Hoarders.

[Ebonbuddha]

I just watched my first couple of episodes of Hoarders:Buried Alive. I never watched the show because it isn't in Asia. At least where I am. I have to say that I hate the show. They are taking people who have serious problems and making general comments that includss anyone who collects or is a fan of something. Of course my wife's friends saw it and immediately associated it with my miniature hobby. No I don't have a a hoarding problem with miniatures. I just wonder how many people who don't know about the hobby have made the same association with us painters. Have this happened to you? What do you guys think?

 

[wiccanpony]

I've watched the Hoarders and having supplies for a hobby is a whole nother thing ..... hoarding is a sickness like drugs booze or gambling, these people can't help themselves ............ some of them hoard "things", some animals ............. I saw one show about a women hoarding "pigs", hundreds of swine and the sad thing was all of them had to be put down because of sickness.

 

[Dragonsreach]

I have to say that I hate the show.
They are taking people who have serious problems and making general comments that includes anyone who collects or is a fan of something.
In essence I suspect that the desire to Collect and the need to Hoard aren't all that far apart.
I suppose a real clinical psychologist would be able to define the issues properly but in a laymans perspective they look very much the same.
Of course the main aim of a show such as this isn't to elicit help for the people with Hoarding, but to shock and I suspect 'Jeer and Point' as well.

Of course my wife's friends saw it and immediately associated it with my miniature hobby.
HOW RUDE. But IIRC you've had some issues with some of your wifes friends being rude about miniatures in the past.
No I don't have a a hoarding problem with miniatures.
Eeeerrrm, can I hold my hand up and say possibly borderline here?
I just wonder how many people who don't know about the hobby have made the same association with us painters. Have this happened to you? What do you guys think?

No I've not had the automatic assumption made to me by others,........But I do recognise some of the tendancies in myself.

 

[kathrynloch]

I've watched it before. On my model horse hobby forums many saw the same things, in fact one of the past episodes featured a model horse hoarder who is well known in the hobby. I can definitely see some parallels in myself and how easy it would be to cross that line. My only saving grace is that I have a tendency to hoard for a long time, unwilling to give up any of it, then suddenly I get sick of the mess and the boxes and I clean it out. If I haven't used it in six months, typically it's out the door. Unless its something specific and would be expensive to replace. An unpainted model that is now in high demand and impossible to find, a tool or supply that I use only rarely but pricey, or something like that.

But I agree the need/desire to collect and hoarding have a very fine line. Thus far, if any of my friends or family have made a hoarding assumption about me, they haven't had the guts to say it to my face.

 

[MrPickles]

i sell everything i paint on ebay or it's for a customer. so i guess it doesnt really apply to me.

 

[uglybug]

I keep my hoarding limited to one room. The thing is some games like war hammer need a lot of miniatures to play. If you are a painter only then it's all about display and organization of your work space. I have glass shelves mounted on the walls were I have a collection of antique lead and resin soldiers. The rest of my shelves have some completed works and wip. Then I have the paint racks that I made. Everything can be quickly cleaned up and look interesting in case someone is coming by. Just don't open the closet.

 

[RuneBrush]

I saw the programme advertised but didn't watch it. Definitely a fine line between collecting (be it an item or for a hobby) and hoarding. My other half keeps on at me for hoarding all of my old White Dwarf's - issue 150 to present which are still in boxes in the garage I personally consider it to be hoarding when you keep things "just incase" when if you're honest with yourself, you're highly unlikely to use that item or when you keep twenty of something when two would suffice adequately.

As they say though "one man's rubbish is another man's treasure".

 

[TrystanGST]

I've seen a few episodes, and the line seems to be thus:

Collecting - lots of one type of thing, be it minis, baseball cards, porn, clothes, whatever

Hoarding - just tons of stuff, and usually rather unsanitary and unsafe living conditions. Dead animals under piles of never opened stuff from the store, for instance.

Now obviously this show is looking at extreme cases, and I doubt that anybody has so many minis that they can't walk thru their house. But on a smaller scale, the line can blur.

 

[RuneBrush]

Now obviously this show is looking at extreme cases, and I doubt that anybody has so many minis that they can't walk thru their house. But on a smaller scale, the line can blur.

