Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost, Gail Steketee
My rating: 5/5 cats
oh, dear. this book was uncomfortable to read. i think i may be a hoarder, a little. not terribly badly, not yet. but the fine line between “collector” and “hoarder” is on the thin side. this is from the inside cover, and why i felt i needed to read the book:
With vivid portraits that show us the particular traits of the hoarder – piles on sofas and beds that make the furniture useless, homes that have to be navigated by narrow “goat trails,” stacks of paper that are “churned” but never discarded…
see, that sounds like home! but maybe i’m not a hoarder, maybe i just have a small new york apartment. i won’t know until my ship comes in and i move somewhere bigger… will i fill that space, too? will i be like that fat tolkien dragon lolling on my hoard of books and treasures??
but reading this book puts it into perspective, a little. i do not hoard garbage. i do not have roaches and mice. i do not collect supermarket circulars and newspapers from ten years ago. i am able to throw away junk mail. while there are frequent book avalanches at the home, my door can still be opened, and i am able to escape if (heaven forfend) there is a fire. “Hoarding is not defined by the number of possessions, but by how the acquisition and management of those possessions affects their owner.” and i’m okay, i think. i read my books, i just buy more than i will ever live long enough to read, but i want to read them all -that’s the plan, i just don’t know how feasible it will be, mortality and all.
i highly recommend this book, even if you don’t have the same fears i had. it is a strong cautionary tale, and while this is a psychological disorder, the hoarding, and being aware of the extent that it can actually take over a person’s life isn’t going to prevent it; you either have the tendency or you don’t, you may see shades of yourself in some of the case studies, and it might give you a nice whiff of fear – enough to get you to go over to that mail table and sort it once and for all. and throw away that old fancy mustard you didn’t even like – you are never going to suddenly develop a taste for it.
