[:)]
Sadly, watchers of Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil, and Oprah make everyone a “expert” in detecting “disorders” and “syndromes” in others. I would go to the wall and say that your dear aunt is probably blind to her own set of “issues” in her life? [^o)]
Tom
LOL
If you are worried about whether or not you are a hoarder, you are probably a hoarder.
On the other hand, consider the source - - - you aunt !!! LOL again.
Rich
I will be on the first episode of next seasons “Hoarders”.[:'(]
Well,if a certain nosey lady had her way I would be and I am far from being a hoarder by anybodies standard.She just stop by one day when I had all 7 large totes empty and their contents all over the living room…I was inventorying my HO in my usual manner-mayhem gone wild!
I freely admit I did have to clean off a couch cushion so she could sit but,I wasn’t expecting company or expecting a lecture on “hoarding” model trains either.
I wonder what she would have said if she seen my N Scale on the dining room table?
For some reason the word “committed” comes to mind…[:O]
Now, if one wants to talk about hoarding…I used to work in interior design before I got into healthcare. There was a client who needed me to come and help out in cleaning up a house that a potential buyer was interested in …first we had to enter by the attic window. Does this give you a clue here?
Second…after several 25 cubic yard bins were emptied we finally reached the SECOND floor…big old Queen Ann house here…then we got rid of more stuff…bags and bags and bags of stuff…it was by the time we reached the first floor that we finally managed to get to the front and back doors…through tiny little openings in the stuff…in the meantime we came across the deceased…not pleasant let me tell you…it took…all told about three weeks to get all the stuff out from the house…it was stuffed floor to ceiling with bags of stuff, clothes, purses, shoes…you name it…
And as I said…we had to enter via an attic window…[B)][xx(]
With the price of this hobby, it’s a wonder how any of us can afford to be hoarders. But that’s another hot-button topic altogether… [:-^][(-D]
I agree with Crandell. Extreme hoarding (as a mental illness) is usually generalized. They can’t throw anything away, not just hobby related. I think TV has misused this term so that many apply it to situations that it was never intended to define.
I really had to think about this for awhile. I collect Canadian Railway locomotives and I usually buy anything that comes out new in Canadian Railway colours. It’s something I enjoy and something that I’ve been doing for around 8 years now. I also collect diecast cars and have over 1000 in 1/24 and 1/18 scale. I collect mostly muscle cars and old Super Stock drag cars, mostly higher end stuff. They are all displayed in my computer room. Sometimes I’ll just sit in there for hours and look at them. I enjoy the hunt of looking for something that is rare and hard to get. I’ve sold a few and traded a few over the years. I’ve also got a lot of Pontiac 455 parts. Blocks, heads, cranks etc. Most of it is Ram Air or Super Duty parts that are very difficult to find but that is a different story. I think if you collect stuff like I do for the enjoyment then your not a hoarder. If I had to I could sell everything and even though it would bother me I would get over it. A hoarder can’t get rid of anything and their “collection” of stuff consumes them. It’s the reason they live. Hoarders also collect everything while collectors only focus on certain items. Most collectors I’ve ever dealt with are buyers and sellers. For the right price anything is for sale in my book. Hoarders on the other hand won’t sell anything.
Well for some of us that’s been in the hobby several years has more then we could possibly used…Even after selling 70% of my HO I still have 8 large totes here at the house and 80-90 cars at the club…
I think for me it was more of “I like-I want” then hoarding…
My wife is an undiagnosed OCD patient, and misses the definition of hoarder by a very slim margin. Her ‘stash’ of sewing stuff fully took up a third of the load when we moved from NC to MD. She’s now decided that because of arthritis, she can no longer crochet or cross-stitch, so luckily she’s selling that stuff off of her won volition.
Meanwhile, my model railroad equipment sits in the garage in 4 very large storage tubs because her sewing projects always take over the house, and I have no room for a layout.
end rant 1, begin rant 2
Onto TV experts: I moonlight as an EMT. I had a call for a guy that collapsed and had a seizure, and when we arrived on scene, his wife was rather vigorously slapping him across the face and throwing water on him, trying to get him to come around. She wouldn’t stop, either, and we considered getting a cop there to restrain her.
Soon, he did come around, and it classic post-seizure. Turns out, he had all 4 wisdom teeth extracted earlier in the day. Transport was routine, and the suspicion was he reacted to the anesthetic.
Wifey was practicing '50s Hollywood first aid for a fainting, and proudly admitted she learned to do that watching old movies. The dingbat. If my wife slapped me across the chops immediately after I had teeth extracted, that would be grounds for divorce, regardless of her intentions.
end rant 2
All I have to say is I’m proudly a model railroader, and I’m the sanest one in my house.
Part of the fun is buying model railroading things. I am into O gauge 3 rail also and that group often buys anything they like me included. Even though I have more than makes sense I look on eBay weekly for items on a list I have. My friend is approching being a horder and his passion is guns. A lifetime of collecting, if the police ever search his house it will be a big news story even though this is a legal thing to do.
