When does a large collection become hoarding?

I can't tell you the exact order. Some are listed that way, but some are not. So what? I don't care. Why should anyone else? They're all loved.

 

No offense taken, and you are definitely entitled to your opinion. It's when that opinion is stated as a specific measure of Problem/No Problem that things get dicey.

The thing is...BJD collecting really isn't "more special" than any other collection. It's just happens to be more special to this specific group, just as collecting model trains is "more special" to that type of collector. I've met many a collector that was just as actively involved in their collections as we ever could be (you should see some of the train people, I know of one that has an entire room set up as a country mountain scene that goes up and down on pulleys to display their collection...it's awesome). However, having things that are special to you and you don't want to part with still does not mean you have a problem, and it definitely doesn't mean you're a hoarder. I think it's the base of what makes a collector. Which I am.

ahyu, that's the unfortunate nature of doll boxes, and I personally wouldn't really consider that "hoarding". Many people find it difficult to get rid of them because if you do resell, people expect/want the original box, so you're kinda stuck. I filled a whole truck bed with boxes in my last move, now they occupy the guest bedroom closet, and before that they took up most of the crawlspace that is laughingly called an attic here. Maybe you can put them in your attic? That way you'd get your closet back.

 

My opinion is: if you happen to go through your closet/shelf/bedroom/wherever you keep your dolls and stumble upon a doll that makes you go "Oh hey! I don't remember buying this one!", you may be close to hoarding. I only say this because this is a pretty expensive hobby so I think it would be hard to forget when you spent money.

 

Oooh, so very true. I have reshelled and/or changed some characters. And here's a doozy -- I've some head and body combinations where the head and body arrived at different times (I've been doing a lot of taking apart and recombining doll parts lately). It does make purchase order difficult to figure out. Usually I go by headsculpt, but it is kind of a funky situation. So often things just are not clear cut.

 

Lol just tried the order names companies test and did quite well...

Untill i realised i have one characther/doll that came to me as a modded hybrid in a trade. First i replaced the head with the original unmodded sculpt and sold the modded head. Then I got the hybrid body its original head and after a few years sold that doll. Now i have the head waiting for its original body. That one really mixed me up, there is no part of the original doll in there, but she's still Florence to me.


Completly different question, a lot off people mention forgetting what they own as part of hoarding behavior. I always believed that that was part of owning much stuff and that the true hoarder tends to remember EVERYTHING and gives to much meaning to useless objects and thus can not trow it away (Like: "i can not possibly dismiss this paper cup cause its from the first time i went to mcDonalds with my last boyfriend" or "can not trow this gift wrapper away cause it was on a gift by my beloved aunt Edna", were everyone else would have tossed the object without thinking on the occasion).

 

OMG. I used to do that. I kept every single birthday and Christmas and [insert holiday here] card. I still have some memory books I need to get the gumption to throw away but they have some painful stuff in there that are sorta hard to get rid of because it's like telling that kid she doesn't count. I think rather than tossing it, I should cut pieces out and scrapbook it.

But I used to do that, and I could recall everything about everything until the accident. It was creepy.

 

O honey, i did not mean to confuse or upset anyone with that. There is nothing wrong with holding onto mementoes, as long as youre not in knee deep and youre not getting mentally attached to every coffeecup stirrer* you used in youre life.


If there is anything i hoard, its eyes. I have sooo many eyes. Mainly 6-8 mm ones, so they dont take up much space, but i think i have over 40 pairs.

* unless, off course, you feel strangely attracted to the magical world of coffee stirrers and want to collect those.

 

I have five dolls and two heads and I don't know for sure in what order I bought them and I usually buy my dolls a year after I've received my last. I just don't care about it I guess. Love my dolls as much as ever though.

 

when you're obsessed with it.

 

I think it becomes hoarding when it affects other things you want to do in your life.
I don't mean you have to reorganize to clear a place to put them, or decide to go on a smaller vacation because you wanted to spend money on dolls instead, those are controlled desions.
When you can't do something else you would like to do, but can't because you have so many dolls, or "have" to buy more dolls, then it's become a problem.
For myself drawing is my other passion, so if my dolls, either by being in the way themselves, or their stuff, was preventing me from doing that by physically stopping me because I would have to move them to get to my paper or something, then I think I would be hoarding.

 

I think the hight of my obssession was the days before i bought my first. Really was online 24/7 to make sure i was not going to regret this and was getting the right one.

