You Might Be A Hoarder…

[Surveyor1]

If your husband commits suicide in a hidden closet in your home and no one can find the body for 8 months!  Bizarre but if you have ever been in a hardcore hoarder’s house you could understand why the smell could be ignored.  I’ve read stories where they found dead pets, rats and opossum skeletons in hoarders homes! 

https://people.com/human-interest/woman-finds-body-husband-getting-christmas-decorations-closet-eight-months-after-he-went-missing/

[Searchboss]

Sadly hoarding is a true situation. For a while, I volunteered with Team Rubicon, a veteran-centric volunteer organization that helps communities clean up after hurricanes, floods, tornados, and other localized disasters. (https://teamrubiconusa.org/)

On one deployment I went to West Virginia for a few weeks after a flood event and among many others, we cleaned out four hoarder houses all in one neighborhood. It was amazing to walk (or crawl in some cases) through the mazes these people created with floor-to-ceiling odds and ends inside their houses while doing an initial assessment of the work required to clean it out. I had no idea you could put that much junk in one house, and we hauled it all out of the houses and stacked it in mounds along the road for later pickup.

One of the most fascinating things, to me anyway, was the odd items that people will hoard for no apparent reason. In one house we cleaned out we found thousands of rounds of over 20 different calibers of ammunition and eight guns. None of the ammunition fit any of the guns we found in the house. It turned out that the owner had been an avid reloader in his middle years, and simply reloaded and stored anything he could find. When he got older he was institutionalized and the whole house just sat unused until the flood and we came along and cleaned it out. His relatives who then owned the house were at a loss of what to do with the guns or ammo. Amazing!

[Surveyor1]

I knew a woman back home that was literally a brilliant person.  She was deaf and had a thirst for reading and she never got rid of anything that she read.  She had multiple rooms in her house basically stacked floor to ceiling with books, newspapers and magazines!  You had to follow a 2 foot path through the rooms.  I honestly believe this woman was so intelligent that she kinda lost her mind😢.  Not one single time in all the years that I knew her did I ever see her leave her house, not even to go outside!  I give her credit, she did have 6 kids that were all super intelligent as well! 

[Abigayle]

There should be a big difference between a hoarder and a prepper.  Some people enjoy clumping us in the same category.  These folk, in my opinion, are jealous of the security we experience by being ready for whatever concerns  we have, regarding the future (which could be defined at tomorrow).
A good prepper is organized.  They know where everything is stored, and which items to rotate out first, if the item in tangible.  Some keep logs, so they know where their holes are in their preps, so they will be ready to fill them, when time/money allows.
While I don't scream it from the rooftops, I am privately proud to be a prepper.
I am also self-loathing when it comes to the "soft spots that I want to be working on more quickly.  Preppers, don't let anyone put you in the category of a hoarder.  They will be the first people at your door.  Besides, most should not be able to identify you.  One disclaimer...Those on this site that hold meetings to help others advance, or manage their prepping skills are to be thanked for sticking their necks out... Shout out to region six organizer...etc. al.

[Fixit]

Well I'm both a preppers and a hoarder . My mounds of useless junk are a true treasure to me . About 4 or 5 times a month I dig into these mounds that are full of things that were headed to the landfill and pull things apart for an oddball part that just isn't made any more. Went I am done " Mr. Fixit  " has brought something else back to life .
 I'm the local go to guy for alternators, starters, generators, magnetos , dc motors and old carbs .So many things I will never use are in those piles but every time I sort through and clean out some of it I recycle something I need the next week .

[Surveyor1]

You’re a hoarder if they can’t find your dead spouse in your house for 8 months!  You’re a “collector” if you keep a lot of “stuff” because you might need it for the apocalypse 😎!  I’m kinda like Fixit and it’s paid off in the past, those electric cords I cut off of the burnt out electrical devices have sure come in handy over the years…

[Abigayle]

Fixit, you are keeping things you can use and know what uses these thing have.  You are not keeping twenty piles of magazines from 1986.  What you have is a much needed skill. You also have a non-tangible skill with which to barter, big time!

[Surveyor1]

Fixit, you are keeping things you can use and know what uses these thing have.  You are not keeping twenty piles of magazines from 1986.  What you have is a much needed skill. You also have a non-tangible skill with which to barter, big time!

Spot on Abigayle!  I wish I had the skills of someone like Fixit, we can all use a little “MacGyver” in the apocalypse!🤔😎