Why does my mother want to hoard newspapers?

Who knows why, but she has a good reason that is known to her at the time when she wants to keep them, did she have birds, or pets in the past that she used papers for? In any event, they are important to her now and I would just remove them when she is not paying them any mind and just give her a new paper. I don't argue about anything anymore, question why, or I'd go a little further down the bonkers trail, I just remove stuff when she is not paying attention to these things, my mother's thing is TISSUES, my bane. I just bought 18 rolls of toilet paper, sometimes you got to go with the flow and make it work for you, don't bother trying to figure it out just figure out a way around it.

It's hard to know what's going to tweak the thinking of a brain damage person. With dementia often comes paranoia. Becuz they can't remember where they put their things, order things aren't where they think they put them, they often develop the belief that someone is stealing from them. As time goes on they will often have less and less "things", mainly because WE have to take away some of their things so they get in less trouble. I had to take away all of their clothes from my aunt first and much later from my mom to prevent them from getting up at 230 in the morning and wanting to clean up and get ready to go somewhere.

So don't take them away, give her more. See where she puts them without commenting. Ask or have your daughter ask from time to time to "borrow" some of the papers for store ads or homework, just don't mention it again and don't give them back. If that doesn't work, collect them when she's out of the room or in the bathroom and can't see you do it. It's a way to minimize your frustration

Comments make me lol, blizzard of tissues, shake down of items in their clothes, locks and keys locks and keys, and not alone in the land of tissue! My mom went through some of this and also wanted to eat the paper towels, tissues and all paper. Now she has passed that stage and doesn't really do much anymore. We made her some "trinket boxes" filled with various items to "work on". She doesn't show any interest in those anymore either. Now she only plays with a stuffed animal. I try to remind myself that all the annoying things will go away with all the good stuff too. Back to the original post, I can't imagine caring for an elder and a special needs child with opposing issues in regard to the newspapers. I am completely inexperienced with autism but I wonder if there is any way to change the child's perspective about the newspapers? Some kind of way to get the child to help the elder in collecting them? Someone else said that it is harmless and as far as I can see it really is harmless.

There are so few things the elderly can control over time. It isn't fair to them to let our irritations take their freedoms away when a situation is safe and harmless.

First, stop getting the newspaper. Just change the date on the older ones. She won't know what date it is anyway. Secondly, start removing things a little at a time so her hoarding does not burden the rest of the household. Having an autistic child with their already challenged thinking is subject to agitations which none of the household needs. Try to decrease the stimuli as much as possible. Play soothing instrumental music at a lower volume (white noise it is called) to calm the environment. You have your hands full, so take time for yourself too!

When you have dementia or Alzheimer's you do things that you would not normally do, there does not have to be a reason for it. My mother began to save all containers that held her coffee, both plastic and cardboard. They lined the shelves of the garage and I thought they were full/new until I picked one up and realized they were empty. I tried to toss them but she became upset so I began to toss out a couple here or there when she wasn't looking just to try and clean up some of the "collections." She never noticed that I got rid of them when I tossed just a few at a time and there was no argument.

I have to say however that you don't have to have dementia to do this. I worked for a very, very good doctor who horded newspapers. They came in daily but he never had time to read them, when we tried to clean them out he came unglued and they were stacked to the ceiling...still in the plastic wrappers!

Hoarding is hoarding they feel there is a very good reason to keep whatever the item(s) may be. Sometimes they may have grown up poor and everything was kept and reused or repurposed as we now say. Some people are creative or artistic and see the beauty in items they choose to keep. Sometimes they are just unable to rationalize that you read it already and you are getting a new one to take it's place so lets clean up the house and get rid of the old ones.

Why not let your Mom keep a few days of newspapers in her room, perhaps you could stack them on her dresser and then when she is not looking slip out the bottom one and toss it. If you can keep the quantity down I would let her and avoid an argument. If she is aware or wants to keep tons of them, I wouldn't let it get out of hand but ask her why she needs them and see if you can come up with a compromise, like no more than 5 days can be kept.

If she has never done this before, you can be assured it is the illness and she just cannot help herself. These mental illnesses cause our loved ones to do odd things.

My 92 year old mil: napkins, paper towels, tissues, and toilet paper... I have to buy in bulk. I can't put a box of kleenex in the living room because it will end up in HER bedroom and tell me...how in this world can a 92 year old woman can go through up to 4 toilet rolls in one week? I am impressed by her ability to consume so much paper products!

If we couldn't make a joke and laugh, we would be in an awful shape wouldn't me. My husband took me on a date today and I left Mom in her rocking chair with her snacks and newspapers, needless to say, the cat wasn't very happy. When we got home, she was in the bathroom, so we just snuck in and pretended we had been home and she didn't even know the difference. She has NO track of time whatsoever, of course, I don't leave her for very long at a time anyhow. Just have to get out and let myself breathe some, LOL!

My mother has Alzheimer's. When she still lived at home the daily newspaper was her only way to know what day of the week it was and what month we were in.

Every day Mom would ask me to check the mail and see if the paper had arrived yet. It was one of the few constants in her life that she could count on.

We let the papers pile up by the door where she could see them. Any tidying up or throwing anything out was reserved for Mom's nap times.

My particular pet peeve was Mom's obession with saving those hideous plastic grocery sacks. If we tried to throw them away she would go ballistic. It drove me crazy but she wanted to give them to the church for their book sale. Mind you, the church has one book sale each year so you can imagine how many grocery sacks we had stuffed into cupboards, below the sink and anywhere else with extra space.

I agree with one of the posters who said that the older you get, the less control you have. It's an annoyance but certainly something we can work around. My Mom has been gone 8 months now. Go with the flow, as I look back, was definitely the right way to handle it (or maybe I should say, the way that worked for us). Of course, the priority was her safety but then creature comforts followed right after that.