The perils of hoarding

[ppppenguin]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023...e-hoarding

[DrStrangelove]

Ah, the shade of Mr Trebus. Now that was a chap who knew how to hoard.

Up on scaffolding in his 80s, dismantling it with a Mole wrench.

I come from a hoarding background: I disposed of 60 years of my late father's railway magazines last year.

Said magazines had resided in the loft until I sold the house & moved the contents to my garage.

Also in the garage are my collection of Wireless World, Practical Electronics, Practical Wireless, Maplin Magazine, Practical Television, and a shedload of ancient TV manuals.

I've managed to dispose of a number of electronics tomes that would never be read again, assuming they'd been read in the first place, to the Oxfam bookshop in Swansea.

There's no point in donating the computer books since they are obsolete and of no value.

So saying, I'll retain the 1930s/40s books by Terman, Everett, and Glasgow about Radio. Someone else can dispose of those once I've popped my clogs.

The recent Plague seems to have ended my ever increasing collection of dvds bought from charity emporia, for which, much thanks.

[Murphyv310]

Hi
Yes it's extremely dangerous. I know of one chap in Irvine that could hardly negotiate the path through his hallway from front door to kitchen, let alone find the kettle.
Another collector that isn't on this forum had his bath filled not with water but with radio's!
The whole situation is extremely dangerous, imagine taking a heart attack and paramedics try to get you downstairs on a stretcher with the stairs filled with junk.

I honestly think this is a serious mental health problem and those in this situation need help before the inevitable happens.
A very sad situation.
I often say what and why are you hoarding so many items, will you ever use them, sell them or what, a nightmare for family to dispose of and actually very selfish on the "collectors" part.

[ppppenguin]

I'm in the fortunate position of being able to do hoarding by proxy. We have over 25,000 sq ft of floor area at the Broadcast Engineering Museum and it's getting smaller all the time. People give us stuff and it's hard to say no. I've shifted a certain amount of my own stuff up there. For example all those technical manuals that I was keeping because I couldn't bear to chuck them out now have a legitimate home.

I've seen real hoarding at first hand. About 10 years ago I helped to clear the house that had belonged to an old friend's parents since the early 1950s. It had always been a bit cluttered when I knew it in my childhood but his widowed mother had made it almost impossible. She died and we had to clear things out. We had to do some of the sorting carefully because among all the 1970s electricity bills and suchlike we would find important documents relating to escape from nazi Germany. Terrifying documents with the eagle and swastika. They are now in a relevant archive.

[DrStrangelove]

I cleared out my parents wage slips going all the way back to the 1940s. ROTF.

On the two spikes in the pantry there were receipts & the like going back to the 1920s.

Apparently my grandfather paid £78/19/6d for the construction of his larger greenhouse in about 1926.

I had some lovely bonfires for the confidential stuff.

I'm working up to getting rid of the Wireless Worlds etc. to save anyone else from having to do it.

[ppppenguin]

Not hoarding on the horror story level but if you get it right your house could end up with the National Trust: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/n...raws-house

[PerdioPal]

I gain stuff at quite a rate, a lot bought new, all good fun. Every now and again I have a giveaway of useful stuff and a no holds barred "fill rubble sacks and bribe the dustman to remove". I am quite messy but having a good memory it isn't messy to me.

[Doodlebug]

I think that hoarding and collecting stem from a desire to recapture
the good old days one experienced long ago.

[joebog1]

What a roundabout way of having a shot at me !!! :-D. My wife tells me Im a hoarder, but I just collect good stuff.
Like tins of BA screws, nuts and washers. I wonder if I will ever see another piece of equpment made by the Admiralty.
Valves I have thousands, I dont actually know how many, but thousands. Im still looking for more.
All the sand stuff I had I have given away. Thousands of chips, transistors and diodes, from gold bonded germanium to 100 amp 1000 volt rectifiers.
I have kept all my magazine collections. Ever tried to read a new Hi-Fi magazine ??? what a load of old cobblers. Read an Wireless world, or Radio and hobbies from the 1940's,
People who actually knew a bit of english, and refrained from gross BS that adds sweetness to the sound of their own voices crapping on.
REAL explanations of the technical aspects of a particular circuit, WITHOUT beercan sized capacitors to decouple that cathode of a 12AX7, that cost what a small new car does.

Ohh dear, I do sound old :-(

Joe

[Mike Watterson]

You don't have the stairs or bath blocked!