"Hoarders are a combination of problems, but the primary issue is that they mentally assign way too much value to their junk."

Totally it.

"Also, hire a cleaning lady when they're gone. While the cleaning lady is there, throw out tons of useless shit and blame it on her."

We recently stripped the old shingles and repaired damaged or rotted wood. While my friend mostly napped in his bedroom, watching TV and only got involved when I needed him for signing off on paperwork I used the trash trailer to get run of stuff. The garage attic needed clearing also because the weight of junk has caused the ridge to sag and we need to repair that. One rafter actually split.

Notable things I tossed, five decent sets of snow skis with some ski boots. He doesn't ski as he is crippled years of dusty Christmas decoration his mother stored and just random broken stuff. Couple items I saved: Two life magazine from JFK inauguration and news clippings from the event. He told me I can have it. What I set aside and didn't tell him about are some we two vintage bottles from Europe. I'm guessing huge fancy whisky bottles his stepfather stored away. He ignores stuff I save in plain sight as junk. His step dad brought back a jap flag made of sik that looks like it was battle captured. I saved that and told him of it but he's not impressed. During this process I found his old yearbooks from school with records and saved them in a box. A few years back I helped him change out the deadbolts and knobs on his front door. He put the old hardware in a box on a steel cabinet. Needing a place to stash the school records and yearbooks I glanced inside the other box, saw old hardware that's been sitting there four years and traded boxes out. When he found the empty box in the recycle pile of boxes I was cutting down for the blue bin he was livid. He starts raging on and on about the loss and claims it was worth forty dollars. I point out he doesn't even have keys to the discarded door hardware and he then claims he does. I recount all the important repair work I've done while never asking for a dime. "Do you need a dead bolt some where? I'll buy new stuff. "

Nothing calms him down. Next day while paying the contractor he's still pissed off at me. The contractor tells him all the money I've saved him, reminds him how I fired the first contractor and am still covering that issue and having them investigated. The contractor was able to leave the jobsite every day while leaving his crew under my supervision. They bend a nail, I order it pulled back and done right. Woe to the guy who scuffed the new shingles. Off the job. Split repair wood? Replace it and get lectured on proper techniques. I had critical work done no one even noticed. Entry way awning was literally falling off the building and doing the splits because it ha no collar tie. Solution? Apply steel straps over ridge, jack it back up and pull rafters back together with cargo straps. Then add collar ties. Contractor insisted on using a dozen nails poorly done by his workers with that God cursed nail gun they are addicted to. I had him go get three half inch bolts which actually pulled the beams tight. Contractor also recounted how it was I who found a gas leak in the attic and pressured him to help me redo the line to his dryer in the garage. Leak was right by the vent to the kitchen stove that vented directly into the attic near the leaking joint.

This house had a fire years ago in the same spot. Obvious signs off past repairs and scorched wood.

after contractor laid this all out to him and told him how I look out for his real interests my homeowner frien came out to apologize.