Junk rooms are like a virus, they just spread and spread until there is some sort of mitigation effort and it’s stopped.
And like a virus, a junkroom can have horrible results on a home.
My parents had a great place with super quality heating and air and all sorts of other amenities. But the junk room took hold and when they died, I ended up having to bring dumpsters to the front yard. How my dad put up with all that junk I’ll never know. When I first saw the signs of the start of a junk room in our house, I was quick to react. However, I had to be a bit measured in my response because my wife is a crafty one and a bunch smarter than I am. So I had to come up with a reason and solution to stop the attempt at a junk room. My wife started stacking boxes of stuff inside a spare room in our house. That’s the first sign so I asked her why. Of course, she had a wiley but accurate response. The room is at the end of the house and gets direct sunlight heating through the day. The HVAC doesn’t do great in there and that was the reason. I called the HVAC company to have them tweak our residential HVAC to have zone controlled HVAC. And I had a thermostat right outside that room. That end of the house is now enjoys great HVAC cooling just like the rest of the house. My wife knew she was beat and there is no more junk room.