And then go to her place in five or ten years and find her spare bedroom stacked to the ceiling with unopened rolling stock boxes.[:-^]
There was a time, late in my military career, when I resembled that.[
] HOWEVER, my intent, at all times, was to build an empire (layout) big enough to provide track space for every unit.[4:-)] I didn’t know, then, that it would take me a quarter of a century to get the space - and even longer to build the empire.[|(] I still have unbuilt kits purchased forty years ago for which track space has yet to be provided [(-D]
I purged all the unsuitables a long time ago - and now buy very little, and only to fill holes in the master plan.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
There may well be model railroaders who are (or will become) hoarders, but I think Andre’s first response hits the reality on the head.
WEll, there might definitely be an issue if one models Ho scale and has a good sized layout, but also collects O guage and N scale products just because they are “cute”, “handsome pieces fo machinery” or just “because I wanted it”.
There, one might have a problem.
I once had a neighbor who paid me to help “clean out her house and have a garage sale”. I would get a few dollars per hour for the time I spent helping her “sort stuff”, and half or the garage sales take.
She not only one vaccuum cleaner, she had 5. she had boxes of stuff stacked floor to ceiling leaving only a narrow path into the Bedrooms.
SHe had stuff piled high in an enclosed porch so much that you couldn’t get the inside door open, one had to access it through the outside door.
THe LR and Dining room were also piled high to the celing with boxes of stuff. Only the kitchen was reasonable. THere is where she sat at a table with the tv on it and spent her retired days.
She was legally blind, so not only did I have to be her arms and legs, I had to somewhat be her eyes.
I often wondered how it was possible the house had nto fallen or sagged or collapsed with all that weight in it.
She used to go “garage saleing” to buy stuff in her younger years to sell off in her older years. We never did make much money at the garage sales. and we had several. The worst part was we cleaned out he gargage first to hadve a place to stach the stuff she agreed to sell, and I haulled it in and out. for several sales, till she became to old and weak to carry on and soon died.
I had a house fire many many years ago and decided that, after have moved every year and accumulating more and mroe stuff each time, I would NEVER amass a lot of stuff again. sigh I seem to be doing just that having lived where I am now for 11 years and I got rid of a lot of stuff when I moved here 11 years ago. It is all useable stuff and stuff that I needed when I bught it, but perhaps having sever
Hey - it’s just a place for your stuff - regardless of what auntie might say. Years ago, George Carlin did a whole routine on ‘A Place for Your Stuff.’ Understanding it’s Carlin I didn’t post the link here, but if you Google George Carlin A Place for Your Stuff, you will get the link. I warned you… On a more serious note, I think so much of the ‘stuff’ on TV is pure garbage, especially shows like Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil and a few others. IMHO, they dispense information that some people take to heart that could do real damage to them. So, enjoy your collection - the day will come when you will glad you have it.
So maybe I should throw away the boxes of X2F couplers and plastic wheels I have been saving?
I’m laughing at myself. I have way too much stuff; in boxes, tubs, and a storage unit; from N scale to G scale. All saved for the day when I can build my dream layout(s)…
Go to your Aunt’s house and if she is into sewing she probably has a closet with 500 spools of thread when she only uses a dozen, thousands of swatches of fabric for that outfit she will make some day and numerous and assorted needles, pins, scissors, bobbins and parts to fix her sewing machine which she probably doesn’t know how to do. Oh, and the three other sewing machines in the attic just in case hers stops working. LOL
I’ve seen Season 1 of Hoarders, cannot stomach future seasons and from what you’re telling us, you’re no hoarder. If you can throw out or pass on parts of your collection, you’re not a hoarder.
I’d like to believe aunty had been joking, though not in the best taste, and I’d shrug it off.
Alvie
I have seen that show too. I didn’t take it personal, it just kind of floored me at first. I also forgot to mention that I have a small pile against a wall that is neatly stacked of locomotives and some rolling stock that comes in multi-packs that have those nice boxes to store them in. Again, everything is in it’s place and it doesn’t cause much of a problem.
For the most part, my bedroom is clean and well organized. When I had to move back into my parents due to economic issues and to help care for my dad for a short time, I had to cram my “collection” in places within the room such as most of rolling stock is stored in A-Line boxes that are kept underneath my full size bed. Again everything is neat and tidy. The original boxes are in two computer boxes stowed away in the garage.
Recently unpacked ton of HO from long-term storage [ had no spot for layout back then. Then, long-term illness of family member ]. When looking over the hoard, was surprised at what was there. It’s coming in very handy [ was even able to sell off some at local train show for needed layout capital ]. Would HATE to pay current prices for the inventory! …papaHOsmurf in NH
Strange we don’t see replies to this forum from the “collectors” who publish their responses to "how many locomotives and cars do you have?" they have pages of locomotives , many, many of the same kind, and cars and kits that fill their basements and could not possibly build in 3 lifetimes, they justify this because they CAN, and tell us lots of others do the same.
The mystery to this phenomenon is just how they can afford this, one simply has to add up the thousands of dollars invested in purchases, and many are proud that the wife has no idea of the expense, I would say these people have a mild case of hoarding.