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 have boxes of things from previous years, many of which are a bit sentimental, or a reminder of what I’d been doing at the time. I understand why people keep ticket stubs and old travel maps - I would have forgotten these details without them. While I understand that memories are the treasure, I also find that my recall is getting foggy these days, so they would be reminders of happy times when I get older and have more time to sit and look through things than to be out doing them.

I have a small collection of pictures and ceramics. There’s also a stash of fabrics, art papers and craft materials which I do use, but slowly, certainly slower than the rate at which I collect them. Magazines are nowadays easily readable online, so I’ve stopped buying them, but I find that I don’t prefer to read them online as much. I do love little recipe cards that appeal to me, or seasonal pamphlets and brochures from random places - galleries / malls / libraries both locally and abroad. They’re very special to me and I just cannot discard them. I imagine that if I could display all the paper ephemera I’ve picked up over the years, they’d make a massive vision board.

I’ve started making Christmas ornaments out of some of these cards / papers so I get to admire them while reducing the amount of space they take up.

Are the ruthless minimalists among you collectors of anything? Do you still have your old teddies or blankets etc?

I’m not really a collector, no. I have two old teddies of my own and know which 2 of my DCs I would keep. I have two of my old school books and a handful of cards. I have a few sentimental items that I want to own/use, so they are on display/in use. I don’t keep things for the sake of keeping them though. I have my grandma’s dinner service, but I use it. I have a vase of hers, but it lives on the kitchen windowsill and has flowers in it.i have some of her jewellery, but I wear it.

@AppleAllSpritz I have a memory box that has cards, letters and my childhood teddy in, yes. It's one box that sits on the shelf in my wardrobe. I don't collect anything, though, I have no desire to.

That seems such a shame that she has been living so long with the weight of having too much stuff.
Even for those of us who aren't hoarders, too much stuff can be the cause of mental anxiety etc!

I was referring to the fact that when hoarding controls a person in that they are unable to move properly in their own home / sleep in their bed then that is more of a mental health issue to be addressed and there are people who can help with that. But for the manority of people they may hoard although it won't necessarily impact their lives to that extent.

I'm not. "Stuff" makes me stressed and anxious and makes me feel like I'm not on control.

DH is the total opposite though and would keep absolutely everything if given the chance. He has his own room where he can keep as much as he likes 🤣

Me too.

Definitely need to downsize. I need to get strict with myself.

I'm not great - I have plenty of space which is filled with clutter. I'm far too sentimental & still have some of my Mum's & Grandmother's things that should be looked at.
I do have to sort some things out, start with paperwork then room by room but first I've got to clear where I want to put the paperwork, it's going to involve ladders & trips to the tip so it's a bit daunting.
I'm tempted to hire a skip & just dump stuff in it - no excuses when there's a sodding great skip on my drive, costing me money!

@NDornotND the decluttering game helped me so much when I felt a bit like this. I did it backwards (30 items day 1, 29 on day 2), just started on easy wins like spare jam jars and ancient sauce bottles in the kitchen. By the time I was a week or two in, I found myself short of items so started reaching into the drawers of doom. When your only aim is to reach a goal of X items each day, those drawers suddenly stop being intimidating and become positively a source of easy wins. You don't have to go through every item, or find homes for anything or tidy, just reach in and find 6 things you don't need, and (crucially) repeat on other days until those drawers are no longer the easiest place to find unneeded items. I found what remained in the drawers after much easier to tackle. Trying to declutter and organise even one whole drawer is a much harder task than finding X items, over and over.

I’m not, I hate ‘stuff’. I don’t live in a spartan museum but we aren’t collectors of anything and although I do regular declutters we are also quite mindful about what comes in to the house and where it will go. For regular things like clothes it’s more that some things will need to go if new things are coming in. I don’t want to be overwhelmed with choice and I like the feeling of space.
I grew up in a house full of ornaments, trinkets, a cabinet displaying paperweights, Tobey jugs (wtf was that all about 😂) just really random crap! Every space had an item of furniture put in it and although it was always kept clean and tidy it felt so claustrophobic and oppressive so I strive for the opposite.

I have boxes of sentimental stuff, kids pictures etc but mostly cos my kids really like looking through that stuff from when they were little. Also have clothes and shoes I haven't worn for ages and according to 'the rules' should be got rid of. BUT I do find that me or my daughters ocassionally want something for a specific reason - fancy dress, wear a particular colour etc and I'm able to find something to suit. Eg I have a blue feather boa I've owned for 25 years, obviously I never wear it but my daughter borrowed it for a costume. I should probably get rid of more books as I nearly only read on Kindle.

In our house stuff gets moved into boxes 'to sell' but then kicks around waiting to be sold for ages. I did have a blitz after an annoyingly quiet car boot sale where I donated the whole lot. But since then have had moments when we wanted something and said 'oh we used to have one of those' and end up buying something again.

On the surface our house is very clean and tidy but all the cupboards have too much stuff and there is a lot in our garage.

I'm slowly sifting and selling things I no longer need. My job has evolved so I have a lot of clothes I no longer wear. I hate waste and care about the environment so I will always try to re home things rather than just dump them.

My solution is to use what we have and not buy things. That way the situation will slowly improve rather than get worse. We're going to move at some point in the the future and I want it to be with only stuff we need and minus an almighty clear out.

Thank you so much for this. I read your post 15 minutes ago and thought "right. Start now!" I'm 20 items down already and just having a brief rest before finding my other 10 for day 1 (I'm disabled and need to rest a lot) I feel really positive, and will cross off '30 things' in my diary today and look forward to getting 29 tomorrow.

❤️

Exactly what @ZippyDoodle said!

There is nothing more joyous than using something up but I then need to fight the urge to replace it. When I do, it's often on some deal so I end up replacing a moisturiser with two more plus the free gift of a makeup bag with lots of bits inside. Argh.

Dp told me about someone he knows who works in different locations around the world, has to move home and literally carries all possessions in 2 suitcases.

Something in me just loves the idea of that.

I dream of just packing a couple of boxes for each room when we move house!

I also do the two bloody moisturisers and free gift malarkey. Maybe we should stop using those brands?!

Declutter little and often.... little and often....

When I moved ten years ago or so I had only a couple of boxes…until I got to the kitchen and then the kids’ toys! I’ve had two more children since then too and stuff has crept up on us.

I’m another one who’s a sucker for a good deal, a free gift (or spending a bit more to get free postage)

I'm somewhere in the middle. I don't like clutter, and I don't have any issues with getting rid of things but I'm also quite sentimental. I try and keep it manageable though.

For clothing, I have two wardrobes (two door style) and I'm really trying to get it down to just one. I end up having a spring summer one and the other one for winter clothes and at the end of each season I donate anything I haven't worn for a year to the charity shop. I still have too much though.

Anything really sentimental e.g. cards or letters from loved ones I have a box that they're stored in and just keep a few each. I love that I've got a Christmas card written to me by my dearly departed Nan for example but I don't need to keep every card she ever sent me.

Children's toys are all organised into "themed" boxes so one box for lego, one for dolls, one for puzzles, one for Playmobil etc so it's easy to keep organised. They have way too many cuddly toys and essentially both DDs sleep on a mountain of teddies at bedtime but they make them happy and are confined to their rooms so I'm not worried about that.

We do buy too much in general though and there are plenty of drawers of random crap and stuff in the garage that has been lurking around for years. This thread has inspired me actually to start decluttering properly again.