I was watching one of the hoarding shows on cable tonight, and the guy was a "railroad enthusiast", as they called him. At one point on the show, the deliveryman dropped off a box with the motor from a semaphore. At another point, he talked about his Kodachromes, and was looking at some slides. My son was laughing and looking at me the whole time. So, was it someone here? Was that you on TV?
Not me. I broke my habit by telling myself it was "just plastic". That took almost two months. Long ago I stopped eating donuts: I told myself -"They all taste the same and are not very satisfying" I was able to stop buying or eating free donuts, (from the office), in less than a month.
i kinda did the same thing with smoking, i sain i can buy a carton or a kato. i just got a bnsf c44 yesterday:tb-frown:
Was just thinking the same. I'm hoarding enough as it is! I don't make enough money to be buried alive by hoarding WAY too much stuff!
If you've been watching any of the 'hoarding' shows ("Hoarding: Buried Alive" and "Hoarders"), you'll know that hoarding is an illness, mostly mental. There is no conscious effort to 'collect' anything. The hoarder just never throws anything away. Some of those programs have been very disturbing. People afflicted with the illness save everything, including trash and garbage. It's almost shocking to see food improperly stored and piles of trash and rotting garbage throughout a home. The devastating effects on family and friends is considerable. The saddest part is that the hoarders don't seem to be able to come to terms with the problem, even with competent help. They are in total denial and as long as they are in denial, they will never resolve their situation. There have been some successful results shown. The second individual from last night's "buried alive" segment had a remarkable improvement in her living conditions. My wife and I save a lot of stuff, but not to the extent of the hoarders we have seen featured on these shows. Additionally, the items we save have sentimental value to us. Some actually have monetary value, but only our heirs will benefit from any dollar value. We have some "collections", but feel the collections are under control. Most of it is displayed in some way throughout our home. Occasionally, we 'thin' certain items from our collections, usually by donating them to charities for their silent auction benefits. In terms of my trains, I do thin them out from time to time. A few months ago it was model railroading magazines. A few weeks ago, it was older locomotives. Coming soon to an auction site near you will be some structure kits and miscellaneous items. Periodically, I review my modeling direction to see if my stockpiles of items are consistant with my future plans. That which is not consistant is disposed of. Perhaps my voyueristic interest in the hoarding shows serves as an incentive to prevent hoarding myself. It seems to have that effect on me. Now if I can get my wife to watch them with me, perhaps we could make more progress in eliminating some clutter in our lives. Maybe................
No not me. I am out west. Yes I have a lot of train stuff, but I am done buying rolling stock. An occasional engine now and then sure! Focus right now is finishing the basement and building layout. Train room almost done just needs carpet. Next on list buy 3 sheets of plywood to make a shelf for lionel train sets (got two of them). Then I will work on the HO layout.
Not me, but I have a few symptoms for the MRR collection. Perhaps I am a border horder, but not a full fledged one. I have always thought that in most marriages, one partner has the tendency to hoard and the other is a thrower outer, just to balance things out.
Here in San Diego a year or so ago, some old guy died in a downtown flop house and when they opened the door they found wall to wall boxes of train stuff. I think the city ultimately auctioned off the stuff and it took two 8 hours days. Can remember the total but I believe in was near 100K. This guy ate and lived for free on the dole for years. Go figure. Jim
Yes, we are making light of the illness here but perhaps in a "relieved" way. That nervous laughter, thank god it's not me. I certainly recognize a few of the symptoms and am sure there is a bit of it in most model railroaders wanting the next release. I have a lot, and I mean a lot of stuff I should just toss but I keep thinking I'll do something with it some day. Everyone else here knows I won't. Symptoms: Anyone want a 21" CRT style monitor? It is only 10 years old. How about 2 x 15" CRT monitors? You can have them cheap. How about the 2 piles of scrap blue foam. I know I can use it. Um, and my collection of old sweaters? Books, lots and lots of books I will never open again. Bubble rap from all of the model train shipments I have received - at least three 10 gallon bags full of them miscellaneous sheets. Successes: I have to admit I did throw away the collection of boxes I was going to use for mock ups of buildings - It took one 30 gallon trash bag. Recently (with Laura's "hand holding"), I tossed at least 15 empty peanut or coffee cans.
We all have problems but me personally would get yelled at by my wife if I had too much of anything. I have dyslexia and ADD and I have to fight it every day, it really sucks cause I have to check everything twice to make sure I have no letters backwards. But I have no problem with hoarding.
Hoarding or Preserving for Future Use? The challenge we all face with our model railroad stuff is trying to be realistic when deciding what we may legitimately use in the future. As most of us know, availability of a particular model 5 years from now is not a given, even the very popular road names. So, when we see the ads in the magazines, on the websites, or see something at a train show, we have to ask ourselves "Will I really use that?" or is it simply something which will languish in storage. I don't have a hoarding problem because Grandma doesn't let me spend much on train stuff anyway. :tb-biggrin:
