I just went to an estate sale of a hoarder: Added a picture

But... did you find anything great?

I think I've only watched 1 or 2 episodes of that show-- I realized very quickly that just watching it made me physically ill! 

I get sucked into that show. Whenever they show someone who is/was a crafter, I look over at my little corner and think, maybe I should clean that up. When they show someone with hundreds and hundreds of books, I think of my sister and wonder how long before her house gets to that point? I fear my sister is one or is on the way. She says she doesn't have a problem because she has two boxes in her car ready to go to this book store where she can trade them in for store credit. Problem is that she often comes home with box too.

I recently went to the estate sale of a neighbor I knew fairly well from walking dogs. I knew where she lived, but I'd never been inside (though she was in my house occasionally). She recently passed away after a long illness, and her children put the house up for sale.

She was a collector or many things. Not exactly hoarder status-- her stuff was well cared for and quality items. There was just SO much, and so many of each item. For example, she must have made crocheted lace, and she had hundreds of crochet needles of the very tiny size, many still in package, and the same size and brand. She had rooms full of clocks, of cameras, of native-made baskets, of photo frames. A bankers box full of book plates, never used. Her large house was just packed so it was hard to walk through, with tons of stuff, every surface covered with nicely organized stuff.

She had 2 kids, and maybe they kept some things, or maybe not, but there were rooms full of photo albums and boxes upon boxes of personal papers and letters and awards, albums, souvenir items from family vacations. I found it so sad that all these meticulously kept papers and pieces of family history were up for sale, and yet, I guess if you grew up in an environment of way too much stuff like her kids did, maybe they just want to be free of it all.

It was overwhelming just to walk through. I can't imagine what it was like to sort and prepare for the sale. Or to live in.

I had to stop going to yard/estate sales a few years back because I rarely walked away without getting something and I've got plenty of stuff already. You can certainly find some great deals out there though, I have to avoid the temptation, don't want to end up a hoarder, lol.

I found Hoarders fascinating because they often showed the psychological issues that caused people to start with it. I have known a few over the years, and though their symptoms wax and wane I've never known any who were really cured. The most interesting part to me is that they aren't collecting things that people accumulate as part of collections, like figurines or stamps, but things that otherwise seem useless, like garbage. As OP mentioned, I'd be afraid to buy anything owned by a hoarder due to sanitary reasons.

I'm sitting at a hoarder's house right now. (MIL). I'm actually sitting in a chair that isn't piled with clothing, mail, or shopping bags.

I have watched Hoarders and it skeeves me out too.

I know as long as I am not pooping in a bag and saving it, I am probably OK!

My dh has hoarder tendancies - I have to get rid of things when he is not looking or not home. My sister was definitely one - cleaning her apartment a couple years ago was a chore!

ACK!!!!! This!! I got sucked into a vortex of Hoarders for like 6 hours, my skin was crawling and I went home and cleaned the shit out of every nook and cranny!

So what's worse, IYO....animal hoarders or FOOD hoarders?? I say food, except for the episode with the guy with 2500 RATS in the house! OMFG!

I get totally skeeved out by the ones that have bugs crawling all over everything. There was one that had roaches crawling all over where this one woman slept and I almost died. THAT is my worst nightmare. OMG. I will have nightmares tonight just thinking about it.