Watching Hoarders keeps me living simply....

[sylvia]

I admit I watch the show Hoarders. It is a very sad show filled with people who live in clutter, squalor and emotional pain. I watch it because it shows me the extreme end of living with too much stuff. It gets me really motivated towards my goal of minimalism and simplicity. I don't watch every show but sometimes when I do , it jump starts my projects that's for sure. I firmly can say that clutter is emotional and letting go can be very liberating! My parents keep everything, so most likely I will inherit their junk.By then I'll know what to do.;)
Before I started living simply I didn't realize how much I had and why I kept it. I grew up that way. Today I am still peeling back layers of extra things, but I do have 40 percent less stuff than 10 years ago. However convincing my DH and DS is another thing!
I regret tossing a few things over the years but I am not afraid of the future, I am welcoming new things and a minimalist way of life.:+1:

[iris lily]

I admit I watch the show Hoarders. It is a very sad show filled with people who live in clutter, squalor and emotional pain. I watch it because it shows me the extreme end of living with too much stuff. It gets me really motivated towards my goal of minimalism and simplicity. I don't watch every show but sometimes when I do , it jump starts my projects that's for sure. I firmly can say that clutter is emotional and letting go can be very liberating! My parents keep everything, so most likely I will inherit their junk.By then I'll know what to do.;)
Before I started living simply I didn't realize how much I had and why I kept it. I grew up that way. Today I am still peeling back layers of extra things, but I do have 40 percent less stuff than 10 years ago. However convincing my DH and DS is another thing!
I regret tossing a few things over the years but I am not afraid of the future, I am welcoming new things and a minimalist way of life.:+1:

I regret tossing very very little.

Last weekend I was hoarding iris in the house, I had pots and buckets and vases full of them, hundreds of them.

Well--who would have thought that they would give my house the smell of cat pee? REALLY??!!!!! I appears that masses of old shriveled iris flowers smell like cat pee.

This is only remotely tied to hoarding but it reminded me of the unexpected problems of excess. And this is why I love flowers and plants--they die and shrivel up, and I don't have to keep them forever. They self delete.

[catherine]

I like to watch Hoarders also, with the sick curiosity of people rubbernecking to see an accident.

But from what I can gather, their issues aren't just having too much stuff--it's the whole psychological grip that keeps them attached. Sometimes people have raised their kids in spotless homes and then go off the deep end when the kids are gone. Or there was one highly educated woman who lived in a DC townhouse with her husband--when her husband died, she basically just entombed herself in there, burying herself alive in stuff.

The degree of our attachment to our stuff varies I think, and that show makes me realize that "there but for the grace of God go i." My garage may be a bit of a mess right now, but I'm reasonably happy with my living areas and with my ability to let things go.

[iris lily]

My darling handsome, extremely intelligent, wonderful and beloved cousin is a hoarder. He's got it under control-- barely. He was that way since the time he was a kid.He had a tiny bedroom and it was packed to the gills. I will say, he's got some pretty awesome archives in his area of collecting. He pulled out some obscure thing about Scottish history one day, I was gobsmacked. This thing was not something that a library could get for you. So in a way he's like those ratty old professors who have offices piled to the ceiling with crap.

[happystuff]

We don't get that show on our very basic cable, but I've seen bits and pieces. I agree that it is a great reminder of where I DON'T want to be!

Another reminder for me is whenever I have a hotel stay (which is not often at all!). But when I pack for a trip and stay in a hotel, I'm always amazed at how comfortable and content I am with the bit of stuff I've packed and the functionality of the hotel room and its furnishings.

[catherine]

Another reminder for me is whenever I have a hotel stay (which is not often at all!). But when I pack for a trip and stay in a hotel, I'm always amazed at how comfortable and content I am with the bit of stuff I've packed and the functionality of the hotel room and its furnishings.

I completely agree!!! I've actually sketched layouts of some larger hotel rooms I've stayed in for ideas if I ever build my own tiny house.

I particularly remember one time when I was staying for three months in St. Louis with two kids. We were staying at a hotel there all that time. We were called to be there on very short notice (one day), so I just threw stuff for me and my two kids in one medium suitcase and told DH that I'd send him a list of stuff to ship later.

I never sent that list. We had everything we needed--for three people including two children--in one medium suitcase. It was amazingly freeing.

[goldensmom]

Of the few episodes I’ve watched of this show, very few were true hoarders. Most episodes were of people that live in unsanitary, trashy, dangerous, condemnable dwellings. True hoarders have an enormous amount of stuff but do not pose a health hazard to themselves or others. I’ve dealt with such situations in my previous employment and it is truly sad to see a television network (TLC - really??) exploiting people with this type of psychological disorder. It does, however, make me want to go clean and throw away something.

[ToomuchStuff]

Never have seen the show, but I feel the mentality of a hoarder, while trying to sort out stuff to keep and get rid of. Although I do understand the reasons people fall into it too well. (death, depression, stuff rather then connections with people, etc)

[Tussiemussies]

After watching Hoarders for awhile I decided to never shop at a thrift shop again. They pile up all of the leftovers and send them to Goodwill or something similar. After seeing the filth that these people live in I realized, I don't know where this clothing is coming from, it could have been a filthy house. Just not for me along with concerns about the bedbug epidemic...

[pony mom]

I always get angry and upset that these hoarders have pets, forced to live in their own filth.

A large amount of clutter is one thing, but not having running water/flushing toilets is just digusting. But I watch it anyway.

