She hoards her Woodlands flat with so much junk, she's had to sleep outside for over a decade
Over the past decade or so, a 60-year-old woman has collected and stored so many junk items in her Woodlands Drive flat that she can no longer enter it – not even to rest her head at night.
According to Shin Min Daily News, the items have completely filled up her four-room flat, sealing her wooden door shut and preventing her front gate from closing. Boxes and plastic bags also overflow to the corridor outside.
For over a decade now, she sleeps at night on pieces of cardboard along the corridor.
The woman told Shin Min that she picks up objects from around the estate, with the intention of selling them.
She collects items such as clothes, disposable cutlery, plastic bottles, and suitcases. There were even oranges in some of the boxes outside her home.
When asked if she knew about the dangers of hoarding, the woman, who declined to give her name, kept silent.
Some residents the Chinese daily spoke to said the woman once held a job before she became a hoarder.
"Her older brother drops by to see her on occasion, but she's mostly alone," said one neighbour. "She sometimes sells tin cans to recyclers, but collects most of them for herself."
Volunteers deliver food to her on occasion, the neighbour added.
Residents too, have given the woman food in the past. "She's mild-mannered and doesn't disturb us, so residents aren't hostile towards her," the neighbour said. "My mother also cuts her hair sometimes."
The clutter in her home, however, has attracted pests – much to her neighbours’ chagrin. One said that they once saw five or six cockroaches skittering around the corridor and their home.
One neighbour, surnamed Zhang, told Shin Min that the woman's clutter had caused a fire some 20 years ago, after she left items around the lifts and stairway.
Zhang recalled: "The fire caused a power outage in the block, and corridors were charred. Many people helped put out the fire."
He also said the authorities have helped to clear the clutter several times, removing a horde of items from the woman's home each time.
"But every time after the authorities leave, she would run downstairs to pick them back up. She even rummaged through trash cans in the middle of the night," he said.
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