Hoarders

[dancerjodi]

Hoarders is a new guilty pleasure of mine, usually watched while being organized (folding laundry). This summed up some of my thoughts on the issue http://bust.com/blog/2010/09/20/who-you-calling-a-hoarder.html .

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Comments

[rubicat.livejournal.com]

Yes! This! We have a basement that has a lot of stuff that would probably end up getting donated if it were in our actual living space. Nhan's take on stuff is that as long as it's in a drawer or closet and not in the way, it's fine. For me? Just knowing that I still have all sorts of stuff I want to sell on eBay bugs me. I feel like my space is so cluttered.

I'm amazed at all the stuff you and Brian do, and yet your space is lovely. It's cozy, full of character, and yet you own a small geek-museum in there. :P

[dancer.livejournal.com]

It has been a process. We (well, me) are always weeding out things to donate. It helps having a good thrift store nearby, benefitting the Humane Society too.

It's part practical and part obsessive. I think cleaning and weeding out, simplifying, is a way I can exert control when sometimes I feel like I'm losing it. At work I'll stop in the craze and organize my desk, and it seems to help me breathe a bit and jump in.

Along those lines, I think our tendencies can help or hurt us - depends on the extent or the context.

[roaming.livejournal.com]

That's different, because my take on some of what motivates hoarders is wanting MORE control over their environment, and bringing in stuff they find pleasureable is part of that. Because usually the hoarding started after a traumatic loss.

[deadwinter.livejournal.com]

I am not a hoarder. I'm an enthusiastic consumer who sometimes...doesn't use what he buys :) ever.

[roaming.livejournal.com]

We watch it too: I think Tom's trying to give me indirect hints, hoping I'll have an epiphany. :-) I do see much of myself in those people. I don't have trash -- I can ignore/tolerate clutter, but not dirt or smells, it's GOT to be CLEAN dammit -- but I do have too many things I don't and can't actually USE. But I like them, so I keep them. I have an entire bedroom upstairs that one can't walk into, it's that packed with shinies and material and art supplies. I don't go in there because it was supposed to be my craft room, but all it does is make me feel guilty that I ignore it. Right now it's too overwhelming with stuff and emotion to deal with. I've been saying that for over 10 years now, maybe more.

I have the same excuses the hoarders do: It's too good to throw away, someone can use it! Or I just like it. My stuff, their stuff -- it represents potential. It's hard to realize "I'll never use that" and just let it go out into the world, abandoned. (See? I do have the soul of a hoarder.)

What BUGS ME NO END about that show is the small window of time they give hoarders to get rid of their stuff. Sure, I can understand that the people who came to help -- and one does need help, it is IMPOSSIBLE to do it alone -- can't move in and be there for months, they want in and out in under a week. (And so does the show for taping.) But it's actually CRUEL and TRAUMATIC to tear the guts out of these hoarders so quickly. Given time to process, they might willingly let go of more, and feel good about it. Changing habits isn't an event, it's a process, like learning to walk. Or juggle fire balls. :-)