How much of a hoarder are you?

[Cakeandcardio]

Obviously hoarding is a real mental health issue but I was wondering how much the average person 'hoards'?

We recently viewed a house and they really seemed to have no stuff. It inspired us to really start clearing out our own house. Once we got started, I was quite shocked at how we had almost become accidental hoarders. There seemed to be useless stuff everywhere and I had almost become blind to it.

Are we the only people like this? Is everyone else constantly clearing out? How do you do it?

I do find it hard to get rid of stuff and have piles of things to sell. I don’t however buy lots.

j think of hoarding as having loads of stuff possibly duplicated and not being able to get rid.

my ex used to over buy and I always thought of it as a kind of anxiety

This sounds wise. I have a long way to go!

I'm coming to the realisation that the clearing out is never done...

It has a name - Swedish Death Cleaning.

Ah yes! I have lots and lots of piles of cards

I'm quite good at passing things on, stuff on free cycle to charity shops etc.
What I struggle with is waste. Eg I have loads of lip balms, some much better than others but it seems very wasteful just to put them in the bin.
I also try and save plastic food containers for things like feeding wild animals, kids crafts etc.
How do people manage the idea of waste?
If you have old holey clothes do you chop them up as dusters etc or would you bin them? ( Latter feels so wrong)

I also struggle with the thought of just contributing to landfill.

I had a major clearout last year. I had kept every payslip and bank statement from when I started work in 1974 😆😆

You win 😁😂

😦

I think I'm probably a II on this scale.

I am incredibly minimalist. If I don’t need it, it either gets recycled or thrown out (if in disrepair).

One thing I cannot stand is clutter in my house, every single thing has a place in my house and I can’t rest if things aren’t immaculate. This may sound really neurotic but it honestly makes me happy having a clean and tidy home.

Our house looks very clutter free and tidy and it is but it had a very full loft and we have a lot of cupboards that were stuffed. We haven’t moved for 25 years and just didn’t have the time before. Since DH retired we have spent 3 months really going through stuff with a fine tooth comb.

We did stuff like go through all our old printed photos, duplicate sets used to be just an extra quid so we got rid of a whole bin liner full of photos. So instead of 2 storage boxes there is now one. Got rid of a third of the linen cupboard, 4 bin liners of clothes. Many odd bits and bobs. We have scanned loads of paperwork and shredded it all, old payslips, bank statements and stuff like that so now we have a huge cupboard totally empty. The trick is to not refill the cupboard.

Chances are they did have stuff OP, it just wasn’t in the house for viewings…

Same. I have bobbly clothing that would be no good for even the nastiest of charity shops. But I just see my polyester bobbly Primark T-shirt in a pile of landfill, with a seagull pecking at it... in the year 2342.

I definitely have too much although the loft is fairly empty after a good clear out last year. I buy good quality things in the sales or multiples on offer when I already have similar things. Weaknesses are books, jumpers, scarves, boots, trainers and perfumes. I also have too many toiletries and nail polishes.

I have quite classic taste so it's hard to get fed up of a crew neck cashmere jumper, or a burgundy nail polish, for example. I give a lot to charity.

I can't bear the idea of landfill so am now trying to use things up and avoid replacing them until they are actually needed. I have several supermarkets within reach and an Amazon prime account- at the longest I only need wait 24 hours for anything.

Am not sure if an actually a hoarder as such...a bit I think. But something I have issues with is I cannot throw anything out ( in the bin) if it's something reusable I need to either gift it to someone else or charity shop it. I realise this probably sounds incredibly normal.

Not really guilty, except for knitting yarn. I have the top 2 large drawers of a 3 drawer chest stuffed to bursting.
January resolution (already broken) was not to embark on making anything which was going to mean ordering even more.

My DH did say their car was probably full 😅

I honestly could not believe how little stuff they appeared to have

Swedish death cleaning. I’m doing it at the moment. I’ve never been a hoarder but even so it’s incredible how much stuff I’m getting rid of!

Put it in a charity clothing bin - it’ll be recycled for rags!

The real key is to stop buying so much stuff - that’s what I really need to master!

Stuff just multiplies when you aren’t looking. There’s certainly no hoarder level of clutter but there’s more stuff than I’d like.

There used to be those bins in my local Tesco car park. They are gone now.
I have seen some out side places of worship, but do they take useless rags? Its says on them that shoes need to be in pairs. If it was for scrap/rags, then surely it would not matter. I don't want to be treating charity shops/bins as a way to get rid of rubbish. But then I end up keeping hold of it, and here I am on this thread 😅

Maybe take a photo of it, you can look at it and remember things but takes up no space. Also if its relatively cheap and easy to replace just get rid of it.