 

I also don't care. I have about 29 full dolls of which some have extra heads (same mold, different face-up for different expressions of the same character) that I bought at different times. I have several hybrids of which the heads and bodies arrived on different dates. I have switched bodies between dolls, because that looks better. I have traded dolls and I have sold dolls. In the past 4.5 years I've seen over 35 dolls and parts arrive and some of them are gone or only the head or body stayed.

Imagine this: "I ordered my first doll on the 27th of October 2006 and it arrived the 29th of December 2006. I ordered my second doll the 12th of January 2007 on layaway, on the 8th of February 2007 the company told me my doll was ready to ship and I only needed to finish paying off which I did on the 30th of March that year and my doll arrived on... [30+ dolls and doll parts later] ... with my latest doll arriving on 26th of June this year."

I really have something better to do with the storage space in my brain. I know where I store my dolls and which dolls I have which is good enough for me. I'd rather remember the birthdays of friends and family and other important dates that are related to real people.

 

Yes! That is exactly WHY God gave us Post-It notes. They're portable hard-drives. If I had to fill up my valuable cortexes with 32 arrival dates, there would be no room left for song lyrics, phone numbers, or old Monty Python routines.

 

I think as long as it is something that is manageable it is not hording. I currently have six dolls and I have 12 on the way...geez how did that happen?! So when they all arrive it'll be 18 dolls plus I'll have three heads that will need bodies so once I get bodies for them that'll make 21 and I still have six dolls I'd love absolutely love to order....however I don't just order them to order them, they all have a role in one of the two stories I'm working on...and that is why they were ordered so I had my characters and would have inspiration for my story. Yes, it is a lot, and yes I've spent a ton of money on them and sometimes I regret how much I spent on them, but....in the end I am glad I have them. I doubt I would ever forget any of their names and they get far more use then my porcelin dolls ever did. Those are still all in their boxes How sad. I've contemplated on selling them but it'd break my mother's heart since she is the one who bought them for me....but now I feel like I have nothing to do with them....there's maybe two or three out of 40 that I'd keep....and it'd make sooooo much room for my BJDs....I believe when I was in my teens I was hoarder of those type of dolls....40 is just waaaaay too much for me. I doubt I'd ever get more than 35 BJDs. That's probably my limit...but...21 dolls in one year...yeah....I may come back at edit that 35 next year lmao.

 

I have been a doll collector of many different types of dolls since I was 4 years old and am now in my 30's. so you can imagine I have quite a little collection. I personally joke about my life mission being to end up on an episode of hoarders. My collection does consist of some sit and look pretty dolls but most of my dolls are used in photography and inspiration for writing and other creative outlets. The only person who has ever said anything about me being a hoarder is my 7yr old niece and this was only after her father made her watch hoarders because she refuses to throw old school work.
There is plenty room for my dolls and they make me happy so I think that is all that matters.

 

I've been accused of hoarding dolls in general, becasue I don't want to give any away. I've only just gotten my first BJD's this summer, but by the end of the year I will have 4 dolls. However I still have all of the dolls I had in during my childhood as well, ie BabyBorn, AmericanGirl, Barbie etc.

So although my Barbies are in a box in the attic and I don't really ever look at them, I don't want to give them away, or dispose of them in any other way becasue I really loved those dolls. But my BJD's have a place on my shelf and are frequently taken down and sat on my desk and dressed and changed and photographed. If I ever get tired of them or decide to leave the hobby, I would probably put them in a box and keep them instead of selling them becasue of the attachment I have to them now.
I don't consider what I'm doing to be hoarding, I simply really like dolls! I'm not a neat person, my room is always a mess, but I try to make sure that dolls are well taken care of.

I don't have excessively many dolls, I can't afford to have excessively many dolls, and I don't have the space to have excessively many dolls. For while I consider having more than ten dolls too many, becasue I think I would not be able to spend time with each of them as they would deserve it, I think it's ok to have as many dolls as you can afford and have space for, especially if you are doing stuff with them, or have been collecting for years.

 

You are only a doll hoarder if:
1. You live in fear that the wall of dolls will fall on you and crush you with no way to get out.
2. There are only tiny paths in your home to walk through the dolls stuff.
3. You can't find your bed, sofa, table, ect. for all the dolls and doll stuff.
At that point you have a problem!

