and learned 2 things from reading previous posts:

1) My Mom is not the only one with a peculiar Kleenex habit/obsession. When she's at the dining room table, she accumulates a HUGE pile of Kleenex while she's eating. Hubby calls it the "Kleenex cabbage"; and

2) Some of you are just too darned funny.

Thanks for the great laughs this morning. {{{HUGS}}} to all of you.

I don't know what it is about kleenix and dementia,,but Mom is the Queen of the hoarding of tissues!

I swear,,she has them folded and tucked into her dresser drawers,,all pockets of all clothing,,stuff in her bra,,and yet,,she always ask "wheres the tissue"!

She has even now taken to hoarding the linen napkins from the dining room at the ALF she lives in. I have no idea why !! Her sister who is in a NH has the same habit. What is it with AD and tissues?????? Peace

My Mom does it with paper towels which we use as napkins. She loves to tear paper into strips and would do it more often if only her husband, my stepfather, would let her. Hmmm, paper. Related to termites?

How funny! My MIL always has a klennex with her. I have to make sure her pants has a pocket for them!!!

Do u think that maybe the Kleenex is like a security planket is for toddlers? My mom also has kleenex everywhere.

I tell my DH weekly that if we had stock in Kleenex we'd be set for life!

and you'd think by now I would be trained to check pockets...but nooooo...I guess I just like playing in the fluff...

and the scary news I heard that I hope is wrong is that Kleenex, aka Kimberly/Clark is raising prices 40% on all their product. and I'm sure others will follow. oh well, that's life!

My MIL has to be the queen empress of the hoarding of paper products... not only does she have pockets full of kleenex and napkins from dining room.. she also has her drawers full of toilet paper rolls with the last 10ish squares left on them.. I have to sneak in her drawers to get her dirty clothes and the drawers are full of any kind of paper product... and she knows if you take any...

She has now started saving every little plastic cup from medication and has stacks of them on her dresser...

The toilet paper rolls are the craziest thou... can't figure that one out...

Debbie

I guess u can make windchimes out of the cups by poking a hole on the bottom and putting some fishing line through them ? Or you could have her donate them to a preschool I'm sure they would find a use for them and the toilet paper rolls. LOL

We had Kleenex automatically delivered through a subscription from Amazon!
I didn't realize this was so common!

LOL! Yeah, we've got the kleenex, paper towel and paper cup thing going big time here--plus panty liners!. We're indebited to Sam's Club. She lays them out like little doilies or wraps things up in layers or stuffs her bra (!) and of course stuffs the paper cups too!

Once, as I was waiting for her at the dentists, I was checking out what she had stashed in her purse (you know we have to do that!). So there in the middle of the dentist's waiting room I unwrapped a layered package of kleenex, paper towels and the ubiquitous panty liners. And what was the prize inside?--a pair of MY underwear!! I guess she couldn't tell the difference between my size 4 bikinis and her size 10 'grandma style' briefs. LOL

My DH would tear up toilet paper and blame the cat for tearing it up ! Really got him caught tho, when he started folding that little itty bitty pieces of stripped off toilet paper. I knew then, Kitty did NOT do it !

And always, always remember to check those pockets before washing!! Those kleenex make a mess in the washer.

Here, not all the tissue gets torn up in the wash. Since the price of paper is going up up up, what can be wrong with "recycling" whole, washed, tissues instead of throwing them away?
And Kleenex doesn't make near the mess in the washer that disposable underwear does. Oh, my!
And (I just thought of this one) I could save the smaller, torn pieces of cleaned tissue, and let Mom take Scotch tape and put them back together to make a big tissue. That'll keep her busy.

Sammichj9--
I had to laugh when you mentioned the disposable diaper in the washer and the new "hobby" you propose for your Mom of taping Kleenex back together really cracked me up! The diapers I use for my Mom hold about a quart of "liquid". I didn't check her pajamas one morning and she had left a diaper in them. Everything went through the wash and the diaper came out whole. Pretty good advertisement for that particular diaper!

