General Music Chat

WTF is with these people. The idea I always had of hoarding was an ungodly amount of useless junk, but these nimrods don't just have stuff, they are filthy! I can wrap my head around somebody not being able to throw out things, but to have kitchen garbage, and rotting food all over the place, that I just don't get.

Not only that, but what is amazing is they actually have a reality show about it! Society is sick.

My ex-wife is a hoarder. We had a couple rooms in our house that looked like what you see on TV. Not an entire house like that, but it was bad. For me at least. I'me x military - I like clean and neat.

But it's not my problem anymore

Not only that, but what is amazing is they actually have a reality show about it! Society is sick.

I must be sick, because while I never go looking for these shows, if I'm flipping channels, and happen upon one of these lunatics coming up with excuses for why a used kleenex can't be tossed, a morbid fascination kicks in, and I end up watching half the show.

My father was a hoarder.

Nothing hurts your family as much as hoarding.

It destroyed our family unit.

If you care about your family, don't put them through it.

It leaves a mark and may turn your family into a pack of clean freaks.

I caught the clean freak bug as a result and people just don't get understand it.

( Although you score points when they can eat off the floor. ) lol

Q:But how do you explain to them the conditions that cause this?
A: You can't and no one would every understand until you lived through it.

This one touches a little too close to home for me, as my wife is great at this sorta thing. She presently has about 30 pairs of shoes at the foot of my bed, right in front of my dresser. (She has at least another 50-60 pairs piled up elsewhere, too.) She piles up avery piece of mail to the point that you hafta walk carefully or they'll fall from the vibration. It drives me crazy. Her mother AND her grandmother are just as bad or worse.

At her grandma's house, there was literally a 16" wide path through the house, & both sides of the path were piled up waist high with religious pamphlets & old mail & other weird stuff. It actually makes me claustraphobic to just BE around those conditions.

I've taken to just shovelling the sh*t out about twice a year, but it invariably causes a lot of strife. I just get to the point that I no longer care, & she'll hafta remember that I live here, too!

Wow Phil, that's too bad. You've got more patience than me man!

Sounds similar to my situation Phil.

I finally had enough. It was a broken marriage anyway, but the hoarding made it worse.

Now I own my own home that I bought in Feb. It's CLEAN. Sparse too, because it's easier to clean a house that isn't cluttered with stuff. I love my new home (and so does my daughter).

I enjoy watching the shows because there is someone who helps them get things cleaned up. What is unexpected is that the famly members that narc on the hoarders also have hoarding issues. Also what is disturbing is watching a person discuss why they need to keep the lint collection that is kept under the kitchen table. I saw one episode where a woman who had collected junk for decades, purchased the house next door to store additional junk.That being said...my house is clean. I can see that hoarding is a psychological defect. It is triggered by some sort of depression or focus issues.

A clean home has a lot of positive energy and enables a more productive life. I would not want to cause my family to live through a mess that could cause them grief.

I do cabinet restoration for a living and I give estimates all the time. I have probably been inside at least 3,000 homes in the Kansas City area. That's a conservative guess. I have seen some places that are mind-boggling. There was one house in particular that was completely stuffed with items that had never been taken out of their package. They had HUNDREDS of blankets, sheets, towels, etc. still wrapped in their original packaging stored floor to ceiling. EVERY chair, sofa, any place to sit was piled (neatly) with stacks of items. You couldn't sit anywhere. I asked the owner if he was running some sort commercial retail outlet from his house. He said they just collect stuff. If somebody had lit a match in there the neghborhood would have blown up, I'm not kidding. I told them that in order for me to work on their cabinets they would have had to clear the countertops (piled with hundreds of items) and made a path around the cabinets so I could work on them. Needless to say I didn't get the job because there was no place they could have moved anything. It was the most amazing pile of stuff I've ever seen in one house, mind boggling. I don't see how some people can live. I've been in other houses where I was killing cockroaches ALL DAY while working on the cabinets. This was AFTER they had an exterminator in the previous week. I guess the cockroaches were using the pesticide as sauce for the food they were eating...

My father was a hoarder.

Nothing hurts your family as much as hoarding.

It destroyed our family unit.

If you care about your family, don't put them through it.

It leaves a mark and may turn your family into a pack of clean freaks.

I caught the clean freak bug as a result and people just don't get understand it.

( Although you score points when they can eat off the floor. ) lol

Q:But how do you explain to them the conditions that cause this?
A: You can't and no one would every understand until you lived through it.

man I feel for ya Scott! I can imagine that was scarring. The thing is though, that this is truly an addictive personality trait due to mental illness. I'm not a hoarder myself, but actually I do know a few. They are all intelligent and successful people. I can only compare it to drug addiction and consider it a very tough problem to overcome. Just last week I was having this conversation with a friend who has this affliction.
I hope things get better for you with this bro!


"I know my sh*t stinks"

I have seen it so bad it is scary. Imagine a box "marked" string to short to use for anything, inside are tiny parts of string that are to tiny to see.
Imagine a house packed wall to wall with old newspapers,with only small trails to get from room to room. Imagine dead cars stuffed with stuff. Imagine stuff spilling over into open space in the backyard.
I don't know what to say to these people,or how to deal with them,It is that devastating.
This is no joke,, this is a very real problem,,,and after dealing with it with customers I have met , I feel helpless other than to say a prayer.

Thank God my wife throws out EVERYTHING of mine,,,,,, Last week I stopped her from throwing out my "MESA". "YOU DIDN'T USE IT YESTERDAY" "I DIDN'T THINK YOU NEEDED IT ANYMORE"

WTF is with these people. The idea I always had of hoarding was an ungodly amount of useless junk, but these nimrods don't just have stuff, they are filthy! I can wrap my head around somebody not being able to throw out things, but to have kitchen garbage, and rotting food all over the place, that I just don't get.

Off topic I know but.

Nimrod was a hunter of Old Testament fame. Such a skilled hunter in fact that this along with his obedience, garnered him favor with God. "A might hunter before the Lord".
How the term Nimrod came to be used as a derogatory term is beyond me.

I only wish I was a Nimrod.

Oh the best was this one woman on the edge of town.

She was like the old witch locally .. rumored to have a collection of her own hair. (OMG NOOooooo, cough, gag, retch) lol

I draw the line there, if she was family I think I would have had to cap her. lol

Anyway as the story goes, she went out somewhere and her house caught on fire.
It shot fire an unusual distance into the air when it burned and it blew green flames. (copper>?)

Needless to say the fire department couldn't get close enough to put it out, so they made sure everyone was far enough back and some even smoked cigarettes and made remarks about how pretty the fire was.

I think that was the big finger of god, slapping the ass of the hoarder woman from orbit.

He's watching what you do with your home.. and to me it gave me the impression of this giant sized lighter and hand, setting fire to the side of the house. lol

WTF is with these people. The idea I always had of hoarding was an ungodly amount of useless junk, but these nimrods don't just have stuff, they are filthy! I can wrap my head around somebody not being able to throw out things, but to have kitchen garbage, and rotting food all over the place, that I just don't get.

Off topic I know but.

Nimrod was a hunter of Old Testament fame. Such a skilled hunter in fact that this along with his obedience, garnered him favor with God. "A might hunter before the Lord".
How the term Nimrod came to be used as a derogatory term is beyond me.

I only wish I was a Nimrod.

I believe you can blame Bugs Bunny for the bastardization. He used to call Elmer Fudd a nimrod. Elmer was a hunter, and a goofball, so that's where the second meaning came from