People who suffer from this type of OCD tend to keep and hoard objects of their interest, resulting in accumulated piles of objects that occupy a steadily increasing amount of space, with the affected person’s loved ones having to navigate their way through the clutter of objects and putting up with it on a day-to-day basis . For example, the person and his family may not be able to use the bathroom because the room itself is so filled with objects that space to thread is blocked off. There may be an associated distress and/or functional impairment that comes with this type of OCD. 

It has been pointed out that indecisiveness is strongly associated with compulsive hoarding, and both appear to be driven by a strong tendency to avoid making mistakes. It is also connected with the great difficulty that people have in discarding their items, experiencing extreme difficulty in deciding what to discard and what to retain. In extreme cases, the compulsive need to collect and retain unnecessary objects starts off as an embarrassment or inconvenience, but then evolves into a source of distress and inability to function normally.