We should own stock in Kleenex too. Except my mom actually uses hers. She has a post nasal drip that her doctor was never able to stop. She says it is "disgusting" when we ask why she doesn't just swallow it. To us it is disgusting when she tears her tissues into little pieces to spit into and then stuff into her pockets. As for obsessive behaviors, she tears the card-size ads out of magazines -- even in the doctor's waiting rooms! I just have to laugh at that one.

This thread really made me laugh. My mom is in the Kleenex club, too (really any paper product). She stuffs them everywhere. In her purse, pockets, drawers. I always thought it was the Depression era in her -- you know, I might need that later and not be able to get another one. But it's really funny to me that so many people have this in common. This disease seems so random and unique to individuals -- but there are really some common things that bring us all together!

My mom should have stock in Puffs Plus. She doesn't play with them but she has a runny nose (I saw Dr Gott calls it geriatric rhinitis). She goes through boxes of Puffs. I buy 2 8 packs every time I got to BJ's.

They fall out of her clothes - mainly intact - when I wash her clothes - we have a front loader.

And yes, she takes the napkins at restaurants...

This is really funny.
I, too, didn't realize how common this is.

I have boxes of Kleenex everywhere. By her bed, her recliner, the computer (she can still play Solitaire on it)...Her jacket pockets are stuffed with them...

We go through so many boxes, we buy generic or whatever's cheapest. And we have to write on each of the box tops, "Do Not Cut", other wise Dad will removed the plastic inserts. He says it makes it easier to get to the tissues.

Too funny!

Now, don't get me started on his saving of empty cans and yoguert cups!

Peace
Eileen

Wow! I too didn't realize this was a common trait! Hmmmm, if I start hoarding tissues in my pockets, I'm going to tell my kids to have me "tested"!

All your stories are funny and made my morning. Thanks. I especially like the one where she thinks it's disgusting to swallow, but OK to spit and stick them in her pockets! Oh yeah, and I have a black sweater that I have washed 4 times trying to get all the "tissue balls" off of it...lint removers dont work on this one! I think I'll go check all my Mom's pockets while I'm thinking about it!

Felicia

My mom has a bed side drawer stuffed with nothing but wads of kleenex. She cannot walk by a box without gabbing a handful...which makes me crazy if we're in a rush and she takes forever to get it out of the box! How bizarre! I've also found Kleenex stuffed in shoes, envelopes, her eyeglass case etc. Very funny that it is so common.

When my MIL lived with us, I was big into labeling things for her(it worked for a time). She had her own tissue box, which was always empty by the end of the day. In the morning, when she used the bathroom, I would go through the purse, drawers and pockets, and re-fill the box.

She had the perpetual drip, too. She always had a tissue up her sleeve. Once, when she was sitting with my Boys, she reached in, to get a tissue, and pulled out a cookie! She wondered "How did that get there?"

Oh, I recycled the medicine cups, too! Luckily, she didn't realize they were gone from her drawers.

My mom did this for about 5 years, but now seems to have slacked off a bit. However, she has started accumulating the little medication cups. The one that puzzled me most was the toilet paper roll with about ten squares left on it - I hadn't heard of anyone else saving those like that before. The nightstand drawer is still chock full of tissues,etc. Paper napkins from festivities are also saved.

Looking at the pile of napkins I have brought home from restaurants (rationalization: well, they are just going to throw them away. I can keep them as spare tissues for the car). Realizing that I cannot leave the house without 4 or 5 tissues in my pocket.
O M G !
MIL is in a locked facility. I guess I'll know that it's 'my time' when I can't figure how to get out of the building!

My grandmother-in-law will use it instead of a napkin at the dinner table, and yes it always ends up in her pockets. I am the queen of checking pockets before I wash her clothes.
When I wake her up in the morning there is always a trial of them around her bed, it's like her bed is lost in a sea of crumbled kleenex.
Too funny, thought it was only us who had a box of Kleenex handy in evey room!

Dad does the same thing with the kleenex and what a mess the washer makes of them when you forget to check pockets. Before going to the AL, he would hoard the toilet paper and paper towel rolls. His favorite had to be plastic containers - all shapes and sizes.

