Hoarders

[Deffeh]

Hoarders.

Why, seriously, why?

I live in the attic of my parents house when i'm not at Uni in Stirling. Every time i come back, i can barely get to my bed through the sea of junk that has been piled up there. Unwanted christmas presents, christmas presents that were funny for about one or two uses, then you spend the next century trying to find room for.

I'd like to point out here that my parents are poor, and can't afford any of this clutter. But they do. They go into hideous amounts of debt to gain these trivial material possessions which mean absolutely nothing to anyone but Fischer Price and Sony. I'm not a materialist. I like to collect knowledge, i like space, and i like order. (I inventoried all my stuff i own in stirling to make packing easier for god sake ).

This hoarding, drives me insane. I'm trying to make some room for the clothes and videos i brought back from Stirling, and apparently im not allowed to chuck anything out. Almost anything anyway.

Some examples.

1. The Useless Shelves
   
   I have no headrest on my bed (which incidently is ancient and falling apart). There is no room for me to even put my bed fully against a wall. I have to use this ancient stack of shelves (which is ricketty, its ragged, the wood is decaying, it has sharp edges). If i even had anything of value on this piece of shit i'd feel better about it. Its full of kids board games.
   
2. The cupboards of doom
   
   Three cupboards in the room. One contains jigsaws, pop up pirate esque large pieces of shit, the other contains duvet's and pillows, the other, my mums old dresses (despite her having 2 warddrobes full downstairs). I apparently cant clear any of this out. In my lifetime, my mother has never worn any of these dresses, and shes probably 5 stone heavy to even try nowadays. But get rid of them? Oh no, no. Impossible.
   
3. The eves of destiny
   
   As its an attic, it has "eves", of course (for those who dont have them, they are storage areas, a cupboard that runs round the side of the attic.). They are FULL of stuff. The most pointless stuff. Theres an entire removal vans worth of stuff sitting there. Its got to the point where we have 3 hampers of christmas decorations. I took 2 suitcases home from stirling, and have returned to find not only did i have to fight to get to the entrance of the eves, when i got there, theres no room for 2 suitcases, which if you saw the size of these things, is incredible.
   

Now i know, its easy to say, listen to mr westerner, too much stuff, hes been given too many presents, too much luxury. I fully agree. Its appalling. In 20 years my parents havent realised that perhaps im not as pathetically material as them, that i dont need plastic goods to make me happy. I havent asked for **** all in my life, and ive always wanted to take the high ground of "not needing things", but im thoroughly hampered by all this pish. Dont get me wrong, ive bought my fair share of unneeded crap in my time, but i pay for my mistakes, and Oxfam reaps the rewards of my fullhardy expenditure. At the moment i'm trying to remove half of this room to charity, cd's, computer games (inc Champ man - i'm not just giving them crap).

But im hitting stumbling blocks, every step of the way - "Oh no, you cant give away my Michael jackson history videos" - "why the hell not, youve not watched them in 8 years. if you want them, take them, but get them out my way" - "no, you hang on to them for me" - what?

"Oh no, you cant empty that cupboard out. I specifically sorted out all the games i'll play with my grandchildren" - "Mum, i'm your oldest son and i'm 19, nor am i sure whether i'll have children. Kids will not play dizzy dinosaur in however many years time. Also, can at the very least i not put them in a bin bag and put them in the eves" - "oh no, i dont want to think of all the toys i bought just stuffed in a bag and into the dusty eves". I cant win.


Materialists, give it up. We all need "things" to an extent. I'm typing on a laptop watching my TV sitting on a chair. All three of which i use on a dailly basis. It just gets silly when you keep things just because. Brothers and sisters, unite and give your shit to charity.


Similar experiences?

[NEWSBOT3]

look at it this way.

in 30 years time you'll make a fortune on ebay with that stuff.

[vampire_lestat]

well I can't throw away a book*, nor can I read most more than once, so in that way i'm one of these people you talk about, however there's no real problem with it if you're not poor, as you say your parents are.




*charity is, to all intents and purposes, throwing it away.

[pablissimo]

I used to keep all my old magazines when I was in school, though that soon got old.

[Tactitus]

Maybe it's just their way of suggesting that it's time for you to move out?

<back_on_topic>I take a load of junque to Goodwill at least once a month, but that's barely keeping up. :/

[Deffeh]

Christ, i dont even mind if some things are kept for "sentimental value" - pictures, photos, a diary, the odd teddy or something. But im sorry, theres no sentimentality in a book you never read but "might in the future", or the broken remnants of a bed (theres the entire frame stacked up against one of my walls - "dad can we take it to the dump for god sake" - "what if we need the bed in the future" - "for god sake, we have 5 beds, a 7 foot beanbag, three spare mattresses and 2 couches in this ****ing house, im sure someone wont mind sleeping on floor level on a mattress, or heaven forbid a sleeping bag if we have that many people in the house, which has NEVER HAPPENED"

[Nantoz]

There's a very fine balance between Hoarding and my Mum's wish to sell my precious comics to the second hand store for 1/100th of their real value.

