We all have a tendency to hoard stuff we don't really need. But the story of Welshman John Jones is a caution to us all to keep the hoarding instinct under control.Mr Jones had squirrelled away so much rubbish over 20 years he could only move around his Aberystwyth house through a series of specially built tunnels.
And after he was found dead under bags of rubbish, the coroner concluded he had probably died of asphyxiation, crushed by all the junk.
As it was impossible to remove the body through the solid mass of garbage, he had to be brought out through a window by firefighters.
The rubbish was piled high not just in the house but in the garden shed, the garden and several garages rented from the local council.
Let that be a lesson to all you knick-knack collectors out there. Start clearing it all out before you meet a grisly end.
Hoarding is one of the most common obsessive compulsive disorders, alongside hygiene mania and irrational double checking (like returning home to check the gas is off).
Many sufferers go to great lengths to hide their obsessions for fear of social ridicule and ostracism. Fortunately I've never been one of them, though I do tend to double check things like plane tickets and flight times rather too often.
Mind you, my mum's a bit of a hoarder. But I think she's safe - she hasn't had to build any tunnels yet.