I just have visions of somebody being a regular at A&E with random bits of model being embedded in them... 28mm sword in a toe, gobbo doom diver in the ear...

 

[Dragonsreach]

I just have visions of somebody being a regular at A&E with random bits of model being embedded in them........

Or 1990's Slaaneshi Deamonettes glued to their bare "Inner" Thigh.....happened to someone who used to frequent our local GW.......until his mother told the story.

 

[BPI]

The type of strange older man you get in second-hand bookshops are my experience of hoarders. A collection has focus, I don't consider "anything made of paper" to be defined enough to count! Literally had to walk sideways to slide between the floor to ceiling stacks of paper ephemera. Every corridor and room was stuffed, I'm amazed the upstairs floors hadn't just collapsed. Much of it was fascinating (or looked to be had it been accessible) but dangerous as you like. One collapse and you'd be buried and crushed, or perhaps just suffocate? Never did find the 1970's newsagent Marvel UK posters I was after, getting as far down as "this is a 1983 edition, we're getting close" was enough for me

Saw one of those wifeswap programs a while back, US based. Actually, I think they did a husband swap this time. Double garage was floor to ceiling up to the doors, new kids bikes at the front as the old ones were too far back to access. Main memory is of their downstairs loo/shower room which hadn't been used in donkeys as it was stuffed full of value size packs of toilet roll. There was pallette loads of the stuff in there. If saving $5 on toilet paper is of higher value to you than that cubic footage (which costs what on the mortgage each month?) then I think you've moved beypond spendthrift and into hoarding Not to mention stinky kids! I won't go into the paper plates mess!

Cheers, B.

 

[finn17]

Just part of our psyche I'm afraid...

For the vast majority of existence, food and resources were scarce so a key survival skill was collecting and hoarding for a 'rainy day'. We have refrigerators, Wal Marts and B&Q now so we substitute other 'goodies' in much the same way. Like any other mental mechanism though, this tendency can go a bit haywire in a few individuals who end up hoarding belly button fluff, toe nail clippings and the like. It's only becomes pathological when it interferes with the daily activities of work, relationships etc.

 

[Dragonsreach]

It's only becomes pathological when it interferes with the daily activities of work, relationships etc.

Oh dear I'm in real trouble then...

 

[supervike]

In all seriousness, I think Kathryn was right on when she said there is a fine line between hoarding and collecting.

I think I've strayed over the line many times.... And there are definite times when I feel this hobby is less a relaxing escape, and more a complusion. But recognizing is a key for me.

 

[mud duck]

The type of strange older man you get in second-hand bookshops are my experience of hoarders. A collection has focus, I don't consider "anything made of paper" to be defined enough to count! Literally had to walk sideways to slide between the floor to ceiling stacks of paper ephemera. Every corridor and room was stuffed, I'm amazed the upstairs floors hadn't just collapsed. Much of it was fascinating (or looked to be had it been accessible) but dangerous as you like. One collapse and you'd be buried and crushed, or perhaps just suffocate? Never did find the 1970's newsagent Marvel UK posters I was after, getting as far down as "this is a 1983 edition, we're getting close" was enough for me

Saw one of those wifeswap programs a while back, US based. Actually, I think they did a husband swap this time. Double garage was floor to ceiling up to the doors, new kids bikes at the front as the old ones were too far back to access. Main memory is of their downstairs loo/shower room which hadn't been used in donkeys as it was stuffed full of value size packs of toilet roll. There was pallette loads of the stuff in there. If saving $5 on toilet paper is of higher value to you than that cubic footage (which costs what on the mortgage each month?) then I think you've moved beypond spendthrift and into hoarding Not to mention stinky kids! I won't go into the paper plates mess!

Cheers, B.

I tthink that wasn't a hoarder but a dealer. The ones that somehow "buy" thousands of dollars of stuff and 'pay' nothing or get cash or credit back, all though the use of coupons and rebates. It's almost a physiological problem in itself.

