....heres another one that i like ~Cleaning up is just putting stuff in less obvious places~ ha ha

Hey there, CriticalMass?!
Your logic could be quite accurate! Something i noticed just yesterday was that my super-hoarder handyman/mechanic makes me terrified of my mess getting worse cuz of his tendency to work that way on my place, and my germaphobe friend and my chemical sensitive friend id never let here without it being WAY better, so im actually effected by both extremes in a positive way. It got me realizing i feel comfortable with my friend here who has a moderate amount of mess...ha ha
I absolutely know id extend invitations to the clean-freaks if my place were better! :D

I thought of something that might explain some of my observation. Get ready to chuckle. I think I probably have more non-hoarder people in my circle than I realize, but I tend to hang out way more with the hoarder ones! :D I bet there is some fear of being judged by the neat people in there.

Perhaps there's more reverse snobbery on my part than I realized also. I'll admit I tended to go with the popular slogans like "A clean house is the sign of a sick mind/wasted life/dull or boring or uncreative personality/whatever." So there was judgment on my part - mea culpa!

It'll be interesting to see if when I get my hoarding tamed, I feel more comfortable around neat people, both less afraid that they'll judge me, and not feeling tempted to judge them.

Well, i feel almost the reverse on both of those things....i seem to know mostly clean freaks,and even tho i dont have tv, it feels to me like hoarding use to be looked at as an eccentric character thing, but now as more of a mental illness thing...at least thats been my impression....

Hi CriticalMass :)

Good observations.

One thing I have noticed is that since shows like "HOARDERS" have come on the scene
many more people have become educated about the hoarding disorder and are now more sympathetic toward people with hoarding tendencies.
I have seen on TV sitcoms and here in my real life, people using kinder words/actions toward hoarders and many more people who are not afraid to admit that they have issues with hoarding.
Unfortunately, there will always be people who refuse to become educated and will loudly voice their beliefs/opinions about hoarding/hoarders and any other subject they believe themselves to be experts on.
Those people will never change but we can change and not listen to their hateful speech.
:)

Just wondering if you friends here have noticed a similar pattern in your own friendships. I think more of my close friends are hoarders or at least have significant clutter issues than neatniks or in between. One of my friends right now is preparing to move and it may have to happen faster than she'd like. I'm hoping I can help her with some of it, and she has been making progress already. I share things I've learned and she likes them.

Anyway, it just got me musing on how many friends of mine have these issues. Lots of us have had a winding road through life and some heartache, and maybe just too much to do, not enough money to hire help, whatever. So the stuff creeps up on us, and even if we recognize it's a problem, we may be unable to do a whole lot about it very quickly.

Also, we seem to have some personality traits in common: creativity, sensitivity, anxiety, possibly ADHD, depression, loss of loved ones, some were victims of violence or abuse or around people who had addictions at some point, and some have physical health challenges.

I do believe that we have strengths, despite the trials we've been through. We have to find and cultivate those. My hope for all of us - including everyone on these message boards - is that society will be less judgmental so that when we need to ask for help from "regular" non-hoarding folks because we can't do everything ourselves, we can feel comfortable doing so.