[Maxamillion]

I find the show kind of triggering--my mom has hoarding tendencies and even now I still have dreams where I've gone back to live with her or have gone to visit and I'm helping clean up all the clutter. I had another one of those dreams just last night. I've gotten to where I can't stand clutter and yet I still struggle to keep my own place, if not neat, at least where it's not at the point where stuff is just piled up everywhere. I get kind of a high when I do go on a decluttering streak.

[sylvia]

I agree, the biggest victims are the family members and pets. The hoarder doesn't see anything wrong with living that way. One lady didn't see anything wrong with cat skeletal remains. I also agree with the thrift store issues. Those things are someone's excess. I buy clothes that can be washed other things I don't need more of.

[Tussiemussies]

I find the show kind of triggering--my mom has hoarding tendencies and even now I still have dreams where I've gone back to live with her or have gone to visit and I'm helping clean up all the clutter. I had another one of those dreams just last night. I've gotten to where I can't stand clutter and yet I still struggle to keep my own place, if not neat, at least where it's not at the point where stuff is just piled up everywhere. I get kind of a high when I do go on a decluttering streak.


Max, that is so sad that you had to live in that type of environment....glad that you have been able to overcome what you grew up with as a youth and interesting that you feel a "high" when you purge some of your bits of clutter....very happy for you. Chris

[redfox]

After watching Hoarders for awhile I decided to never shop at a thrift shop again. They pile up all of the leftovers and send them to Goodwill or something similar. After seeing the filth that these people live in I realized, I don't know where this clothing is coming from, it could have been a filthy house. Just not for me along with concerns about the bedbug epidemic...

We're very judicious, & every thrift store purchase that comes into our house which is fabric goes directly into a very hot dryer for an hour. Then it gets washed in very hot water as appropriate to the fiber, and dried again. Wool & silk get put into the freezer for a week. No more furniture or rugs from thrift stores for us, as I dread bedbugs.

[Tiam]

Hoarders never gives me that boost to be productive. I used to get it from these ladies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-37FDFcw74 / But not so much anymore. I need a new motivating show.

[AmeliaJane]

I felt the same way about the show Clean House (streams now on Netflix). The people there were not as extreme as the Hoarders, but they still had an overwhelming amount of stuff and mess. It actually made me more sympathetic to people who struggle in that particular way--I am not a stuff person myself (living four different places in your 30s will do that for you) and had never understood the large emotional component of accumulation. The host of that particular show did a good job with that aspect of the problem.

[Spartana]

I have never seen the hoarders show but am very fascinated by hoarding behavior. I am an ultra-minimalist so the hoarding seems strange and interesting to me. Loved to see it but then I'd need cable. And a TV. Or a computer. Or :-) :-) :-) well too much stuff for spartan me. I also can't stand clutter and shows like that, or being at peoples homes with lots of things - even tatseful beautiful things - makes me feel stressed. Can't wait to get back to the uncluttered open spaces of my own home.

[Spartana]

Never have seen the show, but I feel the mentality of a hoarder, while trying to sort out stuff to keep and get rid of. Although I do understand the reasons people fall into it too well. (death, depression, stuff rather then connections with people, etc)
I have the opposite mentality - love getting rid of everything and have to stop myself from giving it all away. I actually am sad when I have nothing left to get rid of. I have often felt that extreme minimalism may be almost as bad as extreme hoarding. Well probably not.

[Maxamillion]

Max, that is so sad that you had to live in that type of environment....glad that you have been able to overcome what you grew up with as a youth and interesting that you feel a "high" when you purge some of your bits of clutter....very happy for you. Chris

Thanks. The experience definitely gave me an appreciation for simple living!

[ToomuchStuff]

I have the opposite mentality - love getting rid of everything and have to stop myself from giving it all away. I actually am sad when I have nothing left to get rid of. I have often felt that extreme minimalism may be almost as bad as extreme hoarding. Well probably not.


You won't feel it if you do one area at a time (say a closet or toolbox), but when you take the entire room and pile it in another room and go through, keep, pitch, donate, and put away and organize it that way, it feels like it. With some projects, like a workshop, I find that to be the better end result though, for final organization.

[Spartana]

You won't feel it if you do one area at a time (say a closet or toolbox), but when you take the entire room and pile it in another room and go through, keep, pitch, donate, and put away and organize it that way, it feels like it. With some projects, like a workshop, I find that to be the better end result though, for final organization.
Ha Ha - Well I have nothing to get rid of any more. Never really have as I've been a lifelong minimalist. However I share a house with a semi-horder but have clearly defined living areas so her horde doesn't descend on my uncluttered space.

[sylvia]

Spartana, I am gradually going minimalist (living with 3 collectors of everything). I just start with getting rid of my things and watch them trip on their own junk. It is not funny to get hurt by your clutter. I've been there 4 stitches on the knee. It's a tricky thing finding balance in a life of materialism and living simply.

[larknm]

I'm a minimalist living with a hoarder. DH loves being a hoarder--in his case though it means his often getting dismayed about hot being able to find his things--which are in containers that line our rooms. That affects me when it's documents we need to look at soon. We're more tolerant of each other's extremes than used to be, but I do wish we were more alike about this. It's the maintaining all this stuff that gets to me, including cleaning around it or moving it to clean, and I do most of the cleaning. On the other hand, it's because of me that we have 5 pets and six dog beds.

[sylvia]

I like that Larknm, I can relate. I guess everyone is different.

[poetry_writer]

I watched that show last night, being fascinated with how peoples minds work.....The people featured are no doubt very mentally ill. There were dead animals and human waste piled high (sorry, gross i know but that is what it featured).........Some of them were older people and their families couldnt reason with or help them. Most of them have poor success rates.........Sad to watch....many of them simply need to be removed from their homes.