Pasnurse, if you only knew.....well I guess you do! Anyway, YES my DH would FILL his pockets with anything & everything, so much so that I know he had about 5 pounds of “stuff” in his pockets ( & that is not an exaggeration......just ask our kids!) Anyway, that was about 2 years ago. He was afraid that “people” were taking his things so everything that could fit went into his pockets. As the disease progressed his pockets became lighter & now the only thing I find in his pockets is paper......lots & lots of paper.......tissues, paper towels, napkins, toilet paper (yes, disgusting!). So, as the saying goes, “this too shall pass” but until then it will drive you crazy, believe me, I KNOW!
Seems to be quite common. We live in an "over 55" park but DH insisted kids were in the house all the time. I just didn't see them, he said. He always had folded up tissues and clean toilet paper in his pockets. He slept in his briefs and always had to put his wallet in his briefs. NOW that really drove me crazy.
I'm sorry, but I am laughing so hard right now. Just last night when I was getting DH ready for bed. He pulled at least 10 napkins/paper towels from his pockets and laid them all out folded in half and put his glasses on top. He does this every night and it seems as time goes by he has more and more paper.
blue, maybe we should have bought stock in a paper company! If I forget to check pockets when I do laundry I have “clean” napkins etc. in my dryer! I also find crumpled up paper products all over the house usually in places like closets, or some place where it seems like he is hiding it from me.........go figure! Yes, blue, if we don't laugh we cry & we certainly do enough of that , don't we :0(
OMG...it's just amazing how the same they are in many ways...yes it's paper here too. At the NH he would pick up all the paper napkins and paper mats off all the tables after lunch etc...his bed side drawers are always full of paper. Paper neatly folded up everywhere, even in his glasses case, then he wonders why the glasses don't fit in there...
I guess I'll join the club,myDH's pants always between 8 and 10 pounds every nite.but he doesn't hoard paper,its nuts and bolrs,staples,stones and a host of other junk. He says he does it in case he needs it during the day. but what topped it off ,the other night when I turned down his covers,the bed was covered with acorns.I have decided to sew his pockets almost shut and see if that works,he has really bad back problems and the Dr. said all that weght is aggravating it.Wjat next?
Not hoarding but I believe related. My father, in his last 10 years, started taking a switchblade with him everywhere, to cut up grapefruit just in case he ever came across one. I guess the knives in the dining room where he lived didn't have suitable knives.
Once I found out about the switchblade I took it away from him, it was clear to me that my father was not quite right. Then one night my brother is in town so we all go out for dinner. My father has a pairing knife in his shirt pocket. He did this a lot I was just waiting for him to stab himself. Again, he wanted the knife with him just in case he came across a wild grapefruit.
It wasn't for self defense, he just like his grapefruit.
I was reminded of this when reading yhounley's post. "He says he does it in case he needs it"
Origami anyone? For some reason paper hoarding and folding seem to be a favorite pass time. You could find a lot worse stuff in pockets and drawers :0)
I thought only my dh was hoarding paper towels now I see he's as normal as the rest of them. (grin) I started hiding the paper roll of towels and yet they still keep showing up. He must have a stash hid somewhere. What a journey this is!
I keep on trying to find parallels in my wife's behavior. No hoarding, in fact, she wants to clear out stuff (and make everyone else do so). But she is obsessed with having 3 rolls of toilet paper in every bathroom. As soon as one is used up it must be refilled ASAP. Somewhat defeating the purpose of the extra rolls.
But I am wondering if this obsessive behavior is related to hoarding, thinking that you must have enough around of certain things, just in case.
Its not paper my DH has in his pockets, but 2 wallets, 2 checkbooks, 2 pocket knives, 2 cloth handkerchiefs, and then 2 chains around his neck with 3 keys (1 fits the house, the others fit nothing) his army dog tags from about 1950 , a medic alert medalion from 25 years ago and a Wounded Warrior thing that looks like dog tags. He is still mad because his car key (disappeared) 3 months ago. How he remembers the car key is a mystery since he can't remember he just ate dinner.
Mary in PA, my Dh also has pockets full of keys, of course they are useless but he has them anyway. My dad had taken to carry around a real old long electric shaver with out the cord. He would pull it out of his pocket and point it at people like it was a pistol. I finally got it one day and destroyed it. I was afraid some cop might shoot him thinking it was really a gun. I myself usually have a pocket full of tissue, allergies !!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just have kleenex in all his pockets and also stuffed down in his shirt. After a few really bad incidents with the washer and dryer, I really check his clothes before putting them in the washer.
It worked.sewed all the pockets in his jeans ,sewed acros about 3 in. from bottom .he still has a little room left, he didn't even notice,hope this will end the 10lbs.of junk he carries around and also the shopifting he has started .
Paul, I am the toilet paper freak here. If I get down to 3 rolls in the house, I have to go out and buy 12 more (Mega rolls). Lloyd uses his pockets for any change he finds anywhere, his partial, and a teeny Swarovski crystal golf bag I bought him years ago. The golf bag has even been through the wash a couple times. Yhouniey, I am wondering about the level of devious satisfaction you got from sewing his pockets shut. Chalk up one loss for hubby and one win for Yhouniey! Buwahahahaha!
