Are You Developing Hoarding Behaviors?

I watched a tv show the other day called Hoarders that gives you a look inside the homes and minds of people who hoard. It was just so sad to see the houses falling apart and the trash several feet deep mixed in with former treasures. After seeing the show, I started to think about the fact that these people didn’t start out hoarding to that extent. So, how did the whole thing get so out of hand and how can you tell if you are predisposed to be a hoarder?

I think that, for many people who have this problem, the hoarding was pretty manageable for many years. It seems like it only got to the catastrophic level seen on the show after the death of a close family member. The surviving person was unable to part with anything the deceased person had used, even an old razor. Then, he or she started worrying about whether that package had anything important on it. A UPC code? Diagrams? So, he or she set it aside to look at later and never got back to it, added a few newspapers and the junk mail that needs to be read cover to cover and rinsed and repeated until there was a foot or more of stuff littering the place. I’ve seen hoarding mentioned as an OCD related behavior, as well.

Here’s my unofficial “Could You Be a Hoarder?” quiz:

Do you feel sick or anxious when you think about sorting through a closet, a drawer, or a stack of paper?
Do you sort through things someone else is throwing out and put most of it back into the house instead of the trash?
Are you sentimental to the point that you kept every baby tooth every child lost, every school paper he or she brought home and every little memento, no matter how trivial it was?
Is your walking space becoming more and more limited as you try to navigate between piles of stuff?
Are you scared to throw things out in case you might need them? I’m not talking about important financial documents and your house deed. Totally keep that stuff. I’m talking about every receipt you’ve ever received.

For more information about hoarding, read Mayo Clinic’s hoarding article or make an appointment with your doctor to discuss your concerns. Hoarding can take over your life and keep you from enjoying all the wonderful things many people take for granted, like having friends over for tea.