouble with the sanitation department anytime soon.
The latest of my "overflow" shelves ... I'm being good and not showing the other bookcases (which are kind of dusty), the stacks along the windowsills and beside furniture, or the boxes in the closet.
Anyway, one of the things that all of the hoarders had in common — and that made me a bit uncomfortable — was the belief that everything they owned would have a use one day. It wasn’t just stuff; it all had a purpose (or it would.) And I could absolutely relate to that. I have the Rubbermaid boxes of clothes that I’ll use again as soon as I lose a few pounds. I have the books on those dusty shelves that I bought because they kind of sounded interesting, but I know I’ll probably never read. But getting rid of them is HARD, even if I know that they are going to a charity or something.
I’ve managed to get rid of clothes from time to time (usually when I move to a new house), but not so much the books. I guess I’m not really sorry for that, because I love having books and it doesn’t hurt anything — and I’m just glad my hoarding tendencies don’t include EVERYTHING.
(Like, the second a Tupperware container in my husband’s lunch comes back late with the food half-eaten and starting to puff up the lid, I don’t even open that baby up to see how bad it is. I trash it.)
So…what do you have a tendency to hoard? Or are you one of those lucky people who can get rid of stuff you aren’t using without a second thought?
That show makes me uncomfortable for the same reason. Over the last few months I finally managed to get rid of a lot of the excess stuff I was hanging onto for no reason. It wasn’t as hard as I expected it to be..until everything was bagged up and ready for charity. Then I kept freaking out and thinking, “But what if I need that later??”.
I’m not too bad, I only hoard books, clothes and shoes (OMG, the shoes!)..but I also have a hard time letting go of other stuff. Like old high school notebooks/memorabilia. Because I’m going to need my old algebra notes some day? Probably not…
Like you, books are the one thing I don’t feel guilt over keeping. Very often.
“Like old high school notebooks/memorabilia. Because I’m going to need my old algebra notes some day? Probably not…”
I have mine, too. Eek.
That actually makes me feel much better. I kept mine because I have three younger siblings and I thought that they could use them… never did. (I wonder why? Does it have something to do with my handwriting… probably.)
I am getting ready for a trans-Pacific move and my love told me I have to pare down my book collection. The man has a whole room for his musical instruments — and the keyboard is out here in the living room! — and I have to pare down my novels? There’s a big difference between a couple of bookcases and a whole room!
That’s one thing I really appreciate about my husband — he’s just as bad with his books as I am with mine.
Of course, just because he has a hard time giving up his books doesn’t mean he won’t suggest freeing up a little space by getting rid of mine.
I nip that idea in the bud, real fast
This is why I’m looking forward to a book nook. Lots and lots of books in a little teeny space. Now if only re-buying books weren’t so darned expensive…
We have the same bookies!!!!
Hehe, I’m such a dork for bookcase pics. I loveses them, and seeing what books everyone has.
I should straighten and arrange and dust the others, and just have a book porn post sometime.
My dh has hoarding tendencies. I have an entire out building (which and a bathroom & electric) that I can’t use because it’s full of his junk. Computer wires, work equipment & his books. His books are not important and can go away. On the other hand my books… lol
3, 5 shelf bookcases filled nearly to the brim. And a steamer chest full of keepers. And I love your shelf. What I thought when I took a close look: Have it, want it, already read it. Very good taste.
I can’t help looking through people’s bookshelves, either online and pictures or in real life.
I used to do the computer-junk thing, but then I made myself stop. I know exactly my problem there: All of that stuff cost so much when I originally bought it, it’s hard to throw away now, even though it’s worthless. Like that computer I bought ten years ago for $1300? *sobs*
I’m not much a hoarder unless it’s books. I really need to clean my bookshelves out because my books have started to make a pile on a floor and something surprising maybe hiding under it.
I always said I would be found dead under an avalanche of books. But what a way to go…
LOL! Too true.
My hoarding tends to go to books, purses, and coats. I have so many purses and coats it’s sick. I do sometimes force myself to clean them out, but it can be tough.
Tough, but I think that’s the (thank goodness) difference between hoarding and the real, heartbreaking hoarding that they show on that show. Man, that’s just hard to watch.
It is strangely comforting to know that if I HAD to get rid of them, I could.
Definately books. But I also horde kitchen gadgets. Gadgets I will never use again. But I go through good periods, when I get brutal about going through my things and giving stuff to Goodwill, so it’s not tooooo bad.
The only time I get very brutal (and that’s more like, kittenish-brutal) is when I’m moving. And then the effort of packing/hauling all of that stuff I know I won’t use overcomes my need to keep it.
Kitchen stuff is one thing I can toss without a second thought. The reason is probably easy to deduce (see previous week’s post) but, seriously — if something is dirtier than I want to clean, or if I just seem to have too many of something (frying pans), out it goes.
