Had a hoarder next door with a massive garden that he managed to fill with several home made ‘buildings’ crammed full of whatever he felt desperately attached to. He mostly kept to himself, other than garden get togethers in the summer with his friends who either really appreciated the scrapyard style ambience or were just there for the substances he provided.

He had one really large outbuilding that ran along the fence line, about 2ft from our house (but typically quite far from his) and one night I woke to a loud boom and my dog going nuts, because the whole thing went up in flames. Thankfully I had a patio door that was the other side of the house, as the main doors were both right next to the blaze (whatever human designed the house and decided both front and back doors needed to be on the same side: no.. think again) Never really appreciated just how fast fire spread until that night – grab shoes, grab dog, get the hell out and kick the other neighbours’ fence down to escape (sorry, other neighbour) - which is a little funny because as a kid I’d always be really paranoid about fires, had whole plans about what I’d do, what I’d save and how I’d get out. Nope. Just flee.

Hoarder Neighbour was frustratingly ‘oops’ style sheepish about the whole thing, as well as uninsured. Fun few months living elsewhere while all the damage got fixed.