What separates hoarding and collecting

[RanmyakuIchi's iconRanmyakuIchi]

It's a few different factors for me. A collection consists of items you are passionate about or bring joy, while hoarding consists of things you have no emotional attachment to. Getting way too carried away with collecting to the point that it negatively impacts your quality of life also veers into hoarding territory.

Another thing, for me at least, is how presentable or "respected" the items in question are. Passionate collectors tend to take care of (or should imo) their stuff, keeping it clean and presentable, whereas a hoarder tends to just let them pile up and collect dust.

 

[SoraSquood]

It's a few different factors for me. A collection consists of items you are passionate about or bring joy, while hoarding consists of things you have no emotional attachment to. Getting way too carried away with collecting to the point that it negatively impacts your quality of life also veers into hoarding territory.

Another thing, for me at least, is how presentable or "respected" the items in question are. Passionate collectors tend to take care of (or should imo) their stuff, keeping it clean and presentable, whereas a hoarder tends to just let them pile up and collect dust.

I was just about to bring up that last bit.

A collector tends to keep it clean, organized. It could look a bit cluttered, but ultimately everything is in its proper place and there's still ample room to move around and look...well, normal.

A hoarder just makes their house look like a walk-in dumpster.

 

[fake-kun]

Simple. You collect because you want to, you hoard because you have to.

 

[Patches]

The way you organize. It is natural in most modern conditions to hoard things it is basically our meaning for life in modern times. The way you organize your things and having the control to wait for more things until you have a way to organize those things. If you had a tupperwear bin full of gameboys you are hoarding gameboys, but if you had a storage place for that even if you buried it in your yard neatly would be better than having gameboys covering your dining table or counters if you have those things the way a hoarder would.

 

[chxshire22]

all great points which reminds me that i have to go clean my room lol it's definitely looking like a storeroom rn.

also one of the reasons i asked was because most of the stuff i want to buy or collect are what people consider "junk" like the nes console's condition is unknown but i wish to give it new life again someday, i have multiple psp consoles waiting to be repaired and given away or sold to a friend, i'm picking up 3ds consoles to repair as well to sell.

the boombox i was planning to buy doesn't turn on either (now canceled the seller raised the price by another $100 for literal junk because i showed interest), i wanted to do a repair and swap out the 8d batteries to rechargeable batteries from old laptop / phone batteries

i have a little hobby in tinkering and it feels like my room is turning into a minor workshop

definitely will have to keep in mind and make sure everything is neat and tidy, everything has its place, and purposefully kept.

i have a friend who i think has a hoarding disorder for tech as well - his room is a mess, he sleeps on a mattress that he props up against the wall when not in use.

he does the same thing - collects old junk from electronic dumpsites and repairs them, electrical bicycles, laptops, cameras, game consoles, even random cables, i saw him picking up a random 3-core cable off the trash. but he just keeps them afterwards accumulating at home.

i suppose i can do something similar, but as long as it's not in excess, and not mindless collecting it should be fine? just give old tech new life, and sell/give them away once i've satisfied my addiction to tinker with gadgets

 

[King Koopa's iconKing Koopa]

Collecting is the feeling of wanting something. Hoarding is the feeling of needing it.

 

[Antilocal123]

Idk man I don't do that nerdy shit. /j

 

[Ikagura]

They're the same but one is more socially acceptable.