This is a pretty old story, printed in Dear Abby in 2003. There was a medical journal article in 2001 about anaphylaxis (a very severe, potentially fatal allergic reaction) in an individual who ate some foul-tasting pancakes made from old moldy pancake mix. The individual had a history of multiple allergies, including pets, mold, and penicillin. The researchers called it an "unusual case," so let's not get too carried away here.

My parents were packrats and are now hoarders (living in filth/squalor with five inside dogs). It's become worse over time. Even if they want to change and clean up their lives, I think they've lost the will power. I do believe they are lazy and irresponsible (they blame each other for the situation) but also probably have mental illness to confound the situation. Additionally, they live like they are poor and mom has always felt like she had to scrape by on little or nothing. I do not actually know their financial situation but my dad recently lost his business and my mom refuses to get a job (that's not how she would put it but that's essentially what she's doing). They also have a bad marriage and seem to enjoy having heated arguments where they place blame and critcize each other. My maternal grandmother is also a hoarder (even of people--which I never realized was what she was doing until I read it in this thread, LOL). I'm in my early thirties and, recently, it has really started to bother me b/c I'm worried about them and the way they are living; I know there is nothing I can do to change them. Furthermore, my 18 year old brother lives with them and I have no idea how he's being affected but he seems to have no happiness in his life, no goals, no plans, no nothing. He won't get a job and he seems to be a reluctant junior college attendee. He won't talk about it with me. I have two other brothers, both in their 20s. One is schizophrenic and lives in another state, the other is still in college and seems to have a large chip on his shoulder regarding my parents and how terrible they were. He often uses whatever opportunities he can to put our parents down. I worry that some of the things I do are just precursors to early packrat behavior which may lead to hoarding one day. I don't understand what's going on with them, or me, or what is considered "normal" vs. "wasteful". My mother thinks I'm wasteful because I donate perfectly useable things; she thinks I'm selfish for not letting her peruse everyhing I want to donate (in case she wants something). Recently I saw she had a stack of at least 20 washed single-serving yogurt containers in her kitchen (along with a bunch of other disposable/recyclable plastic containers). I inquired what they were for and she said she wanted to give them to my son (he's almost three) to stack and to play with. I said no--he already has all the wooden blocks that we played with as children b/c mom couldn't bear to part with those when we outgrew them (and she was very pleased to finally be able to pass them along to her grandson). I can understand the blocks, they are special and my grandfather made many of them, but why the yogurt containers? She also had a yellow scooter she proudly rescued from someone's trash. She wanted to give it to my son--who has a bike--and I said no. Later I found she put it into my car, we ended up putting it back into the trash because it had a large crack. I've recently begun to discuss this issue with a counselor but, prior, I have lived in total shame that my parents live like this and that I have possibly similar tendencies.

Yes. I often buy ahead when the price is right, so by the time I'm ready to use it it could be past the date. I shop at Sharp Shopper quite often and I hardly ever look at the dates any more because I've found that many of their products are dated far enough ahead that it isn't any different than the other stores. But the prices are. Sue

lol! We all go nuts when we start composting; & OP *said* wife yells at him! betcha he starts looking for something he never would have thought of looking for before: thrown-away food! On the Soil Forum, they get really excited about the middle of October, scoping out the houses that have pumpkins on the front porch, 'cause they know those things will be sitting at the curb the day after Halloween & then, after Thanksgiving, more pumpkins, & sometimes bales of hay. One of my favorite things to add to the compost is old beverages. Imagine the amount of lukewarm tea, flat sodas, warm fruit juice, cold coffee, etc, that goes down the drains every day. Buckets, either from the dollar store or re-purposed cat litter or pickle buckets or buckets from the bakery (they held icing), are excellent for handling the small amounts of "stuff" that we find ourselves holding, looking for a place to drop them other than in the trash; toss it all in a bucket, coffee filters & kleenex included, & take it to the pile once every day or so. It's amazing how much you'll reduce the volume of stuff you set out for trash pick-up. mahvelous! edited to say: Oh, wait a minute, I'm *on* the Soil Forum! thought I was still on the Texas Forum! This post was edited by sylviatexas on Mon, Dec 29, 14 at 13:19