do you hoard?

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i hoard like crazy, i feel guilty when i throw an item away, as if i hurt its feelings. anyone else?

It seems to me that the real hoarders go out and buy things just so they can hoard them. Those of us who don't like to throw away those things that we may have legitimate reason to think that we might need them in the future aren't even close to them.

I have a friend who is a real hoarder. He used to go to every surplus auction he could find and buy all kinds of things he didn't need. He filled up his house with those items to the point where you would have to pick up boxes from in front of you and put them behind you in order to cross a room. He then had to buy another house so he had a place to live.

Then he started renting storage lockers. I think he had about seven large storage lockers costing hundreds of dollars a month in total just to pay for them.

One time I was in town and mentioned that I had forgotten to bring my comb. He told me not to go buy one for the weekend. Instead, he took me to one of his storage lockers, opened it up, grabbed a box full of new combs, and let me take my pick of which one I wanted. Apparently, part of the surplus he bought was a major part of the contents of an old barber shop.

While we were there he asked me if I needed a pen. He then grabbed a large box of pens and let me take my pick. It was dry. We tried pen after pen after pen after pen and every one of them was dry.

^^^
my older brother is somewhere between hoarders-style moi, and your friend. he has a multicar garage full of stuff, whereas i have a tin can [and storage shed] full of stuff. i have to walk through "goat trails" in my place.

i think the key is if it causes problems in functioning or enjoying life.

I might have a slight tendency towards that. I tend to find it hard to throw things away just in case. It could be an OCD trait because I often cannot decide whether to keep something or not, and end up keeping it. That way I can postpone the decision. I have many things I don't need. Once in a while I get into a fit of throwing-away mood and get rid of many things. It feels great when it happens.

i have the indecision problem. i read that to some hoarders, everything is of equal importance. they used the example of a woman who could not decide which was more important - an old receipt or her child's photo. i'm not that bad but close. that example may have been in the book "stuff" by randy frost and gail steketee.

i keep stuff because i never know when it will come in handy. my stuff has saved me on numerous occasions.

I hate throwing things away but am reasonably disciplined. I do not work on the principle that if I have not used something for a year I can throw it away because so many times I have wanted something I have thrown away. I recycle lots and give things away on Freecycle which makes me feel much better than putting it on the tip. However I know two Aspies who are serious hoarders.

This is me, but sometimes I wind up regretting having chucked something. I remember things, and then wish I still had them. But that does not stop me from throwing more away when I get in the mood. I like the liberating feeling of de-cluttering.

Once, when I had moved and was waiting for the truck to bring our stuff up from Sydney, it was late, and we had not heard from them, I actually felt relief that every thing we owned might have been stolen. I still felt relief when they showed up as well, but the idea of the burden being gone was appealing, for that moment.

Last edited by BlackSabre7 on 15 Mar 2013, 7:39 am, edited 1 time in total.

when i throw [or give] something useful away i often feel like i've thrown [or given] away a friend.

Oh yes! You never know when something might come in handy. When you want to make a project of some sorts Saturday afternoon when the hardware store has closed for the weekend, it is invaluable to have a collection of rusty nails

And when you throw stuff away, you throw away a little piece of your 'soul'. (Yes, I do get attached to things).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7xdYZfr0bA[/youtube]

For the most part I'm the opposite of a hoarder; I prefer to live with as few things as possible. In order to function I have to have a clean, sparse environment with very little decoration. So I would rather be without something than have to live with clutter.

But there's one exception: Food. When I was little my mom over-controlled what I ate and when, and when I got on my own I sometimes didn't have enough food, or had to make do with very low quality stuff. When I got food stamps I used to buy tons of canned goods and dry goods and store them all up like I was preparing for the apocalypse. I had these plastic storage bins all full of food. I guess it made me feel secure to know that if I couldn't get food I could eat what I had stored. But a few months ago I found a can that had obviously gone bad, all swollen up, and I got scared because a lot of them were expired and I had no way of knowing which ones were still safe. So I forced myself to throw out everything that was expired and to donate some of the rest. I was buying food faster than I could eat it, all because subconsciously I kept thinking to myself, "You may never be able to get this again." Because ever since I was little I've been in situations where if there was something good to eat, you had to grab the opportunity right then or you might not get it again.

I still keep about three weeks' worth of food in the house at all times, but at least it all fits in the pantry now. I have to keep telling myself, "You can still buy that later. You have enough for now." Because for the first time in my life, I actually do have enough. I'm neither hungry nor living under the constant threat of losing my food source, nor missing any major parts of my diet, and I guess that's taking a while to sink in.

I am like this with my Tools, I "retire" my old tools to a shelf or the back of the too box when they are replaced.. I treat them as if they are personalities with feelings, I still have tools from almost 30 years ago.
I don't hoard though, but things which I own for a while tend to stay with me forever !

Stu

Definitely, I have to constantly remind myself that things are inanimate

Some autistics feel a bit of empathy for everything. Insects, humans, inanimate objects, you name it.

Last edited by JellyCat on 15 Mar 2013, 6:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.