I know it's a mental illness of sorts, but why do they keep all that junk if they don't even take good care of it? It's all in a pile. What's the point.

I like to print Consumerist columns and comments and keep them in a pile next to the computer.
Seriously though, aren't we all a little obsessive/compulsive? Who doesn't have a drawer or boxes full of junk at home?

"whether hoarding is a symptom of mental illness or a revolt against the material recklessness of consumerism"

I used to have a landlady (I lived upstairs in her house) who hoarded newspapers. Her house was literally filled with stacks of them. You'd have to walk through narrow paths to get from room to room. I offered to help clean up, but she declined.

She also hoarded batteries. Every year when it was time to check the smoke detectors she's pull out this box of old batteries and we'd go through everyone until we found one that worked. I suggested that we simply throw away the ones that we know don't work, but she wouldn't hear of it.

So in my humble conclusion it's mental. No doubt about it.

@doctor_cos: I agree with you 100%. I have boxes of stuff in the garage I haven't touched in years, but no way will I get rid of it. I'm not a hoarder by any means, but there's a little piece of us that just can't let go of some stuff.

I don't know, but the top photo with the neatly arranged cans and bottles appeals to my OCD-ness.

I was told that the hallmark of a hoarder is "goat paths". If you have only a small path clear to navigate through the piles, it's reached a bad point. I'm a hoarder, but not a really bad one.

@WEGGLES90: I think you answered your own question, it's mental sickness. Mental illness never makes sense.

Is there a term for people who are obsessed with watching videos/reading articles about compulsive hoarding?

I saw this video over a year ago in my "Studies". :P It is one of the BEST. Highly recommended. 5/5

The last guy in the film is by far the most disturbed.

@WEGGLES90: The point is, throwing it away causes great anxiety. In this other video, these kids trick their CH mom into leaving for a week. During that time, they back up a dumpster and gut her place. When she returns, do you think she was grateful? ...No, she suffered a nervous breakdown.

@SeniorPonzologist_GitEmSteveDave: "goat paths" !! fantastic term! that's what my carport looks like right now - all the stuff i moved out of the storage unit this past weekend to my new house - it's going to stay that way until i can get all the spiders out of my rubbermaid bins though.

So I don't really need a couple boxes filled with random copies of The Star Ledger?

Years ago a friends elderly neighbor died, and for the next two weeks people (family or hired, not sure) were hauling out stacks of newspapers and other such things into the 24 foot dumpster. I guess that she was a bit of a hoarder.

Of course they should release the entire uncut contents of the interviews/videos because the editor could not bear to throw the film away.

:-P

@GMFish: Yes, I think the "I'm revolting against the material recklessness of consumerism" by amassing empty shampoo bottles until I can't see the floor is a bit of a stretch.

@doctor_cos: "aren't we all a little obsessive/compulsive?"

Sure we're all obsessive/compulsive in some way, the problem is that some people are worse than others to such an extent that their quality of life is impacted.

I wrote a comment about my old landlady. The vast majority of her house was completely unusable because she stored her stacks and stacks of worthless newspapers in them. Her living room? Can't use it. Her spare bedrooms? Can't use them. There was a very narrow path from her front door to her kitchen, to her bathroom, and to her bedroom. Every other horizontal surface had newspapers stacked on it.

Unlike keeping stuff stored out of the way in "a drawer" (Wow, one drawer of stuff!!!), she had a major problem. Her obsession/compulsion took over her life and her house.

@WEGGLES90: My husband tends to hang on to useless stuff (he's not a hoarder, but definitely a packrat) for two reasons: nostalgia and the conviction it will be useful at some point in the future. The second part comes from being partly-raised by a grandmother who lived through the Depression and never threw ANYTHING out and repurposed everything. The first part, I think, comes from the fact that after his parents divorced, his father basically pitched all his childhood memories for spite.

We've reached a detente of sorts ... if it's sorted and in a limited container space ("you can keep all the childhood toys that will fit in this tupperware tub"), I ignore it. If the piles are NOT contained, it's uncool.

There's still too much of it, but at least tubs stack out of the way.

@WEGGLES90: They have strong emotional connections to each and every item.

My grandpa is a collector and he also has tons of his collections. He doesn't keep things like books or magazines, but he collects hot wheels and coins. I can't recall exactly but I think he told me he has over 5000 hot wheels.

