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Hoarders S03E16

Trixter

Trixter

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Aug 31, 2006
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Location
Chicagoland, Illinois, USA
I catch up on the TV show Hoarders from time to time to remind myself what the difference between a collector and a hoarder are. Imagine my surprise -- and horror -- when I saw several vintage machines in the Season 3 Episode 16 show titled "Andrew / Shania". Andrew is someone who collects "projects" and some of his "projects" were an Apple IIc, Apple IIe, several monitors, beige PCs, UPSes, and some other vintage gear (I'm pretty sure I saw some Sun gear). An Atari 800XL is displayed in the background of every close-up interview shot of Andrew!

What makes this person a hoarder vs. a collector? The hoarder has all of these machines sitting outside, where they've sat unprotected for months. Who knows what is living in them, and how many times they've been rained on. They cannot possibly be functional any more.

I have 30-ish machines, but only two are out at a time and the rest are in my crawlspace. All of my machines are in perfect working order -- if something breaks significantly beyond my ability to fix it, it goes away. I have 600+ boxed games, but they are mostly on bookshelves. I have come close to disorganization -- very close -- but all it takes is some containers to put everything in and stack out of the way. Hoarders is a sort of reality-check for me.

The show is on Netflix streaming but I wouldn't recommend watching it -- it's one of the more painful shows they've produced. Both subjects are clearly suffering from mental illness and hardly any progress is made.
 
Laugh... I'm kind've the opposite. I don't like watching the show because I see threads of what causes those people to start their problem within me.

I've found that over time, when I'm depressed, I'll focus inwards, recenter myself, pull out of it. That's not a bad thing. Other times, I've found that I turn to acquiring things as a means to keep busy to avoid idle time which turns too often to thoughts of whatever was depressing me. Not overly bad, as that usually ends up being another way to recenter. Other times, I've found that I acquire stuff simply to have stuff and marvel at what I've acquired (I've other collections and hobbies outside of vintage-computing). This is where I see threads of myself in those people in those shows.

That fact is disturbing enough to me that I don't watch the show. The introspection that allows me to realize that a twist of fate and I could be that person... hopefully that's enough to keep it from ever happening.

I say this not as someone who is constantly/routinely depressed, but when it does happen, these are the trends I've noted in myself. I think the difference between myself and the people in that show is that they give up at life, etc, and succumb to the desire to accumulate and the decadence in not doing it responsibly. I haven't... though I do admit to having an abundance of "stuff" that needs to be pared down considerably. I've 4-5 hobbies, all of which involve "stuff," and only one house. I need to pare down the other hobbies and focus on the computing aspect. Though who knows... I could just build a large storage shed, line it with shelves, stack everything up, put a hot tub in the middle of it, and be like the guy in American Pickers who just liked to go for a soak and look around at all his "stuff" every once in awhile ;)
 
I'm not sure where the line is. A few of us locally had the fortune of visiting a private collection of someone who could be classified as either a hoarder or collector depending on your point of view. His collection was housed in 3 buildings each the size of roughly a 4 car garage. Two of the buildings were two levels. 5 floors - wall to wall of just about every significant vintage computer in the last 40 years. Including original Apple I boards and 4 Crays... yes 4! All of it was completely uncatalogued. So it's either hoarding, extreme collecting, an OCD case fit for a medical journal, or if properly cataloged and displayed - one of the top computer museums in the world. He's shooting for the later with some help.

All I know for certain is after a day of jaw dropping every direction I looked, I'm at least temporarily cured of eBay collecting!
 
I have been called a hoarder several times and when you do have a large amount of systems or spare parts you MUST keep it organized and maintained. When possible I try to keep parts together with systems while being stored. My first attempts showed however that with improper rotation (you don't move equipment around from time to time or inspect components) your gear becomes junk pretty fast.
 
Yes, I've watched that show hoarders. It has screened here in NZ. I only watched a few episodes. It was clear that most of the subjects had serious mental or other health issues. It just seemed too much like voyourism for me.

Lack of space and family considerations keep a firm lid on any hoarding tendancies I have. I don't think I am a hoarder though. I find having too much stuff just complicates life.

I can walk safely past dumped 1990s and 2000s computer and not take them home. Mind you, if it was something from the 1980s or 70s it might be a different story (assuming it could fit in the trunk of a car) (-:

Tez
 
Whenever I reach the 55 computers limit. then I sell off the ones I don't use that often. And if I walked past a dump (perfers the word "recycling center"), I quite possibly would leave with some more additions.
 
All collectors are hoarders, there are just different levels to it. I kind of wonder about the people who have houses filled of trash, what seperates them from me kind of thing. Pretty much everything I have is 100% working or in the process of being fixed. I don't collect just anything, stuff in my specialty I don't like gets sold off or tossed, I don't grab everything in front of me even if it is free (regret that sometimes when my interests take a tangent), outside of the basement I don't have machines all over the house (just a few in my room under the desk connected to a KVM), and I don't have a problem throwing things away that are not worth fixing. Still I do have multiple copies of the same machines and would snag more of a few specific ones if I seen them on the curb. What worries me is that I have decided to get rid of a few items (duplicates I have better models of) but I keep acquiring items without getting rid of the unwanted ones fast enough.
 
