When does a large collection become hoarding?

I don't think anyone can quantify a point beyond which collecting turns into hoarding - it is impossible to generalize due to individual circumstances, including living space, emotional health, mental problems, etc. Hoarding is a serious illness, and is nowhere near in the same league as being a collector, a "pack rat" or having a cluttered house.

I have a rather large doll collection. I currently have 27 BJDs, though only 8 of them are SD-sized, with more on the way. However, I absolutely despise clutter, and my house has a surprisingly large percentage of free space given my dolly collecting habits. My dolls are displayed in an organized fashion and all reside in the den, which is also our computer room. Overall, I'm very happy with my collection and the way it is displayed. For me, the "too many dolls" point will occur when I can no longer organize my collection such that each doll has enough personal space in the den, while still maintaining plenty of space for our desks and other office furniture. If I acquire more SDs, I may reach that point sooner

 

it depends on where you live and things like this.
for example my mother thinks one doll is already too much! XD

 

I like to collect different dolls at different times in my life. I likely have too many right now but also have a full time job and life and selling a doll takes more time than buying a new one. I like the search aspect and the fun of getting new dolls. My doll room is a bit overflowing now with my new love of BDJ but I am determined to stay organized and YES sell a few older dolls.

As a few folks have said above, hoarding is a real illness. Recently my mother in law ( a ripe 93 years old) had to be taken out of her home to a nursing home. She had become ( amonst other disorders) a hoarder to the extent you see on these TV shows. She stoped paying her taxes and utilities. You cannot open her door because it presses against piles of bags of material and books and other things. Rooms are so full of bags ( 4-6 feet deep in every room) that you walk on them, climb over them cannot get into rooms. Her house has been condemed. She does not see the reality of what she was living in and would not let anyone in to see what was happening. She could not get to her bed or even her bedroom so she slept on the bags. She is getting help now. So real hoarding is way beyond doll collecting I think. But yes, I probably should sell a few of my dolls and have some empty shelves.

 

When does a BJD owner become a BJD Hoarder?
I think a BJD owner becomes a BJD hoarder when they can't remember all of their dolls names. It sounds silly, but I think if that ever happened that would mean they have too many. I also picture a room full of dolls and doll boxes being a BJD hoarder. I think it would only become a problem if the person does not have room for their dolls, boxes, and accessories. If someone can all of their doll things arranged neatly without a big mess... I don't see how I could call that hoarding, I think that would just be called collecting.

Have you been accused of being a doll hoarder, or possibly even thought you may be? and on what grounds?
I only own two dolls, I just finished one on layaway (being sent to me soon!) and I will be getting another one soon. I don't think I have enough dolls to be considered a hoarder, and no one has called me one yet. However when I first got into the hobby, my parents thought every doll I said was "pretty" meant that I wanted it. They accused me of being obsessed with the dolls at the beginning, but eventually they realized that the reality was I did not want every doll I thought was pretty. Now they understand my goals for my "hobby."

 

My mom is always calling me & my sisters by each other's names. Sometimes she even calls us by HER sisters' names first, before she gets back to the right generation. It doesn't mean she hoards female relatives; it just means she has a scatterbrain for names. Many people do. Name memory is utterly no indicator of OCD/hoarding proclivities.

And similarly, having an empty shelf (just for its own sake) doesn't have any bearing on hoarding disorders, either. It's not a magical indicator of sanity or anything. If you've got the shelf space, why not use it? Shelves aren't there to be empty.

(Besides, you know the saying about how if a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, then an empty desk is...)

 

Apparently your mother and my mother have the same problem. I may have mentioned this before but it's a rare occasion indeed when my name is the first one that comes out of my mother's mouth when in fact it's me she wants.

 

My mother was in the habit of referring to me by the dog's name. Every name in our family, including most pets, ended in the long e sound. I can't tell you how many times she'd be looking straight at me and calling me Beanie or Candy or Sweet Pea.

I have a friend who collects BJDs who cannot remember the company and sculpts of any of her dolls. Her mind simply does not retain that sort of information for any length of time, so she has created flash cards for them to help her when she's asked about them. It does not mean she is a hoarder. Her mind just works differently than others do.

 

My mother sometimes calls her dog by my name, and vice versa Glad to hear she's not the only one!

But, seriously, I second (third? fourth?) that remembering names is not indicative of hoarding... it is indicative of having trouble remembering names. One of the hoarders that I've come in contact with is an Organic Chemistry professor at my old university - the guy is very well known in his field, and if anything, has excellent memory and remembers everyone's name; he's still a hoarder, though.

 

When does a BJD owner become a BJD Hoarder?

My definition of hoarder would include details like thinking about dolls obssessively, or financial irresponsibility in the pursuit of more dolls and doll stuff, or fear of being buried alive under the collection.

Have you been accused of being a doll hoarder, or possibly even thought you may be? and on what grounds?

At last count, I have 11 dolls of varying sizes. My husband was surprised by that number; he lost track around 7. And I wasn't even trying to hide them. I would like to have a couple more and I might surrender one or two one day. I simply have more plans than I have time to play with them. At this point, I do not believe I'm a hoarder of anything.

 

I understand what you mean, but I don't believe I explained myself fully. I don't mean that they get the doll's name wrong and then correct themselves later, I mean that they actually completely forget the name of their dolls. And also I am not including people that have memory loss or other mental illness, medication, or anything that would cause bad memory.

