[HN Gopher] The cleaner: One woman's mission to help Britain's h...
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       The cleaner: One woman's mission to help Britain's hoarders
        
       Author : Qem
       Score  : 41 points
       Date   : 2026-01-18 14:55 UTC (5 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.aljazeera.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.aljazeera.com)
        
       | thisislife2 wrote:
       | I've moved houses 3 times in the last 3 years. The pain of moving
       | all my personal belongings made me realise how much unnecessary
       | stuff I had accumulated. So I made it a point to throw or give
       | away many things that was no longer really needed. It was a
       | revelation and now I am more mindful to storing anything for
       | long-term without thought. I still have more than 2+ decades of
       | stuff in a storage - books, sentimental stuffs, things I thought
       | may be useful or needed in the future etc. Still figuring out how
       | to go through all that.
        
         | Bluecobra wrote:
         | I'm in a similar situation, after dealing with the deaths of
         | multiple parents I don't want my descendants to have a huge
         | burden of stuff and I've been on a mission to purge as much as
         | possible. Facebook Marketplace has been great to get rid of a
         | lot of the more bulky stuff. It's great, you post a picture and
         | someone comes to your house to pick it up cash in hand. Low
         | value stuff gets donated to goodwill or my local Buy
         | Nothing/Free Stuff group on Facebook. Also been doing a tidy
         | amount of sales on eBay for smaller/more valuable items.
         | 
         | Still have a lot of progress to make. At least my game
         | collection on Steam will be easy to clean up.
        
         | arethuza wrote:
         | A few years back we "decluttered" our house in order to make it
         | more appealing for sale and put all the stuff in storage. After
         | the property eventually sold we went back and looked at the
         | stuff we had stored and probably threw out 80% of it.
        
         | laborcontract wrote:
         | This applies to both physical and digital goods. I've tried to
         | think hard about how to keep my digital life in order in a way
         | that my kids will be understand to make some sense of. I'm not
         | there yet but I am mindful of it.
         | 
         | Trying to explain the sentimental value of your belongings to
         | others is like trying to explain a dream.
        
           | rationalist wrote:
           | I'm not a hoarder, but my dad is.
           | 
           | I have a couple of items from my dead grandparents, and it's
           | a connection.
           | 
           | It's a tangible connection that feels more real than
           | something intangible like memories.
           | 
           | As for my dad though, I have no idea. He recognizes that it's
           | a problem, but can't stop. It's stuff like plastic ship
           | models, or stuff he wants to buy on eBay - postcards from
           | defunct airlines that he used to fly on.
        
             | laborcontract wrote:
             | That makes sense, but don't you think hoarding muddies the
             | signal? Do you know what of your father's you'd want to
             | keep of his hoarded goods?
        
               | rationalist wrote:
               | There is nothing that he has hoarded that I want to keep.
               | I have told him that.
               | 
               | I have told him that he has so much stuff, that it would
               | be impossible for me to recognize the $1,000 model boxes
               | from the worthless model boxes, and that when he dies,
               | I'm just going to have to wholesale the lot for probably
               | a penny on the dollar.
               | 
               | I told him him that the people who will pay money for
               | plastic model kits are the same age as him, and if they
               | all die around the same time or before him, there will be
               | no one to buy the model kits.
        
               | criddell wrote:
               | I've had the same discussion with my parents. They wanted
               | me to go through their home and mark down everything I
               | want. I don't want any of it and frankly dealing with a
               | full house of stuff after they die is something I dread.
               | I wouldn't even know where to start. Are there companies
               | you can hire that will take care of everything?
        
               | a2tech wrote:
               | Yes, they're called clean out companies. They'll swoop in
               | and put everything in a dumpster. You can engage an
               | auction house-+cleanout company if you think they have
               | anything worth selling.
        
