My adopted dd (age 9) does the same thing. We adopted her at age 3, she’d been through at least 7 foster homes by then and she came with many behavioral issues and SID, for which she goes to therapy. One of her most annoying and one of the areas we have been least sucessful in changing is the hoarding problem.
She has a trash can in her room, yet she stuffs garbage in the vent and in drawers everywhere. She has a hamper, yet she stuffs her dirty clothes anywhere, too. Usually I start digging in her room when I notice her dirty clothes pile is getting fewer and fewer. Forget about labeling her drawers for certain toys-tried that. She just stuffs things wherever. We’ve considered takig her bed frame out and making her sleep on the mattress on the floor because of her stuffing things agains the wall and bed and under the bed; so there’s a daily under and beside bed check. The there’s her closet-AARGH!!
We’re constantly finding things in odd places; she “losses” things, because she just stuffs away. Sometimes it’s intentional in that she doesn’t want o put clean clothes away-I’ll find a bunch of clean clothes in her toy box or behind something. I think the chaotic toy placement is because she moves fast and franetic has no order in her brain-no degradation; I just mean one of her biggest issues is sequence and following a pattern of thought in her mind.
So mine goes a little further than yours, but she is still doing the same thing regarding the hoarding and yes, it’s very aggravating. Sorry, I don’t have any advice except remove as many ‘places’ in her room as possible and have daily/weekly checks. We’re going to be removing a three-drawer case and eventually the toy box and just use cubbies, I guess. That way they are open and visible. Give her the ‘tools’ or ‘methods’ that she can have all her life to function by her choices and habits to live with her tendencies. You can also pray over prayers from Scripture having to do with these areas. I think pro help could be helpful to get you started and give you some ideas on helping her help herself; you just don’t want the curse of a “label” to actually create an excuse in her mind that she “can’t help it”. I’ve never told me dd she has SID, just that her brain was created differently by G-d, so on and so forth to create a sense of ability and overcoming instead of a label that can possibly hold one back; it just depends on how it’s handled.
There’s been brilliant poeple throughout history w/this tendency and have done amazing things, but you don’t want this tendency to prevent her from doing the things in her life that she was created for. Is she artistic type? Just a guess that she probably is. I think those have the most likelihood of being this way.
You should see what happens when my dd goes into the schoolroom looking for books-OY! Looks like a tornado went through…exasperating.
Rachel