I thought it was just my mom. She buys kleenex in 8 box packs at sams. She has a box in every room and her car. And constantly using them even when she doesnt need one. And, yes, asks where her kleenex went. I'll be darn, I had no idea that it was an epidemic. hahhahaha

Nice to know.

OK, now I'm really laughing. Maybe we should all get together and buy a tissue company. We also buy the giant boxes of whatever is cheapest, or in 8-packs at Costco. And my mom has been saving napkins for years. I recently went through a drawer at her house and found some anniversary napkins with names on them of people who died years ago. She never noticed when I threw them away.

omg, gramma had the kleenex kick happening, purses, coat pockets, sleeves, pants with no pockets. So when I brought her clothes for the funeral I slipped a few in her pocket. You never know.

grammasgirl--
You sound like a real sweetie! I hope your Gramma is in a place where she either doesn't need Kleenex or has a never-ending supply of them. {{{HUGS}}}

Add one more 88 year old lady to the list. my mom has a collection of napkins. I put an old empty box in her walker so she can stuff them in the box. It seems I'm the only one who stuffs them in. I try to get her to fill her pockets with a couple of kleenexes when we are going out as pulling out a "Happy New year" napkin in church can be a bit distracting.

My mom picks little things off the floor, fuzz, whatever. today in a shoe store she picked up sunflower seeds that someone had dropped....she's obsessed

Suiz

Mom(81)tears apart each square of toilet tissue and stacks them in her drawers. All pockets are full of them and she hoards napkins,as well. She totally ignores the tissue boxes and has other OCD behaviors.

Shirlee

my mom also tears up kleenex but she is really into Qtips hides them in all her drawers by the tons!

My DF waves his handkerchief like a matador. For hours at a time. We finally had to get him to use the Kleenex for his nose instead of the handkerchief. We figured his waving it around was going to make us all sick when he got a cold.

Add Mom to the list!! Drawers, pockets, sleeves,etc. etc. Kleenex, Napkins and paper towels. Oh my how strange this disease is.

Mom loves to try to wrap her leftovers in her napkin. We of course will not let her and now she just says damn you its my food. LOL.

If we don't laugh we will cry so keep on a laughing.

T

My dad has a collection of Wendy's napkins. I think it has something to do with growing up during the depression. If it's free, he takes it. Even if it's not free, he'll try and take it. He took a pair of salt and pepper shakers from an assisted living luncheon my aunt had. I had to return them, I put them back when no one was looking.

My dad would collect the drink trays from mcdonalds and the cups his pop came in...pop is his drug of choice these days whenever we are out "lets stop for a soda" in his bedroom are 3 piles of napkins in the bathroom another pile. would really like to know where that obsession is coming from it sure is an interesting one...glad to read that others have experienced this as well.

too funny - must be an almost universal quirk of the disorder.

I have to clean out mom's purse every other day, no paper product is safe from her harvesting. I occasionally have to ship items and keep a large package of tissue paper in my home office closet. Found big folded wad of tissue paper in mom's purse a couple of weeks ago, didn't think much about it and returned the pile to my office closet. Had to ship last week and pulled out the tissue to use for wrapping - I was kind of surprised to find a large "hole" in each sheet. Apparently, mom had snatched a huge stack of "ass gasket" toilet seat covers from a bathroom somewhere.

I considered using them and then trying to pawn the wrappings off as my new "green-conscious"initiative - but sanity won out.

Oh Kelly, I love that one!

I can dispel ONE rumor (that the cost of Kleenex will rise by 40%)--


Kimberly-Clark Announces Price Increases
DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ―

Dallas-based Kimberly-Clark will raise the the prices of some its products starting in July.

The company makes paper products like Huggies diapers, Pull-Ups training pants, Cottonelle toilet paper and trademark Kleenex tissues, among others.

The price increase will average between six and eight percent.

In a release, company officials says the increase is necessary to offset higher material and energy costs.

