Some 1.5 million Americans are chronic hoarders who can not bear to throw away anything even if their excessive clutter is harming their lives.
Compulsive hoarding may well be a mental disease whereby even the thought of throwing something away causes great stress.
Compulsive hoarders live in an ever shrinking area as the piles of useless stuff grow taller. You can die suffocated under the piles as some do
Lynne Johnson, a professional organizer from Quincy, Mass., who is president of the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization...
explains that some people look at a shelf stacked with coffee mugs and see only mugs. But people with serious disorganization problems might see each one as a unique item — a souvenir from Yellowstone or a treasured gift from Grandma.
Many clients have already accumulated numerous storage bins and other such items in a futile attempt to get organized. Usually the home space is adequate, she says, but the challenge is in teaching them how to group, sort, set priorities and discard.
What is decluttering but editing - choosing the best, discarding the rest.
Editing is a skill we all have to learn is we are not to be drowned by our own stuff.
If you don't use it or love it, lose it.
Keep the best, toss the rest.
I've known people like this. It's almost like the object is the memory for them and if they get rid of the object - they will no longer have the memory!
I have actually been pondering becoming a professional organizer. But, as I am not a person who holds onto "stuff", I don't know if I can relate to people who have this need. I have watched some of the shows on television and I just cringe when they "make" people get rid of stuff - you can see it - the people don't want to let it go and someone forces it out of their house... you just know these people will be exactly the same in less than 6 months - drowning in "stuff"!
However, I am pretty decent at organization (even without any training) so I'm thinking about it. :-)
Posted by: Teresa at January 2, 2008 11:39 AMThe Infinite Mind dedicated a program to the issue of Clutter and Hoarding.
http://www.lcmedia.com/mind454.htm
Very impressive and far more detailed than anyone would guess. We all have the tendency, but in some cases it is more than a "tendency." As part of the OCD spectrum Cluttering and Hoarding becomes a true disability. I was so impressed with the program that upon hearing the first five minutes on my car radio I called my wife at home and told her to listen to it so we could discuss it when I got home. Later we listened to the whole program on line because one of our children could have been a case study. I'm certain that what we learned was critical to helping our adult get delivered from a crippling behavior.
Posted by: John Ballard at January 3, 2008 6:47 AMThis must be a timely topic. Not half an hour passed before I came across half a dozen references to a viral video "The Story of Stuff." The site is down at this writing, so I haven.t seen it, but from the commentaries I have come across it must be very compelling. It was linked by Boing Boing a few weeks back.
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/12/04/story-of-stuff-20-mi.html
I'm reminded of an Ira Glass feature (This American Life) spotlighting a place -- or places -- way out in the ocean, beyond all national/international interests, where endless floating masses of debris can be found floating...the trash and garbage of what we like to call "civilization."
Posted by: John Ballard at January 3, 2008 7:38 AMFound it!
Did a post:
http://hootsbuddy.blogspot.com/2008/01/story-of-stuff.html
As I was plowing through the Internets I couldn't help thinking how much MORE "stuff" is being piled up in cyberspace. By comparison, the material detrius of all human history is trivial. Makes me ask how much of what we find in cyberspace is toxic waste...
Posted by: John Ballard at January 3, 2008 8:43 AM