The Hoarding Song

For a while, I was hooked on the show, Hoarders. It tried to put a human face on hoarding. For many of these folks, there was serious mental illness that kept them stuck in these lifestyle patterns of accumulating junk. Most kept literal garbage. Many were unable to bathe due to the conditions of their bathrooms. Others had inaccessible kitchens.

I often wondered what was the moment that they began hoarding. What triggered such an extreme reaction to stuff? How could their self identity be tied up in things? After I did some major thinking about it, I realized that most Americans are hoarders on one level or another. We might be as extreme as those on TV, but we hoard things. We live in a very consumer driven society. Many of us wind up in debt because we are trying to impress others with the stuff we have-whether or not we like those people is completely irrelevant. Its coveting, like the commandments ask us to not do.

 I “collect” (read: hoard) a lot of things. I love clothes. I love shoes. I love music. I love craft supplies. I have lots of all of the above. I don’t need them all, so above my need is my “hoard”.

One of the yogic yamas is not hoarding. In today’s society, its counter cultural to live simply. The older I get, the more I realize that’s the lifestyle I yearn for. Its exhausting keeping up with the Johnsons (I live in the Midwest. There are more Johnsons than Jones here). I’d rather just be. I am still attached to a lot of my stuff, and my identity is tied up in a lot of it. I can relate to those on the TV show somewhat, that they need their stuff to prove who they are. Fly Lady is a great place to start for decluttering. She has some great tips, tricks and ideas to make it happen.

One of her concepts is, if you had 10 minutes to evacuate your house, what would you bring? That’s your treasure. Everything else is gravy.