If we were down to 3 rolls in the pantry I would rush to BJ's to buy a 24 or 36 pack. Its just that L panics when any individual bathroom is below 3. With 4 bathrooms, even if the pantry was empty we would have 12 rolls in thehous.
Oh my gosh, how familiar all this sounds! We have a toilet paper holder in one of the bathrooms that holds 3-4 rolls of toilet paper. When it's down to less than 3 he gets more and when you go into the bathroom you see a tower 7-8 rolls high. He also walks around with napkins and paper towels in his pants. When he wears his pj pants the pockets stick out so that he looks like a clown! I can't tell you the number of times I've found paper all over the clothes in the washer. Even if I check his pants to make sure everything is out, now that sweatshirt time is here he's putting them in his sleeves! It took me a while to figure that one out.
Update.Sonny has not noticed that his pockets are smaller, he can still get some thing in them,but his jeans stay up and the tops of his legs are not all sore from all that stuff(and some was really sharp)rubbing against them and he can sit down in comfort.
Before he stopped driving, I was flummoxed by gas receipts for trips for the 16 mile round trip to town and the receipt from the drug store for under $2. It was all explained when I found the hoard of over 100 empty Altoid Mint cans in his closet in a box under a blanket. He had always hunted arrowheads, but his last three independent years he'd bring back hundreds of rocks from his field forages. Even now in the ECF, he pilfers things from the other residents and hides them in his closet or under his bed - things like large ginger jars, ceramic vases, tins. This week he had 5 remote controls he had collected during the day from other residents that had to be returned. He always had excessive paper everywhere his whole life, which I now see as a red flag for future dementia. Mine was caught shoplifting too, totally out of character. Seems he carried one of their baskets of groceries from the store. I thought this was a one time thing until I found the hoard of grocery baskets hidden in a closet and a utility sink in his work space. Then he started cutting little pieces of string and rope and draping them everywhere. That one just creeped me out, so I removed everytime I saw, and finally he forgot about it.
Sonny gathers free pamphlets,every place we go he gets handfuls of real estate,apartments for rent,religious,auto sales or anything available,also he swipes the magazines from Dr.s waiting rooms.I do have a big problem with him shoplifting right now but I have to take him every where with me,he fights the idea of someone coming to stay with him.If it keeps on I will have to place him,he gets very ugly when I try to talk to him about it.
I can't believe that toilet paper is another commonality! Jim insists on using a new roll every time and placing it on the back of the toilet. We'd end up with many different sized rolls sitting there. It made me crazy so I bought one of those containers that you put a single roll of toilet paper into, hoping that would solve the problem. Nope. Now we have that thing AND rolls of toilet paper on the back of the toilet. Plus tissues everywhere and he insists on bring a new box of tissues in the car whenever we go out. It's a bad intersection ... something about paper goods seems to trigger my temper and his compulsion. On the other hand, he always has a napkin ready when I need it!
Oh my! It isn't funny - but it is!! Hubs saves small pieces of paper, parts of grocery receipts, junk mail, etc. Hasn't done the napkin, paper towel & TP thing yet, but I'd better start becoming very particular about checking the pockets before I wash them :) To think I still have these fun things to look forward to!
We have the TP and tissue compulsion here too, as well as flushing before, during and after using the toilet. It's common for him to flush 4 times per trip to the bathroom - drives me NUTS!
Not as bad as the stories here but there must always be 3 rolls of TP in each bathroom all of the time. If one role runs out she will immediately get another roll, no matter what the situation.
But I shouldn't complain. It used to be 5 rolls in each bathroom.
Yeah, nuthin' better than forgetting to search ALL the pockets on all the clothes before washing them and then having to pull all the wads of just washed tissue paper outta the washer & the dryer lint filter.
As always it could be worse. She loves her ice cream (typical). I always keep a stock of cheap Good Humor bars in the freezer which she (strangely) remembers are there and helps herself.
Our 20 year old cat sleeps on her pillow (day & night) One night she puked all over the pillow. YUCK! I cleaned it up then a day latter it happened again!! But this was different. It was a bigger mess. . . .
Turns out she got up in the middle of the night found the freezer, got herself an ice cream bar, removed the wrapper, brought it back to bed, laid it next to her on the pillow and went back to sleep . . . . Oh well, another mess . . . .(but it wasnt poop!)
I figured I should search her night table drawer and sure enough there was an ice cream bar in there too! Fortunately this one was still in its sealed wrapper. Totally liquid, I moved it to the trash.
Only after this did I ever notice that the freezer has a lock on it(!) I got a replacement key from an appliance repair store and now the freezer is locked every night. Problem solved. She still gets up at night and still goes to the freezer but she cant figure out why it wont open so she quickly gets bored and comes back to bed. She can gets apples from the refrigerator (and does) but they dont make a mess.