Sadly hoarding runs in my family through many generations! My father got sick this past summer and I had to clean out his house for his own good (although he still isn’t speaking to me). He didn’t much agree with me that it was for his own good, because of course everything he had was necessary and he would use it eventually.
Now I am not exaggerating when I say that I took 50 trash bags of junk mail and old receipts and bills. There was stuff that was over 25 years old in his bedroom you couldn’t walk. When I finally got to where I could walk into his walk in closet I had to wash everything before I could donate it to Goodwill since it had not fit him in over a decade and no one had been able to walk into that closet for at least that long.
The man has 10 external hard drives that are still in the box unopened.
Every time that I go to Sams Club and buy paper towel and toilet paper my husband tells me that I am turning into my father. The difference is we use that stuff. I do hoard books, but I try to go through them every six months and resell them to finance more books!
Hoarding is a family trait on both sides (but it missed my mom, thank goodness, so she is our ruthless pare-the-junk person). My grandparents come from the Asian generation of “we might need it someday, you can’t throw it out, that would be WASTING.” They almost never throw out anything because broken things can be fixed, torn clothes mended, etc. It doesn’t help that my grandpa has a bit of dementia now and he has an eye for the knick knacks. Ugly, useless knick knacks, unfortunately, that no one wants. And he forgets which ones he’s already bought so he’ll buy the exact same one each day of the week. We went on a family vacation once and he secretly brought back a bag of large smooth stones that he “borrowed” from one of the hotel’s potted plants. They are now polished and sitting on a windowsill in the apt. And my aunt can’t resist a bargain to save her life, so when she sees a sale for $5 shirts, she’ll buy one in 5 diff colors because someone might need it some day. My dad told me that one time, my grandma threw out a piece of broken furniture and another family member happened to spot it in the apartment trash pile and thought hey we can fix that…and brought it right back upstairs. I swing back and forth between thinking it’s cute and despairing at the amount of clutter. XD
I hoard books and T-shirts. I think the T-shirt thing comes from when we were a lot poorer and I wore clothes until they fell apart. And I, too, have my high school notes in a filing cabinet somewhere. Of course I’ll go back and relearn calculus and physics, of course I will…
Yep, I tend to hoard books too…so much so that my hubby bought me a Kindle for my birthday, saying, “Now, I won’t have to see eight stacks of books all over the bedroom.”
Psst, I’ll still buy print versions of my favorite books though.
Oh, and clothes. I hoard clothes. Hubby once bet me that I DID NOT wear all the clothes in my closet. (He was trying to convince me to get rid of some). So I said, “You’re on!” and then proceeded to pull out each piece, to which he ended up grudgingly nodding at each one, saying, “Damn, you DO wear ALL of these!”
I’m pretty good about getting rid of clothes, but I only do it on a five-year basis. I get fed up with myself, admit I’ll never fit into the stuff and/or it’s completely out of style (hello, high school sweatshirts!) and do a massive cleanout.
My problem is books TBR. I’m working into the 400-500s. My problem is that I have every intention of reading every book I buy, but I often choose a comfort reread over a new title when I’m in the mood for a good book. Too, I seem to be living with the delusion that one day, books are going to magically disappear off the face of the earth, and I need to have a massive stash to take me through my final days. In fact, there seem to always be new books to buy and I can’t keep up. I need to stop reading on-line reviews that intrigue me into buying new books!
That’s so funny Holly said that about notebooks, because I hoarde those, too. I always think there will be an idea in one that I need to revisit, esp with my day job, but sometimes it’s related to novels.
Years ago in this apartment building, I used to live across the hall from a hoarder – I’d take care of her cat when she was away, and it was really sad. She was so nice and seemingly normal, but her apartment was ceiling-height stacked with magazines, newspapers and junk! I know she thought she’d use that stuff. She always wanted a boyfriend, but I’m sure the hoarding scared them off.
Like most of the others, I hoard books. Lots and lots of books. In drawers, bookshelves, baskets, bags – they tend to be everywhere. My husband has asked me repeatedly to get rid of some, but I have a really hard time doing that. What if I (Inevitably)want to read them again?? Oh, and I hoard undies. I like undies in all varieties – well, maybe not the grandma panties…
Books, of course.
Also… craft supplies. Yarn, paper, glue, paint, pens, clay, wire, beads, tools (TOOLS!), stamps, punches, fabric, rocks… I have a closet packed floor to ceiling. I’ve forbidden myself to purchase anything more unless it fits in that closet, but that’s the best I can do.
I am a bit of a clean freak, so I am an extremely organized hoarder of some things. Books and dvds are my big things. I rarely get rid of those, but I do annually go through the groaning shelves and weed out books I don’t think I’ll want to read again soon and put them in storage. I have to rent a storage space, sad but true. One day I want to go through all my boxes and take pictures of all the books I have in storage and get everything labeled and in a database with pics so I can find what I have. I love to re-read books, so unless I just hated the book the first time I read it, I want to keep the book for future reading. Can’t. Let. Go.
