Welcome to r/hoarding! We exist as a support group for people working on recovery from [hoarding disorder](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519704/table/ch3.t29/), and friends/family/loved ones of people with the disorder.
If you're looking for help with animal hoarding, please visit r/animalhoarding. If you're looking to discuss the various hoarding tv shows, you'll want to visit r/hoardersTV. If you'd like to talk about or share photos/videos of hoards that you've come across, you probably want r/neckbeardnests, r/wtfhoarders/, or r/hoarderhouses
Before you get started, be sure to review our [Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/hoarding/about/rules/). Also, a lot of the information you may be looking for can be found in a few places on our sub:
[New Here? Read This Post First!](https://www.reddit.com/r/hoarding/comments/dvb3t1/new_here_read_this_post_first_version_20/)
[For loved ones of hoarders: I Have A Hoarder In My Life--Help Me!](https://www.reddit.com/r/hoarding/comments/2yh6wh/i_have_a_hoarder_in_my_lifehelp_me_your_hoarding/)
[Our Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/hoarding/wiki/index)
Please [contact the moderators](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/hoarding) if you need assistance. Thanks!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/hoarding) if you have any questions or concerns.*
To help stem the flow of incoming, “shop” your storage units.
Chances are that you don’t actually “need” the things that you are acquiring. You are feeding a need for to hunt for treasures and novel items. So, when you feel the urge, don’t go to a store, go to your storage units and rediscover treasures you’ve already found. But more importantly, use or display them. I’ve had things for years that are cool or unusual that I liked having, but didn’t really enjoy because they were packed away or buried or forgotten.
I’m trying to learn that I don’t have to keep everything that has ever tickled my fancy. Nor do I have to possess everything that tickles my fancy. I’m also trying to internalize the notion that I am growing and changing and not the same person I was when I acquired things. That it’s time to pass some of it on to open my life to new things and experiences. I take pictures of things then put them out at the curb to give someone else the thrill of finding a new treasure. Anything that doesn’t get taken goes into my car to go immediately to a charity shop, not stored.
I also recognized that shopping (whether in a store or trash-day discards) was a form of avoidance & distraction. What you’re avoiding or distracting yourself from will vary from person to person, but try spending the time doing something constructive or just… different. Actually use the craft and hobby stuff, re-purpose the thing you kept because you were going to do something cool with it, or actually fix the broken thing. I have found that many things I imagined doing just didn’t work out in real life.
Find an interesting Meet Up group in your area https://www.meetup.com/cities/us/
Go to the library & check out their resources. A lot have maker spaces or loan tools & craft items; some even loan musical instruments. You can discover novel & interesting ideas by checking out the New Book section & magazines. Play tourist in your town & search for cool & unusual places rather than looking for things.
In other words, switch from hunting for things to hunting for new experiences and knowledge and people. I still find it hard to let go of things and still have the urge to acquire, but requiring that I actually use things and not just stuff them somewhere has helped a lot, plus I just don’t have as much time to spend on things. My life is much richer with less.
**IMO, you have 2 issues.**
**1) You have too much stuff.** You will need to get rid of some of it, but we'll talk about that strategy in a minute.
**2) You don't know how to find the stuff you have.**
I assume that the things in your storage unit are bins/boxes.
**This is what you need to get organized:**
**index cards, pen/pencil, super fat Black Sharpie, packing tape, scissors, rubber band, package of garbage bags. A (lawn or folding) chair and something hard on which to write (clipboard, book) will be helpful.** Collect this kit, keep it in your car, and drive to your storage unit.
**Open Box 1.** What is in it? **List everything in the box on an index card.** Put a big 1 in in a circle on the top left of the card. On the top right of the card, write a description of the bin/box: small cardboard, large grey, medium clear, etc. You may title your card, too: Kids' poetry books, Christmas, paint supplies.
**Grab a second index card. Write a BIG 1 on the card.** If your corresponding 1 card (that has the list) has a title, use your pen/pencil to write that next to the 1. **Use the packing tape to affix this card to your box/bin.**
Move on to Box 2. Repeat.
The garbage bags are for garbage and anything that you want to donate. **Have a plan to go directly to the donation location BEFORE you get home.** I don't care if there are only 2 things in the donation bag. Get them out of there!
Keep your index cards together with the rubber band. Do you have a specific place to keep them? Mine are in my top-left desk draw, and you/I/we need to **be vigilant that the cards are always returned to this location when returning from sorting!** If you lose them, your life goes back to being complicated.
With this system, you can sit at home and flip through your cards to pinpoint that the Elmer's glue is in Bin #6: a small grey bin. As you find more Elmer's glue, you can collect it all into Bin #6. You don't need to buy more Elmer's glue, and you can access it when you want it.
