Which stage hoarder are YOU?

I'm a 1. I'll neglect my bedroom clutter for a while and suddenly panic, but as I tidy up and reminisce on growing up in a 3-4 hoarder house, I think "look how far we've come."

Can someone come on to talk about being poor and hoarding? I know people think that without money there won’t be much but you’d be surprised. Our lack of money is what cause frequent trips to stores like the 99cent store and dollar tree cause it was nearby and cheap. Also Goodwill. That led to an accumulation of clothes that didn’t fit, books, movies and knickknacks. I’m still dealing with all that stuff and watch your channel constantly to sorta keep myself in check.

After your piece with Rachel, I admitted to myself that I am a stage one hoarder. My mom and her siblings grew up during the Great depression. And they brought all kinds of saving stuff habits into their new families. One of my uncles took the opposite approach and was a minimalist before minimalism was a thing. The rest of them saved everything. One aunt was really really bad and parts of her house were hard to navigate. My mom wasn't quite that bad, on the amount of stuff, but it was really dirty. That's what I grew up in. I have some of those tendencies and I've been fighting them for my entire adult life. Some victories, my living room is always usable though not always as neat as I would prefer to show other people. My kitchen is usable, but I'm often behind on keeping it picked up. My bedroom is the dump spot, and I'm beginning to work on that now

I watch an episode of “Hoarders” before I embark on cleaning my house. The show helps me learn how to make decisions about letting go of stuff. I consider it a coaching session. Then when I’m cleaning, I declutter more than I usually would. Afterwards, I take a photo of the items I’m trashing or giving away to document my progress. Keep fighting, I’ve been doing it for three years.

OMGosh…the light bulb just went off after 50 years ! I always thought my Dad was just a minimalist because he didn’t have a lot of material things. When Josh described spartanism as one who can’t hold on to anything…relationships, jobs, stuff, cities. Things just always seem to slip away from my Dad. As I reflect upon my own life I now see I have let relationships slip away as well as material goods. Wow !! This explains a lot. Thank you.

I’m in the process of minimising a lot of my childhood belongings as my home is definitely at LEAST stage 1. It’s a slow process because of the emotions/memories tied to them, but I’ve been following your advice and taking pictures of the items before selling/donating. Every week I can see less and less clutter, and it’s so cathartic to know that I was the one to make the change.

I am a retired teacher, and am trying to really declutter. We are finishing our basement for family and recreation. Full kitchen, bath, rest of area for games, movies, etc. My parents lived through depression and taught me to be save many things to use later. I am 72 and don't want to be remembered as a hoarder. We are sorting, selling and giving away so much Nothing is dirty, just I will never use it. I pray to be successful and ready to move only few things to new family area.

I used to be stage 1 hoarder but I changed step by step in the past 2 years and I feel so much better now !! My beloved husband is still a hoarder but he is slowing changing his habits : since 2020 he does not go to auction sales any more ;-)

I have found Hoarders really helpful to get my hoarding under control. I want to move house but the current house is just full of things I can't let go of. I find watching the show and then applying it to my own clutter has been rather life changing. I can completely understand why these people put up with their homes in the dreadful state they are, you just get overwhelmed and become paralysed to it. Now I am thinking instead of "what is the value of this item" I think "what is the value of letting go of this item" and it's much easier knowing you'll have a house you can actually move in by getting rid of the stuff.

The cheapening of goods is a factor in hoarding. I always tell people that putting things in storage, whether it is a self-storage facility or just stuck in plastic bins to clutter up the house, it's like buying the things allover again. The addition of storage capacity NEVER results in a reduction in the amount of stuff.

My mom is a hoarder. Forget about trails, you can't even walk into her spare bedrooms! There is no trail, just a wall of boxes stacked to the ceiling. Same thing in her garage. Completely filled. Not looking forward to cleaning this out when she passes. She should be featured on the Hoarders show but she would never admit that she has a problem.

hoarding is sometimes a product of severe mental illness or of childhood trauma and it can be hard or impossible to stop.

I lived 9 years with a hoarder...because they owned both houses and moved in because they hoarded the other house. Moved out asap but still recovering but it sure can be nice to have no things for awhile! Thank you for these. I have never watched Hoarders but they sounded too real to watch after finally getting out!

A hoarders heart is a good KZfaq channel for support for people who are even big hoarders. Just a tip if you need KZfaq support for hoarders.

there is a show about hoarders in British TV. can't remember the name. and on that show, they start with psychological intervention. first the psychologist makes a home visit. than the people get a small task first, like clearing just one sofa. then they meet the therapist again and slowly they can get the psychological strength to clear the hoard on their own.

I was so reassured by looking at the stages - I thought I was so much worse than I really am! I mean, I can hoover the carpets! At worst, I am probably borderline "2" but I suspect Matt Paxton at all would say , no you're only a "1" . I do feel overwhelmed sometime but I can declutter a lot when I work in short bursts and get rid of the "low-hanging" fruit (such as rubbish or duplicate items) - remember, you can eat an elephant if you do it one mouthful at a time!

My husband used to clean out a ton of hoarder houses for work, just in Southern California, and yes it’s absolutely real. He had many houses even worse than on the show!

You hit the nail on the head with my when you said , see the benefits of letting things go . There are great benefits of letting things go .

I have stuff that needs to go. I am willing to let it go. I am just too busy/lazy to get it done. I get overwhelmed looking at it and just go find something more enjoyable to do. If I came home and it was all gone I probably wouldn't notice or care.