 

[Ebonbuddha]

Sorry I started this topic and disappeared. I was visiting the family in Canada and got side tracked. Anyway, I agree that this could become a problem with us, but I find that anyone who collects has been thrown under this label. For example, there is a version of the show for people who collect memorabilia. There were two gentlemen on the one I watched who loved Dolly Parton. They had her real dresses and photos, movies, albums…Anything she has did they had. Basically the house looks like a museum to Dolly Parton. It is clean and they aren’t neglecting anything. Keep in mind they have done this for decades. They were on a spinoff of the show. This was about hoarders who collected stuff. The producers made it sound like collecting was bad. So much so they asked Dolly Parton if she thought they were obsessive and she laughed and said yes. I just don’t think it is a fair image of collectors.

 

[Dragonsreach]

There were two gentlemen on the one I watched who loved Dolly Parton. Basically the house looks like a museum to Dolly Parton. It is clean and they aren’t neglecting anything........they asked Dolly Parton if she thought they were obsessive and she laughed and said yes. I just don’t think it is a fair image of collectors.

Key point is that the producers asked the person on whom the collectors were "obsessing", which is not an objective viewpoint.
From Dolly Parton's point of view collecting her 'cast offs' probably is obsessive and quite possibly a little creepy.
Celebrities and Performers have a problem with potential and real stalkers (a completley differing obsession) but quite probably see any sort of 'obsessive' behaviour as differing from their accepted 'norm' and therefore weird.

I recon that our obsession with miniatures is a far less disturbing one than obsessing over a real person as the "Cult of Celebrity" from the media would have us do.

QUESTION: Would you class (or consider) as obsessive behaviour, street "Bible Bashing"?
Had a minor run in with a bunch yesterday, hence the question.

 

[noneedforaname]

At least you just get the Christians, we have a Scientology headquarters in Poole, si it's proper tin foil hat time down here.

Has to be said I developed quite a horde of mini's when working for GW and it has to be said amount of mini's is inversely proportional to amount of painting done. I've cleared virtually all of it via eBay and gifts to friends so now my collection is a lot more focused and it's slowly creeping towards painting completion rather than just growing.

Though painting is going to be getting slowed down over the next few months due to my "super secret project of doom".

 

[spazomatic]

I wouldn't call "street bible bashing" an obsession, but it certainly is a strange behavior. I often wonder about the folks who stand across the street from the local Planned Parenthood, the ones that hold anti-abortion signs. Someday, I am going to hold an anti-protest of my own. I'm going to stand a few feet away from the anti-abortion people, not going to say anything but hold up big signs with Casey Anthony's mug shot on them. (That doesn't need much of an explanation, does it?)

As to hoarding: I have never watched the show myself. I have not had a cable subscription in over 3 years because I am so disgusted with the garbage they force feed to us through the TV. The good old days of quality programming are gone. We are forced to watch a "race to the bottom" as people with no talent and nothing intelligent to offer (insert celebrity name here) are paraded past us with dizzying frequency. How many, "Worlds Worst/Dummest..." shows are there? This hording subject was just another topic for the writers to exploit.

It can become a legitimate problem. I have a friend who is physically incapable of throwing anything away. Her house is stacked with boxes of stuff that she says she will one day find useful. It's sad, really. She can't even throw out a carton of expired milk. But if people want to get help, they themselves have to want to get it. It cannot be forced upon them.

 

[Kalidane]

Now obviously this show is looking at extreme cases, and I doubt that anybody has so many minis that they can't walk thru their house. But on a smaller scale, the line can blur.

I once flatted with 4-5 other guys and we were all keen gamers. One of the guys did have this exact problem. Not only was every horizontal surface in his room covered in minis with the usual boxes stashed under the bed and in the wardrobe but the floor also was covered with minis with a clear-ish path from the door to his computer then to his bed. It was really sad seeing so many fantastic minis destined to become flats...

Unsurprisingly, the guy was not well-adjusted and had unaddressed issues.

I think it is in fact not a fine line at all. The ability to clear out surplus stuff suggests one is a rational collector. We tend to be a passionate bunch but it doesn't lead to our homes looking like a miniature graveyard. Last year I was planning to move house so I got rid of a large quantity of unopened stuff which was still in production. I've since bought a lesser quantity of stuff relevant to my few armies plus some awesome single minis purely for painting purposes. My friends may not appreciate the difference but what I have is focussed and not mindless hoarding.