Help with hoarding

I am trouble getting rid of my things because it feels bad to get rid of things my parent bought me. I had my sister take a bag of clothes to donate them to the Goodwill before they close that down. I still feel guilty for getting rid of the clothes. I workout small area in my room. I declutted a small area each time. Once I have a box I keep it and I have trouble getting rid of the box. Especially when it has instruction on them. Any suggestion on how to stop feeling guilty for getting rid of my stuf?

I'm not sure what happens when we hit a thousand posts on a thread, but this looks like a good place for the new one

I don't know how you can stop feeling guilty about getting rid of stuff. I find it hard too. I read something years ago that said that it is not our job to find the perfect new home for something we no longer need or want. It's enough to recognize that we no longer need it. The object served it's purpose and we do not have to worry about what happens to it in the future.

I also find myself holding onto donation bags/boxes for a long time, long enough so that when I go back to the bag/box, I want to keep half the stuff again. For me, throwing stuff directly into trash or recycling has helped a lot. My trash gets picked up weekly, so I try to go through the house looking for items to toss the night before.

Congrats on getting rid of the bag of clothes, that is a good start!

PC doesnt want threads to go over 1000 posts, so i will ask a mod to "lock" the old thread and direct users to this one. I wanted to ask you because you were the thread originator.

Thank you! I was very hard. I had to go to Barnes & noble bookstore so that I get rid of the clothes and that was having my sister take the bag out and my niece driving away all the while asking Barnes & noble bookstore for emotional support. My problem is I don't need them but because they were from my mom who wouldn't let me wear the clothes or play with the item. I feel attached to the item.

That okay. if you feel the need to. I just start this one as a way to ask for some help. I thought it either it might be inappropriate, or i might be rude if I posted on the other thread, or it might be confusing to other if I posted on the other the thread. That why I start this thread. It my first time admitting I am a hoarder but I am not as bad as one of my sister. This is something that I wanting to changed about me.

Buffy, thanks for starting the new thread! I was just letting everybody know what was going on, is all.

I think a lot of us are Stage 1 hoarders, where we can still get in the door, sleep in our beds, cook, use the bathroom, and stuff isnt piled quite to the ceiling, but we arent having much company, for example. At least i think thats stage 1. Maybe its 2.

I got apartment maintenance men coming in next month, so that will mean spring clean up for me.

Hoarding runs in my family. But one of my sister house is really bad up to the ceiling as bad as the TV show of hoarder I want to make sure that I don't get that bad. This summer I am supposed to clean out the storage building it going to be hard to get rid of my clothes. But I am going to try to get rid of clothes that are still good that are not special to me.

You said you donated the clothes, that's great. Maybe knowing your donation can help someone can make you feel less guilty.

Thanks for keeping us on track, unaluna!

Hoarding runs in my family too. One of my parents had structural damage due to the weight of the stuff stored in a room. Both keep way too much. My siblings seem to have escaped it, sort of, but I am worried I am too much like my parents!

Clearing out the storage building will be good. It took me a long time to get rid of my clothes. I still hang onto too many for when I lose weight, lol.

I have been thinking about my food hoarding lately. I did some math and figured out that I have at least a two year supply of grains... if I eat grains every single day. Why did I do this??

It just so hard to get rid of things. It even harder now that they are get rid of places to donated clothes. It illegal to have yard sales. But i rather give away the clothes than to have them ruined. It just so hard.

I never heard of food hoarding. But there is a first time for everything.

I blame amazon. Im not gonna make the ups guy deliver one box of oatmeal every week! But now i have a years worth of oatmeal!!

I heard of it at a talk given by a cookbook author - she was confessing that she had a problem with it, and as she was talking, I realized, oh wow! that sounds familiar!

It's really easy, imo, to wind up with a year's worth of oatmeal. 5 lbs of oatmeal turns into 75 cups prepared - and it's not like that even takes up much room dry. But then how often do you want to eat oatmeal, right??

Two weeks ago I set a goal to not go food shopping for a month. I've only cheated once

I am glad that you set a goal. I need to set up a goal myself. I own sized some of my clothes from what I had when I clean out my drawer of clothes I couldn't wear. I dread this summer when I finally go through shed and get rid of all of my clothes and items I don't need anymore.

I have a goal but keep getting side tracked with life. I'm starting to do things again but it's frustrating. I have to get better at follow through as I have half finished projects every where. There are still two bags of donations in my bedroom and two in the hall. I just haven't had the energy to load them up and take them away. Hopefully I can get them dealt with soon

Hey your doing better than me. I am still struggling with my hoarding. I feel bad every time I try to get rid of anything. I have an attachment with my things.

Buffy01 thanks. I go in and out of being able to get rid of things mostly cause I get to tired and frustrated to deal with anything. Sometimes though it’s cause I want to own all of it. Right now I’m mostly just tired it seems such an effort to do anything. No one around here seems to notice or care one way or the other. It’s not like they help

I'm still stuggling. Sometime this summer I am supposed to clean out the rent out storage which is going to be very hard because I need to get rid everything there is just no room for everything. I feel bad when I get rid of stuff. I replace some old clothes with new clothes. But it hard because I have attachment to my things. That is because of my severe loneliness I have.

Im still chipping away. I dont want to die and leave a big mess for somebody to clean up! Otoh, i dont want to get rid of everything without ever having used it. I have an IDEA of maybe taking some things to goodwill this friday. I have the next 3 days clear with no appointments, and im feeling pretty good, so im gonna try to make a dent in the laundry and also now that my knee is better, get some walking clothes together (shorts, socks, tshirts).

I think I may know why I am hoarding. I pretty certain it because I don't have people in my life I am pretty much isolate myself.

I understand! I have a niece who become upset if I buy something because I have so much stuff. But it is a great idea to donate.

Don't feel to had because I am the same way. I just bought some more stuff for my room and there is no room.

still haven't taken any of the bags away. The Dr changed up my thyroid meds so I'm hoping that will help with the awake and alert problem. I hate feeling this tired and blaah.

I completely understand! The heat is what drains my energy because of how hot it been. Even with the storms and rain.

My husband and I have been working on decluttering for about the past two months. I wouldn't say our house is at the level of a hoarder's, but there is definitely clutter we need to get rid of. We should be buying a new house in the next few months, so this will give us less to move.


Most weekends we focus on one area to not get overwhelmed. We don't have time during the week usually. We just had a five-day weekend for our national holidays, which gave us some time to really advance. My husband finally recognized that he has a bunch of papers accumulated from classes he took years ago, which he wasn't going to look at again. He got rid of three huge binders of them, which was good progress for him. He definitely can have a tough time throwing things out.

The bedroom closet is this weekend's goal.