@temporaryerror: Yeah, I just had elderly neighbors moved out, and on top of that a friend just cleaned out her parents' house; both sets of parents were fairly serious hoarders. I'm pack-rattish myself, but I'd so much rather chuck my own stuff out than have it be shoved willy-nilly into dumpsters that those cautionary tales have encouraged me to start chucking stuff out from the basement stash. (The basement being my "one drawer.")

I'm just the opposite of hoarders. The INSTANT I think I don't need something anymore, or get tired of something around here.... it's gone. I can't stand clutter and useless junk sitting around. My garage is probably cleaner & nicer than most home interiors. Which is probably a little obsessive in its own way. I'm not a crazy "must.... clean..... must..... clean.... " person, but I can't live with stuff I don't need. I almost never regret getting rid of stuff either. Once in a while, but very rarely.

I am convinced that when the full human genome is decoded and understood, they will identify the packrat, the clutter-doesn't-bother-me, and the procrastinator genes. How do I know that? Because I suffer from those problems and need a medical reason as to why I postpone cleaning the cluttered areas of my home. I am currently wearing my "The top 10 reasons I procrastinate: 1." t-shirt. And if you've never seen one, it shows item 1 blank and 2-10 aren't even listed.

A friend of mine calls my clutter problem "nesting." I think she'll get a kick out of the 'goat path' comment.

@Newmy:
See, THAT is a collection. There's a pride to showing those items. Just piling things without a sense of respect to them- despite emotional connections- that is hoarding.

And animal hoarding is by far the worst. Not only are you in possession of more than you can handle, it's destroying living creatures' lives.

So, we know people horde stuff... What's the cure? Has anyone out there found a solution, temporary or otherwise, for this condition?

I mean, everyone does this to some degree, but what do we do to help the people who are really bad?

I find that depression era survivors and their children are often some of the worst offenders. This also makes it difficult to argue that they should get rid of X. Because what if the economy tanks, and they can't afford X? The "haven't used it in 6 months, throw it out" rule doesn't seem to work on them either.

How is it a "revolt against the material recklessness of consumerism"? If you wanted to revolt against material recklessness wouldn't you stop buying stuff?

@SeniorPonzologist_GitEmSteveDave: I have a goat path that perfectly fits my motorcycle in my garage amongst all the tools and crap in there :)

They all seem to be progressively more mentally off, from the first guy that seems pretty lucid about that what he's up to is a bit wacky, to the last guy who's basically unintelligible... I find it shocking that he's able to live on his own, given his quite obvious problems.

What do you call an "Anti-Hoarder"? I believe I have this, though I wouldn't say that I "suffer" from it. My compulsion is just to have the smallest amount of essential stuff as possible and for everything to be in proper order. I can't stand holding on to anything I won't need/use. It pains me to have too much crap lying around. I'm constantly selling/throwing old stuff away because of it.

Of course, I guess it's technically healthier than being an obsessed collector...

@BZMedia: That's awesome, especially when others have the opposite problem. Can you share a bit more of your mindset as you make the decision that something is now "useless" to you? I mean, just a little more description of how something you originally wanted gets mentally re-classified as "junk" could be really helpful to some people who can't let go.

Thanks in advance. :)

I think it is an addiction of sorts. I would like to see researchers try to treat it as such to see if there is a better outcome from standard OCD treatment.

@BZMedia: You beat me to it; I was about to say the same thing about myself. For me it's rebellion against my family of hoarders...

@Fist-oâ„¢: I'm not a hoarder, but I think I'd be pretty upset if someone came in without my knowledge or permission and threw away my stuff. I can only imagine that it would be even worse for someone who was a compulsive hoarder.

Why would anyone expect her to be grateful?

@downwithmonstercable: I hate to say it, but "goat paths" perfectly describe where I live now. However, it's because I just moved with all my stuff in with my girlfriend, and we're still trying to sort through it all to figure out where it will go.

@Chris Dail: Definitely better for your mental health to have less to keep track of, let alone your physical health from having less dust etc. in your home.

Can you describe (for the hoarder types reading) a bit more what makes you feel the driving need to have less stuff? How do you overcome the "what if I need it?" feeling, or do you even feel that?

I used to hoard stuff until I got into selling things on eBay. It's much more fun (and useful) to sell cool stuff than it is to keep.

Now I run an eBay consignment shop. Great stuff comes from the estates of hoarders who pass away.

When talking to people who are on the fence about giving up their stuff, I always advise to sell it now while you can. God forbid your stuff gets lost, stolen, damaged or just loses value.

