Are you or your OH Hoaders?

I am a hoarder too,and every now and then I have a declutter,....only to move items to my car_boot pile,kept in the garage in plastic boxes.,and as you can guess,when I do said carboot,I open the boxes ,and promptly put certain items back for keeping again as I had "forgotten"i had such a nice item.

Three years after retirement, I've just got rid of my suits, so I've started on the wardrobe. I regret throwing out books years ago, so I don't now (bookcases makes excellent insulation and soundproofing btw). Craft stuff can always come in handy (actually I threw out fabric and wool at the same time as the books, and regret that too, maybe even more as I do patchwork and crochet now!).

Ninathenana......those mags will probably be worth loads in a few more years! But yes, I too hate hoarding but often get rid of something and within a month find a need for it. I recently had some electrics done and couldn't bear to get rid of my 3 shade light fitting. It now hangs in my garden displaying a lovely array of flowers in each shade lol.

I'm a terrible hoarder. When my husband and I split up but continued to live in the same house I started acquiring stuff in anticipation of him taking half of everything with him when he moved out. In the end he got a job abroad so took minimal stuff with him, so I had loads of extra stuff. I plan to downsize when I retire in a couple of years as I can't face de-cluttering while I'm still working full time. I have a big 4 bedroom house where I live alone most of the time and there is barely room to put anything! I dread to think what is in the loft as I can't get up there to look!
My only consolation is I've seen worse when house hunting last time we moved. One house had a whole room piled from floor to ceiling with magazines with just a passage way round the edges, and a shed full of similar magazines! I guess he would have called himself a collector!

No, total opposite ! Have frequent clear outs and quite minimalistic .... often have to go to my “ hoarder Mum” and say “ do you happen to have .....as I’ve got rid of mine !”

I'm a bit of a hoarder - mainly books/sewing stuff. I put it down to coming from a large family with not many things to call my own as a child, many of us from that type of background become collectors.
At least I can move around the house safely. Down-sizing a few years ago didn't help and I've every intention of improving matters. I simply can't do 'minimalism' though - to me a home looks soul-less without the personal touch of these things.

I find it difficult to throw away Waitrose Food and Waitrose Gardens magazines. They are not yet threatening to become 'piles' you could use as coffee tables but they are so full of interesting recipes and garden ideas that it seems a shame to consign them to recycling. The same happened to Time Out which I had sent to me weekly. Their occasionally glossy covers were so colourful and interesting that I had some of them framed and displayed in the entrance hall. I stopped my subs as it was getting out of hand. I try to sell other unwanted stuff on eBay.

Hah! I could have written this exact post, for we are just the same

So sorry for your loss Keffie.
Good luck with the house sale Panache, a friend sold hers in weeks recently so here’s hoping you do too.
I hoard books, fabric and weight - wish me luck with the last “downsize”!

I wasn't so much a boarder, as a collector. I had stuff for every type of craft you can imagine and, living in a very small house, it was starting to cause big problems. Earlier this year, I went to retrieve an item I needed but to get to it, I had to dig through a mountain of stuff I'd forgotten I had and hadn't used in years if ever. I decided that day to declutter. What started in the crafting stuff area, spread to kitchen cupboards, wardrobes, books, Christmas decorations, garden shed. By March, I could see parts of my house I hadn't seen in years! And the feeling of being liberated was amazing! Like someone said upthread, it actually made me feel lighter! Since then, I've acquired nothing new that I've not actually needed and used. The clear out was cathartic.

Hi Jocork you may you sell your house still full of your treasures in every room
But...
How much will get knocked off your asking price?
Estate agents could under value!

Much better clear out before putting on market and allow prospective buyers to see what the rooms actually look like.

If you are lucky and sell before your decluttering you will be faced with the massive challenge of clearing out over a very limited space

Limited time!

I'm a book hoarder. I'm living in temp accommodation & have stuff in storage, including books. I downsized my book collection to move from one end of the country to the other 15 yrs ago. I have amassed and decluttered my book collection several times since! I swore I wouldn't collect more in this temp place but I have ?. I know I have too many.... they collapsed the other night! (Bookcase in storage).
I also have a fear of discarding paperwork. I broke the shredder before the last move and don't have a garden in which to burn it. Any ideas???

Oh gosh I’m total opposite I have a clear out every 6 months. I get bored and frustrated seeing items laying around especially if it’s not been used or moved for period of months ( other than furniture obviously) it’s either stored away , sold or charity shop.

Wish a declutter would help me, I am stuck with three lap tops, notebook, chrome book, four iPads and cables which I have no idea which of the above they belong to.

Purplepoppies........have you considered a kindle? You can store hundreds of books mostly for a fraction of the price. Quite a few of the classics are free, I got the whole collection of Charles Dickens and many others at no cost.
As for paperwork: If you use a pc rather than a tablet you could scan and save in various folders in documents, even take photos with your phone and transfer to pc. You would have them in 2 places then for added security. If this is not an option do one subject at a time, energy, household etc and just tear up any with duplicate info ( it should be enough to just keep the last 3 months with a reference number clearly showing) and distribute the tiny torn up pieces between several rubbish bags. I doubt even the most ardent id thief would bother trying anything ?

I'm one hundred per cent with Granstender on this. There's no satisfaction in clearing out either a parent's or spouse's hoardings. I found it pain, pain, pain all the way on both occasions. Still remember it now. Ugh. As a result I'm a 'disposer'. Will not do this to my children. Have to confess to wishing I had not parted with a couple of items along the way but, at the end of the day, they are only things and can often be replaced if desired. I actually re-purchased a picture but that's it. Think the most difficult release was from my books. Wall lined case of treasures I kept kidding myself I would re-read and reference books by the score when I use google. All madness. Yep, I'm daily freeing myself of 'stuff' and it feels liberating. Have a friend who insists on throwing out an item of clothing when she buys something new. Haven't quite mastered that strength yet!

Cherrytree59 - That's why I 'm not downsizing 'til after I retire so I can de-clutter first. Can't face it while still working.

I'm afraid I'm a hoarder , we didn't have much money growing up or in our early married years so once we had more disposable income I tended to buy more than I needed just because I could. Now I'm retired I don't spend like that but I don't like to throw things away just in case I might need it and can't afford to buy another. I also find it difficult to get rid of things my children made when they were young. I have periodic clear ours and our house is fairly tidy but all drawers and cupboards and the garage is jammed with stuff, half of it I have even forgotten we had. My OH is also a hoarder for certain things though he would never admit it!

OH complains bitterly that the garage is unusable because of “stuff”. Well, yes, it is. However, when I pointed out that the only things in there that could be blamed on me were the tumble drier and the chest freezer it went very quiet....!!

Im with you Willow500 it’s hard sorting through/clearing out after a bereavement. Done some of mum’s things (she died 2 months ago) and then 3 weeks ago ditto for another elderly female relative. I have read that for sentimental items it’s easier if you use your iPad or similar to take a photo of it before letting go. It’s nice to still be able to ‘look at it’ without actually keeping it. I plan to do it as I (eventually) go through mum’s possessions with my sister, later in the year.

We are both hoarders. But most of DH's hoard is kept in his sheds (yes he had to build a second one to accommodate it!) which is fine until I want to find and use his tools - I can't move in there and can't find anything! It mainly consists odd lengths of wood; plumbing & electrical fittings; old tins of paint (probably useless now); old tools mostly rusty; numerous power tools; car tools; and of course gardening tools including several broken and useless ones. But of course they may all 'come in useful someday'...

As a keen crafter most of my hoarding is craft materials, especially fabrics, beads, gemstones and crystals, I have boxes and boxes of them - in my craft room, in the loft, under our bed etc. Add to that family history research, documents & books (20 years worth); birthday, anniversary and Christmas cards for all the family; and BOOKS - from my childhood, books that were my Mum's, grandmother's and great-grandmothers, books about numerous crafts, and of course books we have read. And there's more.... but I won't go on, you get the picture. One day I will have to be ruthless... but not just yet.

Both DH & I were hoarders, before we put our 4 bed house on the market we had decided to start clearing out, good job as we had a buyer 2 weeks after it went on the market & moved 5 weeks later. Our new home had a garage so we had additional storage & spare room wasn't needed straight away.

I then had to clear all DH's things out after he died, Charity, tools to DD's (her OH took everything "to sort out"). Moved again, smaller property again, DD took things to Car Boot, advertised locally on facebook, took to Charity shops & finally re-cycling centre. I did have time to go through things as I had a storage unit for 5 months.

I have little storage space in my new home, I do still hoard cookery books but most other books are read & passed on to friends/neighbours/Charity Shops. I have all my embroidery/tapestry "stuff" in storage boxes & a very large Collection of Giles Cartoon Books & other items plus two displays cabinets full of mostly Lilliput Lane Cottages (over 100).

Clothes are kept to a minimum as I don't have room for lots of clothes (lack of storage again).

I am dreading having to clear out DM's bungalow, loft is clear, garage mainly clear but she has 3 double wardrobes full of clothes, I guess the Charity Shops will benefit.

We had a massive clear out before moving abroad ten years ago. I regretted giving some kitchen things away and have since replaced them. But why do I need lots of cake making utensils and icing stuff when the only cake I seem to make these days is a banana loaf when we have some over ripe bananas?
My husband insists he isn't a hoarder but collector. At least the collection of Harley Davidson memorabilia has stopped but it's all still here plus his collection of knives and swords of all sorts .
My Portuguese friend's husband said to her last week "what Daisy and H need is a nice two bedroom bungalow now". Lol. What we have in this 4 bedroom house would never fit in a smaller place.

Hope you sell soon Panache. My dh and I are both 'might come in useful/fit us again one day' hoarders. Not only do I get annoyed at my dh I get annoyed with myself. I am ashamed to say we also rent a lock up just to keep 'stuff' in. The rent keeps going up on lockup and I have questioned dh about whether we should get rid of stuff and stop renting it but he did not seem keen and says he is content to carry on as we are. I will leave it a few weeks and then suggest downsizing lock up to smaller one even if it means just getting rid of some of my stuff. I dread to think when we pass how dc will feel having to do it.