Before you guys go out there beating yourselves up, I live in a retirement development in South Florida in which each resident has their own single family dwelling. I thought I saw hoarders in my life, but some of these old ladies are out of control, and I mean out of control. My former next door neighbor who otherwise appeared normal, was discovered with newspapers, unopened appliances from HSN, junk, other people's refuse items, all sprinkled with a healthy dose of cat urine from her seven cats she kept inside. It took 3 large dumpsters to empty her place, and nothing repeat nothing was salvageable because every package was inpregnated with old and new cat urine. She was rescued by her relatives who took her back north to live in a supervised area. The sadness was that the only thing left in her place were painted portraits of her and her husband, and according to the rescuing relatives they were pillars of society in Boston. When they retired to FL it was for the weather, and when he died so did her spirit. I learned hoarders try to save a part of their lives where memories were more enriching than the life they have now. I know I can be a little excessive with my trains, but they are all kept neatly in my work room on shelves, and the only sign of my model railroading is my two layouts, but I am very careful to keep everything under control after seeing some of the frightful examples of what happens here. A word to the wise.......I plan to have supplies a couple of years ahead, and models for projects about 4-5 years down the road. After that it gets too overwhelming.... Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman
I wonder is a collector a "hoarder"? Scary thought for me.. I love nice looking boxcars and IPD short line boxcars in general and find them hard to past up.Does that make-Naw..Don't reckon..
dgwinup's description is right on the money; there is virtually no relation between hoarding and collecting. My wife knows a woman who owns a 5-unit apartment building and she has a spare apartment full of plain old garbage. She can't bear to part with it, even though she could bring in $800 a month in rent income if she did. It's really quite debilitating and very sad. -gfh
I think I have rented houses to some hoarders, or so it would seem when they move out and leave rooms full of trash. I don't see how they could live in such awful conditions... (on second thought, maybe that's why they move so often.) Unfortunately, many renters are also very wasteful when it comes to leaving behind items that are still salvagable. I don't think I am a hoarder because I fill my garbage can every month, but I also collect a lot of things for recycling. I do hate to throw away anything that might have some potential use, which is not good because I'm pretty creative when it comes to thinking of uses for almost everything. Recently, a family lost everything they had to a house fire, and I was able to offer them a lot of renter abandoned furniture that I have stored. It isn't great but something is better than nothing. As for my trains, I know that the time is coming when I will have to begin thinning my collection. I have a forty plus year collection of HO that I have reluctantly decided to part with. I haven't played much with HO since I got heavy into N scale in 2000. I had an 18 module, HO layout that I placed in storage in 2005. I ended up giving 12 of the modules away and converted the rest to N-scale. When people ask, "How could you spend so much money on your trains?" I just tell them, "I have invested all my smoking and drinking money for the last 50 years in my trains and I still have something to show for it." Well, I guess you know I now have one huge train collection. The amount of money I have spent on smoking and drinking wouldn't buy a Life-Like GP20 on sale. That's my story and I'm sticking to it...for now.
I'm not the one on TV... but... the folks that produce that show just haven't found me yet. I actually do feel that I'm a hoarder. I've seen those programs from time to time... actually scares me a bit. I don't have quite the problem those folks have... but... the symptoms sure look similar. I do have most of my stuff put away in boxes and stashed in closets or under the layout. But space is getting tight and the reality of the quantity versus the utility is very questionable. Collections can get out of hand... often requiring a room unto themselves. Problem is... sometimes the thought of passing-up on a bargain price at a flea market, eBay or just liquidations from LHS or etailers... magnifies the problem. If I were to retire today... and had more space to build a larger layout... I'd still have more stuff than I could probably build before my 'departure from this realm'. Now... if I would have bought to re-sell at some later date... perhaps it would not be an issue of hoarding... but deep down my purchases are not always intended to be re-sold. Looking around and knowing that I have way more than I really need does make me wonder about the 'sanity' of my purchasing actions. Still... if the hobby continues to flourish in the future... perhaps the items I've purchased over the past 28 years will fund my retirement. The haunting question is... will I be so obsessed and attached to the items to not let them go when I need the cash?
No, if you keep your collection fairly organized and accessible, and your collection does not physically (and psychologically) limit your life, there is nothing wrong with it. You can collect as much as you want. You can collect a billion bottlecaps. If they're all in drawers neatly stored away in the basement, you're not a hoarder. But if your bathroom cabinet is overflowing with bottlecaps, yes you are. But if your entire living space is occupied by things you collect, and you cannot access what you want to get easily, you're a hoarder.