               | technion wrote:
               | Australian here. I paid a garbage removal company to
               | basically empty a house. Their qebsite called it "estate
               | cleanup". It took a whole day for a team with crowbars to
               | smash up every piece of furniture and load it in a truck
               | and take it.
               | 
               | People take this offensively and insist someone must have
               | wanted an old chest of drawers or something if only put
               | it on facebook marketplace and work with interested
               | parties and assist with them obtaining it - but those
               | people dont realise how much they are asking of someone
               | who is dealing with loss.
        
               | rationalist wrote:
               | > don't you think hoarding muddies the signal?
               | 
               | Yes, which I am thankful now that I only have a couple of
               | items and haven't had to make the choice of what to keep
               | or not.
        
               | laborcontract wrote:
               | Thank you for sharing.
        
               | astura wrote:
               | The only people who want to pick through a hoard to find
               | the "good stuff" is other hoarders and flippers.
               | 
               | Also, 90% of the time that the act of hoarding ruins the
               | objects hoarded so everything becomes trash anyways.
        
               | rationalist wrote:
               | > 90% of the time that the act of hording ruins the
               | objects horded.
               | 
               | I can also attest to this.
        
         | mythical_39 wrote:
         | Put it into a storage locker. Pre-pay 5 years of fees on the
         | locker. Wait 5 years.
         | 
         | This is what we call a 'self-sovling-problem'
        
           | thisislife2 wrote:
           | To be clear, it is in storage for the past 2+ decade. It was
           | moving houses every year, the last few years, with only the
           | essentials, that made me realise how much of a hoarder I was.
           | Nevertheless, dumping it somewhere and "forgetting" about it
           | is not much of a solution - as someone else said here, you
           | are just passing on the problem to the next generation.
        
             | tonyedgecombe wrote:
             | I think the implication is once the fees stop being paid it
             | ceases to be your problem. The storage company will sell
             | the contents of your locker.
        
       | ToucanLoucan wrote:
       | One of my most guilty indulgences is the various TV programs
       | about hoarders and hoarding. They are of course sensationalized
       | all to shit and they basically provoke mental breakdowns out of
       | their subjects to make good TV. The guilt isn't just that it's
       | bad like all reality TV- you can tell these people, a lot of them
       | anyway, have serious mental difficulties that a TV show showing
       | up with 4 1-800-GOT-JUNK trucks and parking them out front of
       | their homes before pulling all their shit out for neighbors to
       | see and then yelling at them for being distressed about it isn't
       | addressing. They offer "therapy" as part of it, after they've
       | traumatized the fuck out of someone already struggling. Woo.
       | 
       | But I watch. I have a mother who's started down the path. Maybe
       | I'm like... training myself for what's probably due in about 15
       | years. Or maybe I'm just making excuses for indulging in trash
       | TV.
       | 
       | The article is definitely correct: these people need help. They
       | also usually need money. They usually need a lot of both. A lot
       | of those shows take place in dilapidated parts of the world where
       | you can tell, obviously, that the hoarding is certainly an issue
       | but an even more pressing one is poverty. People keep everything
       | when they're broke, far long past the point of reason, because
       | they've found themselves needing... who knows, a tooth brush, a
       | can of food, and had it kept from them by money so many times
       | that they psychologically can't bear to throw one out, ever. Even
       | if it's rotted away.
       | 
       | And what's worse: because throughout any attempt at helping them,
       | anyone, is then a threat. They become animated, angry, and any
       | action that can actually help them is like playing Russian
       | roulette with 5 bullets in a 6-shooter. They'll tell you with a
       | straight, red face that yes they fucking need the mayo that's
       | been in the diner packets for 10 years because it's still fine
       | and usable. It's hard to feel sympathy for people so
       | insufferable, and it's not even just you, the helper. They're
       | often estranged from family and have no friends because their
       | behaviors strain every relationship beyond repair.
       | 
       | It's... tragic, in every sense of the word.
       | 
       | FWIW, I also watch a lot of YouTubers who do this in a way that
       | isn't evil. But also the content is less engaging because, well,
       | reality TV wouldn't poke people the way it does into acting the
       | way they do if it didn't make fucking good content. But yeah, I
       | feel notably less disgusting consuming that at least.
        
