Relationships

‘My husband’s chaotic hoarding is making me want to leave home’

Nov 11, 2018

A woman has been left depressed by her husband's hoarding. (Stock image).

A woman is considering leaving her home after her husband’s chaotic hoarding habits have grown out of control – leaving her with a constant cold due to the build-up of dust.

Writing to grandparenting forum Gransnet, the woman said she recently discovered her husband has even been saving things from the bin that she has previously thrown out.

They recently started unpacking their loft in preparation to move house, but now the belongings are strewn round their home and some date right back to their children’s school days.

“[Dear husband] is a hoarder of the worst kind,” she wrote before explaining: “There’s so much junk in there [the loft] so many boxes of papers he’s saved some over 40 yrs old.

“Our adult kids school primary books, toddler clothes, all the contents of his late mum’s house except furniture, things I have thrown away years ago he saved from the bin.”

The emergence of so many old items has filled their home with dust, and as she’s allergic, she said it’s given her a “constant cold”.

“I’m feeling really depressed and just sitting around knowing every day he has off work more junk is coming down. Feel like leaving home,” she admitted.

The pleading message got a lot of sympathetic responses from other grandparents, with one commenting: “Dont worry, we have just moved from a 46 year stay in a big Victorian house, to a smaller flat. Himself did not throw anything ever away and is addicted to s/h bookshops, but we are surviving!”

And one wrote: “Our loft, spare room and garage are full of mostly [dear daughter’s] stuff but [dear husband] does have piles of magazines going back 30 yrs. And other things he won’t part with.”

However another user reminded the woman how lucky she is that her husband is being organised, writing that she herself is a widow and relies on other people coming in to help her.

“At least your [dear husband] is clearing out well ahead. I am expecting to move this month and I only got some help from my [dear son] to clear the loft and cellar last month and this week my [dear brother] helped clear more from the cellar,” she said.

“I’m exhausted, asthmatic and arthritic! I’m beginning to see why some people stay in the same house and leave their [dear children] to clear the house after they die!”