My mother is a hoarder
I went by to pick up my mom’s resume to email to this consulting agency that has a position available. When I got there my mom had this humongous shelving system from Lowe’s set up in the living room. I said “what is that?” She said “it’s for the magazines.” She has stacks and stacks of magazines around the house on every topic from boating to Martha Stewart – they date back years. She wont throw them away.
You cannot open the refrigerator because jars and cartons spill out all over the floor.
She has grocery bags filled with groceries surrounding the dining room table because they wont fit in the pantry.
I said mom, “it is dangerous to keep all these magazines – it’s a fire hazard.” She got pissed and had a crazed look in her eye and said “I am keeping them.” I said “ma, this is getting ridiculous – there are stacks everywhere – you haven’t even unpacked these groceries on the floor for the past four months.” She said, “I like it this way.” I said, “it’s nutty.” And then we got into a heated argument and I stormed out.
I’m not being compassionate. I know.
I looked up hoarding on the internet – [god bless the internet and access to information] – it’s like the Borg without having to mind meld. Here’s what I found:
http://www.la4seniors.com/hoarding.htm#top%20hoarding%20page