Sorry that was unclear. Lol. I just moved to Louisiana after 20 years of not knowing my relatives very well, and my grandma often calls me the incorrect name. xD

 

But not being able to remember all your doll's names on command STILL doesn't make you a hoarder, that was my point. Poor powers of recall do not a hoarder make. If it's a problem that can be solved with Post-Its instead of medication, it's not hoarding.

It just means you may not have a very good head for names. Or, maybe it means you never got around to making a character for that doll & aren't clear on its name. Or whatever. I've known plenty collectors who name-lapse; their toys' names just aren't the foremost things in their universes.

 

I live in a huge two bedroom apartment with my boyfriend so I don't think space is an issue that would make someone call me a hoarder. I only have 11 dollies and only two of them really have a bedroom. They blend in with my other toys. They often attempt to over-run my living room but they have a shelf there and in my bedroom. I don't think I'm a hoarder at all. Not yet at least.
As for other people... If someone were to live in a studio apartment and had to resort to storing dolly things in their kitchen, I think that would be a bit much...
I don't really like shows like Hoarders because it makes TV addicts see the problems in the people around them. It's annoying...

 

Today, for the first time in my life and totally unexpected, I felt I was almost showing hoarding behavior.

Was searching something else (eyes) and happened upon a pristine, pretty rare BJD priced slightly under half its DOA-marketvalue. This was on a site for completely different dolls, so i think the vendor was unaware of its real value.

In the past I have seen pics of this type of doll often and never even remotely felt any intention to purchase it or any of the dolls from the same company. Looking at the pics of this particular doll did not make my heart go any faster. Still I almost bought it because it was sold cheap and because I could afford it. Not to resell it at a higher price but just to own it.

While my mouse was already on the "buy" button, I remembered this thread and closed the site.

I would like to hear your opinions if you feel this purchase would have been hoarding behavior.

 

No, I don't think it was hoarding behaviour. How many times have you been to the store and seen a really good deal on something you really had no intention of buying before you saw the good deal and then bought it? Everyone does that. I think it's more indicative that our culture praises those who can simultaneously save money and get things. It's something to brag over.

 

Thanks for responding Kim, I thought about that to but to me, it woud have just been a good deal if it was something i even remotely wanted or needed. Getting two boxes of dishwasher tablets which i am going to purchase anyway half price off feels like a good deal to me.

Getting something still highly expensive (multiple hunderds of dollars) that I really dont want or need feels more like hoarding and does not save money.

 

Lots of these random deals that make us feel like we've saved money don't actually save us any money and are often things we will never actually use.

Should you have purchased that doll, you probably would have realized you didn't want it upon receiving it and then would have sold it on. If it caused you actual psychological and emotional distress at the thought of parting with something you otherwise have no feelings for, then yes, maybe it could be indicative of a hoarding tendency. But it really doesn't sound like it to me.

People are just so up in arms about hoarding now thanks to the tv shows sensationalizing it. Honestly, I don't care if a person is a hoarder or has hoarding tendencies. If it is not endangering their life or the well being of others, why does it matter? I am a collector. I come from a family of collectors. We all have large collections of various things that in no way help us actually live, but you know, they make us happy. I love clutter. Those stark empty homes that are so popular now that have nothing in them give me the creeps.

 

@Kim: You mean those chinese style homes, that rather look like a business meeting room or a hotel room rather than a home, where people live in?
My Mom lives in a flat very close to this image. Personally I don't feel at home there, but she is really comfortable with that. And that's ok. We only have problems when she comes visiting. ^^;

 

Not at all. Like Kim mentioned, everyone likes bargains! I bet people do it at regular stores (grocery, department, etc.) without even realizing it. We, as a society, have been conditioned to love bargains, which would explain unneeded discounted purchases. I do this often with clothing in particular - I'll go to a store looking to buy, say, jeans, but then I'll see a blouse for 75% off, and all of a sudden, I need it too, even though I have plenty of blouses. I used to do this with food as well, but I got myself out of that habit after getting a few things on sale that I ended up tossing due to lack of interest in actually eating it

 

I think there's a very thin line between hoarding and collecting, and once you've crossed that line it's obvious.

Parts of my family are unorganized collectors, parts of my fiance's family are actual hoarders. The difference between them are very obvious.
My Mom collects dolls, has no insurance on them incase something happens to them, and they take up two bedrooms in her home, they are sat on her staircase, in her living room, and some find their ways into other rooms. She sometimes can't remember which ones she has verses which ones she's working on for other people. My Mom is an unorganized collector, she's not a hoarder. She's still capable of moving around her home, paying her bills, and she'll sacrifice some of her dolls if something happens and she doesn't have the money to pay for it. She KNOWS what comes first in life and would be willing to sell off majority of her dolls if something happened and she needed to.

My fiance's grandparents are hoarders.
They collect everything, will pick up things off the side of the road, will keep said things in their living room, bedroom, kitchen, on the stove, in the fridge, wherever they lay it. They cannot remember what they have, aren't willing to get rid of it if someone wants it, and cannot physically use whatever it may be laying on. They go out to eat on a nightly basis because they cannot reach their counter tops to make food, they don't know what's sanitary to eat in the fridge and their Church group refuses to help them clean their home (and they aren't willing to get rid of stuff to do it themselves). They need help, they need someone to physically clean out their home for them before their old home consumes them. My Fiance and I do not enter their home in fear that it might not hold them or their collective mess for much longer.

 

O, I have picked things up from the road. For a long time ive been looking for very thin affordable leather to make some red puki boots. But everywhere i see it they require me to buy a relatively massive amount...so when i saw a single red leather glove lying in the gutter.