         | InitialLastName wrote:
         | My mother went down this road (she, fortunately, had enough
         | resources that it wasn't a catastrophe), but last year was
         | forced to downsize due to a medical condition. I filled 2
         | 20-yard dumpsters with the trash, donated another truckload,
         | and put the rest (anything she might actually value) in
         | storage. Since then, I've been going through that remainder
         | with her and I think she's finally coming around to the
         | absurdity of her situation. It turns out she isn't actually
         | attached to her parents' monogrammed (but moth-eaten) linens,
         | or the contents of her grandmother's sewing box.
        
           | gedy wrote:
           | It's not for everyone, but I found I was keeping a lot of
           | things "for the memories". I started taking pictures of the
           | thing then getting rid of it. Serves similar purpose and
           | easier to let it go.
        
             | ToucanLoucan wrote:
             | Also scrapbooking. I've really gotten into that lately as I
             | struggle to get rid of like, strange things. Parking passes
             | and tickets for concerts, receipts from dinners on trips,
             | that sort of thing.
             | 
             | Scrap booking is wonderful for such things. And when I need
             | a boost, I pop it open and get a rush of memories from all
             | the lovely things I've gotten to do.
        
           | ToucanLoucan wrote:
           | In my strictly non-professional opinion, as a watcher of this
           | stuff: the hoarders stuff almost always replaces _something._
           | Maybe it 's a person who is gone, or was driven away. Maybe
           | it's a purpose they only had before they retired. Maybe it's
           | an event that drove them to crazy places to get by, and even
           | though it's past, it's scars remain. Maybe it's merely the
           | abstract concept of control, and agency; this one crops up a
           | lot with the older female subjects of the shows, who's
           | abusive husbands controlled them their entire lives, almost
           | with regularity exhibiting all the classic signs of Battered
           | Woman Syndrome.
           | 
           | It's hard for me to disentangle this with the inhumane way
           | modern life lets people live.
        
       | pipeline_peak wrote:
       | If there's one thing I learned watching those Hoarder reality tv
       | shows it's that you can clean up after them all you want but
       | that's just a bandaid.
        
         | randycupertino wrote:
         | I once had a patient in a nursing home who was a hoarder and
         | she would hoard pinecones from outside the facility in her
         | room. Garbage bags upon garbage bags of pinecones. When she
         | would go to dialysis the staff would clean out her room and
         | toss the pinecones. So she started begging the EMTs to bring
         | the garbage bags of pinecones with her to dialysis so they
         | wouldn't get thrown out.
         | 
         | The recovery rate for hoarding is under 5%, it's generally
         | treated by SSRIs and CBT. Recently there is potential that
         | GLP1s may have benefits for hoarding and other addictions.
        
           | bell-cot wrote:
           | For people like your patient, is it useful to try to give
           | them any sort of physical agency, control, or tasks?
        
           | 0cf8612b2e1e wrote:
           | Is the <5% response rate with treatment or in general?
        
       | 6stringmerc wrote:
       | I'm on standby as my generation, the Millennial cohort, becomes
       | the true "sandwich generation" in the US. Elder care is such a
       | disaster and farce here. There's a high profile senior citizen
       | who has no business in leadership but apparently the system likes
       | it this way. There's going to be a mass passing of Boomers and
       | how it looks - probably a lot like this but without public
       | healthcare so even more traumatic - in the US does not seem
       | manageable.
       | 
       | In the US we don't even test drivers over age 70 for competence
       | because taking away their licenses means we'd have to look out
       | for them or provide alternatives and that's not happening so here
       | we are.
        
         | PopAlongKid wrote:
         | >In the US we don't even test drivers over age 70 for
         | competence
         | 
         | We don't test non-commercial drivers at _any_ age after initial
         | issuance of the license, which is apparent after a few minutes
         | of observation while walking around.
        