I’ll admit to keeping the “skinny” jeans tucked under my bed in a storage container, too. One day, dangnabbit!
I am better. I have started going through stuff. It helps that I live in a basement apartment. If we buy something, we need to get rid of something to make room for the new thing.
I occasionally go through my books to find the ones that I won’t read again. I am also getting rid of any print book that I have an ebook for. Well, except my signed books!
I have also gotten hubby out of his hoarding. We used to have boxes of pieces of computers. That were completely outdated, and never to be used!!
Books and more books! And to truly fess up. My girls baby clothes.*sigh* I have tubs on top of tubs stacked 3 high in closets through out the house. Kiddlet 3 is almost 3 and I can’t seem to let go.
[...] was trying to tidy up my shelf full of my favorite books today (blame Meljean Brooks’ Odd Shots Post, since I was trying to tell myself that I didn’t have a problem) and I realized that there [...]
OK Meljean, you and I must be twins separated at birth (which one of us is the evil one?). You have the same titles on your overflow shelf (at least the books in the front that I can read the titles on) as I have in my TBR pile!
I hoard books because I *will* read them all! Hubby holds on to every computer part that has ever crossed his path and every receipt he has ever received. Every once in awhile, after much gnashing of teeth, I’ll get him to go through all of it and clear out the old stuff. I swear it multiplies on it’s own in the basement though.
My husband has every book he has ever own. I do not have most of my childhood books, and none of my college books but other than that I amnot far behind him.
I also hoard old jewerly. If I lose an earing I keep the other as might find something crafty to do that would use it.
I lost so many of my fave earings I gave up on wearing matching set
Hoarding – books don’t count. nor do crafting supplies, like fabric O_o
What I admittedly hoard is food. and blankets. clothing. stuff like that. Mom used to joke, when I was small, that I’d starved to death in a previous life. She doesn’t joke about it anymore. I have tried to get over it. Just as I started to make progress, I was injured and couldn’t get to the store. If it hadn’t been for my pantry being full of food, and my fridge, and my chest freezer, and my cabinets, and the floor of my kitchen…
I’m worse than ever, now. But around Xmas each year I do a major overhaul and make a grand donation to the local family crisis center.
It’s definitely time.
=A
Over the past decade or so, I’ve had the fortune (or misfortune mind you) to move quite a few times .. and I’ll be absolutely ruthless when it comes to discarding what I DO NEED as opposed to what I WANT. Except books. So that means knick knacks, clothes, shoes, whatever gets the heave ho.
I hoard blankets for some reason. I’ve got this beautiful afghan my mom made when I was 10, a couple of quilts, a couple of comforters, probably half a dozen bed sets.. Can never have enough comfy sheets.
I, thankfully, don’t have a hoarding tendency. Those four bookcases (one made out of the frame of a queen-sized waterbed) overstuffed with books are not being hoarded. *shakes head vehemently*
No, really… I gave a couple away to my mom once.
My husband, though… he comes from a long line of hoarders. A couple summers ago, his dad sent over boxes and boxes and boxes of hubby’s toys he had as a kid that his mom had been saving.
Hubby is almost 30 years old and will never play with any of these again, but do you think he’s going to let me donate any of them? Of course not…
Huh! your bookshelves look neat compared to mine. What do I hoard? mostly it’s books, I hate parting with them so I box them up and put them in our guest room. I can usually get rid of clothes, dishes and such but books are my downfall!
I don;t horde but hubby does.. I mean have many many bookcases full of books but that doesn’t count. I have never been big on having “stuff” in general. Just the basic is fine with me.
I made hubby clean off the carport this weekend. He whined the entire time. Do you know how much junk we hauled off? Over TWO tons of crap! (The weight it at the landfill station) He is still not on speaking to me without being sullen but at least now I can park under the carport.
Hey who wrote that book called girl genius I don’t think I have that one
It’s by Phil & Kaja Foglio, and they have a great website, http://www.girlgenius.net
I am not a hoarder, I am a “It will have a use one day’ Person. Acutally I have a rule, if its in the house it has to have a purpose and a place. If not …to the garage! Then any item has until my next “garage is dirty, clean the garage” fit. Then it better have a reason for existing in my world.
Oh back to hoarding, for years it was books for me. I would hoard romance novels. Not a problem till I realized I was buying 10 or more a week. Talk about expensive habits. And I WOULD not let them go. I might one day want to read that story again. Till one day my tastes began to change. I sorted through all my romance novels, and took boxes of them either to the UBS or the Friends of the Library donation box. Then I began to replace them with new authors. I also began to ‘listen to my books” via audio books. They take up less space, and now my friends who always counted on me to have a book for them to borrow, have to buy their own. So in the end, my abandonment of hoarding actually was part of a change in life style. I began to single out keepers very carefully. You have to be able to withstand my criteria of “Does this book need to be read every year” to stay.
OF Course I NOW have this urban fantasy hoard of books starting…