Hoarding or obsession with paper towels and toilet paper!

Same deal with both parents. My dad was using handkerchiefs to blow his nose with the intention of reusing them. I don't give him those anymore because it grosses me out. He hoards used paper towels and napkins so I bought a nice container with pop-up top to store his used paper products. That didn't work out and he fell on it . We have an unruly dog that constantly goes for the paper towels that have remnants of food on them. Drives me crazy when I miss a kleenex in a pocket and have to clean out the washing machine. My biggest gripe is that my dad consistently removes his cloth bib after his meal and places into his dirty dish. He'll eat half a bowl of soup and place his bib in the bowl as if he's at a fine dining establishment. I let it go lately because I am daily searching for more items to create a washload due daily load of wet pee pads from his bed. The dog uses disposable pee pads because she's afraid of rain and refuses to go outside until it dries up. I'm really sick of cleaning up after her b/c she misses half of the pad. My steam mop just broke and I ordered another one. Cannot do without my Haan floor steamer. After my parents go to bed I sneak items out of the house for donation or garbage, including used paper products. My mom wants to keep the most ridiculous things she will never use again. Today she refused to part with an orthotic boot from years past and a carpet runner that can't be used again because it's a safety hazard. Just another day in the life! God bless us all. And PLEASE call your state senators if you disagree with the proposed healthcare bill.

Rolls of toilet paper, however they must, must, must be the brand that she likes. She has come to my house and tossed out a cabinet to toilet paper because it was the wrong brand.

She also has the ziploc bag obsession. All paper is filed and labeled in gallon-sized ziploc bags. All food is repackaged and labeled in quart-size ziploc bags. Also all garbage bags must be see-through plastic, the large size that is only available at a warehouse store, and she usually goes through the garbage before taking it out to the curb.

Alas she is too young to have the depression as an excuse. Her parents were very wealthy so it's not like she grew up learning to save things.

My mom goes through tissues like crazy! This started about a year ago & she blows her nose all the time; she never used to do this. She uses tissues to cover up her TV remote and garage door opener "so no one will steal them" and also goes through napkins and paper towels. She uses the paper towels to cover her cereal that I leave for her the night before for breakfast the next day. I wish she would use them for their true purpose, like wiping up spills and putting them under her cat's food dish, but nope, she won't!

What a relief, I'm not alone ! My BIL just drives me nuts with his toilet paper, paper towel obsession. After a meal when he does choose to use a napkin (opposed to his shirt sleeve) he folds it and takes them and saves them along with the ones that he uses to blow his nose, it's kinds yucky ! As for toiletpaper, he hides the roll under his mattress and other times just tears it into little pieces spreads them around like Hansel and Gretel . Just cuckoo time all the time. We really do deal with much more serious matters with him, but this is so amusing for me to find out that I am not alone. It's true misery loves company and often caregivers are in much need of company. Thanks for posting

I honestly think this is caused by the years of deprivation during the Great Depression. Everything was saved...every tiny bit used and used again.

Saving paper products is easy because it is non perishable. It is a compulsion brought on by the earliest years of extreme waste not want not.

My grandma never ...never.. threw out any paper. My mom was afflicted with this to some degree too. I still have to figure out a time to start remove the mountain of used wrapping paper so she doesn't see it going away.

My mother was fixated on paper towels, too.

Mom would verrry slowwwly rip them from roll, fold them precisely in half, then stack them in a plastic container that was shaped like a tall, skinny shoebox.

Mom would also layer paper towels between her dinner plates (in the cupboard).

Mom would cover piles of important mail and checkbook and her purse -- which were perched all over the kitchen counter -- with paper towels. So "no one" could see them. (She was living alone at the time.)

And don't get me started on her love affairs with paper clips and ziploc bags!

My aunt used to put metal pie plates, pizza pans and foil under everything it seemed. Then she would line the floors with newspapers so her teacup chihuahua could pee wherever. She would put puppy pads on top of the newspaper. Of course the newsprint came off onto her rose carpeting and it was hard to get from one room to the next not knowing where to step. When I started helping her out I would put it all in the garbage and we went through a time of using baby gates. She runs through a good bit of paper products.
She would buy the thin paper plates by the hundreds. There were always stacks of them on every flat surface. She used them to write notes on to herself and others. Large reminders. And since they were thin and stuck together she would just put five or six new ones on top of the used ones. You might think it was a stack of clean paper plates and once you started using them discover the soiled ones.
All of this before anyone thought she had dementia.
When I go to her house weekly I will pick up all the paper towels stuffed in the side of her chair. I've almost thrown away her teeth by accident as they were wrapped in a paper towel. I buy the large economy size of paper towels, pads, pull ups, paper plates, bowls napkins, tissue and toilet tissue and now we are into band aids. She has the half rolls of paper towels handy as well. It's considered an emergency if she is out of paper towels. She also was into the scented plug ins and burning incense and candles. I was finally able to get people to quit giving her the candles and the scented wax melters. What should we give her they ask. I'm tempted to say, paper towels. Happiness is a fresh roll of paper towels.

My aunt has this issue as well. She will go through an entire roll of paper towels in a day. She also hoards plastic shopping bags. We have no idea why she does this.

My husband is another one with an obsession with tissues. We go through a box every other day. And, yes, they go into the laundry (Will I ever learn to go through his pants pockets? After laundering his wallet you would think that I would remember!)

They get dropped everywhere, a real treat for our two dogs who just love to shred them! No, a cloth handkerchief would not work because he does not use them for his nose/mouth. He just holds them in his hands until he thinks he needs another one --or six. I think it must have something to do with sensory stimulation--but I fail to see how one could be stimulated by a tissue!

Oh for sure sunny she blinking uses tissues in addition to handkerchiefs (rolls eyes heavenward)Yup I know - don't ask because I have and I get nowhere!!!! xxxx

Has anyone checked to see if their loved one would adapt to using a handkerchief instead a tissue? It might increase the laundry load, but might not be as messy. My dad has always used handkerchiefs. I'm surprised when I still find them in the stores. No one else that I know uses them any longer.

Jessie my mom has a box of tissues she takes everywhere with her. I find them usually tucked in the one place I didn't check when the washing comes out all flecked in white and I have to rewash the bloody things. She positively nurses a tissue all day long - not the same one I hasten to add but nevertheless.

My cousin didn't use the paper that way, but she was obsessed with other things, like duct tape. She taped along the bottom of cabinets, shelves, furniture, etc. She was afraid her cat could enter into the crevice, no matter how small it was.

She also had room deodorizers everywhere. Sometimes 5 in one room! Eventually, she stopped though. As she progressed, she no longer paid attention to things like that.

marsalis, the tissues everywhere are a senior ploy to drive caregivers crazy. :-D I find them on the floor, on the tables, in the washing machine, in the dryer. I find them everywhere except the garbage can. My mother even decorates the bathroom floor with them -- clean, thank goodness.

I don't think your mother is alone with her obsession to always have tissues with her. If yours is like mine, she stuffs them in her pockets or carries them, dropping them here and there or depositing them at some distant point (table, drawers). The unfortunate ones aren't discovered until they get in the vent of the dryer.

Mine does the partial roll of toilet tissue, too. She tucks one in her rollator, along with a lot of tissue and other things that she forgets is in there, so grows during the week. Partial bottles of water here and there are scattered amongst the tissues. I don't say anything. I just pick things up and toss them in the trash.