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bob102905/04/20255 repliesview on HN

I've been passively downsizing over the last few years just because having a bunch of shit is really fatiguing from an entropy management perspective. Moving it is 10x worse.

If the movers won't answer your calls and your business drives them to bankruptcy, I wonder if maybe the problem exists on the customer side more than the business side.

Hoarders can be extremely difficult people to work with. I've got it in my family and I can feel it in my bones sometimes. There are garages and homes that I will be responsible for cleaning out that will likely take me multiple days to complete even with an army of paid help.


Replies

twodave05/04/2025

This is such an understated take IMO. In our house we are constantly moving things out to reduce clutter, get rid of unneeded items and, maybe most of all, eliminate the stress of just knowing they’re there. Sometimes we get rid of something we later realize we needed. It’s pretty rare, but when it happens it’s almost never anything expensive. How do you put a price tag on your stress level, though? Just get rid of it and spend the $20-50 if you cut a bit too deep. A few “lessons” like that and you’ll be way more in tune with what you actually need. It’s been years since we had to “rebuy” anything at all.

I still think moving again would be daunting, just because we are a family of 6 and there’s no way to move that much furniture easily, much less all the things that fill that furniture. But at least if it happens we don’t have to move a bunch of trash we can’t easily discern the need for.

EDIT: also “getting rid of stuff” doesn’t necessarily mean throwing it away. If you’re willing to give things away there are a lot of people out there who could actually use the things you’re not. Clothes, kitchen gadgets, kids’ toys… especially toys, we have our kids pick several items before every birthday/Christmas to give away to make room for whatever the family is about to give them.

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criddell05/04/2025

There's a world of space between hoarder and minimalist and I feel pretty comfortable in the middle. I've been working for 40 years now and have bought a lot of stuff that I get a lot of enjoyment out of. My favorite thing in the world is to have time off work with nothing to do and nowhere to go. I think if I were forced to retire today, I'd have no problem spending the rest of my days puttering around my home.

I don't have the hoarding gene, but I might have the hermit gene...

LorenPechtel05/04/2025

Where is there any indication of hoarding in this situation? The company contracted to provide certain services but wasn't staffed to actually do so, nor well enough equipped to actually accomplish it (lack of packing materials.) How much stuff is being moved is completely irrelevant to this.

The thing is movers have little in the way of repeat business, thus little incentive to treat the customer right.

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globular-toast05/04/2025

Multiple days? A proper hoarder will take multiple months if there's any stuff of value there. If it's just boxes of old milk bottle tops it might be easier. But a proper hoarder will have a box of milk bottle tops right next to a box of expensive tools or something.

I've done the minimal lifestyle and found it tiring too. I got myself into a state where I wouldn't have any nice things because I would always be thinking it's one more thing to move when I inevitably do. But I don't want to move. I like being in one place and having a home. Hoarding is not the way, but it's ok to have this too.

pfdietz05/04/2025

When we last moved we spent months discarding an enormous quantity of crap that had accumulated over 20+ years. It was very liberating, and has led to even more disposal of unneeded stuff since.

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