I avoid being morbid by NOT saying "sell it before you die and you get nothing out of it", but that's basically what they need to do.

I have a bit of a problem with hoarding music, particularly material on CDs and a refined selection of vinyl. I tend to record memories aurally and have a bit of "butterfly effect" with regards to music. Thankfully, some other DJs have turned me on to cheap hard drives noting the sound quality doesn't diminish if you just rip it in WAV format (from CDs, of course).

Of course, mp3s, for some odd reason, seem throwaway to me. eBay, Amazon, Musicstack, and Juno love me.

@SeniorPonzologist_GitEmSteveDave: I call them "pig trails". Both my mother and my sister are hoarders and I cannot stand to be in either of their residences.

My mother has the same problem, when she runs out of space, I help her move things into the basement. Every 3 months I go down and sell the older stuff without telling her. She's been oblivious to what I've been doing and she has no clue of the things that are gone. I think its more the act of hording not actually the items.

My wife, to a T.

It is absolutely a mental illness, and I can tell you, it takes a heavy toll on everything.

It takes a toll on the relationship.
It takes a toll on friendships (you can't have anyone over)
It takes a toll on health (you can't use the kitchen)
It takes a toll on your money (rebuying what you already own because you can't physically find it, eating out because it's too disgusting inside)
It takes a toll on your job (it is absolutely mentally exhausting just getting up and seeing it all, and then you get to go to work)

And there's plenty more. It's probably one of the worst "hidden" mental illnesses. It's also one where the people with the issue have a hard time getting help because they either know they have a problem but feel unable to do anything about it, or won't admit it. I've tried many times to get my wife to get help, but it hasn't worked. The help is "too basic" and "doesn't work". The books are "not right for me".

The only thing that's worked (and this is only very slightly, but anything that is positive helps) is to basically spend hours a weeks cleaning yourself and encouraging her to do some too. The only issue is the only cleaning YOU can do is actual normal cleaning (you know, dusting, wiping, washing, etc). The moment you try to dump things is the moment the person with the problem will absolutely explode.

But hey, it is getting better. Slowly. Gotta remember to keep strong...

@doctor_cos: I'm almost the opposite, I love simplicity and decluttering. I've even caught myself about to throw out pictures from a photo album. I'm kinda messy, not like neat-freak, but I just don't like have tons of stuff.. probably a symptom from moving too much. I'll probably go crazy and combust once I have kids with lots of toys.

My neighbors are hoarders. Their house got so bad they moved out and into the in-laws house down the street. Now their house sits abandoned. They pay the taxes and cut the grass just enough that the city can't do anything about it. The place is a disgusting eyesore. He's a doctor and she's a nurse, anyone can be a horder.

For some reason, my father is NOT in the documentary. That's a mistake by the filmmakers - they could've used him as their opening AND closing arguments.

@Radoman:

Hmmm, well, I guess it's a minimalist mindset. I like stuff as much as the next guy, so it's not like I'm living in an empty house. But I just try to only keep the things that are useful or relevant. For example:

If you go through the trouble of picking out and customizing and buying a new computer (or any other object) because the old one is no longer satisfactory, the old one needs to go away. There's a reason you're replacing it.

If you have something because you had a need for it, like a lawnmower and other yard tools I had, but that need goes away, the objects need to go away too. If the need arises later on down the road, you can always acquire the objects again.

If you change your decor, furniture, artwork, etc, the old ones should go away. They are no longer useful.

If you have stuff packed in a box or stuffed away in another room, and you can't remember what's in there, or that you even have it, you obviously don't need it. It's just collecting dust and consuming space. Eliminate it.

I think this stems from the fact that I've done a huge amount of traveling and moving around in my life. I've lived in different countries, states, islands, etc... I've moved easily 50 times. And dragging around all your junk is a real pain. Less is better.

But that also doesn't mean everything has to go in the trash either. If I have a friend or neighbor that needs something, I'll give it to them. If I can sell something, I do. If it can be recycled or go to Goodwill, it goes. The rest goes in the trash. I don't keep old stuff around like computers or food processors or stereo components as "parts in case something breaks". Odds are you will never touch that thing again. Just get rid of it.

Basically, I feel that, if you're not getting any value out of something other than the value of it consuming space, it has no value. And hanging on to old vacuum cleaners and such for years because you may need to cannibalize some plastic widget off it ten years from now, is not worth it. Let someone else benefit from it, make some cash off it, or ditch it. That's how I view materialistic things in life anyway.

