mother is a packrat

[musicguy]

I'm currently living with my mom (for valid reasons) and ever since we moved out of the apartment 7 years ago. She's collected more and more stuff throughout the years. We can't even have people over at our house because of all of her stuff. Heck, we can't even walk around anywhere without tripping over things. Her mom does the same thing, except for when she does it, she is a packrat in other states (usually where she stays at one of her daughter's houses) Whenever I tell my mom that she has too much stuff in the house, she gets mad at me.

 

Is being a packrat a mental "disease"?

[AwdreeHpburn]

YES!!!

 

I can't recall it right now what ot's called, but it IS a symptom of an OCD type disorder. My mother (and I sort of) have the SAME thing!! It's very hard... I totally feel for you.

[southerngirl]

Yes, in some extreme cases it can be a mental disorder type thing. I have seen this on tv. I feel for ya!

[Iceman26]

I believe it is called "Hoarding".

 

My dad is a huge packrat. Last year I found a newspaper from 1975 in their garage. He gets extremely angry when my mom cleans the house and tries to throw old, useless things away.