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Hi. I'm 17 years old, for whatever that's worth, and I watched the Hoarders TV show years ago. I've noticed over the years that my parents have hoarding tendencies but never to the extent that I saw in the TV shows. Due to that, I never really registered that there was a problem. I live in a pretty large house - 3 floors - but recently, I've felt this overbearing sense of being stifled and cluttered. I attributed that to growing up, but it took the frank words of some of my friends I invited over to realize that my parents are/on the verge of being hoarders. Now, my two younger siblings are adopting those same procrastination/hoarding habits and I am, too, in my own ways. My parents don't have a cleaning problem. We clean all the time. There are no roaches/mold/etc. everywhere. However, they have a huge problem with organizing and parting with other nondegradable trash. As I've said, I've noticed these tendencies for years. 4 years ago, I got my parents to see that keeping documents such as bills, receipts from the past 18+ years was a complete waste of space and we spent 4 days shredding documents that weren't completely necessary and recycling them. However, there is a host of other objects that my parents refuse to part with. One example is old school materials (homeworks/quizzes/projects) from me and my two siblings. I understood why they would want to keep some of my materials at first since I was the oldest and thus my materials could serve as reference for the other two. I got them to understand that since most of the homeworks/projects these days are stored on our computers, we could afford to throw those out. However, workbooks, even those from pre-K, are a no-go. My youngest sibling is 13 years old, so I asked why we kept such old books. Their response was that they had some sentimental value and that my mother's niece's family in Taiwan would be moving to America at an unspecified time and since she has a 3 year old child, he may need it. Actually, a lot of the excuses my parents give regard that family. We have baby clothing and shoes (a lot of them broken) that my mother refuses to donate/sell/throw away since the baby might need it. We have tons of old furniture since those relatives are poor and won't be able to afford much (even though one of the tables embeds in your hands several splinters if you touch it).
Another reason my parents give about not parting with old objects is that they could be valuable one day and we can sell them off at a high price. Thus we have a 1988 computer collecting dust in the middle of the study and laughably some McDonald's Happy Meal toys, etc. that could be "valuable" one day.
Newspapers we order and hold until our uncle who doesn't order that newspaper comes by and takes them to read so we save money (Chinese subscription).
Maps and encyclopedias that are completely irrelevant/chockful with incorrect information with new discoveries.
Toileteries/paper towels kept in the closet while my mother steals rolls from her company (not allowed, she knows) for us to use.
Paper with watermarks on one side that my mother's company would recycle which she brings home so we could use as scrap paper (we have piles upon piles of these).
I'm sorry, to those that read everything above. By now, I'm rambling. Anyhow, recently, since it's summer, I've tried organizing everything/throwing things that we or anyone wouldn't possibly need out. However, even though my siblings/parents recognize that there is a problem with all the clutter, they refuse to help and get angry if I move anything out of place from the "organized madness" even though they have no idea where I found the object I'm moving until I tell them.
By this point I'm fed up, but I have no idea how to continue.
Thank you in advance for any help.
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