My husband actually records Hoarding: Buried Alive.

[Liberal Veteran]

I don't get what is so interesting about this show. I understand it is usually a mental disorder, but I'm perplexed that this needs a weekly series.

[ret5hd]

1. So actually what he is doing is...

hoarding the Hoarding: Buried Alive series, right?

At least it doesn't take up space in your closet!

[HipChick]

2. I must admit I've been hoarding that show myself, can't quite bring myself to watch it..

[LynneSin]

3. Actually A&E has the better hoarding show - Hoarders. Can't stand the TLC one

I love A&E's "Hoarders" probably because they have some great personalities that help out the orders each week with my favorite being Extreme Cleaner Matt Paxton.

Last season they had this hoarder in Northeast, MD where Matt was the cleaner for the segment. Matt discovered that on the 2nd floor a room that was filled with years of used adult dirty diapers. At one point he climbed on top of this giant pile of dirty diapers (while wearing a hazmat suit and breathing mask) and the moment he reached the top was when that 5.8 earthquake hit the East Coast of US. Poor Matt was on top of this giant pile of dirty diapers with the earth shaking beneath him.

[marzipanni]

18. I've heard the Richter scale called the

Rectum scale. In this case it would almost apply.
It must be incredibly scary for an "anal" personality to be on a pile of diapers, let alone a jiggly one!

[MrMickeysMom]

31. Rectum?

It nearly KILLED em!

[pipi_k]

4. I get mixed feelings...

I like to watch it because it makes my house feel clean.

We're not exactly hoarders here...just pack rats. I learned that there is a difference.


Sometimes I get really really annoyed at the people for going through each little bit of trash before throwing it out.

But then, I understand how I would feel if someone came through my house and wanted me to throw out stuff that I had an attachment to.

It's often uncomfortable for me to watch.

[Wait Wut]

16. I'm the opposite of a hoarder.

I've lost everything three times in my life. Twice to floods and once to an irresponsible ex-husband. I'm terrified of possessions. Throwing them away myself is much less painful than losing them without my permission.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Maybe we can look forward to more mental illness-themed shows as well?

[Liberal Veteran]

7. How about GOP Phobias: A Life of Fear.

Episode 1: We follow the sad case of a republican that fears telling the truth.

Episode 2: A republican congressman tries to overcome his fear of vaginas.

Episode 3: A governor seeks help for delusions of headless bodies in the desert sparked by her fear of Mexican people.

Episode 4: Support group meetings for political activists who break out into rage and sweat when confronted by successful people of color.

[avebury]

6. Except for the show that they did on the Muslim

community in Michigan I don't watch TLC. Too much of their shows are just plain trash.

[TrogL]

8. I record it because I seem to be surrounded with hoarders (I've got my own issues)

I'm trying to figure out what makes hoarders tick so I can do something about it.

I can barely move in my studio because I've got dozens of synthesizers, many of which no longer work or aren't compatible with my newer gear (MIDI issues). Tonight, I'm trying to avoid driving home past my favourite music store 'cause I've convinced myself I can get into the dance music business and I've got my eye on a drum machine. Every time I get a gig that might rake in a couple of hundred dollars, I end up buying a new $2000 synth even though I've already got a rack full of ones that would do the job. I convince myself that the 25+ piano sounds I have aren't perfect so I need a synth that has 10 more, most of which are probably duplicates.

[TrogL]

12. Yup. Bought the drum machine

Going to try it out over the weekend and take it back Tuesday if it hasn't hooked me. So far I'm not sure

[TrogL]

20. ...and I took it back

The drum part of it was OK, but I can get similar sounds off my X50 and it's easier to program. The synth portion of the box sounds awful on preset GM sounds and the synth part (ADSL etc.) is almost impossible to use. If there was a GUI similar to the X50's I'd think about keeping it but I'm just not getting the results I want in the time I've got.

[pipi_k]

14. I'm having similar issues

with yarn.

It used to be books. Books everywhere!

Now I have a Kindle Fire and have over 700 books on this one little machine no bigger than a paperback. I can hoard books to my heart's content.

OK back to the yarn. I knit and crochet. Most of us crafters tend to keep what we call "stashes" of yarn.

I had boxes and bags full of yarn. Got rid of about 20 lbs. of yarn a few weeks ago, although I still have more.

What's the logical thing to do? Right. Use what I have now to make stuff.

What did I do? Bid on, and won, another whole shitload of yarn on eBay yesterday. I justify it by thinking, well, it's a real nice yarn. I love working with it more than the stuff I gave away. Football season is near. I need something to occupy my hands while I watch the games. I have some new patterns I want to try.

sigh...

there is just no reasonable explanation for this sort of thing, is there...

[TrogL]

17. You and my wife need to compare notes

That's the other issue. Thrre's hoards of wool and yarn in every room in the house including the bathroom and kitchen. The only clear room is my studio which has its own issues as above. Cleaned it up a bit last night to make room for the drum machine and rocked out on that for awhile. Of course now I'm hankering after a bigger mixer 'cause I'm running out of channels.