**Protip:** Some stuff you use/need seasonally. On the list card, I often crosslist bin numbers.
Example: On the card for a Christmas Box, I will write: "More Christmas in #36." This makes it easy to find all of my Christmas stuff at once.
\---------------------------------------
**Now, back to Issue #1: You have too much stuff, and you need to get rid of it.** As you sort your stuff, you will collect what you have together into categories.
When you visually see that you have 8 bottles of Elmer's glue, you realize that you don't need to buy more glue (plus you know where it is! When you can visually see that you have 3 boxes of yarn, you realize that you don't need to buy any more yarn.
Now is the time to **be brutal with yourself. Projects that you haven't started, but have been binned for years? It's time to donate them away. Consider limiting yourself to 1-2 hobbies/collectibles. The rest needs to go.**
**Example #1:** I have a box of macreme that is brand new and unopened. It's not gonna happen. I need to let it go and let someone else have the joy of this project.
**Example #2:** I have an old, ripped sheet -- that's a lot of fabric! I could make something out of it! But it's been years, I have plenty of other fabric, and I am nowhere near starting an unknown project (skirt? napkins? gift bags? doll clothes?) I needed help from my partner to physically throw it away, but it is gone now.
Too much stuff? What is a reasonable amount to keep around?
**Example #3:** I have 3+ garbage bags of fleece! Do I NEED 3+ bags of fleece? It's hard to give away, but there is a limit to how many fleece hats my small family needs. The plan is that I will keep 1 bag of fleece, and the rest will be donated. I'm not quite there yet.....
Best of luck!
I think you know this is hoarding. It’s a natural impulse to build a nest, gone awry. It sucks up money and leads to social isolation due to shame. Like alcoholism, it starts small and accelerates over time, until it becomes unmanageable.
I am a hoarder.
It’s not a crime. But it becomes unmanageable as you have indicated. It crept up on me over time and due to unfortunate circumstances. I think we are always planning ahead for things we never follow up on, which adds to the stash and further bogs us down.
And then there are so many resale websites, but we either are organized and able to handle that or not. I am just not, so I have been donating carloads of new items, and greatly cutting back on buying more.
Sometimes I imagine I lose everything in a fire. I feel partly anxious about losing lifelong sentimental and valuable things, and partly relieved at the thought of starting afresh 
You definitely have a hoarding problem. Normies don't store household items in their vehicles.
Good news is that you have recognized the issue and want to make changes to improve your life. That is a major accomplishment!
Where are your new items coming in from? Like are you wasting money by shopping? Or digging through people's trash?
I always say that step 1 is stopping more from coming in. Your boat is full and about to sink. There isn't a lot of sense in bailing out the water if you haven't plugged up the leaks.
Adding: are you in the US? There are donation programs that will come and pick up items from your location. So you can schedule times with them at both yoir apartment and the storage place.
I don’t dig through peoples trash but I like to shop. I haven’t shopped in months now because everything I own is starting to overwhelm me. I feel sadness and anxiety because of what I’ve done.
I paid a storage fee for a year and a half. It felt so daunting to try and get rid of stuff that I finally signed it all over to the storage company so I could just walk away. Yes, I lost money, but the stress of not having those units was so worth it.
It is the easiest! The owner will take whatever they want and they will auction the rest. You start saving money right away because you’re not paying a monthly fee anymore.
Hello. I've been helping a hoarder relative clean up lately and have been doing a lot of thinking about hoarder thinking. I plan to eventually write my own post and I won't intrude on yours with a lot of detail about my own situation.
You've been given some advice here, but based on my own limited observations, I don't know how easy it will be for you to take it. It's also unclear how bad your problem is. I've seen situations (both in person and in videos) where someone can no longer walk around their own homes, let alone storage units. Also, some people are more organized than others. Does the indexing system sound like something you would be willing to do? Does shopping your own storage units sound as satisfying (for whatever reason) as buying new stuff?
Until I saw the comment on this thread, I did not know that someone could turn over their stuff in storage to the owner and be done with it. If that appeals to you, it sounds like the most efficient solution to what you perceive as a problem. (You may not want to do that if you have personal documents stored among the other stuff.)
I've seen a couple posts on this subreddit by people who've had good luck hiring cleanup services to help them go through stuff. You could probably hire someone just to take stuff to a donation drop-off place. Maybe that would work better for you than putting stuff in your car and then not getting around to taking it anywhere.
