The New Yorker: Let It Go Are we becoming a nation of hoarders?

[LiberalElite]

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/15/let-go

-snip-

My mother survived to the age of ninety-three, so she had time to develop a number of habits that people now consider to be symptomatic of dementia. Hoarding, for example. She lived in Santa Barbara, in an apartment with a perfectly adequate kitchen, but in order to store her dishes she had to buy a freestanding cabinet and install it in the dining room. She needed her kitchen cupboards for other purposes, such as her collection of polystyrene food containers. In her late years, my mother underwent several operations, and, for a long time, after she came home, Meals on Wheels delivered her dinner. Secretly, she wanted no part of the food. What she did like, however, was the receptacles the dinners came in. These boxes, with the flip-up lids, are common trash items of our time. But to my mother they were exotic, and attractive: gleaming and white, with little compartments, like a jewelry box. She told me that she might use one as a desk organizer, or perhaps a sewing kit, with different kinds of buttons in the wells. I don’t know what she did with the dinners, but the containers were washed, patted dry, and carefully stacked on their designated shelves.

-snip-

[LiberalArkie]

1. Ham radio operators and electronic gadget geeks are the same way. Never know

when I might need a 2.2k 1/2 watt resistor or a 2N2222 transistor, but I have them. It might take me 2 days to find them though.

[longship]

2. And don't get me started about those op amp chips!

And digital gate chips??? Forget about it.

And the unlabeled ones will certainly have some use one day.


I know the problem. I used to be an electronic hobbiest myself. When I was much younger I built a few Heathkits, including a color TV (back in the days when one had to solder every single component to every single circuit board -- do you know how many circuit boards a color TV has? It took me 9 days and it worked the first time I turned it on, except the sound because of a bad transistor.)

My best to you!

[Warpy]

4. I have a big dreawer crammed full of cables and other computer junk

While it's been nice once in a while, what's in there is generally stuff I don't need so I have to go out and buy stuff that I do need. Right now I need a coaxial cable and I can't find one anywhere. Dammit.

[Lochloosa]

6. What the hell is coaxial cable?

[Warpy]

7. It's shielded cable that can carry video and audio signals.

I got a new DVD player to replace one that died and it's hooked up with coaxial, only. It's a door stop until I can find the cable.

Yeah, I was flummoxed, too, I thought I'd seen the last of that stuff when roof antennas and VCR players went out.

[Lochloosa]

8. So do you need a 6 footer or a 25 footer.

I'm sure I have both around here somewhere.

[Warpy]

9. 6 footer and I vaguely remember some around here, too

but I have no idea where to look for it in this midden I call home.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

11. Heh.

I think I have about a hundred feet around, but it's just cable, not crimped off at either end with connectors yet. Got a lot of cat5 like that too, and now it's out of date, and new installs use cat5e or cat6. I suppose I need to go through all my tech junk and see what should go.

[valerief]

3. Mostly it's just the .01% who are the hoarders. nt

[elfin]

5. My mom did the same thing

and she was not noticeably "losing it." However we found scads of empty and clean margarine and other plastic containers heaped in her cupboards in the independent and then assisted living facility after her passing.

I attributed it more to the frugal practices of one surviving the Great Depression than to dementia. Those of us who now live in relative luxury can't fully appreciate the constant fear of living thru such times of real scarcity before safety nets. My mother in law used to have symptoms of a true panic attack every time I ran the garbage disposal.

[malthaussen]

12. I don't agree with that attribution.

I know plenty of people who are hoarders or who have other frugal habits. None of them were even a gleam in their parents's eyes during the Depression (and some of their parents weren't even born at that time). I'd be more inclined to attribute it to being poor, with the caveat that it is like being a drunk or an abuser: the next generation is either the same, or the opposite.

This does not apply to people who panic because the media declares a shortage or bad weather, and rush out to buy 10,000 rolls of toilet paper. They're just stupid.

-- Mal

[leftyladyfrommo]

10. I've known at least 3 people who were hoarders.

One lives on total squalor. I think they will have to bulldoze that house when she dies. She can't stand to give anything away. But she also never cleans
I bet that house hasn't been cleaned in 15 years.

I've known 2 others with houses that are completely full but they are clean and organized. I think you can have the hoarder OCD where you can't give anything away and also have the OCD where you have to have everything clean and organized at the same time. One has a lot of animals but it's clean.

[marble falls]

13. Its hoarding but it starts out not wanting to waste. I am shocked by my collection of phones....

cables, transformers and plastic containers. I would love to toss the phones and the transformers but I really, really worry about them ending up in landfills or poisoning people in China.

[LiberalElite]

14. I just googled

uses for old cell phones and (separately)
uses for old cell chargers

There are things you can do with them. Also, there are some social service organizations that refurbish old cell phones and give to domestic violence victims.

I have a veritable snake's nest of cables and cords (and cases) in a tote bag. All are from various computers, phones and gadgets I've had over the years.

[YOHABLO]

15. You know of course that's the very 'thought process' that hoarders go through.

There's always a reason to hold onto something because it can in someway be useful to you or someone else in the future. Your bag of cables and cords will be sitting in that tote bag till you die.

[LiberalElite]

16. Thanks for the encouragement nt

[marble falls]

17. I haven't owned a cell phone for eight or so years. These are battery powered phones, and I forgot..

the box of 'clickers' for stuff I don't even remember owning.

I do still have the only two cell phones I've ever owned.

[jomin41]

18. Joe's rule:

"Stuff" expands to fill the space available.

[GreatGazoo]

19. Clinical "hoarding" has to do with grief and loss.

People who have an overwhelming sense of loss can become hoarders. People who identify, perhaps subconsciously, with animals or things that are "thrown away" compensate by NOT throwing things away.

But clinical dysfunction aside, I am surprised that we are not all hoarders at this point. Google and Facebook use algorithms to serve us specific ads and offers that are the most likely to make us click and buy. We are encouraged at every turn to buy more and in bigger sizes. We have huge cars, SUVs and trucks that can hold all our purchases. I was told by Joann's (craft stores) that they no longer stock or sell Thanksgiving items but instead go straight from Halloween to Christmas because there isn't much interest in Thanksgiving stuff (only the food) and they noted that WalMart does the same.