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Post by puppybox on Aug 9, 2010 18:11:54 GMT -5
mafixit, could it be that your reasoning is incorrect? because if it was only that your house was too small, you wouldn't have high scores in aquiring and discarding, only clutter. that's not saying your house isn't too small too.
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Post by amberwind on Aug 9, 2010 18:25:27 GMT -5
13, 5, 10. I'm in a bad place right now because of my injury after a week of backsliding. The only reason my discarding score is at 5 is because I don't like the time-consuming part - I've no problem dumping everything I own into charity bags and hauling it to the thrift shops, but *** if it doesn't take hours and days out of my life that I'd rather spend on other things!
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capemom
New Member
Joined: July 2010
Posts: 87
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Post by capemom on Aug 10, 2010 7:35:29 GMT -5
Hi all, I took this quiz when it first came out and scored 12 10 12. I took it again today after spending a week cleaning my home and almost as an active member, and my scores dropped! Now I'm a 10 7 10. We can do this together!
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Post by mafixit on Aug 10, 2010 14:45:16 GMT -5
mafixit, could it be that your reasoning is incorrect? because if it was only that your house was too small, you wouldn't have high scores in aquiring and discarding, only clutter. that's not saying your house isn't too small too. You might have a point there, however I mainly acquire things that are needed. In my household of six, I am the only one who shops, therefore it would seem like I'm the one with the shopping problem.. we are constantly running out of milk, bread.. etc. I counted that as things I bring in. Another example, just recently I spent lots on school uniforms, supplies and the like. This will be used through out the school year, I got them at a good price. The purging has come to a stand still because I have gotten rid of a lot of stuff in the past year, my wardrobe consists only of the things that fit me at this time. The same for the kids closets. We are mainly messy, cluttery, squalorees. I seriously do not consider myself a hoarder.
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Post by mouseanne on Aug 10, 2010 20:40:11 GMT -5
17 10 2
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Post by wtfhappened on Aug 10, 2010 23:51:43 GMT -5
13, 9, 7. Seems about right; the clutter is definitely my big issue. I've never been a shopaholic; the stuff I have has been slowly acquired over decades; and thanks to the help from this forum the last 3 months I find it much easier to get rid of stuff That score would have been higher in April. /WTF
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Post by puppybox on Aug 11, 2010 11:23:16 GMT -5
ma fixit, I'm glad you're not a hoarder, and that smiley is too cute.
capemom- that is so awesome! I'm glad I wrote my score down- I'm sure it would have been 17 17 17 5 years ago. I'm looking forward to checking again in a year, I hope I get to see the numbers go down.
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Post by eagle on Aug 12, 2010 9:05:29 GMT -5
I also seriously don't think of myself as a hoarder, either. Funny, I have no trouble accepting that I lived in squalor and have a problem related to being one who could live in squalor again if I do not maintain vigilance.
But when I hear or see the word 'hoarder' I balk and deny it has anything to do with me.
Yet, I recall writing on the old squalor survivors site in one of my posts, "I've never met a piece of electronic equipment I didn't like" and I had "hundreds of pairs of shoes in boxes in my garage" and when Hubby and I got married we combined our 3 storage units and 2 houses worth of stuff together into one house (and most of that was my stuff.) And haven't I said more than once that I have more office supplies than some small stationary shops?
So can my denial about being a hoarder be true? I still don't think of myself as a hoarder, though.
Regardless, I took this test twice in the past week and came up with numbers slightly different both times. Not drastically different, but different all the same. So I suspect it has something to do with how I am feeling at any given moment, which apparently varies to some degree.
Today the numbers are (& this is the 3rd time taking the test): 4, 2, 3 Mild clutter & mild acquiring. Minimal difficulty discarding. That's today's scores.
Perhaps the key here is the word, 'compulsive'. Am I a compulsive hoarder? I think I am not. But then, why do I have the One-In-Two-Out Rule for my household? It's not only because my husband buys/acquires too much stuff. It's because I do the same AND because I don't (we don't) easily get rid of enough stuff. And why did I live in squalor at one time, only to clean up and get rid of everything, only to end up living in squalor and owning too much stuff all over again? Was it because I acquired too much stuff and got rid of nothing a second time? Yes, unfortunately, I must admit that is the case.
Okay, what difference does it make if I accept that I have a problem with hoarding or not? Not much, I don't think. The fact is, I am doing so much better than when my house was at level 3 squalor. Almost my entire house is at level 0 now. I do still have work to do in my studio and the garage. The garage is the biggest problem and Hubby has to help with that, as I don't know how much of it I can do alone. But as long as he is working 60 hours a week, we're not likely to make a lot of progress there.
One day, I do hope to park my car in the garage again, though.
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Post by puppybox on Aug 12, 2010 13:07:44 GMT -5
i think a compulsive hoarder in the throws of the disease would a) not be on this board b) refuse to take the quiz c) not answer any of the questions like "is x a problem" positively, or not very high on the scale.
so perhaps some of us are messies, but not hoarders. mafixit said she was counting buying stuff like milk and bread, whereas I wouldnt even count that at all. so if I were her and did the quiz, the numbers would be lower. I feel like I am a hoarder, or a recovering one. I wasn't like the people on those tv shows, but I identified with and felt for the woman, I think her name was Linda, who said she didn't know hoarding was a thing until she looked around one day and wondered how she got all that stuff. I knew about hoarding, recognised tendencies in myself, and was fighting it from early on. Or else I could have ended up like her. my friends say I'm not a hoarder. But I didnt live near them when I was at my worst. I think if some traumatic event happend to me I could lose it and become one again.
my mom was always telling my brother and me that alcoholism runs in our family on both sides and that we had to be careful, and would let us drink a little wine from the age of maybe 9 or 10 at holiday suppers, if we wanted, so we didn't think it was some fun exotic thing to drink when we got to be teenagers. it worked. I think certain tendencies may be in you, but if you know about them you can prevent that type of disease from "getting" you. I think hoarding is the same. of course, some of us might be in denial. But I don't think labels are essential for getting better. if we're here we know we do have a problem somehow, that is more important.
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Post by mosaic on Aug 17, 2010 0:30:02 GMT -5
Clutter score: 17
Difficulty Discarding score: 15
Acquiring score: 1
I stopped shopping, going to garage/yard/estate sales, thrift stores, etc. a little over four years ago, so I haven't acquired much of my own since that time - except for the mounds of paperwork that seem to accumulate. I've been working on dehoarding for over four years now, but still have a long way to go.
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