Is this the early signs of being a hoarder? Or being obsessive compulsive?

Is there a reason you’re keeping this stuff around? A collection of magazines isn’t unheard of (I have over 200 Playboys myself, and a ton of old comic books), but keeping stacks and stacks of AirMall catalogs because you just can’t bear to throw them out could be a sign of hoarding.

I’m kind of the anti-hoarder. If I don’t remember its purpose, I throw it out. If I haven’t used it in six months, I throw it out (collections aside, of course). But calling something a “collectible” doesn’t make it one. Many hoarders have piles upon piles of rotting junk that they want to call “collectible”, but isn’t actually worth a damn thing.

If you ever find yourself unable to find things you really need under the piles of stuff you can’t bear to part with, you might want to get a second (trusted) opinion on your organizational skills.

It could be. Put things in a box with a date six months from the day you put it in. Promise yourself that if you haven’t used it or looked at it in that time, you will throw it away.

Sounds like it to me. My mother is the same way.

Because my mom tends to be a hoarder of random items, I choose to live as a minimalist, the mess really bothered me growing up.

I recommend researching and learning about it, I believe it’s considered a mental illness now and you may find many resources available.

Yes, hoarding is now a disorder in the psychiatric manual.

On the other hand, if you store your magazines in magazine holders on shelves, and your programs and whatnot in shoeboxes and everything is organized, you can call yourself a proto-librarian, like me. I still have every utility bill I ever received. But my rooms are very neat and well-organized. It’s not hoarding. It’s librarianship!

Or research. I have plans for reconstructing a history of my life one day using all this data. I may or may not get to it. My children may or may not get to it. But at least it is organized and if, after I’m dead, they want to throw it away, it will be easy to throw away. Also it is noted as to what it all is.

If you’re going to keep it, then you better organize it. If you can’t organize it, throw it away. Hell, you already have thrown it away, but just in the wrong place.

Are you a very sentimental person? Yes this is the beginning of a hoarding issue. But at the same time it’s not unusual to keep stuff like receipts and movie stubs. Just try to be reasonable, if you really can’t see yourself ever caring about those magazines, or at least some of them, just let them go. You probably will not even notice that they’re gone. Or, keep a few issues if that makes you feel better. Or start by getting rid of issues you know you won’t read again, boring ones or ones that were not on topic to things you particularly enjoy.

I know an extreme hoarder. He has a house in kansas full of boxes of stuff, pretty cool stuff. But it’s also gross. The house is unliveable and pretty much destroyed. I did have the pleasure of stopping into that house for a few hours on my last trip across country and man I’m glad he hoarded because there was some GOOD stuff in there, among the best were a string of watermelon lights and a watermelon backpack. I love junk. In this case hoarding worked out to my advantage, in general it is terrible so you should stop yourself while you’re ahead and at least aware of it.

If someone you know describes an item as being “perfectly good” get help for them immediately.

You dont need those papers..you will never look in those boxes.. its ok. Days pass , things end, but pictures and a few momentos are what you need to save..the rest is just going to stand in your lifes way if you keep every piece of paper. Its just paper.