For three years I worked for a second hand store, using the companies box truck to both deliver purchases, and pick up donated materials from peoples homes. Th

For three years I worked for a second hand store, using the companies box truck to both deliver purchases, and pick up donated materials from peoples homes. This article reminds me of some of the hoarder houses I came across during that time. Sometimes it was my job to help clean up junk, but usually when I came across a hoarder it was because they found something in our store that they just couldn't live without and wanted it delivered for them. It was always a bit unsettling to come to a hoarders house with more junk for them to pile up and realize that I was contributing to an already out of control mess. I've seen houses that were so packed with crap that the owner literally had to carve out walkways so that they could move from room to room. The rest of the space was stacked with boxes, books, furniture, etc. and was inaccessible. I met a few fanatic collectors as well that I would consider hoarders. One guy had so many toy trains and so little livable space, that he was moving boxes off his bed every night so that he could get to sleep, and then stacking them up again in the morning so that he could get around. He was very proud of his train collection. The strangest to me was an older woman who had worked out a deal with my manager to get all the boxes of Christmas knicknacks we had leftover from the holiday season. There was a good 20-30 boxes. She lived alone in a big old Victorian fully decorated with Christmas things. Her living space wasn't really out of control, just over the top tacky. She then showed me the barn where she wanted me to unload the truck, which was packed with more Christmas memorabilia than I've ever seen in one place. I asked her why she thought she needed any more stuff and she said that she just really loved Christmas. She too was very excited about her collection and felt proud to have gathered so much. It was kind of sad... Now, the coolest collection I got to see was from an aging computer repair guy. This guy wasn't really a hoarder though, just an enthusiast. He had a room in his house where he was storing old machines and called me in to help him get rid of them. There were a good 2-3 hundred computers in his collection. He had been collecting them since the 70's and for years wanted to open up a computer museum. Old Commador PETs, Radio shack TSR-80s, all kinds of neat stuff and most of it was still working. When he contacted me, his health was failing and he just wanted to clear it out. I tried to save as much of the older machines as I could for resale, but most of it ended up being recycled.