But I can feel your pain.

Parents lack much in the way of organised thought sometimes.

I blame the fact that they have children

So in a way I'm blaming you.

Shame on you!

[Madina]

At my parents house there is part of the attic which is converted and the other (bigger part) you enter through small door/hatch. It is full of crap of my mums, you try and get rid of something and she will mutter something about it 'being a collectors item'. I remember doing a big clear up with my dad in there a few years ago. We got rid of alot of stuff. But it has got worse.

They also have a cellar which is fine until you enter the end room, its full of crap. Useless things that dont get used and will probably never will.

Its about to get worse as they are clearing out my nans house and i can imagine my mum has decided on alot of stuff to keep.

I feel for you deffeh having to live among all the junk, i have been there done that and its shit.

[ChubbyChecker]

I'm not a hoarder, I just deleted 95% of the e-mails in my inbox

[Marilyn Manson]

I hoard old newspapers.

Well, I don't actually hoard them per se. I just throw them on the floor when I'm finished with them. Along with CD's. And gay porn. And my clothes. And my books. And beer cans. You get the idea.

[Nantoz]

Originally Posted by Marilyn Manson

I hoard old newspapers.

Well, I don't actually hoard them per se. I just throw them on the floor when I'm finished with them. Along with CD's. And gay porn. And my clothes. And my books. And beer cans. You get the idea.

So on occasion you've gone out wearing clothes made from CDs, newspapers and porn pics, all glued together with beer drags?

And here I've been mistaking you for a dandy....

[Marilyn Manson]

Originally Posted by Nantoz

So on occasion you've gone out wearing clothes made from CDs, newspapers and porn pics, all glued together with beer drags?

Not knowingly.

[Nantoz]

Originally Posted by Marilyn Manson

Not knowingly.

Aha.
So drunk you can't even remember your actions!
There is Salvation in Jesus, my son.

[midge5]

I hoard a fair few things. I have never given away a book or video so have a shitload stacked away in the attic which I will probably never read/watch again. I also have a fair few board games though they are used now and again and I have got rid of all the ones from when I was young. The worst thing I do though is keeping all my brothers and mine old consoles even though we I very very rarely use them. I had a Dragon lying around for years which used to be my fathers until he sneakily sold it earlier this year.

My mother gts quite frustrated sometimes when I won't let her get rid of anything though she has taken to throwing things out when I am in uni now though. I think I lost all my old Shoot and Match magazines and some games I really wanted to keep (Key to the Kingdom as one)

The only thing in my defence is that we aren't particularly short of room so it isn't urgent I get rid of them.

[flapjack]

I 'hoard' my books and computer games. And right now, that's 3 boxes (2 of which are filled with computer games). On the other hand, I still regurarly read several of them so it can't exactly be considered hoarding, just like I still (from time to time) grab games out of those boxes and run them on 1 of my really old machines, for as long those survive...

[Phalon]

I've hoarded all my magazines for the last 10ish years as well as every book that i've bought in that time.

All the books i've kept i consider worth reading again.

If i get rid of a book chances are i never made it to the end of it anyway.

[Nodrog]

I wish I still had my boardgames from childhood

[Deffeh]

Go down a charity shop then, and buy them. Theyre still there, if you need them. Its whether youd rather pay £2 towards saving the world or hold onto something needlessly for 15 years.

[Nodrog]

Well I have all my books/magazines/comics/games workshop stuff from childhood in my garage, but my dad got rid of my board games for some reason. You cant 'just get them in second hand shops' - a lot of them probably arent made any more, and most 2nd hand shops normally just have the 'popular' games like scrabble/monopoly etc.

But dont worrry, dont let my sufferring get in the way of your raging against the hoarding machine.

[Vaio]

As a hoarder I can freely admit to having far too much junk that I will never use.

For example, I discovered I had an OLD Creative Labs 3DFX board that I have decided I will continue to keep as it might come in useful, however as it's only useful for, say an old PIII with around a 500mhz processor and a shit graphics card. and it's totally useless with windows 2000 and XP it's usefulness is kind of limited.

BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT.

I have one and if I need one then I've got one.

I just don't have a PIII with around a 500mhz processor and a shit graphics card.....

and if i did, I would be able to use the DVD decoder card that was in the same box.

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by Deffeh

Go down a charity shop then, and buy them. Theyre still there, if you need them.

Like hell they are. The chances of going down to a charity shop and finding anything specific is immensely low.

They make you live in the attic? Harsh.

Are you disfugured or something? like in that episode of the Simpsons....

[Deffeh]

havent you seen me? I'm hideously disfigured, and have half of cousin it protruding from my scalp. I'm also Scottish, and progressively asexual. The attic is the only place for me, my pretty.