Mum is not a full hoarder, but a pack-rat.
My mother is a bit of a pack rat. She has a few things that separate her from a hoarder. Her sis is a hoarder. Book cases in the basement full of bubble bath containers kind of clutter. But Mum's just poor at getting rid of things.
I recently had to move back into my parent's house with the Mr. and our baby due to money problems. They gave us their room, and took my old room, which was nice since my room was smaller. But of course, this means I must also share the room with items she does not wish to part with. In this room? One fancy roll-top desk with no chair, full of stationary, coins, and disposable cameras. A large sectional computer desk (yes, two desks in this room) that luckily, they let me set up one of our computers at. Sadly we can't use the drawers or cupboards attached to it. There is also a small armoire full of sweaters, a jewelry armoire, and FOUR book cases containing 500-600 books. Luckily, this room boasts a gorgeous and large closet. Unluckily, she still uses this closet, and my father has cleared out most of his closet in their room for us to use.
This is purely our own room, there are other places in the house where we wish we had more space as well. Giving us the house for the summer since they spend it out of town at their summer home, I was hoping we could have more of a chance to make ourselves comfy. But she really is rigidly against our attempt to streamline our temporary arrangement.
Her fridge is stocked with wines that she doesn't drink, her freezer has forgotten pieces of meat from 2009 in them, her pantry has more cans of food than ever needed for two middle aged, non-obese people, and the attic has relics from my childhood and my elder sister's childhood, as well as the basement being filled with old toys and extra clothes that somebody needs, possibly charity, possibly some for my son and nephew, but not her.
I always offer ways I can rearrange the house to fit my computer desk in my own room, while still finding useable places for her books. I offer to go through the toys in the basement, some of which have become flood damaged and need to be cleaned or destroyed, some of which need to be saved for my child, and some need to be donated to a local charity. Though most of the space is taken up by the large amounts of old, sometimes 80s era clothing that nobody wears or needs. Which are occasionally washed and re-piled then forgotten and gradually sorted through, a small bag passing to charity after being cleaned, the rest waiting until it gets musty and dank in the basement once again, requiring another cleaning as the pile grows but seldom shrinks.
The one thing I do not mind is her love of plants. Every free window in the house is full of healthy, though slightly mismanaged plants due to the sheer amount of them and the fact she's away for the summer months. And is nice of my mother and my father to let me stay, so I fear I can't be too harsh on her item saving tendencies. It's rough not having a job and being forced to move across country to have a place to stay, and she didn't have to be so accommodating. I just wish she could realize that she does not need to save entire newspaper pages if all she needs is the small, clippable recipe on it, or that maybe she does not need over 1000 books total, though she has read all of them, and does re read most of them slowly throughout the years.
I am very glad she recycles. For all the cans of food she has in the pantry and newspaper articles she has saved, she does recycle everything she doesn't need(need in her eyes), she does eventually donate clothes that are old and no longer fit, provided she phones and gets the "yes mother PLEASE GET RID OF IT" from the daughter it belonged to. I just feel a little boxed out from this house, and it's the one I grew up in. Haven't lived here for 6 years and now I feel a bit of a stranger.

I just hope she'll at least let me move a book case or something, so I can at least properly feed my addiction to technology and set up mine and the Mr.'s computers and LAN them together. So I can go back to doing here what I did as a teen, being reclusive in my bedroom at my computer, ignoring the problem and lurking on B3ta as I used to..
Though to be fair, I am a video games collector and I have reserved one, single book case in which I have many games, many of which I(and of course the Mr.) have played and enjoyed. But now that I have the kid, it feels that those items are slowly becoming a useless hoarding items too. Though to go with the base of the QOTW, I DO have Windows 95 on floppy, of anybody needs it. My parents kept it. They use Linux.
(LakAttack, Mon 7 May 2012, 8:14, 4 replies)

Sort yourselves out and stop imposing on your parents.
(MayorBoris, Mon 7 May 2012, 9:39, closed)

Of course she doesn't *need* a thousand books.
But you have to be a bit of a dullard to think that the value of a book corresponds to its being needed.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 7 May 2012, 14:09, closed)

tldr

( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Mon 7 May 2012, 22:31, closed)

On a slightly more serious note, you seem to be hoarding masses of text in a confined space.
If you end every sentence with a line break and put a paragraph break between every sentence, you'll stand more chance of hoarding clicks on the "I like this!" button instead.
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Mon 7 May 2012, 22:46, closed)