Polish Hoarders?

OH yea. The retless frying pan syndrome! LOL

I collect Surfer and Surfing magazines. I wrap each complete year set in plastic and put them away in the attic. Some people already tried to buy them off me. Recently, I started keeping memorable books, but I store them in airtight contaners. I don't throw away straight nails or screws, re-use good jars, but have no problem using old clothes as rags, then getting rid of them. My mother collects old tools. Anyone else collects stuff that others routinely throw away?

I still have every bean can i ate from during my five years in Poland.....

I collect coins, and everytime I get a wheat back penny it goes in the jar.

people have no idea of how easy it is to come across a rare penny that someone might want
for their collection.. my brother works in retail, he found some awsome silver ( collectors items)
that some guy brought in to buy booze.. sad but true.

I have a 1935 silver certificate ( think its a e) and also old liberty penny.

not worth to much now, but will be in the future. :)

I still have every bean can i ate from during my five years in Poland.....

* polish hoarder alert* Polish hoarder alert... re ru re ru re ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu..

Ive a mate who works at a dump site/tip/household disposal site,what ever the heck the place where you dump the trash that doesnt get taken away from your pavement is called in whatever country your in....er... anyway, I could fill a page with the stuff he finds thrown out,but I wont,lets just say,some people never throw stuff away,others just dump anything. On those Antique roadshow programmes when people say "Oh,I was going to throw it in the trash but came here first....",believe me,they wernt kidding :(

Side note,walking the dog a few years back I found one of my villages old middens from the 19th century,had a dig around and within an hour had found 2 dozen intact glass bottles and jars,old wooden toothbrushes ,slightly chipped china cups etc. Rubbish at the time,now both fascinating and in the case of a few of them,worth a few quid too :)


Very handy,you can use them to make a chimney ala Stig of the Dump...:)


Lols, I dated a girl once (virgo...) who seriously,was one of those who hovers around with a cloth all day,you lift your glass to your mouth the coaster gets a wipe......I swear,by now she probably has living room furniture still wrapped in plastic ;)

I dont think the zodiac has anything to do with her OCD lol

but I agree, she's off her rocker !

Sometimes, it seems like the hoarder doesn't want to take out the garbage. They just let it pile up in the house until it becomes unmanageable, then they want someone else to clean it for them. It's at the least a ten person job, cleaning up a house like that. A few weeks later, the house is like it was before it was cleaned, which is why cleaning their houses for them doesn't work. A therapist must sort through the mess with the obsessive compulsive, letting them do most of the work cleaning it. The therapist talks to the hoarder the entire time, helping them see that most of what they have is meaningless while human relationships are valuable. I've seen this on reality shows about them. I also have an

Aunt who has this. She just wants people to clean her house for her, isn't interested in getting therapy for it.


Absolutely not, after seeing what my Aunt goes through. Nobody in my family is because of her. She has a severe case of it, rivaling the worst ones on the reality shows, I'm sorry to say.

At least it keeps all her relatives from being hoarders, so it does have one positive.


My Aunt's father died of emphyzema when she was in her early twenties. On those hoarding reality shows, there seems to be similar circumstances, hoarding behavior following the death of a loved one or a divorce. My Aunt grew up in the country without a lot of money, too.

Most of my Aunt's stuff is junk. She has some collectible tableware and glassware.


You should have tons of garage sales! Garage sales are awesome. Before you know it, you have hundreds of dollars. It's so weird.
You don't want your basement to escalate into a hoarding situation, bursting at the seams, so keep an eye on it.

yep, my cousin same, my uncle died ( she probably signed the paper ) she was his advocate so I am
pretty sure it was this. And her divorce shortly thereafter..


wow, sorry to hear, my cousin isnt bad yet, but there is potential.

I want to go help her, I think I could turn this around. I know she needs to see those shows
if she hasnt already. I watch them and it worrys me, the bugs, the filth the unsanitary conditions
they subject themselfs too.. its shocking.

My Aunt struggled with this obsessive compulsive disorder, then she developed Parkinson's. Right now, she lives in an assisted living facility that will not let her collect stuff. It's the only reason she is not still hoarding.

Before she developed Parkinson's, she was a nurse. She bought her own house, cluttered it up, then had it foreclosed. The entire family had to go clean it for her before it was repossessed by the bank. Then, she lived in several rentals, which we had to clean up for her, every time she moved to a different one. The last rental had termites, so she had to move to an apartment. She found some people to help her move and they ended up leaving with some valuable, highly collectible glassware for virtually nothing.

She moved from the apartment to an assisted living center since she can no longer take care of herself due to the Parkinson's complications, the center wouldn't let her bring much with her, nor will they let her keep much in her room. She has a storage unit somewhere, but no longer requires us to help her keep her house organized and clean.

It's considerate of you to help your cousin. If she is a classic hoarder, she might not let you help her, unless it's to clean, only. If she is anything like my Aunt, she will micromanage you and won't let you get rid of too much stuff.

generally id agree,but,apparently obsessive cleaning and tidying is one of the "classic" ,er,symptoms of being Virgo :)


And,problem? Sounds like most lazy middle class women who hire maids TBH....

( Not making light of her specificaly,I know its a horrid thing for people to go through if its a serious case of giving up on that part of life....)

Just be careful that your fear of becoming a hoarder doesn't cause you to go off the deep end in the other direction. Compulsive throwing away/ cleaning/ tidying is as much of a mental issue as hoarding.

A degree of sentimentality is good for a healthy person. If that involves saving things... simply find space for the important stuff.

I knew an old guy whose wife became like that. She was infatic/ obsessive that their attic and basement be spotless to the point of rendering them empty. Storing stuff is what attics and basements are for! Anyway, she threw away things like very valuable ancient baseball cards and comic books and such, with total disregard for their value, or for the fact that they were her husband's possessions.


Loneliness causes people to collect things. Any psychologist will tell you that hoarders are really trying to reclaim a sense of control by holding onto things.


Not having money is another indicator. Folks who grew up through the Depression when everyone kept and reused everything find it hard to get rid of things. It becomes a mindset. I think society today has more of a throw away mentality. And as a result kids lack sentiment.


See! Even for all the trash there is always some gems hidden in the piles! Don't be too quick to throw away or to declare it all "junk"!


Yeah, yard sales are cool. The last one I made nearly $2000! You get to see your neighbors but it's a little weird having them pick through your stuff. To avoid the neighbors thing I've considered going the flea market/ antique fair route. But this would be a whole lot more difficult than just bringing stuff up from the basement out onto the front lawn.


I try to keep on top of it. I've always been a collector but, again, only good stuff (interesting, valuable, etc). You won't find so much as a used wrapper or a dirty dish in my house.


My grandfather was like this. I wouldn't like people messing with my stuff either! Not that I'm so attached to it, really. Mostly for fear that they'd be like my brother and just wanton throw everything away without regard for value, sentimental or monetary.

lol well then theres something wrong with me .... lol yikes.

and my kids.. lmao


is that where you live? sheese. ;)