After another hour of watching "Hoarders" I took the first step to end my hoarding

[LynneSin]

Mind you, I'm no where even close as bad as the people that are on hoarders but I do have my issues and I could see 20 years from now me being one of those grannies surrounded by 80 cats having no clue how it got so horrible as I sit amoungst my own filth.

So last night I went thru all my DVDs I collected over the years and I donated them to my local library. I kept saying I'd sell them at a yardsale but well that wasn't happening. But I thought if I took them to the library and really wanted to watch them I could always go back to the library and take them out.

I dropped off 60 DVDs (I kept about 40, mostly stuff that I really loved like my rock concert collection, Charlie Chaplin Movies, Star Wars collect edition).

It's a start. After I get my bookshelf up I'm taking a ton of books to the library that don't make it on the shelving.

[GalleryGod]

1. Good For You, Lynne!

Because I've had to move 4X in the past year..I had to "purge" mightily before move #1.
It can be liberating in a sense!
Again,Good for you...don't stop.

[HipChick]

2. Good for you...I hate doing housework..everytime I can't get motivated I watch Hoarders..

[LynneSin]

3. Even those clean house shows never motivated me like Hoarders

Because I have alot of stuff but I'm not messy. I feel like I have the potential for some reason.

[hunter]

4. If you can do that you are not a hoarder.

My grandma couldn't let go of anything. Eventually she had to be dragged out of her mess by the police and paramedics.

I've got my own quirks, like the way I keep empty 35mm film canisters. But eventually they fill the box and I can bring myself to drop them off at the film processing place where they claim to recycle them.

Everything I buy now I ask myself if it can be recycled or easily thrown away when I'm done with it. If the answer is "no" I don't buy it.

[LynneSin]

5. True but I have to do these reinforcements in order to keep from being a Hoarder

One show they showed a potential hoarder, which I identified with the most. Alot of projects started but not completed. Stuff like that. I could really identify with what was going on with that person.

[targetpractice]

6. I believe there are different types of hoarders...

I've watched "Hoarders" and "Hoarding: Burried Alive" and have noticed at least two types...

First, some hoarders are emotionally attached to their stuff and have a compulsive need to acquire more stuff. This type of hoarding seems very difficult to deal with... The hoarder has trouble making the decision to let go of objects they own.

Then, there seem to be others who experienced some kind of trauma or life event (or maybe social anxiety) that caused them to stop taking care of their home... until they reach a point where their hoard has overcome them... They seem to need and want help to get unburied... but there are shame issues to overcome.

[LynneSin]

8. I do get emotional attachements to items because of the memories

I think the breaking point for me was watching some poor kid go into serious panic attacks because they were throwing away the dog hair. He felt tossing the dog hair was going to somehow age his dog faster than normal. I really felt bad for that kid because although he seemed to have a very wonderful & supportive boyfriend, his father was a drunk that filled just about every crevice of the house with empty wine bottles. The must have filled half a dump truck full just of empty bottles. And the father wouldn't get involved with the process - he just sat out on the lawn and drank. The epilogue did say that the kid was getting professional help but the dad would only 'cut back' on drinking but wouldn't go to AA. I hope the kid perhaps moves in with his boyfriend and gets out of that horrible situation.

[SeattleGirl]

10. I saw that episode too. I felt so bad for that kid, but thought it

was good that he kept pushing on through the panic attacks. He knew he had a problem (a lot of hoarders really don't seem to realize that they do), and he wanted to get rid of the junk, even while having those panic attacks.

I'm with you; I hope he gets out of that environment and into a healthier one.

[LynneSin]

11. When he finally started to put the dog hair into the garbage can you thought he peaked Mt Everest

But that father was an asshole. I hope they recycled all those wine bottles - that would probably bring in alot of cash!

[Lars39]

16. I've learned that sometimes a picture taken of those items

to which I'm emotionally attached is just as good as having the item in many cases.

[targetpractice]

19. "Hoarders" looks traumatic...

A&E's "Hoarders" brings in a cleaning crew with a 2-day ultimatum.... This seems traumatic for the subjects, in my opinion... At least the guys on "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" made makeovers fun.

The "Hoarders" crew shows up in giant blue trucks painted with "1-800-GOT-JUNK" advertising everywhere... I would be mortified if I were subjected to that..