My mother is a hoarder and has filled up her apartment with newspapers, tapes, etc. Now she lives we me and my apartment is filled with cassette tapes and newspapers. My father complains about it as he is stuck with the trashed apartment but we can do nothing. Coincidentally, one of my late neighbors in the building was also a hoarder living with her hearing-impaired son. She died in the apartment five years ago and the apartment is cleaned out and rented to some new people.

It's a subtype of OCD. It can be treated with a combination of meds and cognitive behavioral therapy, but it's hard work. The OC foundation has a good website on the topic: [www.ocfoundation.org]

Another good resource is the book "Buried in Treasures: Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving, and Hoarding" by David F. Tolin, Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee [www.amazon.com]

@Radoman: I doubt I'm as ruthless as BZ, but I ask myself, "Am I ever going to use this again?"

If the answer is yes (or maybe), I ask myself if it's worthwhile/easy to store, or easier to just replace if I do need it again at some indeterminate point in the future (or if I can rent it if I need it). For example, my husband hates getting rid of pens. We had three shoeboxes full when I collected them from all over the house. Pens are cheap and easy to replace, ONE shoebox will probably keep me five years, and the excess were easy to donate to a school. Other things I'm more likely to use at least now and then and might cost more to replace -- like I have an ice bucket I'm not crazy about, but it works and I do use it enough that I'd end up having to replace it if I pitched it. So I store it.

If the answer is no, or if the item is decorative/non-useful, I ask myself if it has sentimental value. (If not, out it goes.) If it does, I ask myself if I have other items from the same person or same event that I value more, that are easier to store, that I get more pleasure out of, etc. Pro organizers will tell you it's the memory you hang on to, not the "souveniers" but I like the souveniers too ... but I force myself to sort to retain only the best ones. Like I kept my hand-sewn First Communion gown that my grandmother made, but got rid of some quickly Hallowe'en costumes she threw together. The gown is much nicer and had more love and care put into it, and may be re-used by my children; the Hallowe'en costumes were just sitting there. Or I sorted my souvenier T-shirts and kept the best/most meaningful ones for a T-shirt quilt. The rest go to charity.

(Yes, I know I can't spell souvenier. Repeated attempts are not getting me any closer.)

I also remind myself that getting rid of crap/things I don't use/meaningless stuff leaves me more room to have and enjoy the things I have, and to get new good things (if applicable). It's amazing how once you sort through the clutter, you can suddenly enjoy, say, using an heirloom serving platter that before was at the bottom of a box under 12 other random kitchen thing that had no match, or put on display some really special items instead of having a giant box of the special mixed in with the meh. A giant pile of memoribilia will prevent you from enjoying any of it ... it's just in the pile. That's a big motivator for me.

@SaritaPony:
I recommend checking out the flac (free lossless audio codec) format. Its the defacto standard used for live audio trading and downloads on the web. All my audio is flac on hard drives.

[flac.sourceforge.net]

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!):

That's good stuff there. I run through a similar internal dialog myself all the time too. Usually the last question I ask myself is "repurposing". I ask myself, "is there any other purpose I can put this to use for?" Like, a coffee table I no longer needed (because of a move to a house with a different layout) was on its way out, but I repurposed it for the guest bedroom because the new guest room is larger and it needed one. But if no new purpose can be found for something, it goes. Some barstools that got replaced with new ones found a new home in my garage for times when I'm fiddling out there on the weekend and just want to sit for a minute. Some desk grommets from an old desk I cannibalized for the new desk, (to be used immediately, not lay around just-in-case) and the rest went away.

I think that's one of the barriers hoarders can't seem to cross. The "just-in-case" mentality. The idea that somehow, someday, they will be able to put it to use again. Usually that day never comes. A good rule to break out of that is, if you're keeping it "just-in-case", it should go. (obvious exceptions would be things like fire extinguishers, emergency flashlights, jumper cables, etc.... those really are just-in-case items.)

I remember visiting my grandmother (I lived out of state) when she was in her late 70's. Her coffee table, end tables, and dining room had stacks of old catalogs on the, which she refused to let me toss. She was never like that, in the past. There has got to be a link between age and this syndrome.

@doctor_cos: Unfortunately, having a junk drawer or a few boxes of miscellaneous crap is not the same as being/having OCD. It's the cavalier misuse of terms like this that make life very hard for people who actually have OCD--nobody believes how crippling the disorder is because "OMG I'm SOOOOO OCD about {insert inane thing/action here}!!!"