Why does my 9yr old daughter hoard boxes? See details...?

Question

Ever since she was little she has had a fascination with any kind of box, from cereal boxes to juice boxes. I can understand her liking large one's, all kids do, but it's getting out of hand. Her entire closet is filled with every kind of box you can imagine. Weird huh? Will it ever end? She get's very mad if we try to sneak one in the trash, and she knows if I have removed one from her "collection". Is she going to be a hoarder of boxes forever?

Answer 1

As you've learned, you can't throw stuff away behind a hoarder's back. Well, you can, but it doesn't tackle the real issue. You have to let them do it themselves. Doesn't mean you can't try to force them, but they have to be the ones to actually let the item go. Maybe a solution would be to protest the problem by not letting her store any of her stuff in any part of the rest of the house. When they pile up in her room you can talk to her about it and she will probably want to start throwing stuff away to get rid of clutter. I bet the first to go would be the less-important boxes. Then maybe she will gradually realize that she can live without all those boxes.

Or maybe you can be stern and allow only a finite number of boxes at, say, each end of the week or month. Give her some control by allowing her to only keep the ones she wants to, and throw away the rest. To convince her to throw away ask her why a particular box is significant or important to her; if she has good reason to keep it. Most of the time hoarders don't.

Answer 2

you know what she likes them some people like weird things shes little shell grow out of it or when she gets older shell realize tht she cant have alll the boxes in the world but there is nothing wrong with your child and non nead to spenn $$$$ on a therapist who will only earase a joy of your kids childhood

Answer 3

Its just a phase - if not you'll have the convert the garage (only joking)  You could try telling her that she has to limit it to special boxes - one of a type - ie, one cereal, one soap powder, one shoe box.  That way she knows that when a new one comes along she is chosing which one gets binned.

Thankfully one of mine only collected paint brushes (I know - all my fault, I used to decorate, a lot)  every pic of him under the age of two has him holding up a brush and showing it off to the camera.

xx

Answer 4

Don't worry, be happy..

When she grows up, she'll be head of recycling in your town..

Answer 5

One of my brothers is a pack rat...which is a disease. He collects....everything. My great grandmother collects jars, nothing special, but she is considered a pack rat. I would defiantely call someone or look further about this just to see. I have heard that it can be cured...well except for my great grandmother (she's been like this her whole life...she's 84..just think about how many feet of 3 huge storage buildings she has full of them. She left behind a lot when she had to move and she was crushed).

Answer 6

I think its probably not a huge deal. My 5 year old doesn't do it anymore, but she use to hoard useless junk & objects and put them in her little mommy shopping cart. Everywhere she went the cart had to be with her. We had no idea what she had in there at times, but she could tel you evey item and what its use was. I am positive it was some kind of weird security blanket type thing for her. She did this for close to a year even though we tried countless time to break her of it.(It drove my husband nuts!) Then eventually as soon as it started it was over. She just didn't feel like she needed it anymore. I would just give your daughter some time. She will let go of them eventually. If she doesn't after a while then I might worry, but not now.

Answer 7

Well, if you're absolutely sure it's not a symptom of a larger problem (Aspergers syndrome for instance), then you might have to just put it down as being one of her little quirks.

Answer 8

I laughed at this because my youngest is the same way. I finally told her she can have no more boxes unless its really pretty like the one her ballet shoes come in. I don't give her a choice, we are slowly working on her hoarding issues. Because she saves everything and never wants to get rid of anything. Everything that I want to throw away she can transform into something else, which is true and an admirable quality but my house is exploding. If she whines I tell her we will have to get rid of one she already has if she wants to keep a new one. Good luck and my daughter has those quirks as well LOL She is 7 by the way.

Answer 9

I think it is a quirk of personality and maybe it makes her feel good to be in 'control' of her collection.  My 4 year old collects rocks.  Not even pretty ones, but run of the mill gravel out of the neighbor's driveway will be fine.  She has little piles all around the outside of the house and has managed to talk me into a few baggies of them in the house.  

I wouldn't worry about it but I would just set some limits.  Like, if she has so many they are overwhelming, then she can't keep a new box until she gets rid of an old one.  

If this is her only quirk, then she'll be fine.