           | bluGill wrote:
           | That isn't true. If you move states they will test you again
           | if you don't come from a state they like the testing for.
           | This is just a written test though, there is nothing about do
           | you apply the book knowledge to your real world driving.
           | 
           | Most people never make such a move, but it still happens.
           | (this is an exception that proves the rule)
        
             | Bender wrote:
             | I moved states a few years ago _CA to WY_ and was not
             | required to take written test. _computer in this state._
             | The only thing they tested was my eye-sight.
        
               | bluGill wrote:
               | If you were to move WY to CA you probably would need the
               | test. Though I don't know.
               | 
               | I do know if you move from CA to IL you wouldn't need to
               | take the test, but I'm not sure about WY to IL. I moved
               | from MN->IA->IL, and I had to take a test but I remember
               | at the time moving directly from MN would have meant no
               | test required.
        
       | zabzonk wrote:
       | I had a couple of thousand books in my flat in london, including
       | about 500 technical computing ones (design, languages, other
       | stuff). I got my nephew to fix up the flat, for sale. He asked me
       | "Which of these books do you want to keep?", my response after a
       | few seconds "None".
       | 
       | It's so easy to hang on to things you really don't need.
        
         | criddell wrote:
         | You're not afraid you're going to need that UCSD Pascal book
         | from 1986?
        
           | bluGill wrote:
           | My physics textbooks look impressive sitting on a bookself
           | even if I never open them again. I only need a few books like
           | that to prove I'm smart though. "I swear someday I will open
           | my calculus textbook again and do all the exercises..."
        
             | criddell wrote:
             | It's fun to find a colleague's collection of Knuth's _Art
             | of Computer Programming Books_ books and open them to hear
             | the crack of a book that 's never been opened before.
        
               | throwway120385 wrote:
               | We buy them to pay homage to Knuth more than to work
               | through the exercises.
        
             | ghaff wrote:
             | I've gotten rid of a bunch of books. Don't care a lot so
             | long as they now fit my bookshelves. But will probably dump
             | another bag or two to my library's next book sale next
             | fall.
        
         | davidwritesbugs wrote:
         | That's particularly true of tech books. I want to hang on to my
         | copy of "Tinker Tailor" but "Adobe Air in Action" 2008?
        
           | zabzonk wrote:
           | Yeah, well, I do kind of miss "The Design & Evolution of
           | C++", but I can't convince myself I actually need it.
        
           | biofox wrote:
           | That's a sad indictment of tech.
           | 
           | Most underlying technology is timeless (see TAOCP, SICP,
           | CLRS, K&R, GoF, Dragon Book, Beej's Guide, Sipser,...); but
           | we seem set on producing an endless, pointless, churn of
           | frameworks and minor language differences in the name of
           | progress.
        
             | zabzonk wrote:
             | > Most underlying technology is timeless (see TAOCP, SICP,
             | CLRS, K&R, GoF, Dragon Book,
             | 
             | True enuf, but how often do you actually refer to the books
             | underlying ideas? I've had (now gone, presumably) TAOCP on
             | my bookshelves for years, but how often did I use it? Stuff
             | on RNG a bit, I guess...
        
         | julesallen wrote:
         | There's need and there's want I suppose.
         | 
         | My oldest computer book I won't part with is Alan Simpson's
         | dBase III+ Programmer's reference guide, circa 1987. This book
         | was transformative and allowed me to get a gig as a coder, so
         | much self driven practice on a crappy underpowered generic
         | clone PC. That crappy hardware was an advantage I didn't see at
         | the time, having to think about routines that were fast enough
         | based not because of faster disks and tons of RAM.
         | 
         | Do I need this book? Not so much. But it brings me joy
         | carefully flipping through it on occasion.
        
         | esafak wrote:
         | That does not mean they were all useless, of course; maybe you
         | have absorbed some of them.
        