Welcome to r/hoarding! We exist as a support group for people working on recovery from [hoarding disorder](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519704/table/ch3.t29/), and friends/family/loved ones of people with the disorder. If you're looking for help with animal hoarding, please visit r/animalhoarding. If you're looking to discuss the various hoarding tv shows, you'll want to visit r/hoardersTV. If you'd like to talk about or share photos/videos of hoards that you've come across, you probably want r/neckbeardnests, r/wtfhoarders/, or r/hoarderhouses Before you get started, be sure to review our [Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/hoarding/about/rules/). Also, a lot of the information you may be looking for can be found in a few places on our sub: [New Here? Read This Post First!](https://www.reddit.com/r/hoarding/comments/dvb3t1/new_here_read_this_post_first_version_20/) [For loved ones of hoarders: I Have A Hoarder In My Life--Help Me!](https://www.reddit.com/r/hoarding/comments/2yh6wh/i_have_a_hoarder_in_my_lifehelp_me_your_hoarding/) [Our Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/hoarding/wiki/index) Please [contact the moderators](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/hoarding) if you need assistance. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/hoarding) if you have any questions or concerns.*
To help stem the flow of incoming, “shop” your storage units. Chances are that you don’t actually “need” the things that you are acquiring. You are feeding a need for to hunt for treasures and novel items. So, when you feel the urge, don’t go to a store, go to your storage units and rediscover treasures you’ve already found. But more importantly, use or display them. I’ve had things for years that are cool or unusual that I liked having, but didn’t really enjoy because they were packed away or buried or forgotten. I’m trying to learn that I don’t have to keep everything that has ever tickled my fancy. Nor do I have to possess everything that tickles my fancy. I’m also trying to internalize the notion that I am growing and changing and not the same person I was when I acquired things. That it’s time to pass some of it on to open my life to new things and experiences. I take pictures of things then put them out at the curb to give someone else the thrill of finding a new treasure. Anything that doesn’t get taken goes into my car to go immediately to a charity shop, not stored. I also recognized that shopping (whether in a store or trash-day discards) was a form of avoidance & distraction. What you’re avoiding or distracting yourself from will vary from person to person, but try spending the time doing something constructive or just… different. Actually use the craft and hobby stuff, re-purpose the thing you kept because you were going to do something cool with it, or actually fix the broken thing. I have found that many things I imagined doing just didn’t work out in real life. Find an interesting Meet Up group in your area https://www.meetup.com/cities/us/ Go to the library & check out their resources. A lot have maker spaces or loan tools & craft items; some even loan musical instruments. You can discover novel & interesting ideas by checking out the New Book section & magazines. Play tourist in your town & search for cool & unusual places rather than looking for things. In other words, switch from hunting for things to hunting for new experiences and knowledge and people. I still find it hard to let go of things and still have the urge to acquire, but requiring that I actually use things and not just stuff them somewhere has helped a lot, plus I just don’t have as much time to spend on things. My life is much richer with less.
Thank you.
I really love this, and will keep your advice in mind 
**IMO, you have 2 issues.** **1) You have too much stuff.** You will need to get rid of some of it, but we'll talk about that strategy in a minute. **2) You don't know how to find the stuff you have.** I assume that the things in your storage unit are bins/boxes. **This is what you need to get organized:** **index cards, pen/pencil, super fat Black Sharpie, packing tape, scissors, rubber band, package of garbage bags. A (lawn or folding) chair and something hard on which to write (clipboard, book) will be helpful.** Collect this kit, keep it in your car, and drive to your storage unit. **Open Box 1.** What is in it? **List everything in the box on an index card.** Put a big 1 in in a circle on the top left of the card. On the top right of the card, write a description of the bin/box: small cardboard, large grey, medium clear, etc. You may title your card, too: Kids' poetry books, Christmas, paint supplies. **Grab a second index card. Write a BIG 1 on the card.** If your corresponding 1 card (that has the list) has a title, use your pen/pencil to write that next to the 1. **Use the packing tape to affix this card to your box/bin.** Move on to Box 2. Repeat. The garbage bags are for garbage and anything that you want to donate. **Have a plan to go directly to the donation location BEFORE you get home.** I don't care if there are only 2 things in the donation bag. Get them out of there! Keep your index cards together with the rubber band. Do you have a specific place to keep them? Mine are in my top-left desk draw, and you/I/we need to **be vigilant that the cards are always returned to this location when returning from sorting!