Living with a hoarder means walking a fine line between helping and overstepping.

One person thought they were doing a good deed by clearing out old clothes, but their mom saw it as something unforgivable.

Read on for the full story.

AITA I threw away a hamper full of clothes and my mom got mad

I was cleaning.

Our house isn’t the cleanest, and it’s mostly clutter.

So I was cleaning the bathroom and looked at an old hamper full of clothes.

To them, these clothes were so dirty they needed to be disposed of.

It was originally in our washroom but moved to our bathroom.

It’s full of old dirty clothes that have been sitting in there for maybe a couple years now.

They’ve been collecting dust, and some items even smelled like cat pee.

It smelled awful and, like I said, has been sitting untouched for years.

So I threw it away.

But their mother wasn’t happy with this at all.

The next day my mom was upset, saying that I threw away perfectly good clothes, and how I always throw away things when I clean.

She brought up how I’m always throwing away sauce packets — which we, by the way, also NEVER use.

Clearly the two have very different ideas of cleaning.

She told me, “Throwing things away isn’t cleaning.”

But I think if we don’t use it, it’s trash.

AITA?

In their eyes it was garbage, but in their mom’s eyes, it was somehow more than that.

What did Reddit have to say?

Throwing away things is and should be part of cleaning.

With hoarders, it’s best to start small.

When you look at it from the mother’s mindset, you can see how she would react the way she did.

It’s important to take action now before the hoarding habit gets even worse.

This person just wanted a cleaner home, not a family feud over expired ketchup and crusty jeans.

Poor mom needs some professional help.

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