# 'It looks like you're a lazy idiot': hoarders welcome medical classification



## Northerner (Aug 21, 2018)

David Woods was a university student when he formed an insatiable appetite to find out more. He bought books – lots of them. Thirty years on, the 50-year-old council worker is surrounded on all sides by his ever-growing collection: 15,000 books and DVDs fill his small bungalow on the outskirts of Edinburgh. “It’s quite tricky to let go of some stuff,” he admits.

Woods is a hoarder, as is his housemate Lynda. They’re midway through an anxiety-ridden declutter, which has already resulted in one transit van full of “stuff” being taken away, with about six more left to fill. By the end, they hope, there may even be room to sit down.

“If I was living in a big, posh house and had this amount of books on the shelves, they would call it a library,” he said. “Nobody would go ‘Oh, Lord Toffington is a hoarder!’ But because I’m living in a bungalow and I’m the underclass, I’m a hoarder.”

https://www.theguardian.com/society...idiot-hoarders-welcome-medical-classification

David sounds a lot like me


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## SadhbhFiadh (Aug 21, 2018)

Ah, I think they only need to have book shelves instead of walls. Easy maintenance too: no paint or paper needed! One big table in the middle of the room with a chair or two. Hm. May need one of those wall ladder things.


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## Northerner (Aug 21, 2018)

SadhbhFiadh said:


> Ah, I think they only need to have book shelves instead of walls. Easy maintenance too: no paint or paper needed! One big table in the middle of the room with a chair or two. Hm. May need one of those wall ladder things.


My recent move mainly involved 11 bookcases and 10,000 books


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## Eddy Edson (Aug 21, 2018)

Northerner said:


> My recent move mainly involved 11 bookcases and 10,000 books


I used to be like that till I got a Kindle. Now I'm down to 5 bookcases!


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## Ljc (Aug 21, 2018)

Ive only got one bookcase filled with oft read books that I cannot no will not get rid of my kindle is now my bookcase and it’s a huge one


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## Eddy Edson (Aug 21, 2018)

Ljc said:


> Ive only got one bookcase filled with oft read books that I cannot no will not get rid of my kindle is now my bookcase and it’s a huge one


Yep. I had a big book purge of everything non-digital I could bear to junk on my last move ...


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## mikeyB (Aug 21, 2018)

Yup. I’m a kindle hoarder too. It’s the same size and weight, no matter how many books you have on it.


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## Ljc (Aug 21, 2018)

mikeyB said:


> Yup. I’m a kindle hoarder too. It’s the same size and weight, no matter how many books you have on it.


No shelves to dust either


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## Ljc (Aug 21, 2018)

Eddy Edson said:


> Yep. I had a big book purge of everything non-digital I could bear to junk on my last move ...


That must have hurt. I detest parting with books


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## Eddy Edson (Aug 21, 2018)

Ljc said:


> That must have hurt. I detest parting with books



I know, but I was moving house/country every couple of years around then & I was sick of schlepping 20 boxes of books around the world. Most of them were pretty forgettable.


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## HOBIE (Aug 21, 2018)

Its a good job we are all different but I have a double garage full of car bits. cars , alloys, bikes. No plates on the walls. Mad ?


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## Ruby/London (Aug 21, 2018)

Hoarding was formally recognised as part of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM–5) around 2013 and I was involved in developing and running of the first pilot groups in London, which I ran for over two years.  It is such a complex condition and hard to resolve unless the underlying issues and causes are addressed.  I appreciate the point that is being made about space but people who suffer from hoarding behaviour tend to fill up any space, whether it is a bedsit or a mansion.  There have been some good research studies going on at the Maudsley Hospital in London but good treatment options have still to be developed.  I had to source the "Buried in Treasures" model from the States.  Sadly, I have worked with people who prioritise paying for storage units over buying food to store possessions that are often decaying and "worthless".  It is a very distressing condition which people often people feel a sense of shame about. On the other hand, one of the world's most famous hoarders was photographer Vivien Maier, whose work was only discovered in storage units containing hundreds and hundreds of roles of film after she dies.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/...ous_street_photographer.html?via=gdpr-consent


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## Eddy Edson (Aug 21, 2018)

My step-mother was a border-line hoarder until she got some therapy for it.

Then she had all the junk packed up & delivered to me ...


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## Bloden (Aug 21, 2018)

Ljc said:


> Ive only got one bookcase filled with oft read books that I cannot no will not get rid of my kindle is now my bookcase and it’s a huge one


I’m imagining you carting around a huge Kindle, the size of a door, Ljc, hahaha. 

We used to have tons of books but now limit ourselves to one bookcase with the books we absolutely can’t get rid of, like you. Our Kindle is the local library.


