"Our Home Is Turning Into a Storage Room"... Husband Keeps Bringing Home Discarded Items [What Do You Think?]

[Financial News] A woman in her 30s is worried about living space and hygiene because her husband keeps bringing discarded items home. As unusable items piled up throughout the house, the couple's conflict also grew worse.
On the JTBC program Scandal Supervisor, which aired on the 28th, a story was shared about A, who said she had been married to her husband, who is the same age as her, for three years. During their dating period, whenever A tried to buy electronic devices, her husband would find cheaper products for her, and she saw that as a sign that he was frugal and practical.
After marriage, things changed. Conflict began when her husband started bringing home items other people had thrown away on his way back from work.
The first item he brought home was a floor lamp that looked perfectly fine. Later, the list grew to include chairs and shelves. A said she eventually found herself staring at her husband's hands whenever the front door opened, worried about what he might have brought home this time.
He also showed interest in items offered for free online. One time, he said he would bring home a foot massager that A had once said she wanted because it had been listed as a free giveaway. When A raised concerns about hygiene, he reportedly responded, "Why pay for something when this one is perfectly fine?"
Many of the items he brought home were not actually usable. A table had mismatched legs, and a shelf was missing screws. Each time, he said, "It can be fixed and used," but he never repaired them, and the items were left piled up on the veranda and elsewhere.
He also once brought home a broken coffee machine. When A asked, "It was broken, so it must have been thrown away. Why did you bring it home?" he replied that it had looked fine. But the coffee machine did not work, and the couple eventually had to pay to throw it away.
A expressed frustration, saying, "People didn't throw it away for no reason. There must have been a reason." Her husband, however, reportedly got angry and said he could not understand why anyone would throw away something that was still usable.
As time went on, more and more of the items he brought home filled the house. A said that whenever guests were coming over, she became preoccupied with the clutter and felt embarrassed.
The couple's conflict grew even worse over a sofa left on the street. One day, her husband urgently called A outside. Pointing at the discarded sofa, he said, "Doesn't it look fine? If we don't take it now, someone else will."
A refused, saying they already had a sofa at home. Her husband insisted they could put it in another room and asked her to help move it.
Angry, A went back upstairs alone, leaving her husband behind. Unable to move the sofa by himself, he also returned empty-handed and reportedly did not speak to her for several days afterward.
A said, "I'm tired of fighting with my husband over this kind of issue, and I hate seeing our home slowly turn into a storage room." She added that she was also worried about hygiene.
She said that even when she raised the issue with her husband, he would respond with, "What exactly did I do wrong?" making it difficult to continue the conversation.
After hearing the story, Director Sanghee Park explained that it should be examined whether the husband's behavior is simply a frugal habit or a behavioral issue related to hoarding. Park also advised checking whether he actually uses the items after bringing them home and whether he ignores the problem even when it causes conflict with family members.


[email protected] Han Seung-gon Reporter