I'm no hoarder but I can see where cartoon lady comes from, it's still a perfectly good lid and straw. Maybe the problem is our society making so many useful things that are meant to be single use disposable trash thrown out rather than reused
this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2026
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I think pathological hoarding behavior stems from anxiety rooted in trauma (loss of a loved one, neglect, etc), or something like that. A hoarder might say they're just being frugal or environmentally conscious but that's a surface level rationalization.
Being desperately poor in childhood or adult life can lead to this also.
Real my parents were hoarders and it was all poverty. Thankfully only 1 room was the dedicated junk room, but it was a combo of saving things that would be useful (which did happen), things that were no longer used but functional, and broken stuff. Broken stuff either wasn't discarded because it was large and involved a trip to the dump or because there was an intent to repair.
It's just sad that I remember how it was before it got to that point. 08 really changed everything
I think it's a natural adaptation to want to save useful items. It makes perfect sense, but our modern society just has so much garbage and waste. Then sometimes things get wired wrong and then they're hoarding marbles and soda pop tops.
I do agree that trauma has an impact as well. Just some people are predisposed.
People who hoard baubles now would have been out in the forest gathering armloads of berries 100,000 years ago. Itβs sad how modern life turns these things into problems via consumerism
nah the impact on the environment would often be much larger if we continued to ship containers back and forth.
for example to recycle plastic (and doing it properly, in a practical scenario, with real-life circumstances), you'd essentially have to invest more energy than it takes to just burn it and produce new plastic instead.
For thermoplastics, you just need to heat it up again to make whatever you want. You're not using any more energy than used when the plastic was first made.
Thermoset plastics can't be melt down so they're instead broken down into smaller pieces.
and even the stiff you wanna keep, such as furniture and clothing, is made cheappy as if to be disposed
Don't hoard stiffs, just bury em.
i meant to say 'stuff'
I would bring my own cup to restaurants if they let me. Also they always give me a straw I wonβt use, they should at least ask if I want more trash.
I keep old paper coffee cups and their lids. I get 3-4 more uses out of them before they fall apart. Nothing like brewing your own coffee at home and walking with it to the station
"you can literally buy a thermos for the same purpose" I hear you say, but a thermos can't be scrunched slightly and put in your pocket after its finished like a paper cup can. Plus there's no worry if you lose it, because you know it's junk
You are aware you're supposed to suck liquid into your body through a straw, right? Like, inside it. And you'd do that with a random straw on a pawn shop shelf?
It's a funny joke, but plz remember that hoarding is actually a serious mental illness
not if you do it properly -- little acrylic containers sorted by use and function on the immediate shelves. The larger stuff (e.g boilers) can be tricky, but as long as you stack them properly and have at 2-3 of the same type instead of 10 different ones, then you're doing alright
Do you destroy a row if it is filled horizontally?
Username checks out.
filling a row is the cats pajamas, daddy-o
I'm a hoarder for "useful" things. I control it by using containers as well. Those really cheap shoeboxe totes are great.
I had a giant box of cables. Used those boxes to sort types. Decide I don't need 10 extra component cables, PC power cables, headphone, odd USB, etc.
I pick a threshold for each type and toss/strip for wire.
Also. Please throw away any ethernet cables with the clip snapped off...
You can recrimp them though
You don't want to crimp store bought cables. Thin ass wire coatings. If I want to crimp a cable I got a box of ethernet to make custom length.
That said I only crimp when I need to do a run and always keystone a wall jack where I can. It helps I've got loads of premade.
I used to worry about the quality of the cables until I realised just how forgiving copper really is -- which is very, and that it's not 1's and 0's going down the wire, but timed analog voltages and a PHY on the end that does a ton of guesswork
Now I just slap one jack onto another without fretting. I treat Cat8 cables with the some lack of reverance I treat Cat6 with
maybe you don't want to. i still enjoy crimping cables.
i see sometimes some solid examples of hoarding. (as a firefighter). we used to call them βCollyer mansionsβ.
rarely is it poop or animals and whatnot. most often itβs books and newspapers. sometimes itβs βi run an ebay storeβ and i have to remind them their house is bulging and gonna fall in. always there are bugs. lots of bugs.
sad mental illness for sure.
it makes it very hard to get in and search or rescue or sadly recover when rescue wonβt happen.
while super true, also: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=mcdlt+container
while true, that doesn't cover 40 years of accumulated storage costs
That's true, multiplied by the toll of a hoarding mentality.
So, 1-2 dollars in todayβs money?
Back in my shudder pop vynil collecting days, I thought I was smart to try and get all of those gold avergers funk pops.
Yes, I figured that other collectors figured that out too, so I was even bigger brained, and thought " " if I get ALL 19?20? I can't remember of them, I can sell it in a bundle, I can get even more money " "
As of 2026, I sold drum roll please either Groot, or Ant Man. For sure only 1 of them...
I love how this is formatted so you get engaged before it becomes a thought bubble. Brilliant.
Me with my box of cables. You never know when I might need that Parallel or PS/2 cable, and then wonβt you be glad I saved it
retro computing is a thing. and it's getting more popular with the rising cost of everything. personally I have like 4 boxes of "dad cables"
The way to find if you'll ever need that cable is to throw it out. I call this Heisenberg's Uncertainty Cable.
Every. Single. Time. Clean out the box? Inevitably βoh I have a cable for this, let me go get it.β βOh right, I tossed itβ
Honestly, when I do come across some ephemeral junk from 30+ years ago, it is kind of a delight. Even tho the object itself usually serves no purpose now.
Yeah, my room is a mess, why do you ask? <.<
The bubbles aren't even popped! That'll go for top dollar.
Ooh, for 10-20 million dollars I might be able to eat out once!
You know, I live in an area where there's randomly only paper straws and that really hard plastic lids at places.
I do really miss those perfect straws and the soft plastic lids. But I'm not gonna save them. The power of excess and ignorance and being able to throw something like that away, only to have effectively infinite more to replace it next time IS satisfying, and I miss that.
I've written about the science and engineering that goes into McDonald's' Coke, the ice, the water, the straw (omg the straw...), the carbonation, the fountain itself, the portioning in relation to the salt in the food, the syrup, and even the progressive changes in flavor as you get closer to finishing your meal and drink and the ice melts. There's so much that goes into it. Even if I'm the consumer on an assembly belt, a feedpig in a line of faceless feedpigs, I find the effort they've put in to maximize enjoyment absolutely incredible.
However, in the end, it's right to do what's right. We must move on and figure out better ways. McDonald's is now an evil company, it's garbage food, overpriced (I looked the other day: nine dollars USD for just a mcrib sandwich!!!), and terrible for you. It's time to find greener pastures and let it go. Support local, progressive businesses, as it's better for you, better quality, and weirdly also cheaper than right wing corporate industrifeed places like mcdonalds. Even a decent Vietnamese Bahn Mi is untouchable and is absolutely full of fresh vegetables and other fresh ingredients.