Are You a Collector, or Do You Hoard?

Welcome to Conquer the Clutter! Our blog provides information and recommendations based on 17 years of experience working exclusively with people who hoard, those who care about them, and the professionals trying to help but feel ill-prepared. Elaine’s suggestions have been developed through hands-on onsite work (wherever the hoarding occurs) as a Hoarding Behavior and Intervention Specialist.

Hoarding is just a word. People aren't hoarders, they hoard. In fact, I would say that some of the loveliest people I have ever met hoard.

Here are the working criteria I offer to clients to decide where they are on the path to hoarding. If you meet the criteria, either you are living with hoarding, or you are somewhere on the path, no matter what the perceived value of the collection is, or the price tag on the items.

• Would most people describe your collection as excessive?
• Are you able to manage the items so that each thing has a PERMANENT HOME (you store the item in the place where the item would normally be used) and you don’t have to adapt your life to access the item? You can manage the items by:

o KEEPING the items and STORING them in their accessible, PERMANENT HOME

o DONATING to a cause with no expectation of reimbursement

o SELLING the items if practical to do so

o REGIFTING. Given the financial investment you made in purchasing an item, pick one spot (proportional to the storage space that your environment permits) and store things for future gifting occasions (only if you will actually re-gift it). NOTE: The storage space designated for re-gifting cannot interfere with any space normally used for activities of daily living. We will talk more about “the activities of daily living” in a future blog.

o RECYCLING. These items can and will be removed regularly according to your area’s recycling schedule. Before pickup, they cannot be stored in areas where activities of daily living occur.

o DISCARDING. These items are taken away regularly on garbage day.

• Are there some areas of your environment that can’t be used for their intended purpose?
• In order to live in the environment, do people have to make adaptations?

  Adaptations include:

o Walking on things

o Stepping or climbing over things

o Moving things to use the space

o On a regular basis, taking UNUSUAL action in order to access or use the space in the home; for example, climbing over a gate to go up and downstairs because there are so many animals in the house (and leaving the gates in place night and day)

• Is someone concerned about the condition of the environment OR if they knew the truth about the situation, they would have cause to be concerned? They might be any of the following:

o Family members

o Friends

o Neighbors (especially in multi-unit dwellings)

o Landlords

o Local Fire Department officials

o Local Bylaw officials

o Child Protection officials

o Animal Protection officials

o Home Insurance providers

o Mortgage Company

Collections usually have a social aspect to them. We are proud of them. They give us pleasure and we usually want to display them and show them to people who we think will also appreciate them. We are likely to want to share them with others. We take care of them and maintain them. They are part of our “social life”. So, are you really a collector, or do you hoard?

Source: Elaine Birchall - Permission granted

Those who hoard get caught up in a progressive downhill spiral of never having enough of the things they treasure. Are your collections becoming cluttered, and could this be in your future?

Stay tuned for our next post “What Is Hoarding?” where we will define Hoarding Disorder and discuss how widespread it is in North America and around the world.