Your opinions on hoarders...

[Josie]

What are your opinions on hoarders? Just lazy ass people who refuse to clean up their houses? Obsessive-compulsive disorder?

 

[Wiseone]

I think its pretty clearly an obsessive-compulsive disorder. There's being lazy, and there's I have a 8 foot tall pile of my own bagged **** in a corner of my living room.

 

[Your Star]

It's definitely obsessive compulsive disorder. There is a difference between being lazy, and being a hoarder.

 

[Josie]

I understand how it's OCD to keep a lot of stuff, but when you get to the point of when your house is full of feces and dead animals.....? I just think some people just don't care enough to clean.

 

[Aunt Spiker]

Obsessive compulsive, I think, is just ONE cause.

Some people can't let go of items that belong to the deceased (spouse, parent, child)
Other's have identity issues in which they hold all items of equal value - everything's important.
Yet there are those who enjoy 'stuff' - and once they've collected it they really just don't know what to do with it and slowly learn to live with it.

And there are those who are hoarders and their *families and friends* make it worse by *bringing* them items to add to the heaps.

 

[Your Star]

I understand how it's OCD to keep a lot of stuff, but when you get to the point of when your house is full of feces and dead animals.....? I just think some people just don't care enough to clean.

Actually, a slightly messy house is probably evidence of someone who is just lazy, and doesn't want to clean. Once it gets to the point where you see on show's like hoarders it's a strong indication of a mental disorder. Because people without that disorder usually don't let their house get full of feces, and dead animals.

 

[MaggieD]

What are your opinions on hoarders? Just lazy ass people who refuse to clean up their houses? Obsessive-compulsive disorder?

Hoarding is an obsessive-compulsive disorder. It's not about being lazy, it's about being absolutely incapable of throwing things away.

Tom's brother is a hoarder like you see on TV. He doesn't allow anyone in his home anymore. You would never ever know it to look at him or talk to him. He's a natty dresser, very intelligent; he just can't bear to throw anything away. NOTHING. Every newspaper, every carton or box, pens with no ink (grosses of them). OMFG!!!

Tom's sister is a hoarder-held-in-check. His sister's husband goes NUTZ every once in a while and starts pitching. But left to her own devices, she would be just like her brother.

My Tom is a hoarder-held-in-check-with-threats-of-violence (by me). He would save every envelope, dust ball, candy wrapper, box, burned out light bulb, broken glass, everything. He's anything but lazy.

I don't think "lazy" has anything to do with it at all. Hoarders' software is bugged. I think it's interesting that all three of them have this disorder to some degree. Must be something about their upbringing.

 

[Aunt Spiker]

Usually

But hey - I'll admit that sometimes I don't clean up a mess when I see it - because I am lazy and just don't feel like cleaning up cat vomit at 4:00 am sometimes.

 

[lyly10388]

I think its pretty clearly an obsessive-compulsive disorder. There's being lazy, and there's I have a 8 foot tall pile of my own bagged **** in a corner of my living room.

I also think so.

 

[CaptainCourtesy]

OCD... clearly and without question. Not laziness in the slightest.

 

[RosieS]

I think it's somewhat genetically based as Maggie D infers. My former MIL became a hoarder as did my former SIL but my ex threw things out without looking. He tossed out one of his own guns that he had stored in a box because he didn't want the box lying around. When we reported a gun in the landfill the cop offered to sell us another over the counter right there at the station. (!!??!!)

Makes me feel better about pet hair clumps rolling across my open floor like tumbleweeds, however.

Regards from Rosie

 

[TheGirlNextDoor]

I think it's hard for most people to understand because when we see a pathway that winds throughout someone's house, our first inclination is to say, "What the hell...clean this junk up!". It's hard to wrap one's mind around someone that lives that way. I know I have a hard time watching that show about hoarders because of the sheer unsanitary states of some of homes and the AMOUNT of stuff. A few of the people they've featured on "Hoarders" purely have what I'd call clutter. Then you have the ones where it seems most of the stuff in their house is nothing but trash, garbage and waste. I have a hard time really understanding it all. I would be remiss to say that I'd have to fight the urge to just bulldoze the house instead of trying to reverse years and years of garbage and waste collection inside a house.

 

[StandUpChuck]

It's obviously a mental disorder, but I think the question is: what's with the facination lately? It seems there are several tv shows about this right now. Hoarding is the latest "freak show." I do not get who grabs the popcorn and sits down in front of the television to watch someone's life in tatters. And it makes no sense that a few days with a counselor and a buncha guys pawing through their stuff will actually cure someone with such an ingrained disorder. I understand that these shows sometimes provide counseling afterward, but wouldn't the time for counseling begin months before people start throwing stuff out?

BTW, I'm not calling hoarders "freaks." I'm saying putting them in their full shame in front of cameras and using that for entertainment isn't much different than the cruel freak shows of the past.

 

[TheGirlNextDoor]

It's obviously a mental disorder, but I think the question is: what's with the facination lately? It seems there are several tv shows about this right now. Hoarding is the latest "freak show." I do not get who grabs the popcorn and sits down in front of the television to watch someone's life in tatters. And it makes no sense that a few days with a counselor and a buncha guys pawing through their stuff will actually cure someone with such an ingrained disorder. I understand that these shows sometimes provide counseling afterward, but wouldn't the time for counseling begin months before people start throwing stuff out?

BTW, I'm not calling hoarders "freaks." I'm saying putting them in their full shame in front of cameras and using that for entertainment isn't much different than the cruel freak shows of the past.

Why would they agree to that, is what I wonder.

I'd be embarrassed as hell to let anyone see my state of affairs in that... state.