My mom hoarded papers and trash. Boxes and piles of fabric, stained clothing and more blocked our house. My dad tossed old newspapers and hired a cleaning lady. After he died, my mom got much worse. One of my brothers and I would visit and throw out rusted pots, broken light bulbs, and smelly, mouse eaten rugs. A first cousin of mine died in his massive hoard. Tina, Al's wife

Hoarding is real. I had a relative who was probably a level 2 to 3 hoarder. I believe that I was a level 1 hoarder at times. I am no longer hoarding.

I have begun reducing the number of things in my home, many of which were things I acquired when my parents passed away. My only sibling (sister) has much of those as well. My sister, in fact, has almost everything she has ever owned. Stored and packed away in a very organized attic and basement. You can hardly walk in there, but she knows where everything is, and would be loathe to let go of any of it. My dilemma is how to part with things that belonged to our parents. I have donated a few, less sentimental items, but she would be so offended to know I had donated the more significant items that I no longer wish to own. But at the same time, she would bemoan trying to fit them into her home. How do people work to declutter in these situations? I'm sure I'm not alone here.

Unsolicited organization of a hoarder’s space will only agitate and infuriate the hoarder.

Wonderful content people!! I love it 😃😃 I love how you set up the stage for your podcast :) Not yet doing podcasts on my channel, but for the future it's surely something to keep in mind!! 🙂

I think being a hoarder also means not having the energy or the capacity to clean. Not being able to manage your household. And not just wanting to cling on to things. I have many things I would like to get rid of, and even though part of me does think I might need them in the future, I also find it hard to take care of them, go through them, put them in a bag, taking them downstairs. There is something overwhelming about it.

I wish they showed all levels of hoarding to help those with hoarding. I think I’m level 1 or 2 it’s overwhelming.

What an original idea to sit the extremes together!! 👏 👏 👏 👏

I would live to see how stage 1 hoarders can stop being stage 1 hoarders and b3 organized and have everything look nice and organized. Im so tired of haveing stuff i want so bad to let go of but i cant.

This clip was useful 👌 Actually, I recently watched Hoarders episode's and was motivated to drastically reduce the clutter in my apartment. It's my goal to rid myself of excess paperwork and slowly move towards minimalism. I'm probably between a one and two.

I’m definitely a hoarder, I’m trying to undo this mindset

Hoarding tends to run high among doctors, lawyers and teachers.

7:11 *i actually watch shows like hoarders for priming.* seeing the mess, seeing something being done about it.... it gets the mind geared towards doing this. (like how some people watch cleaning videos.). i have WAAAAAAAAAY too much stuff. idk if that would make me a level 1 or not. i have a lot of hobbies and probably just a bit too much for each. or, rather, a reasonable amount but the number of hobbies is just a lot. adhd might be a culprit. also, depression keeps it hard to do menial tasks all the time. so things will pile up like dishes (i get to them once a week currently. it sucks.), papers, receipts, mail. it's like ENOUGH!!!! stop sending me sh*t in the mail!! (in this case, i think a sense of futility and overwhelm. every time i get ahead of it all, so much MORE floods in and it's like a hamster wheel. even without a spending problem, executive function is borked and that can make it impossible to actually get to everything, DO it, SORT it, GET RID OF it.

I have a 1 bedroom apartment. Bed, recliner at my bicycle, washer dryer dishwasher stove refrigerator and some clothes that's it. I've always lived this way and when people come over they ask if I just moved in. I only have what I use. It Makes life easy

Dana K White’s decluttering system is good for people who are completely overwhelmed by their things. She’s not a minimalist but she knows exactly what it’s like to dig out of a self created mess.

Would love it if you guys would remove the intro music. Gets old after a while. Just a thought. Love you guys!

When in doubt, throw it out.

This was great thx for the laughs 😂 I hope I’m not a stage 1 . Hhhmmmm …. Lol

stage 1. scared to let my mom hear because every time i address it she thinks i'm calling our house stage 5. my dad dislikes the concept of therapy bc "not another doctor" my mom rejects a lot bc "clutter not hoarding". so we live on the edge in the worst kinda way. cool

Thank you for this one! The TrueReal channel has a Hoarders marathon each Tuesday. I often watch it, my wife questions my sanity! Perhaps I watch it because we have a clutter problem, I'm less clutter-blind than my wife and we've had the misfortune of having to actually deal with a hoarded apartment. Maybe I need to see that others have it worse. The piles weren't deep, but all of the persons clothes were on the floor. Years of mail were piled in one room, they're years behind in their taxes. There were feces smeared all over the bathroom floor, deposits in the kitchen and near the front door. I'll never forget the smell. Not sure that I want to know what was really in the Whiskey bottles in the bedroom. The person is an alcoholic (though not drinking at this point in time), but they refuse to admit that they need help, so we're worried that they'll relapse/fall off the wagon or what ever you want to call it. Against all of the advice of the Therapists on Hoarders (that the hoarder needed to be involved), we had the place cleaned out so that the risk of eviction was minimized. The person seems appreciative that we did what we did, but we live too far away to drop in and check up on them. Not at all something I figured I'd ever encounter in my life...

the title is correct, i am a level 1

I wonder if the pay the people on the hoarders show?

I’d love to get rid of stuff. But who wants my stuff

I’m definitely at least stage one & I could see how quickly I could progress to stage 4 and 5.

Me a maximalism waching about minimalism😁

The hoarders are the loaded cookie bar of the ocd world. I prefer to be the butterfinger.

Everybody is hoarding money. Even the rich. I'll help you. Send them to me.

What's wrong with dead pets in the freezer if it's midwinter and the ground is frozen so solid that burial is impossible until after "Mud"?

I'm childfree and am so glad I don't have the hear a kid's voice at the intro.