Hoarding...

[Externet]

Hello all.

Seldom visit other people houses; and in ocassions I have found dwellings filled with a huge excess of belongings. Read that one cause can be growing in needy families with little belongings and posing a 'revenge' later in life.

 

Surprised lately, seeing a place with barely a path to walk around, the dining table and chairs fully unuseable as all was covered with items not belonging there, books, piles of clothing, toys... Piles of things I could not recognize being in use. The kitchen counters used as shelves with no food preparing space left at all, all closets full of items with no apparent use.

 

Is this an education/habits/laziness/disorganized personalities or is there some other 'psycho' causes for the behavior ?

A not-poor ex-boss had about sixteen century+ old self-playing-pianos buried among 20 years old piles of newspapers, magazines, invoices, mail... He had to do some circus tricks to move trough rooms to reach his bed. ¿?

 

Am the fully opposite. Barely have a bit of furniture, nothing to stumble on. ¿? Lots of tools and electronics parts, but all confined to the basement.

[CharonY]

It seems to be a complicated matter. There is actually a hoarding disorder which seems to be a progression from OCD symptoms . In this case, patients feel severely distressed when throwing things away. There some potential associations with certain abnormal brain functions. Though there is large heterogeneity so that it requires much more research to figure out what is going on (see e.g. this for a review).