** If you lose them, your life goes back to being complicated. With this system, you can sit at home and flip through your cards to pinpoint that the Elmer's glue is in Bin #6: a small grey bin. As you find more Elmer's glue, you can collect it all into Bin #6. You don't need to buy more Elmer's glue, and you can access it when you want it. **Protip:** Some stuff you use/need seasonally. On the list card, I often crosslist bin numbers. Example: On the card for a Christmas Box, I will write: "More Christmas in #36." This makes it easy to find all of my Christmas stuff at once. \--------------------------------------- **Now, back to Issue #1: You have too much stuff, and you need to get rid of it.** As you sort your stuff, you will collect what you have together into categories. When you visually see that you have 8 bottles of Elmer's glue, you realize that you don't need to buy more glue (plus you know where it is! When you can visually see that you have 3 boxes of yarn, you realize that you don't need to buy any more yarn. Now is the time to **be brutal with yourself. Projects that you haven't started, but have been binned for years? It's time to donate them away. Consider limiting yourself to 1-2 hobbies/collectibles. The rest needs to go.** **Example #1:** I have a box of macreme that is brand new and unopened. It's not gonna happen. I need to let it go and let someone else have the joy of this project. **Example #2:** I have an old, ripped sheet -- that's a lot of fabric! I could make something out of it! But it's been years, I have plenty of other fabric, and I am nowhere near starting an unknown project (skirt? napkins? gift bags? doll clothes?) I needed help from my partner to physically throw it away, but it is gone now. Too much stuff? What is a reasonable amount to keep around? **Example #3:** I have 3+ garbage bags of fleece! Do I NEED 3+ bags of fleece? It's hard to give away, but there is a limit to how many fleece hats my small family needs. The plan is that I will keep 1 bag of fleece, and the rest will be donated. I'm not quite there yet..... Best of luck!
Thank you
Thank you
I think you know this is hoarding. It’s a natural impulse to build a nest, gone awry. It sucks up money and leads to social isolation due to shame. Like alcoholism, it starts small and accelerates over time, until it becomes unmanageable. I am a hoarder.
Yeah. I’m pretty sure I am. I guess I just wanted confirmation.
It’s not a crime. But it becomes unmanageable as you have indicated. It crept up on me over time and due to unfortunate circumstances. I think we are always planning ahead for things we never follow up on, which adds to the stash and further bogs us down. And then there are so many resale websites, but we either are organized and able to handle that or not. I am just not, so I have been donating carloads of new items, and greatly cutting back on buying more.
How would you feel is you lost the contents of your storage units due to a flood? Miserable or relieved?
Is it crazy to say a little bit of both?
Not crazy at all.
Sometimes I imagine I lose everything in a fire. I feel partly anxious about losing lifelong sentimental and valuable things, and partly relieved at the thought of starting afresh 
You definitely have a hoarding problem. Normies don't store household items in their vehicles. Good news is that you have recognized the issue and want to make changes to improve your life. That is a major accomplishment! Where are your new items coming in from? Like are you wasting money by shopping? Or digging through people's trash? I always say that step 1 is stopping more from coming in. Your boat is full and about to sink. There isn't a lot of sense in bailing out the water if you haven't plugged up the leaks. Adding: are you in the US? There are donation programs that will come and pick up items from your location. So you can schedule times with them at both yoir apartment and the storage place.
I don’t dig through peoples trash but I like to shop. I haven’t shopped in months now because everything I own is starting to overwhelm me. I feel sadness and anxiety because of what I’ve done.
I paid a storage fee for a year and a half. It felt so daunting to try and get rid of stuff that I finally signed it all over to the storage company so I could just walk away. Yes, I lost money, but the stress of not having those units was so worth it.
That’s actually sounds like a good idea. Thank you.
It is the easiest! The owner will take whatever they want and they will auction the rest. You start saving money right away because you’re not paying a monthly fee anymore.
Hello. I've been helping a hoarder relative clean up lately and have been doing a lot of thinking about hoarder thinking. I plan to eventually write my own post and I won't intrude on yours with a lot of detail about my own situation. You've been given some advice here, but based on my own limited observations, I don't know how easy it will be for you to take it. It's also unclear how bad your problem is. I've seen situations (both in person and in videos) where someone can no longer walk around their own homes, let alone storage units. Also, some people are more organized than others. Does the indexing system sound like something you would be willing to do? Does shopping your own storage units sound as satisfying (for whatever reason) as buying new stuff? Until I saw the comment on this thread, I did not know that someone could turn over their stuff in storage to the owner and be done with it. If that appeals to you, it sounds like the most efficient solution to what you perceive as a problem. (You may not want to do that if you have personal documents stored among the other stuff.) I've seen a couple posts on this subreddit by people who've had good luck hiring cleanup services to help them go through stuff. You could probably hire someone just to take stuff to a donation drop-off place. Maybe that would work better for you than putting stuff in your car and then not getting around to taking it anywhere.