       | rossdavidh wrote:
       | I have a wise, witty, charming and personable friend who is a
       | complete hoarder. It was a big deal to be allowed into the house.
       | But, after several years of attempting to help, I eventually had
       | to realize that it wasn't the effort required to clean that was
       | the issue. The issue is that she doesn't like the space that's
       | left behind. If I could snap my fingers and make it all clean and
       | tidy, it would not really help anything because it would be back
       | to the old way in a month or so.
       | 
       | I once suggested bins and shelves to help keep it better
       | organized and manageable, and her response (quite negative) was
       | one of the clues that it wasn't the effort of cleaning up that
       | was the issue, and therefore all the help in the world wouldn't
       | make much of an impact. She doesn't like the space left behind
       | after you clean, and feels the need to fill it up with whatever
       | she can find.
       | 
       | Eventually, I had to just accept that this is how she was, and if
       | I wanted to keep her as a friend I had to stop trying to change
       | how she kept her house; if forced to choose between empty space
       | in her house and keeping me as a friend, there was no way she was
       | going to tolerate empty space in her house. Every bit must be
       | filled. (sigh)
       | 
       | And yet, outside of her house, she's great. For example, she
       | loves helping us clean our house.
        
         | pjc50 wrote:
         | > I wanted to keep her as a friend I had to stop trying to
         | change how she kept her house
         | 
         | This is a hard lesson for those of us who like to fix things:
         | you basically can't change the behavior of adults, without a
         | huge amount of work and/or their active cooperation.
        
           | IAmBroom wrote:
           | > you basically can't change the behavior of adults, without
           | a huge amount of work and/or their active cooperation.
           | 
           | Odd statement, with the "/or" part. Changing the behavior of
           | adults without their active cooperation is compulsion, not
           | behavioral modification. I mean, we do it in prisons and boot
           | camps, but that's not a solution here.
        
       | doublerabbit wrote:
       | If folk would stop hoarding browser tabs too; the internet would
       | be a tidier place.
        
       | shermantanktop wrote:
       | I'm attempting to do a weekly bite-sized version of decluttering
       | - one problem area, 1-2 hours, once a week.
       | 
       | I am calling it Swedish Death Cleaning
       | (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_death_cleaning) to sell it
       | to my spouse. Not sure the marketing is working but we are making
       | progress.
        
       | mrweasel wrote:
       | My wife and I have been helping a friend of the family move and
       | part of it was dealing with the hoarding. The part in the article
       | about "just buying a new umbrella" is so relatable. We where
       | moving our friend and she needed an extension cord, rather than
       | looking through her boxes, her first instinct was to just order a
       | new one (she already have 15, but she didn't want to look for
       | them, in her 40sqm apartment).
       | 
       | Deciding on what to keep and what to get rid of it also mental
       | struggle for those helping. In our case we just watched as
       | kitchen equipment, complete, and expensive, dinner set,
       | furniture, art, family heirlooms and new unworn clothes got de-
       | prioritized in favour of unread magazines, hundreds of VHS tapes,
       | and thousands of DVDs and BluRays with endless recording of
       | talkshows and random TV programs. She has been following a second
       | rate pop duo band since the 1970s and the idea of missing an
       | article or a TV appearance is unthinkable, so tossing valuable
       | belongings is preferable to throwing out 5 years of unopened
       | magazine on the off chance that there might be a nugget of
       | information she didn't have. It's mentally taxing seeing someone
       | basically throwing away their life that way. We know that she'll
       | never look through those magazine or even hook up the VHS player
       | to figure out which tapes to keep. When she dies, all that's left
       | is a ton of junk which her family do not care about and it will
       | all go to the dump.
       | 
       | I have such huge respect for anyone spending their time helping
       | hoarders every day, the mental load is just massive.
        
         | NoSalt wrote:
         | Ok, I really want to know the name of the "second rate pop duo
         | band".
        
         | IAmBroom wrote:
         | I have a hoarder friend, who is very cognizant that she suffers
         | from a mental illness.
         | 
         | Her motif is a bit different: she has childhood trauma from her
         | mother secretly throwing away her things, and assigns emotional
         | value to anything that _might_ be usable in the future
         | (essentially safeguarding it against secret destruction by the
         | mental image of her mother).
         | 
         | But likewise, her sense of value is all skewed.
        
