Collecting or Hoarding?

In preparation for my upcoming organization book as well as a presentation I'm giving, I checked a book out of the library on hoarding. I'm afraid I didn't get very far into it before deciding it wasn't the reference for me and seeking information elsewhere. 

Why am I looking into this? Because I talk often about organization, I think it's important to distinguish between typical organizational issues and those that require intervention beyond determining our styles and acting on them. While most of us who love stuff are what our grandmothers referred to as "pack rats," for others, the problem goes deeper.

How do we know if we should be concerned? According to the International OCD Foundation, compulsive hoarding is defined as ALL THREE of the following:

1. A person collects and keeps a lot of items, even things that appear useless or of little value to most people and
2. These items clutter the living spaces and keep the person from using their rooms as they were intended and
3. These items cause distress or problems in day-to-day activities.

Let me begin with the emphasis placed on ALL THREE (capital letters theirs) and the word "and" (italics mine). I cannot stress enough that all of these criteria must be met. If you are "simply" a collector or "simply" have a cluttered living space, that does not make you a hoarder.

Hoarding is distinguished by a pattern of symptoms that causes distress for the person experiencing them, but it's treatable. Tough love and forced removal of beloved objects can sometimes cause more harm than good, and appropriate treatment typically requires more than simply advice on how to get organized. 

Why do people hoard? It could be personality or family history. Or, it could be triggered by a stressful life event that is a challenge to cope with. Sometimes, it is connected to anxiety, depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder.

It's possible for any one of us to show symptoms of hoarding. But clinical hoarding, like any other clinical disorder, is typified by a pattern of symptoms -- not just a few isolated symptoms that ebb and flow with stress and busyness.

If you've been successfully making progress with your organizational systems, even slowly, you're probably not a hoarder.

If you understand that other people don't see the same value in certain objects that you do, and you can distinguish true trash from true treasure, you're probably not a hoarder.

If, prior to purchasing the super jumbo family pack at the warehouse club you ask yourself where you're going to put it when you get it home, you're probably not a hoarder.

If you have surfaces that collect clutter, but you can still move through your home and use the rooms and appliances for the purposes for which they're intended, you're probably not a hoarder.

If, however, anything in this post has you concerned, please click on the link near the top of this post to the International OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) Foundation. There, you'll find a clear document that distinguishes common, non-clinical behaviors from those that are more concerning. Or, click here to read more information on hoarding from the Mayo Clinic.