Fast forward to about 10 years. I met and fell in love with this
wonderful women and her wonderful family, but at the time I didn't realize
the problem they all seem to share at different levels... hoarding...

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This form was submitted:  Aug 31 2007 / 14:06:48
Wife and in-laws
story =

I grew up in a pretty large family, poor, but very close. We
learned to make the most out of most things, reusing them over and over
again, but when the time came... we would throw them out. So I truly
understand the benefits to reusing and recycling.

Fast forward to about 10 years. I met and fell in love with this
wonderful women and her wonderful family, but at the time I didn't realize
the problem they all seem to share at different levels... hoarding.

They love to go yard saling every weekend hunting for treasures when
they don't have any more room or need for any of it.

Really what it is, is an excuse to continue to feed the compulsion.

They still don't see it as a problem, it's their way of life, even
though, they all don't like the mess in their homes. They just accept it
and really don't do anything to get rid of it, just churn it every now
and again. Hiding behind the idea of, "it's for the good of our friends
and family" to receive some of these goodies... which most of the time
we don't need or want, but we smile and say thank you, anyway.

For me, my wife and child it's gone too far. I can't even walk around
OUR home without avoiding contact with "stuff" that my wife says "we'll
go through it later".

"Later" NEVER comes. And when I start to go through things they (her
family) goes into a panic and joins forces to make sure I don't "waste"
ANY of it. It stops all my progress and the work week starts all over
again, with very little accomplished... whew... they win again.

She can't seem to make the time to get rid of the simplest things, like
junk mail, magizines, bank statments, old clothes... actually, just
about everything. We just box it up an put somewhere else. We have
"things" all over... storage units, stuff in others homes, etc.. and no real
plan to DO anything about it.

I've been living this way for many years but now. I need to stop this
craziness for the sake of my son who is quickly growing up in this mess.
It's an awful example of priorites for him. We can't even have friends
over for fear of embarrassment, but some times we do anyway and that
can't be good for him. One day it will affect him if we don't do
something about it now.

Good luck with your own situations and thanks for reading mine.

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