Hoarding

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I am still in the discovery process, so pardon me if I bring up things like this occasionally.

A major tendancy of people in my family is to hoard stuff...my folks do...and my older relatives did....like obsessively and crazily to where it took over their entire lives....I was just wondering if there are any people on the Autistic spectrum who might be inclined towards hoarding stuff.

Just curious..

Totally. I hoard most things I become interested in, I guess, but I have become good at selling things if I go off the interest and need to feed another one. I hoard videos, books and Ps2 games right now.

I guess I use the word pack rat. My mom is very bad at it. No question its routed in some non-NT psychology

I hate throwing things away. I have lots of plastic bags in my room.

Hi. I know a guy, kind of a friend of the family. I'm pretty sure he is AS or HFA or something like that. This guy collected every newspaper for like 15 to 20 years. He would read the entire thing every day looking for spelling and grammar errors. Then he would just put it in a stack, like he was saving them for something.

He hoarded books and magzines too. The stuff eventually filled up the entire basement. There was a path down there just wide enough to get to the washer and dryer. So he started stacking it in the living room and dining room.

Then they got rats or bugs or something in there. Somehow the city found out about it and the local goverment ordered him to get rid of the stuff. Probably his neighbors reported it as a health hazard. The city parked an industrial-size dumpster on his lawn and all the neighbors came over to clear out the s**t. The dumpster wasn't big enough to hold all the trash so they had to call for a second one.

So yeah, I guess this happens from time to time.

I like to think of it as "collecting."

I hoard clothes- all kinds of clothes. It's problematic

YIKES! I forgot about this! OK, let's see.....

1. Magazines stored since 1968, and I threw most of them out only 5 years ago, when I moved across the country!
2. Every reciept saved. I got a lateral file cabinet and sorted them by year.(OK, it only holds the first 20 years of receipts. I need ANOTHER cabinet. 8-()
3. Every computer saved! I STILL have my apple II, 2 work alikes, and another lazer 128, I ALSO have perhaps 13 OTHER computers, including 7 laptops!
4. Every cable saved!
5. Almost every CD ever saved!
6. I EVEN have 2 cars!
7. BTW I DID save every copy of bien(a Danish Newspaper), and saved every copy of shau ins land, and puerta del sol(Basically German and Spanish news formats.)
8. Oh yeah, is anyone here doing anything with parsing spam, etc...? I have about 12 GB of email saved over the past 11 years(NOPE, I'm NOT kidding!)

Did I mention I am SINGLE?

I USED to just say I was a pack rat.

BTW as to clothes, everything I got that has a chance of fitting me ever again, that is in decent condition, is saved. So I DO have some clothes over 20 years old.

Steve

Yup, yuppers. Royal packrat here.

Yup. Uncle Dave. He is actually at risk of death from stuff falling on top of him. I'm quite serious. And he won't let anybody come in to cart stuff away - it'd be over his dead body, and literally, too. But he's happy that way, so who am I to judge?

BTW I'm completely opposite. I hate having too much stuff and I LOVE the feeling of throwing things away - I really do. To me getting rid of garbage is like clearing the cobwebs from my brain - it gives me a feeling of peace and lightness. It's one of my favorite things to clean garbage out of my life.

The only thing I've ever collected is used staples when I worked at a law firm

I saved all my old papers from school, things I wrote, and magazines. I did a major weeding out two years ago and have just kept some books and my Cat Fancy magazines.

Yeah..I am a packrat..but I have family members..who have gotten to where it REALLY was hoarding...I will get there someday I am sure.
My parents were kinda distrubed when I told them that I dumpster dived...because i had certain family members (no longer with us) who brought it to immense proportions.

I like finding things that other people have thrown away though..and i like saving them and reusing them...and then I have a large quantity of stuff that I don't REALLY need...but it is the nature of the artist.
My boyfriend is the same way...so at least he can't complain....but I am wary of the notion of it one day getting completely out of control.

I have about 5,000 books and even more records. I collect, art, art pottery, antiques and all sorts of stuff. I've actually made money finding and selling esoteric collectable items. I made $12,000 on just one item. I think it is a great hobby for an aspie.

I am not allowed to bring food or drinks upstairs at home because I will "stash" (as my parents say) the dish ware and utensils under my bed, in drawers, in cabinets, and on my bookshelf.