Hoarding?

Hi all,

First of all, my name isn't Gary, it's a name I use so friends and family don't find my posts.

I've got a problem, potentially with hoarding. When I was younger I was messy. My room was always a disgrace. Now I'm much older and nothing has changed. It's like I hoard things, but it's unintentional. It's not like I actively collect things but I still have a lot of rubbish through the house.

I finally realized there may be a problem after my friend brought over DVDs of Hoarders and we sat down and watched them for entertainment. My friend was going "isn't that disgusting?? How can anyone live like that?!" and we watched for a few hours but I didn't see anything wrong with it. After a few hours he said "dude, it's like your room" then we went into my room and he was right... But I still didn't see anything wrong with it.

I sat down and thought about it and realized its not normal. It only clicked when a female friend sent me a photo of her looking happy in her bedroom of her new house. I thought "wish my house was like that"

I tried cleaning parts of it and realized old bills under all the mess from 1999. It took 4 days and I still only got 1/3 through and that's just one room. The entire house stinks also.

My house is so embarrassing it's stopped me having friends over for 15 or so years.

Please help me, I don't know what to do. I don't want to keep living like this.

It will take alot of work to clean your house just bash on with going through it, one room at a time. Do a little every day. You will get there and have a nice clear, clean space to be proud of.
Your friend when they brought that DVD around obviously cares about you, and wanted to get a message across.
And they succeeded!
The important question is why, why do you hoard?
Could you tell your doctor, speak to a therapist about this they might been able to help you understand the reasons for your hoarding.