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## SadhbhFiadh (Aug 21, 2018)

Northerner said:


> My recent move mainly involved 11 bookcases and 10,000 books



I've never counted my books, but I'm pretty sure I don't have that many walls. HA!


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## Lucy Honeychurch (Aug 21, 2018)

When I was a homecarer I noticed hoarding was fairly common in the elderly. A fair few of my clients had bedrooms which were piled floor to ceiling with stuff and basically lived in their lounge (which was also full of stuff!) This was reported to the Authorities (mainly for health and fire risks) but was totally ignored .


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## Carolg (Aug 21, 2018)

I try not to hoard, and tidy out stuff but in all honesty probably mainly tidy it and shuffle it around cupboards and drawers. When I moved I limited my book case to one, but now have a shelf of cookery books in kitchen so think I cheated


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## Amigo (Aug 21, 2018)

Back in the day I used to work professionally with people who had Diogenes Syndrome (the syndrome was named after Diogenes, as the ancient Greek philosopher showed “lack of shame” and “contempt for social organisation).

We had people who took hoarding to a quite different and ill health inducing level and many were severely neglected with serious health issues which they largely neglected. My enduring memory was a lady who hoarded food in a broken fridge for years. The food was putrid but almost had to be wrestled from her hands. The smell of 6 week old crab claws stayed in my nostrils for days!


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## Ljc (Aug 21, 2018)

Bloden said:


> I’m imagining you carting around a huge Kindle, the size of a door, Ljc, hahaha.
> 
> We used to have tons of books but now limit ourselves to one bookcase with the books we absolutely can’t get rid of, like you. Our Kindle is the local library.



My handbag is heavy lol


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## Northerner (Aug 22, 2018)

Bloden said:


> with the books we absolutely can’t get rid of, like you.


Erm, I possess 10,000+ of these...!  I could fit them all in one bookcase, it it was the size of three rooms...


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## SadhbhFiadh (Aug 22, 2018)

Carolg said:


> I try not to hoard, and tidy out stuff but in all honesty probably mainly tidy it and shuffle it around cupboards and drawers. When I moved I limited my book case to one, but now have a shelf of cookery books in kitchen so think I cheated



Oh, now you mention that... I have a bag of books in the kitchen that are cookery, which led me to realise the bag of books on the floor if they sitting room that are my current reading, the bag beside my bed that are non-fiction related to upcoming projects, and the smaller bag by the door that I grab when I'm heading for the bus or train... And a bag in my studio! I guess those would total to a small two shelf bookcase.


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## Lisa66 (Aug 22, 2018)

10,000 makes my husband look like a light weight @Northerner ! I imagine the country tilted very slightly as you moved them all up north. Is there a theme to your collection? Fiction, non fiction? Have you read them all?


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## Northerner (Aug 22, 2018)

Lisa66 said:


> 10,000 makes my husband look like a light weight @Northerner ! I imagine the country tilted very slightly as you moved them all up north. Is there a theme to your collection? Fiction, non fiction? Have you read them all?


Mostly non-fiction - popular science, astronomy, cosmology, philosophy, languages, history, travel. Quite a lot of SF, particularly Larry Niven, plus some favourite non-SF authors -  Amitav Ghosh, Ernest Hemingway, Margaret Atwood, Kazuo Ishiguro, Dostoevsky. Erm, and lots of others!


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## Lisa66 (Aug 22, 2018)

Do you use the Dewey Decimal system? (Seem to remember that from school). It's certainly a useful, interesting and I'm guessing environmentaly friendly way of insulating your house.


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## Eddy Edson (Aug 22, 2018)

Lisa66 said:


> Do you use the Dewey Decimal system? (Seem to remember that from school). It's certainly a useful, interesting and I'm guessing environmentaly friendly way of insulating your house.



I believe books are also pretty good radiation shields in the event of nuclear war. 

I guess my Kindle's not going to be much good for that.


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## Northerner (Aug 22, 2018)

Lisa66 said:


> It's certainly a useful, interesting and I'm guessing environmentaly friendly way of insulating your house.





Eddy Edson said:


> I believe books are also pretty good radiation shields in the event of nuclear war.
> 
> I guess my Kindle's not going to be much good for that.


Ooh! Thanks for the extra arguments the next time my sister suggests getting rid of some of them!


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## mikeyB (Aug 22, 2018)

Aye, Northie, you’ll need them if it all goes t*** up. RAF Fylingdales is only a hop and a skip away. Prime target,


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## Northerner (Aug 22, 2018)

mikeyB said:


> Aye, Northie, you’ll need them if it all goes t*** up. RAF Fylingdales is only a hop and a skip away. Prime target,


Not forgetting RAF Menwith Hill as well!


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## Lisa66 (Aug 22, 2018)

Hmm, in which case I imagine your sister might say you need to free up a bit of space for all your tinned goods?!


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