           | mrweasel wrote:
           | While I don't think this is trauma in the traditional sense,
           | it might be something similar. My father-in-law, who known
           | her for decades, told me that it's a crush on one of the band
           | members. Basically a teenage crush that never got resolve or
           | replaced by actual relationships.
        
           | throwway120385 wrote:
           | I've known someone like that too, and in her case it's
           | because she never had anything when she was a kid. So she can
           | take agonizingly long to let go of anything even if it's
           | obviously ruined or worthless because it might be useful in
           | some undefined way in the future.
        
       | tim-fan wrote:
       | I'm storing small items in numbered bags. I take a photo and have
       | a web UI for easy searching. It also tracks which items are used
       | frequently vs not used at all in years.
       | 
       | Bags are stored in numerical order for quick storage and
       | retrieval.
       | 
       | With this you do your decluttering from the web interface: search
       | for items that haven't moved in years, flag for removal.
       | 
       | For frequently used items the system doesn't make sense - the
       | storage and retrieval overheads are too high. But it pays off for
       | any item you might forget the location of, or forget if you have
       | it at all.
       | 
       | I feel we're overdue to have these types of digital front ends
       | over our household item storage.
        
         | julesallen wrote:
         | Absolutely agree, have been looking for something like this for
         | a while now.
         | 
         | Did you build this yourself? Would love to know more if you'd
         | be so kind to share.
         | 
         | Used to do similar things with Trello before the focus went all
         | in on enterprise (getting acquired by Atlassian will do that).
        
           | tim-fan wrote:
           | Here's the repo, I've just added a demo video to the readme:
           | 
           | https://github.com/tim-fan/hordor
           | 
           | I was learning Django when I wrote it, today you'd probably
           | get further quicker vibe coding from scratch.
           | 
           | I have about 100 items in storage today, I intend to add
           | more, would like to optimize the workflow as I scale up.
           | 
           | Going forward I'd like to add:                 * more
           | optimized storage/retrieval flow. The overall goal for the
           | project is to  minimize this friction, as far as possible
           | * AI enrichment - generate descriptions, aid with search etc.
           | I'd love to be able to query my storage "how can I connect
           | this thing to this old speaker?" and the storage responds eg
           | "you have this cable, this adaptor, plug that into this
           | cable, etc"
           | 
           | I've seen a few related projects but can't find the links
           | just now. There's some cool projects that store items in
           | little trays each with an LED, when you request the item the
           | LED blinks for rapid retrieval. The numbered bags I used are
           | slower for retrieval but cheaper and easier to set up.
           | 
           | I do enjoy thinking about the different options and tradeoffs
           | for cost and storage/retrieval time. Also tradeoffs between
           | time and (physical) space.
           | 
           | edit: formatting
        