I've dealt with hoarding issues in my family, and I know that shame is a big part of the problem... The more discreet the clean up can be, the better. I certainly couldn't imagine televising the process. On the other hand, hoarders can't clean up on their own... They need other people to help.

I do like TLC's "Hoarding: Buried Alive" a bit better... because they don't push the 2-day clean up (or else) reality show formula. TLC focuses more on the issues and circumstances that can lead to hoarding problem.

All that said... I am amazed that this problem is more common than I ever imagined.

[driver8]

7. That is a great idea. I've got a bunch of DVD's that we don't watch.

I think I will donate them, as well.

[SeattleGirl]

9. Good on you, LynneSin. The guys from 1-800-Got-Junk? were here

on Monday and hauled away a lot of stuff that had accumulated in the basement over the past 17 years. They couldn't get all of it, and I could only afford one truck for right now, but damn, I already feel a lot better just getting that much stuff out of here.

I'm not a hoarder, as the living space in my home isn't all cluttered and nasty, but it was just easy to take things to the basement and think, "I'll figure out later what to do with this," and after so many years, I had a bona fide mess on my hands. I had absolutely no idea where to start in terms of getting rid of it, so when I saw the junk guys on Hoarders, I decided to call them.

I asked the two guys if they had ever had to deal with folks like the ones on Hoarders, and they said they did. They said it was very stressful not only on the hoarder, but also on them, and sometimes, they end up only driving away with a tiny fraction of what actually needs to be taken away.

[targetpractice]

20. 1-800-GOT-JUNK

I've needed their services in the past to deal with a family hoarding problem... But, the fact that their trucks were painted with such indiscreet advertising along with the bright blue employee uniforms were deal-breakers.

I think shame and social anxiety issues contribute to a hoarders problems... And, I wonder if the 1-800-GOT-JUNK folks are being insensitive to the needs of their potential customer base by bringing attention to their engagements.

Did you mind their truck parking in front of your home?

[SeattleGirl]

21. I confess to a little bit of embarassement at first, but then I thought.

"Screw it". If someone is going to make a negative judgment about me, that's their thing, not mine.

I understand what you're saying though. I think that for some people who might finally recognize they have a hoarding problem, it could be very difficult to have them show up and park in front of your house, on top of the difficulty of trying to part with all the stuff. On the other hand, though, even if their paint scheme and uni's were less "loud", neighbors would still notice a truck in front of the house and lots of stuff being taken out, so I'm not sure that a more discrete paint job/uni color would make that much of a difference.

[targetpractice]

22. Good for you...

I'm glad your rational mind prevailed... You are exactly right about the process being indiscreet no matter what... But, in my experience neighbors don't give a shit... The sooner that fact is realized the better.

[SeattleGirl]

23. Sometimes I care far too much what others think of me (or what

I THINK others may be thinking of me), but in this instance, like I said, I just decided, "Screw it". I decided that de-junkifying the basement was more important to me than what the neighbors may or may not think of me.

And you know, even though I still have more stuff to get hauled out of the basement, I FEEL better with just half of it gone.

[spinbaby]

12. Every time I watch it, I throw something out

Have you ever watched Kim and Aggie on How Clean is Your House? They're on BBC America and you can find them on youtube. They deal with people with obvious hoarding problems, too, but don't stop to analyze them--they take the dumpster-and-scolding approach. Lots of closeups of filth.

[LynneSin]

13. Are they the ones that would run bacteria test on the filth they found

just to gross out the owners.

I've seen that - I keep my kitching very clean. I've had issues with bugs in the past and ever night I wipe down all the counters with some sort of lysol product.

[Dogtown]

14. BUT...

Did you remember to discard the "Hoarders" DVDs?

[LynneSin]

15. I get those off of comcast's On-Demand

:D

[Dogtown]

17. You must be cured, then!!

:applause: :toast:

[wickerwoman]

18. Donating to the library is a great idea!

You can also list them on Amazon marketplace (or at least check to see what the going rate is).

You don't make money on anything under about $1.50 because of amazon's commission but when I was clearing out my DVD collection, I found I could make $4-5 on a lot of them and much more for TV series.

And it's definitely worth checking the books, especially if you have old textbooks in reasonably good condition. One of mine was worth more than $50 used.

I made about $700 selling about 80 books and DVDs that I didn't think would be worth $40.

Then I donated everything worth less than $1.50 to charity.

[zx_3500]

24. good for you

i'm been thinking about doing the same thing. have too many DVDs