[LuckyLib]

21. Why not lay out a little money to hire (at an hourly rate) a

person who really knows that stuff and has been around through tech changes of the past few years. Put out a few questions to him/her:

What of this stuff is so obsolete that it's no longer usable AND I couldn't get any money for it? (Toss it.)

What of this stuff dupicates what I have but could be sold? (Sell it.)

What of what I now have is essential to what I want to do with music? (Keep it.)

You'll make some money, clear out the old junk, and move on down the road.

[TrogL]

26. I'm donating some of it to a museum

They're really interested in my Farfisa organ.

[TwilightGardener]

9. I find it fascinating that some people can have strong feelings for

odds and ends like plastic margarine tubs and old orphaned vacuum cleaner attachments. I don't know what sort of thought processes or insecurities you'd have to have to be so anxious about throwing out worthless crap, but we all know someone like this, probably.

[pipi_k]

10. Usually these people

have experienced some devastating loss in their lives, which explains, I guess, how they would want to hold on to certain things because it makes them feel in control when they clearly feel so out of control.

I think it was shortly after my dad passed away when I started saving chicken and turkey wishbones and those gelcap pill things (I was on a supplement at the time, and would empty the contents out and save the caps).

I was sure I would find a use for all that crap but never did. One day I just sucked it up and threw it all away. It wasn't easy, even though the stuff was trash. I wanted to dig it out of the garbage, but left it alone, feeling guilty and a strange sense of loss. Got over it after a few days and never saved that stuff again.

Very complex feelings behind hoarding...

[TwilightGardener]

13. Thank you for the insight. I had a friend (now passed on) and have a relative

with this problem, though not anything on the scale of the folks they show on TV--yet.

[pipi_k]

15. I guess it's a very thin line

one crosses over from being a packrat to being an actual hoarder.

Just one event can trigger it.


Also, there are people who get depressed and just stop caring about their immediate surroundings. Being a bit of a packrat myself...although I do hate clutter...go figure....this worries me. I have a tendency toward depression, and would be horrified to fall to that level. Living in filth because I no longer cared, I mean.

[marzipanni]

19. I saved plastic yogurt and cottage cheese tubs for a while

because I use some as storage containers, and I was hoping our recycling program would accept them at some point, which they did. I limited purchases to of things that came in non-recyclable containers, until we had recycling available.

I think it's disgusting that we use packaging that holds something for a short time which takes years and years to biodegrade, if it even can, in the environment.

http://www.treehugger.com/clean-water/pacific-trash-vortex-could-signify-future-of-our-oceans.html

[pipi_k]

24. Same here

My cabinets were bursting with those things. I reuse them for a while until I can no longer open the cabinet doors without getting beaned by them, then I throw them out even though I hate doing it and feel guilty as hell.

Some of those "deli" meats come double packaged...forget the brand. In the clear oblong tubs with red or blue tops, but then the meat is in a plastic pouch inside.

Why?????

Just put the damned meat in a resealable plastic pouch!!

[Arugula Latte]

22. I can almost understand it in people who are old enough to remember the Depression.

My grandma stashed away a lot of odds and ends, because ya just never know ...

But that is a small percentage of the population, and there are apparently millions of hoarders out there.

[gollygee]

11. I like Hoarders and Hoarders: Buried Alive because them inspire me to clean the house

My house is SPOTLESS after I watch one of those shows. I do empathize with them and sometimes I can see their thinking in myself. It makes me re-think things and make better choices like, "I don't need to hold onto this just because I got it from this person" or "This isn't really worth anything and someone else would enjoy it more than I do."

[MadrasT]

23. I think it affects a lot of people, directly or indirectly.

I was married to a hoarder. It was an impossible situation.

Oddly, after he died, I found season 1 of "Hoarders"... in his hoard of DVDs. Unopened.

I am petrified of being surrounded by piles of Other People's Stuff now.

Anyway, it seems like quite a few people I talk to about hoarding also know someone who is a hoarder.

[Liberal Veteran]

25. There is that. When I even watch an episode, I feel a need to clean house.

I get the immediate "must throw something away right now!" feeling.

[LuckyLib]

27. I have no compunction at all about "recycling" something that someone

gave me that I do not want or need. I feel no need to display it, and at the first opportunity it goes to a thrift store. It's not an insult to anyone that you decide not to keep something just because it was a gift. The dynamics of such beliefs causes many folks to surround themselves with stuff they don't want/need. With friends and relatives at birthday time, I suggest that rather than exchanging gifts we agree to meet for lunch instead. Food for the soul, no gifts.

[zen_bohemian]

28. I have watched it a couple of times, but after a while they all seem to be the same

After I watch it I have an uncontrollable urge to clean my house.

[derby378]

29. Pack rat here...

Used to be a hoarder, myself. After Ginny died and I lost my job, I had to downsize my living quarters pronto, and that pretty much knocked my hoarding tendencies for a loop.

Now I'm just a simple pack rat, and I occasionally watch a little bit of Hoarders: Buried Alive as therapy to remind myself what can happen if I let myself go again. I should say I never got as bad as the folks on that show, but it was bad enough.

[graywarrior]

30. Every time I watch that show, I clean out my junk.