       | IAmBroom wrote:
       | Confession of a Quasi-Hoarder:
       | 
       | I have a tendency to keep unfinished projects, many of which are
       | at the "collection of supplies needed" stage. During Covid
       | isolation and depression, combined with a mentally ill roommate
       | who added to all of it, it just overwhelmed my life.
       | 
       | I had to evict the roommate, sadly, for my own self-preservation.
       | I am happy to say that, AFAIK, he's in a better place today, and
       | receiving treatment. MOST of his stuff left with him; a small
       | remnant is stashed in corners of my basement and attic, and I
       | throw out a sackful whenever I remember to do so.
       | 
       | The rest... I extended an invite over Thanksgiving to a friend
       | iby a temp job, far from her family. In return, we agreed she
       | would help me clean up. She had learned from her daughter doing
       | the same for her after her husband died, and very thoughtfully
       | did just as I asked. She'd hold up something and say, "Are you
       | going to finish this project?", and I'd say "Yes, someday...
       | No... Throw it." She'd call me over after assembling a pile, and
       | I'd give approval to throwing it.
       | 
       | I had agency, and am certain I agreed to everything that went
       | curbside. IIRC we filled 5 construction trash bags.
       | 
       | For weeks afterwards, I would continue the trend with another
       | half bag or so a week.
       | 
       | It's given me a new trajectory. Someone ITT described a hoarder
       | disliking empty spaces in their house; I have a romantic image in
       | my head of a magician-type of person with a cluttered but ever-
       | useful house. I am now replacing that with a romantic image of a
       | clean, ordered house, with select places for _ordered_ piles of
       | stuff.
       | 
       | I'm typing from my "office", where hundreds of tools sit within
       | well-labeled bins, one bin deep, all readable from the center of
       | the room. Order. Piles. And for the first time in my life,
       | looking for a _thing_ is something I can do in my head:  "Go to
       | my office. On the left wall, just below eye level, on the center
       | of the shelf is a bin labeled 'SHARP THINGS'. You can find an
       | exacto blade there." I can tell you where to find envelopes, DVI
       | cables, electrical tape, and magnifying glasses, from memory. The
       | room is the opposite of a heap... even if I have over a dozen
       | screwdrivers in the bin labeled 'SCREWDRIVERS'.
       | 
       | I say I'm a quasi-hoarder, because I've known people at the
       | actual extreme. A friend who owns three houses, all filled to the
       | brim, with only walkways through the stuff.
       | 
       | Anyway... That's my confession. I have a lot of sympathy for
       | those at the extreme end, because the dysfunction agues me as
       | well. But a friend devoting a couple days to helping me really
       | did a lot to empower me on a new direction in life.
        
       | tristor wrote:
       | I'm not a hoarder like most people imagine, but I have hoarder
       | tendencies as my two storage units can attest. My main challenge
       | has always been that when I have invested the (significant)
       | effort in organizing things in a reasonable way, some life event
       | soon comes along that causes everything to go back into disarray.
       | My "stuff" is almost entirely various types of tools for doing
       | various types of things that I have gained skills in over the
       | years as personal education or hobbies.
       | 
       | My dream, which I'm hoping to soon realize, is to build myself an
       | expansive workshop that has defined spaces for everything so that
       | I can actually do things and make things when I want to, with all
       | the necessary tools present, and without requiring external
       | storage or cluttering my home. Right now most everything I don't
       | use daily is stored neatly in labeled totes which are tracked in
       | a spreadsheet and on shelving units in a storage unit off-site.
       | Certainly not the cluttered mess that most people think of, but
       | at the same time I have many things which are not used every
       | single day that took years to acquire along with the companion
       | skills and I have no intention of getting rid of.
       | 
       | In times gone past, I wouldn't appear as a hoarder because land,
       | housing, workshop space was all massively more affordable and so
       | I would have achieved my dream many many years ago. It's pretty
       | incredible in how disappointing our current timeline is that
       | someone who earns a massively outsized income compared to the
       | average cannot afford to have a designated place to exercise
       | their hobbies, because property pricing is so out of whack with
       | what is reasonable that you need to be a multi-
       | millionaire/billionaire to afford the space to do and have things
       | without it appearing as a mess.
       | 
       | This is a preface to the fact I see these same problems with my
       | older relatives, many of whom are now incapable of ever again
       | participating in some of those hobbies due to physical infirmity.
       | They spent a lifetime learning and collecting the tools to go
       | along with that learning, and in many ways those tools now
       | represent physically the manifestation of their entire life's
       | work, and they cannot give them up, even as they can neither
       | afford the space to keep them organized nor have the physical
       | capability to continue working those skills even as a hobby, so
       | it all just lingers around them as so much clutter and unopened
       | boxes in the attic. This isn't quite the trash bags of magazines
       | level of hoarding that most people think of, but I already know I
       | will be responsible with the mental and physical effort to deal
       | with this situation after my relatives pass, and yet I already
       | find myself in the same situation. Wouldn't it have been so much
       | nicer if they would have been able to pass along the property,
       | the tools, and the skills to the next generation instead of being
       | priced out and it all ending up in a dump eventually?
        
       | trashface wrote:
       | Having seem some relative's houses, IMO hoarding is basically
       | undiagnosed or undertreated ADHD.
        
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