 

[MaggieD]

I think it's hard for most people to understand because when we see a pathway that winds throughout someone's house, our first inclination is to say, "What the hell...clean this junk up!". It's hard to wrap one's mind around someone that lives that way. I know I have a hard time watching that show about hoarders because of the sheer unsanitary states of some of homes and the AMOUNT of stuff. A few of the people they've featured on "Hoarders" purely have what I'd call clutter. Then you have the ones where it seems most of the stuff in their house is nothing but trash, garbage and waste. I have a hard time really understanding it all. I would be remiss to say that I'd have to fight the urge to just bulldoze the house instead of trying to reverse years and years of garbage and waste collection inside a house.

Yeah, I agree. When I look at it, and think of Tom's brother, I think, "Let's just go in there, spend a day, and throw that **** away." I was told, though, that it could precipitate an emotional crisis in the hoarder, as hoarding has become some strange way of coping with life. (Those darned unintended consequences again.)

It's obviously a mental disorder, but I think the question is: what's with the facination lately? It seems there are several tv shows about this right now. Hoarding is the latest "freak show." I do not get who grabs the popcorn and sits down in front of the television to watch someone's life in tatters. And it makes no sense that a few days with a counselor and a buncha guys pawing through their stuff will actually cure someone with such an ingrained disorder. I understand that these shows sometimes provide counseling afterward, but wouldn't the time for counseling begin months before people start throwing stuff out?

BTW, I'm not calling hoarders "freaks." I'm saying putting them in their full shame in front of cameras and using that for entertainment isn't much different than the cruel freak shows of the past.

Yeah, I tuned in for half a show a few times. Just really can't even watch it. Voyeurism of the worst kind, I think.

 

[Bonnie Franklin]

Just want to wave to Mellie. I think the longer you live in one place, the more you accumulate. I have too much clutter now and really need to attack it. DH will not let me throw away any of his items though.
I never had this problem when we moved every 2 or three years.

 

[roughdraft274]

I think some people have OCD and can't help it, but when I watch those shows I start to realize that most of them are very overweight and look like someone that doesn't get alot of work done. Just watch the animal hoarders. They're attached to their animals and can't get rid of them, I understand that, fluffy is cute, but pick up their ****. Let them outside to take a **** and piss. There's no reason not to clean up after you're animals besides being lazy.

I can't stand a clutter. I just bought a house and have moved my stuff in, my fiance is in the process of packing and getting ready to move in and I'm going through her stuff personally to see if she could throw any excess away. There's no reason our closet should be full of clothes from junior high that you can't fit into anymore but you just don't want to throw away and there's no reason our office should be filled with 100 decade old "dog fancy" magazines.

 

[liblady]

I understand how it's OCD to keep a lot of stuff, but when you get to the point of when your house is full of feces and dead animals.....? I just think some people just don't care enough to clean.

doubtful. those people are mentally ill.

 

[OscarB63]

doubtful. those people are mentally ill.

as for the dead animals and feces...apparently they get to the point where they actually don't see it. When you have a house full of 100 cats, can you really tell if one or two are missing?

 

[liblady]

as for the dead animals and feces...apparently they get to the point where they actually don't see it. When you have a house full of 100 cats, can you really tell if one or two are missing?

i think they might know, but for some reason aren't capable of dealing with their lives......i speak from the personal experince of having to deal with a hoarder.

 

[Enola]

I have never really watched this show before, but I have today. This womans house is FULL of cockroaches, black widow spiders, used sanitary napkins just tossed all over the floors, used needles. She is obviously a fruitloop. And whats worse, her kids live in that dangerous trash heap. She just whines about her fibro, her diabetes, etc. It is clearly a mental issue, so my question is why are those kids not taken away and that woman slapped in a nuthouse????

This is disgusting. And harmful not only herself and her kids, but neighboring homes because cockroaches travel.
I'm just flabbergasted. Shame on the show for airing it and continuing to film it and nobody does anything about the potential hazards to everyone...including the neighbors.

 

[winston53660]

What are your opinions on hoarders? Just lazy ass people who refuse to clean up their houses? Obsessive-compulsive disorder?

I

had an Aunt that was extremely wealthy lived in a mansion and didn't take the trash out for about forty years. She was nuts!

 

[Real Korimyr #9]

It's clearly a mental disorder, but my sympathy for their condition isn't strong enough to overcome my disgust for their living situation-- if they're incapable of taking care of themselves, they shouldn't be living on their own. They're a public health and safety hazard.

 

[Enola]

It's clearly a mental disorder, but my sympathy for their condition isn't strong enough to overcome my disgust for their living situation-- if they're incapable of taking care of themselves, they shouldn't be living on their own. They're a public health and safety hazard.

I agree wholeheartedly. And shame on TLC for putting on such a show, too. It's disgusting to see and even more disgusting how they sugar coat at the end of the show "how much better it looks". Are you kidding me? It will just get that way again because those people are wackos and their kids and neighbors will be affected again because they will just continue on with the same insanity.

My hubby went next door to help the neighbors with building a wall in their master bedroom. It was awful. Filth everywhere. And they just adopted two children!! How did they get away with adopting kids?? Didn't the people at the adoption service check out the home? Obviously not. And then for the first time in over 20 years, I saw a cockroach in my kitchen. I freaked. I know where it came from too. Next door. Thank God I haven't found another one, but Hubby has not returned over there either, so maybe none will come back over this way.

 

[Temporal]

My perception of hoarders is that they have a pathological attachment that they are either unwilling or unable to let go of. Their problem is in not being able to accept impermanence, endings, and death. What they are actually holding onto is something inside of themselves.

It's like spiritual constipation.