Hoarding

Annen1014

Is hoarding typical of ALZ? When my mother started hoarding I thought it was because she realized what she had lost and didn't want to lose more, even though things have little to do with cognition or mobility. My DH was a child in Budapest on WWII and suffered real malnutrition and deprivation. Now he not only hoards food, but useless household things. maybe useless to us , but worth something to someone else. I try to donate them  and he retrieves them from the donation bags. Does anyone have a similar situation?

toolbeltexpert

Annon welcome to the forum. Your not alone, yes that is a part of this disease. Probably most of us grew up with parents who know what hard times were. I just cleaned out the hundreds of plastic containers my dw saved. And the food thing is very common. I am sure there will be others here who have some similar experiences.

Faith,Hope,Love

Hi Annen and welcome.  It's good to have you here.  My DH suffers from FTD and hoarding is very common.  His specialty at the moment is empty food containers.  I find them stashed away in some of the strangest places.  And, when he's not looking, I pull them out of his hiding places and throw them away.  Since his memory is poor, he doesn't remember stashing them there in the first place.  So, he doesn't realize I'm doing this.

Since your DH is retrieving things from the donation bags, you may have to find a creative way to get around this.  If it's possible, maybe hide the donation bags from him.  Or, maybe you could keep a separate donation bag for the things he would likely retrieve.  Just a thought or two.

Rescue mom

I think the hoarding is very common. I had to throw things out when DH was asleep, or outside. Or friends took him somewhere.

If he did not see me take things, he did not miss them. If he did see me, he’d  bring it all back, plus some. It was slow going to “sneak” like that, but it did work.

I delayed clearing out his closet for ages. I thought sure he’d notice the new space,  and/or miss things and clothes. I was wrong. The shelves and racks were obviously empty (or much less empty), but he never noticed. I was amazed. Others In my support groups have said the same. Just don’t let him see you doing it. 

Belldream

I suspected I'd have to sneak around to help clean up this place,  my goodness it's getting where I can barely walk around. My DH has 3 file cabinets full of stuff, which he's decided to empty and pile everywhere. At one point he had decided to try to organize but he never finished and now it's left to me to figure out. Thank you for this post, so helpful! Not that I have time to add this task but maybe if I tackle a small amount a few times a week I can get some breathing room back.

Crushed

DW was a hoarder from Childhood, so was her father
Her mother was a very famous biochemist.  She died young in 1983  When DWs father died in 2006  we found hundreds of bottles of chemicals She had created stored in his garage and basement, land carefully labeled in her fine hand .  We took them  very carefully to the county hazardous waste disposal.  The man there had a degree in chemistry and was very excited to be handling her materials.  he carefully separated them into those that could be sold for recycling and those at different levels of hazard.  We made his day

Dw saved computers  After DW was diagnosed  I personally junked 37 of her computers, while she cried like Niobe over her children.  We kept 5 she had built and 7 we were using.

 

(Niobe, in Greek mythology, the daughter of Tantalus (king of Sipylus in Lydia) and the wife of King Amphion of Thebes. She was the prototype of the bereaved mother, weeping for the loss of her children)