Clutter? Or Hoarding?

My own clutter threatens to overwhelm me every day until my intendedness finally gives way and I sigh once again.

But my thought at the moment is about the people and the house recently written about in our local paper. The house was bought as a tax property, the people were evicted by the new owner, and over six hundred trash bags filled with what they left behind. Hoarders.

We drove by the house as we were on our way to go shopping and saw the trash bags piled on the curb. The pile was well over six feet high and probably fifteen or twenty feet long. And they weren’t even done cleaning up yet.

Where do we draw the line between clutter and hoarding? I comfort myself with the knowledge that at least I keep my bath and my kitchen cleaned up, not letting milk cartons and other trash become hoarded filth.

But I also sit in my office and look at the piles of books and magazines and papers and printers and computers that I’ve accumulated until I have only a sort of trail from the door to my desk.

Is that clutter? Or is it hoarding?

I have seven six-foot bookshelves filled with books (and that’s just in my office) and I can’t see that as hoarding. But is it? I know I’m not likely to ever read some of these books again but I keep them anyway. I know I’ll never read the computer printouts I’ve saved but "there’s something in there  that’s important," and that’s why I’ve saved them.

I have stacks of 3.5" floppy disks that are so old they can barely be read by my current computer. Actually, my computer has no floppy disk drive so I’ve kept my old and very slow computer, "just in case." Clutter? Or hoarding?

I excuse a lot of this simply because when we moved here, much quicker than I expected to, I didn’t have time to organize as we moved in. There is a sort of organization to my mess, or at least it started that way, but I’m the only one that can see it, I suppose. But even for me stuff seemed to accumulate faster than my organization could keep up with it.

Add to that the chronic fatigue that has been the bane of my existence for at least the last twenty-five years, plus the fatigue currently left by the radiation therapy, and I can try to justify these piles. Try.

But as Yoda says, “There is no try. Only do or not do.” That Yoda, what a joker!

And now, after seeing that wall of packed trash bags, I have to ask myself – am I hoarding? I don’t know. Just because my clutter may not be as extreme as theirs was is no failsafe.

But something has to be done, either to the clutter or to the hoard.

Read Full Post »