The price changes vary by brand and in some cases by package count.

Kimberly-Clark net sales for these U.S. consumer products amounted to approximately $4.5 billion in 2007.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

BL1946--thanks for the update on the rising cost of Kleenex ; time to go generic? $4.5 billion dollars for Kimberly-Clark products in a year?!? I can attest to the fact that my Mom is personally responsible for about $1500 worth of consumption in Kleenex alone!!

My mom was telling me today about Dad's new obsession with Kleenexes and I thought of this thread. He collects them throughout the day and spreads them neatly on his pants leg. Then he folds them until they are small - usually five or six at a time - and then puts them in his shirt pocket. A little while later he will take them out, wave each one for about five minutes like a matador and then smooth them on his pants leg again, fold them, and back in the pocket. Over, and over, and over. Guess we don't have to buy stock in Kimberly-Clark yet, though, because he reuses the same ones throughout the day.

[quote]I was kind of surprised to find a large "hole" in each sheet. Apparently, mom had snatched a huge stack of "ass gasket" toilet seat covers from a bathroom somewhere.[/quote]

Hi, I'm Crella, I joined yesterday. This cracked me up, it's my first good belly laugh in days.Oh my God!! I'm left wondering how she got them home!

My FIL passed away 6 years ago of Alzhiemer's and lung cancer, and now MIL has AD. FIL loved tissues too...I went to his house early one morning to find every room carpeted in tissues. He'd emptied six boxes. When I asked him why, he said that he was looking for the prize in the boxes, 'but dammit all that was in there was paper!'. The last New Years we spent with him he waved our son over to him and whispered 'I want to give you something' and he handed my son a package saying 'It's not much, but it will be some pocket money when you go away to school. Keep it under your hat...your grandmother will be mad at me for giving you our last thousand bucks'. My son was startled, but relieved at opening the package and finding a wad of kleenex. God love him, he hugged his granddad and thanked him for the spending money without missing a beat.

MIL hoards twist ties, and rubber bands, so if you ever start a thread about those, count me in! LOL!

My Mom was a Kleenex lover as well. However, her favorite of all was to take a box of baby wipes (always in the house) and leave the lid open, let them dry out and then ask ME how that happened!

I can look back and smile at some of these behaviors now. But then, boy, it was frustrating!

When mom was first diagnosed, the case worker asked if she liked tissues? I never understood the question until mom would go through a whole box in about a week. If not the tissues, it was the paper towels in her underware. God help the plumbing!!

ttt

This never ends does it? Mom has been hoarding kleenex/napkins/toilet paper for years. It's in everything. Even the NH complained that they find it in every pocket, bra, panty, etc.

My Dad says it's a throw back to the paper shortages during WWII. Not sure if this is true, but what other explanation can there be?

quote:

Originally posted by patcor:
This never ends does it? Mom has been hoarding kleenex/napkins/toilet paper for years. It's in everything. Even the NH complained that they find it in every pocket, bra, panty, etc.

My Dad says it's a throw back to the paper shortages during WWII. Not sure if this is true, but what other explanation can there be?

My Grandma has always had kleenex up her sleeve, in a pocket. I sometimes forget to check them before I do laundry and then there's a little bit of kleenex in all of the clothes.

quote:

Originally posted by Debbie B:
My MIL has to be the queen empress of the hoarding of paper products... not only does she have pockets full of kleenex and napkins from dining room.. she also has her drawers full of toilet paper rolls with the last 10ish squares left on them.. I have to sneak in her drawers to get her dirty clothes and the drawers are full of any kind of paper product... and she knows if you take any...

She has now started saving every little plastic cup from medication and has stacks of them on her dresser...

The toilet paper rolls are the craziest thou... can't figure that one out...

Debbie

Speaking of paper products, what is with tossing the toilet paper rolls with ten to twelve squares still left on them???? Our gals (mom or her daughter) do not use them to the end. We have rolls and rolls and rolls left with paper still on them. I told my co-worker friend that, with the price of TP today, I will take them home and use them if I have to tape them together...LOL