Common question and probably more common amongst us. I kinda think yes they're the same and where is that line of a museum or a museum collector vs a hoarder prior to having a museum, where's the difference in taste? Hoarding IMO would be when it's affecting your life in a negative fashion or no longer usable. I know there's the psychological part too although I'm sure there are different cases, often it's overly emotional attachment or over cherishing inanimate objects. Some bad feeling if one were to gid rid of it like guilt, or a memory would be lost vs the person who may have given them that object wouldn't be worried if it was discarded or donated onward. That's the nice thing they try to coach hoarders I think is giving it a new life with someone else vs "throw it away! it's trash!" which would get a negative reaction in self-defense.

But yeah I don't like to watch the show either. Mostly because I can see my wife trying to compare my collection/collecting and the hoarding, also because I don't like watching folks have to throw away things that DO seem to me like an heirloom or nice memory.

The obvious hoarders which I have no connection with as far as understanding though are the paper hoarders. I can understand to a limited extent if they're saving research type papers but the ones that just have old dirty plates, newspapers, trash trash piled feet off the floor in all the rooms. That one doesn't make sense to me other than I know the emotional sickness is causing that behavior.

To an extent like some of you I do however know that there's that little feeling inside when you score something cool, vintage gear, etc which is where 10 I could understand the addictive nature to buying stuff to fill a void in your life that never really gets filled. Then the hunt continues on the never-ending quest for "happiness by material items". Goto 10.
 
There are hoarding tendencies in my bloodline, but I think I'm safe from it. My grandparents were hoarders, but they lived through the depression, and I think that was more for survival than anything. Mostly paper and lots of food and tools. They had a large house and barn and it took 5 or 6 full sized dumpsters to finally get rid of it all.

funny sidenote- I saw the show on dateline or 20/20 or whatever it was this past friday about hoarding (most about junk houses and cat hoarding though). I mentioned it to my g/f the next day that I like to see how far out of control these things can get so that I can look at my own collection to know that I'm doing well to keep things in check. She said that I do not have a problem, and only when my entire house is filled with computers and there are small walkways to get from room to room will she turn me in. I pictured my house filled with such computers and instantly went to a very happy place. ;) I don't think that is was her intention to actually egg me on!
 
I am not sure I watched that episode, but I recall seeing one where I could clearly identify an Atari XL machine in one of the rooms. I know people who either lived with hoarders or who had hoarding tendencies. I have never quite known anyone so bad, however, that they would be picked for an episode.

I agree with Trixter that a rough indicator between a hoarder and a collector, is that the latter has the ability to enjoy his collection where the former cannot because it is buried, uncared for, exposed to the elements, or there is no room to use it.
 
I think it is important to set some rules for the collection, if not, I think it can get out of control even for the non-hoarders.

What I done is that I picked a room in my house for the computer collection, this way there is a limit to how much stuff I have room for, and it also ensures that nothing gets lost in my other stuff :)
 
Never watched the show, but I don't know if you can get much worse than my grandparents, 2 30x20 storages completely filled to the roof here in California, and they live in Arizona.

It may seem like I have a lot of stuff, but I know what I have, and everything of mine fits into a 6x6 corner, except for CRT monitors, those are killer.
 
Didn't see the episode as it isn't shown here. Moving to another country every 5 - 6 years has kept me from crossing into the hoarding camp since I have to part with anything that isn't worth the cost to ship. The sad part is, after donating several working systems (Mac Performa, Compaq Proliant Dual PentPro server, and Fujitsu Stylistic Tablet) to a thrift store before my last move, I saw the store employee carry them out and dump them in the trash as I was leaving.
 
BuggZ said:
...I saw the store employee carry them out and dump them in the trash as I was leaving.
Click to expand...

That is what I hate about thrift stores around here, they'll just sell them off for $1.50 a pound (what my local Goodwill does) to some recycler. And also with that there, I would love to own a Pentum Pro anything or an old Fujitsu tablet, even more so with a pen so I could have 2 uses for it, Dauphin DTR-1's and the Fujitsu.
 
I kick myself for getting rid of the Fujitsu. It was complete and working (pen included). Does the Dauphin require an active pen? If not I may have an old Hammerhead tablet with the pen laying around.
 
I would rather give something away to a local collector then donate anything to Goodwill so they can get $1 a lb scrap (hell I can do that myself).

Dauphins need a special active pen, I have one that works but its not OEM (was $15 shipped I think a couple years back from ebay NEW).
 
The key to not be a real hoarder is you have to know when to move on. If you kept every system you got simply because "it might be useful later", we'd all have backyards filled with systems.
Of course, we have ALL regretted this decision in the past. I know we have.
 
That's where a lot of problems are too, what isn't worth anything? What's worth getting rid of vs waiting X long for a taker? When is it worth selling vs giving away and when to cut losses. Yeah everyone should practice their collecting I/O ;-) Some in, some out, restore one or get more than one and let the others go to other collectors for enjoyment and spreading the informational wealth as well as making sure 1 person isn't the only one/spot with the information.

lol @Druid, yeah that about nails it too ;-)

But as Next points out, how often would you never think to yourself with regret later down the line if it's gone. Probably an unhealthy thought but a common one.
 
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