The Homes of Hoarders

Have you ever heard of compulsive cluttering or obsessive hoarding?  It’s actually a disease, and I remember being in the homes of people who just brought so much stuff into their homes until the spaces completely filled up.  You couldn’t even open the door of one home all the way.

Gradually, no one was going into those homes but the people who lived there.  Not even their own grandchildren were visiting!  There just wasn’t room for visitors.  All of this stuff – enormous quantities of things and the accumulation of more things took over these peoples’ lives.  It was new stuff; it was old stuff.  It was things that mattered, and it was things that didn’t.  And they were so embarrassed, but they just couldn’t stop.  It’s such a heartache to experience!

Confession:  I watched a little TV on Thursday.  I had to go to someone else’s house to do it.  But I just had to see what Opera was talking about on the issue of compulsive cluttering when I got wind of the episode that originally aired in 2007.  (As a side note – wowzers!  I couldn’t believe how LOUD commercials were.  We had to turn up and down the volume like a cat owner letting the cat in and out of the house.)

This woman on Oprah couldn’t stop shopping or bringing more and more into her house in an episode called Inside the Lives of Hoarders.  If you get a chance, click on a few of the links on that episode.  I haven’t seen them all.  But I can tell you this – I suspect there were thousands of women attacking junk drawers and garages and making huge runs to drop stuff off at thrift shops after this show!  It’s intense.

It all goes back to the sorts of things you and I talk about with The Decluttering Project: owning quality things instead of a greater quantity, parting with the excess, and loving what we have.

I took Oprah’s hoarding quiz to find out where I stand on the Hoarding Severity Scale.  The quiz is right here so you can take it with me.

My scores were 3, 2, 3.  In other words, I’ve got the discard category down and easily ditch stuff I don’t really need (according to Oprah’s quiz master… maybe not Martin!).  But her quiz master feels I’m going to have to work on the acquiring department.  (Yet there were no questions that said, “When was the last time you bought clothes?” Why is that?!)

So go take the quiz and let us know how you score.  Or watch some clips from the hoarding days at Oprah and tell us what you’re tempted to head off and declutter a little!  I love a little simplicity – don’t you?

Note to those of you outside of the US: Can you view these clips?  We’ve never been able to see US tv station clips outside of the US, so if that is the case for you, too, I apologize.  Nothing like reading, “Oh you HAVE TO SEE THIS,” only to not be able to.  Just take the quiz then and forgive me, will ya?