Quote:
Originally Posted by Southpaw
Let's see he hoards
food, 2 full freezers for 2 people
old cars, 6-8 or so, got rid of 1 but added 1
old clothes, not just his but his dad's stuff too
tools
broken appliances
his mom's old pots and pans that she used for 50 years
coolers, can't even explain that one
lumber
magazines
egg cartons
paper sacks
you get the idea
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I have an aunt who is real bad, there are paths through her house and it doesn't smell nice. She covers things in clear plastic to keep dust from collecting. She justifies her "new stuff" because she paid so little for it at the thrift shop, etc. Personally, I like shopping those places because I find it easier to throw that stuff away later! When junk prices skyrocketed a few years back, I gave her phone #'s of people who would buy two junk cars that had been sitting in front of the house for decades. She said she has memories attached to them from her husband who died of cancer. One remains.
I'm keep most magazines and books I buy and probably always will even though I know I will never read most of them again. Others get used a lot.
With my mom's stuff and stuff she still had from when I was growing up after she passed, I made a video as I was going through it all. I hope the video hasn't been ruined by humidity in the meantime, but it helped me emotionally to move most of that stuff on. It was really difficult, though. I also kept swatches of fabrics mom had sewed for our dresses. I kept no more than I could store away under the window seat box.
I am thankful for when recycling facilities came along, because I had a hard time parting with plastic containers back we were first married, "poor", and our kids were little. Mentally, it just became easier to get rid of them every few months at the recyling center (we had trash pickup, but not separate for recycling), because I knew that if I wanted to purpose a certain kind of container, I could go through the recycling bags and find it.
As for my own clothes, today they have populated out of the walls of my bedroom and have become just too much of a chore to sort through. I start, don't get very far, then I have to start all over again. I keep buying new socks when I know there are plenty in one of those piles somewhere! My wardrobe grew out of control when the kids moved out.
I used to fuss over what DH threw away and finally gave that up to keep him from bugging me back, but he pretty much understands not to throw away "my" stuff anymore. I still occasionally check on trash day to see what he's been up to.
I was brought up in a frugal family without trash pickup, so we didn't throw much away. I think even subtle depression can turn frugal into stashing/hoarding/messiness, which can easily lead to an unclean home/storage areas and in turn, a circle of depression. I tend to believe that even a stasher/hoarder/messy can see it, they just train themselves to look past it all and tell themselves that it's too big of a mountain to attempt to climb, which makes them appear lazy. There is a difference between a lazy state of mind or a mental block otherwise.
I'm far from a health advisor, but perhaps "syndrome" is more appropriate than "disease".
