Hoarding

Did you see Oprah's show today...I missed part of it, but it was about hoarding.

I am fascinated by this topic (just as I am about dwarfism).  I am a purger, mostly because my mother is a hoarder and I do everything in my power to not do the same.  Plus with six kids in the house, I can NOT set an example of "saving" things...If someone wants to save something tangible I convince them to take a photograph, write a story about it and SCRAPBOOK IT!

Although it was hard to see how the Maryland couple could live in such conditions, we all need to look at ourselves and see what we hoard.  I have one pair of closed toed shoes, so it's hard for me to understand why someone has more than 5 pairs of shoes, whereas someone with 25 shoes wouldn't think that's hoarding.

I love how the two experts (althought briefly) discussed the root of hoarding...the emotional reasoning for hoarding...they actually discussed it in more detail on Peter Walsh's Oprah and Friends XM 156 radio show.

What I do hoard is cardstock and pens.  So there's my confession, what's yours?

I'm off to sort through my scrapbook papers and pens!

Comments

[Lisa Renée a/k/a LRY]

I know I’m a hoarder, and I think it came from when my parents separated and basic necessity items became sparse. However, as I get older, I’m learning to let go of more things, but my newest obsession over the last three years has become anything scrapbook related, which I complete hoard.

Now on the topic of shoes and cloths - there is NO such thing as hoarding, these are items which are required to be plentiful, especially when you’re fabulous.

[kris]

I only caught the end of the show but it is fascinating isn't it??

I didn't realize they were from MD.

It reminded me of Clean House on the Style Network, it's great. They did a 'messiest home in the country' it was in NJ and basically this woman's husband died and she didn't want to let go of anything, basically didn't want her house/life to reflect her life now, wanting to keep things like they used to be. I thought that woman had a lot of stuff when they brough the 4th dumpster in, I guess the Oprah people were worse.

Watching shows like that (and the Oprah show) just really inspire me to go declutter, dejunk and clean up!

PS - I don't hoard scrapbook products, I am 'basics' kind of girl, cardstock, hand journaling (just a couple of pens), a few more accessories, but not much. I want to preserve the memories, not drown in supplies.