Are you a hoarder?

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I hoard for many reasons and wondered if anyone else can relate to that? I am a trained artist and art tutor and have used my hoarding of art materials and other paraphenalia to great effect in my life. This has discouraged me from getting rid of my hoards completely just trying to keep them under control. At one point there was a pathway to my bed and a mountainous hoard on each side of that. I did have depression at the time also. I think it is very hard for me to not bury valuable resources under things i dont need. This could be a metaphor for the way that I block my own energy and creativity by things not being immediately accessible when I need them. Thanks for reading. What do you think? Any comments?

hiya KDS welcome to the club your post made perfect sense to me, as I struggle with similar issues.

Hi Aunt Blabby. Do you collect defective toy santas! Its good to hear from you. I really want to have a tidy home but there is something depressing about that also. I think I am afraid of losing my creativity in the emptiness. But i expect you can lose that just as easily in clutter. Thanks for your reply. Its the early hours here and I have work tomorrow. off to bed. I hope to speak again soon.

sleep tight

I feel that there's a spectrum of hording - like there is for autism. lol
People who save dirt, garbage, old food, etc have serious issues, imo.
People like you (and me) just like to collect things that make us happy and content... (maybe collecting garbage makes some happy and content? Nah, i don't think so.)

I think most horders just need bigger houses, or a storage unit.

Personally, I have what I call "Obsession du jour"... what I choose to collect (obsess over) changes pretty often, so I have a nice variety in my hord.

Tonight it's snake/obsidian/goldstone jewelry. I'll buy a few inexpensive pieces and my craving will be satisfied and then ... who knows what the next "OdJ" will be?



Have a good night

I'm the exact opposite; I simply cannot stand clutter, and am always giving away and throwing things out. I need space, and I don't like 'stuff' getting in the way.

I decided to concentrate on collecting music. it doesn't take up too much space. am in the middle of deciding what goes to goodwill or other homes and what stays with me. it is a laborious process.

I don't think I'm a horder, although looking in my apartment, you would think that I was. I had to get a storage unit to hold what I can't fit in my apartment.

My problem is that I live in a one bedroom apartment. I have enough items to fit a small house or a larger apartment but to much for the apartment. This is compounded by having limited space to work on my obsessed hobbies. So when they change, I go through a day or two of packing everything from the previous obsessed hobby, storing it, pulling out what it changed to and setting it up. I want to move to a 2-bedroom apartment in a few months which should allow me the space to not have to do that.

Right now my obsession/hobby is writing, so all I need is my laptop and a place to site. But my apartment is still a mess. I put together quite a number of cardboard boxes to start packing everything away in preparation for the move, but I haven't made much progress with that. I'm talking boxes everywhere.




I do that on occasion, but my lack of fast internet access has kind of hindered that hobby. There is quite a bit of free music out there on the internet, and I don't mean the kind you have to torrent to get.

I can't stand clutter either.
When my mom died, I suddenly had, not just one, but two houses full of stuff. It took me a good 6 months to try to figure out what to keep, what to give away, and where to put it all. It was making me totally crazy. I'm not finished, but at least I can breath now.

I'm obsessive about "organizing" my stuff so the stuff I hoard doesn't get out of control, or turn to clutter... well, except for my "sewing room"... it's organized, but there's too much for that little room.

Like AuntBlabby, every once in a while I make a donation to GoodWill (I think I bring home more than I take there though. )

Wow! You sound just like me!! It makes me smile to know I'm not alone in my obsession-hopping. For me, it's the same, but mostly with crafts: sewing to crocheting to painting to drawing to quilting to embroidery to... whatever grabs my interest... back to sewing again, etc...
This past winter I did a lot of crocheting - had my fill of it in fact. Now I am in between, waiting for the next urge to strike.

I found out why I obsession hopped. I have cyclothymia. Usually it starts with around 5-7 days of the upcycle, then a day of fluctuation, then 7+ days of being downcycled, then a few days of normal ness, and then repeat.

My obsession changes revolved around that. Everytime I downcycled, I just wasn't motivated to do anything, and when I came out of it, maybe I kept the same interest, maybe it changed. I've been on a mood stabilizer for the last month and I've kept the writing up without switching.

I also do arts and crafts, or at least I did at various times. Everything from Pyrography, Ceramics, Jewelry, Props, game miniature painting, floral arrangements, digital art, needlepoint, painting, and origami. And that's only arts and crafts. Each one requires different items and resources to do, and also space to do them at.

I wish I had a workshop where I could just do all of them. Just have a few work stations with storage cabinets for them. It's my dream to have a house with a garage & basement. I realized that alone with my executive function issues, I am not capable of owning a house now. I want enough of a workspace to do all my hobbies. I could easily do several things at once, and walk away to something else. Have a place to pyrograph and stain. Have a computer setup dedicated for digital art. Have a plotter to print things out on. Have a drafting table. A sewing machine, a bench to work on jewelry, a few wood working tools for helping with props, a kiln for ceramics and glass fusing. I want this so bad, but it's going to be a long time before I have it.

But I just have to settle for packing things up, storing them, and then bringing the next thing out and setting it up in what limited space I have.

"cyclothymia" - had to look it up on Wiki... Yes, that is me! Exactly!!

Obviously, I can't know what you are capable of doing, but I now own two houses and, while I often feel overwhelmed, incompetent, and wonder how I am going to manage it all, so far, I AM doing it ALL BY MYSELF and you probably can do it too.
NTs aren't perfect. They pay the rent late, get evicted, and file bankruptcy. None of that has happened to me yet, so I keep plugging along.

The future scares the hell out of me though - to the point of not wanting to go there - but I'm not ready for the alternative yet.

When you get your home, with everything you want in it for your craft projects, can I come over and play??

No, I'm quite the opposite to be honest.

However, every time I think about hoarders I always think about Mr. Trebus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Trebus

"a life of grime" could apply to me as well

Baby bird. I think i remember that documentary. It was kind of sad. But from reading wikipedia it worked out ok in the end with him going into a home. From what i remember he didnt have a very good time in the house.

I hoard wood, art materials, textiles, - anything, you can MAKE something of. My bedroom looks like a carpenters store room.
Having materials for making anything makes me feel rich. My art teacher was a super hoarder, and he simply had a solution to almost ANY material problem.
I´d feel lost, if I weren´t surrounded by possibilities for creative activity.