Am I a hoarder? Oh yes, guilty as charge.. Does my kitchen look like the one in the picture. No, and it never has. The picture above is just an extreme of this “interesting” animal disease. I say animal because apparently it doesn’t affect just humans..

hoarder

  1. Someone who collects large amounts of something and keeps it for themselves, often in a secret place
  2. Someone who suffers from a mental condition that makes them want to keep a large number of things that are not needed or have no value
  3. A supply or store of something held hidden for future use
  4. A collection or supply, as of memories or information, that one keeps oneself for future use
  5. To accumulate as much of (something) as one can, as when fearing a shortage
  6. The practice of collecting or accumulating something (such as money or food)
  7. Psychology: the compulsion to continually accumulate a variety of items that are often considered useless or worthless by others accompanied by an inability to discard the items without great distress

Sourced for most available online dictionaries

This was the list that I could find online, but to me the above is not very accurate in regard to what the real problem is…

I never realised I was a hoarder until I went from a 5 bedroom house plus six garage bays property, to Gigi. Like most people, I simply followed the crowd and trying to stay in front. By that, I mean that I do enjoy shopping and buying “things” more often than not without really taking the time to consider the reality of the situation.. While this will create a problem down the line, it is not the main culprit of the issue..

Of the above 7 possible explanation of what a hoarder is, I can honestly say yes they do/did apply to me at N. 1, 3, 4, 6 and 7. Pretty sad.. 😪 But the question is, was I born like that? Do I have the disease?

There a bit of a human instinct built into all of us, to accumulate item/s (6) for fear of the future or the unknown.. That, per se, is not a bad thing, as most animal do the same just to survive..

Unfortunately, something got lost along the way, and the survival instinct has been push to a new high by this society.. How? Well I can’t speak for everyone, but as far as myself I did find a few reasons:

In one of the boxes that I had following me for most of my life, from country to country and from a house to another, there were few items, that did help me realise what went wrong..

The first was a pair of jeans. An original Levis 501 made in the USA. I loved those jeans and I clearly remember wearing them the first day I meet my wife.. They were comfortable, well made of durable material and above all I wore them almost every day for several years.. I eventually stop wearing them, not because they were worn out, but because the married life had started to add a few kilos to my waist.. So instead of getting rid of them I clearly remember thinking “One day I will fit them again, and I can’t buy this quality of jeans anymore, so I better keep them”. And I did, until last week when I saw them for the first time again after nearly 35 years..

Another item in the box was my grandma can opener. She gave it to me before I left the country.. “Here take this.. My sister Lea gave it to me when she came to visit from America. But we don’t use canned food to cook in this country. So perhaps you may find it more useful where you are going..” I kept the can opener for 35 years even after it stop working 2 years after she gave it to me.. Today, it is all I got left of my grandma..

While the above are/were my “reasons” for keeping my “things” all these years, the truth is that, this was possibly the beginning of my life as a hoarder.. And so it appears that I’m a hoarder not because of the instinct of survival, but more because of the sentimental value I give to the things that I surround myself with.. This clearly shows that, firstly we are not born like this (we have a choice), and secondly (at least in my case), is not the disease..

Now, apparently, if the “things” you are keeping are expensive, you are not a hoarder, but a collector.. Hmm.. I think it is a very, very thin line between the two.. I had expensive items that I was collecting, but in the end the result was virtually the same if not worse. I had to get rid of them to move on. I was able to sell most of them, but I can’t deny the ugly feeling that I felt on either occasion of having to get rid of something that had just a sentimental value or both, sentimental and value.. The only difference is that with the item of value, you get to see some money coming back, but it doesn’t change the feeling in your guts a single bit..

At the end of the day I realised that we are all hoarder. Some of us, more than others, and some of us are more aware of it than others. I bet that if I came to your house today, I will find at least one room or one cupboard or one garage and perhaps even more, that would allow you to see that after all you are already part of the club.. As I mentioned before, this society does push us towards consumerism, and it is just natural to eventually get entangle in the system..

A prime example are things like TV, computers, mobile phones, games console.. I even have a friend that does collect vacuum cleaners.. Ok, she breaks them first, but she never throws them away (no names 😁).. The problems here are multiple and while some still related to the sentimental value mentioned before, we now have new ones, like the fact that these item were very expensive, and yet not part of a collection, where they gain value as times goes by.. So we keep them, for no other reason that the guilt that we feel towards those items..

First TV, no problem. Then a new better bigger and cheaper TV comes in. No problem as the first TV makes to the bedroom. Then a newer TV with new “technologies” comes in.. Problem.. Eventually a newer TV with “different new technologies” come is.. Big trouble now.. It is a never ending whirlpool, that eventually takes everybody down.. And this simple concept applies to pretty much everything we do and use today.. From cars to shoes, everything is design, promoted and advertised with the idea of making us buy something, not because we truly need it, not because it is actually better, or it will make our life easier, but simply for the fact that society says it is cool, or trendy, or in style..

We buy things today, and by tomorrow, even before we got the chance to enjoy them or actually use them, they are already old or obsolete. I got friends laughing at me because I’m using a 6 years old Samsung phone.. Even wonder why company use numbers and no longer just words to name their new products? Or why car and motorcycle companies keep releasing every two years the same vehicle with just a slight bigger engine and therefore a bigger number in their names? So, my Galaxy 6 is 15 less than the new Galaxy 21. I don’t know how I’m going to sleep tonight.. Then again in 2027 when Galaxy 36 will come out, I’ll have the same problem again with my Galaxy 21 (or perhaps it will be called Galaxy 27).. It is very hard to follow the logic.. 😂

After all this, how can you not be a professional hoarder, when society pushes you so hard, towards that direction.. So, while before, was a sentimental matter that made us keep things around us, today is perhaps more a matter of getting some value out of what we buy that makes us keep several of the same items around us..

Finally, I would like to share a little piece of lesson learned.. If you are going to get rid of all your junk (items) collected in your lifetime, it is much less painful doing it in bits, than all at once, and it helps a lot, if you think about the true fact, that in the end, we can’t take any of it with us.

Something I witness last weekend: I was at the dump unloading rusted pieces of metal and chipboard.. Next to me a very young girl was dumping 600 baseball caps collected by her defunct father in 55 years and from around the world.. While I felt sorry for her loss, I couldn’t help to think that perhaps she could have done something better with all those new in mint conditions caps… But to her, they were worth nothing or maybe that was her way to get the needed closure.. And no, I didn’t take any of them, even if there were two (one from Roma and another one from the US navy) that did made me think..

And please remember, you always have places like the Australian Red Cross and  the St Vincent de Paul Society (Vinnies), where it makes a lot more sense to donate, than a trip to the dump where you get charged to throw away perfect good items.. Still, make a trip to any of the waste facility run by the council and have a look at what we are throwing away on a daily basis.. I bet by the time you get back home, you will feel sick in your stomach too..