7. Never eat food that has gone bad.
“My great aunt is a hoarder,” says AuntIsHoarder, a Reddit user. Since she lives in Canada, I haven't seen her in a long time. It's been difficult for me to visit since I moved from Seattle in middle school. [...] My great aunt lived through the Great Depression, so we believe it is ingrained in her to hold anything, no matter how valuable it is. She would dig through the garbage to find useless things and keep them. Here are some examples. We were looking for something to eat while I was in middle school. I came across a box of fruit loops. There have always been at least four fruit loop colors as far back as I can recall in my entire life (red, green, yellow, and orange). Just three were in the box I discovered (red, yellow, and orange).
My mother encouraged me to eat them, claiming that because of the seal, they would be fine. They weren't in good shape. My cousin became ill as a result of my great aunt's pancakes being made with rancid butter. In the middle of summer, we discovered empty egg nog cans. Since the expiration date does not include a year, we have no idea how old they are. The condition is almost unbearably depressing. It hasn’t been dealt with in any natural way. She is old and set in her tracks (80+ years old). So really, the only way it will resolve itself is when she dies. […] She mixes valuable stuff in with crap. She might stick a $100 bill or a piece of jewelry in a pile of 20-year-old newspapers (God knows why!?) So basically, we will have to hand sift through every part of trash, looking for value.