 

I don't have any yet so I guess I couldn't be called one. However, I have over 100 teddy bears. My friend calls my collections hoarding, I only plan on having no more than 5 dolls.

 

Interesting topic!I think there is at least one definite measure. It's hoarding when true living priorities are being prevented ~ like sanitation, safety, sleeping. Maybe shame counts, if it is to the point of not wanting another human to see how many/or HOW you keep your dolls and their goodies displayed and stored.

Or does it become a problem because of being
unable to ^^ dispose of things = disposophobia -- Kind of a twin I guess to hoarding?

OR, is a baby going without milk because of a recent doll purchase?

If YOU want to go without other things, that should be OK. I think it is only a problem if you are actually hurting yourself. Would we say hoarding/addiction are the same? Addiction is when that is the ONLY thing an addict can really get any pleasure from, and they sacrifice maybe even personal integrity by stealing and other demeaning actions because of a need to get whatever their "junk" is that makes them a "junkie".

Would hoarding be measured by the amount of dolls, or amount of money spent, especially compared to how other available money is spent in a person's life? Or measured by the space you have to keep the dolls? If you have a three story loft for displaying them...does that make the hoarding limit larger?


By the way, I really do have, [somewhat of] a problem with compulsive hoarding. It is not uncommon for artistic, intelligent @_@ people. Heh. It does show in my rapid, laarrrgeee collection of wonderful dolls.


A tidy person might have triple the amount but it could look like less of an issue than an "organizationally challenged" person with a lot less. Clutter tolerance is kind of a personal issue. Clutter blindness is part of a real hoarder's problem.

Is it about discomfort? OCD NEATNESS compulsion on one side -- over to the other end of the spectrum...buried alive {or, eek! being crushed to death} because of not being able to stop the buying/keeping as a compulsion. Just how many dolls would that take anyway?

DOES IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE??? --->>> if it is DOLLS and their goodies that a person hoards? Compared to other things?

Another factor, false guilt?
People pleasing,,,lots of people just don't approve of collecting even two bjd, so if you want to let someone else decide for you if you are in a hoarding mode, who is going to be the truly objective judge?

My apologies if I've rambled too long or off topic. IS this hoarding words? ^0^ Oh noes....

 

All very interesting contributions!

We can't measure hoarding in amount of dolls because we simply don't know if that person with 50+ dolls can accommodate that many or not. Can they easily navigate their house, or are they sleeping in their car because they can't find their bed beneath so many dolls? Do they receive visitors regularly, and do these people comment about the collection? What is their relation to this person (do they always butt heads, do they usually quarrel over many things?).

I think people sometimes mistake hoarding as only an acquiring problem. While it definitely has roots in buying or acquiring things, it also focuses on letting go. I guess you could maybe think about it as hoarding if a person has a ton of BJDs, and only a few they actually like. When someone asks them why not give them away or sell them, the person doesn't want to. If asked about what they're going to do with dolls they don't want, they give an uncertain reply. Of course, they could have a thing about selling items (like they'd rather toss them than sell them to someone else, but because they're so expensive, they'd rather just keep them), that would require looking into. People are not perfectly textbook.

^That's when I'd probably say one should seek the advice of a Mental Health professional. If you are very concerned that you might be a hoarder or if you're very concerned about your doll-buying habits, a Mental Health professional can tell you if - and explain why - you are or aren't a hoarder.

But you can also blame TV a little for partially misleading people about certain disorders. People see a hoarding show and immediately think that there are people in their lives who are hoarding. Some of this might turn out to be true, but a lot of people don't think to further research mental disorders when they believe the portrayal in TV shows. People don't think that TV can stretch the truth about disorders, but they do. TV likes to show the extreme of most behaviors - it's what makes good TV... and there's bound to be someone in everyone's life who sees a few episodes of Hoarders and believes they're an expert on the disorder.

I think I'm starting to see another possible reason why TV shows choose to portray certain mental disorder symptoms and disregard others. If you see a person compulsively cleaning things, what do you usually assume the person has? If you see a person portrayed as suicidal, do you instantly understand they're suffering from depression? I think that TV show audiences have grown "comfortable" with the portrayal of certain disorders. It's easy to see that a person with depression could be suicidal, but how do you get people to fully understand a character who isn't depressed that badly? Disorders have to translate to the audience, and writers usually have characters portray the same extreme symptoms. Thus the audience doesn't think that these disorders are more complex.