How to NOT Be Featured on Hoarders



I've watched the show Hoarders once.  People joke a lot about being featured on that show.  Usually you sense that they might be a hoarder in embryonic form, and think that joking about it makes the problem go away.

I know this is a blog about art and folk art, but in order to get anything created, I've got to deal with my mess. Recently I started a little project to get my house in order.  I took pictures of all the rooms in my house.  But before I could do that I had to clean out some spaces.  Admittedly I didn't get to them all.  Anyway, while I was doing this I was muttering to myself about my hoarding ways.  Sometimes it makes sense.  But most of the stuff should have been sent to recycling or given away a long time ago.  While thinking about this project, I have decided to reduce my stuff by half, which means making decisions about what's most important.  I've found a lot stuff in my hoards that don't fit in with my goals.  And what was interesting was that by getting rid of the cluttery stuff, I like my house a whole lot better.

My guidelines for what to keep:
  1. I love it.
  2. It serves a purpose.
  3. It has historical significance for me or my family (this one is tough!)
In thinking about how NOT to be a hoarder, I've read some awesome posts by other bloggers, and thought I'd list them here. 


There is very little chance that I will become a minimalist.  Better chance for a snowball surviving in Ecuador.  But at least I can ward off a feature on Hoarders.

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3 comments:

Debra said...

Hmmmm...when I saw the word "Hoarders" related to the TV show, I had to read your post and comment. It's one of my favorite shows-I'm not sure what that says about me---Yes-I do have some stuff...but I do not have to walk near the ceiling or walk sideways to get into rooms. I also love clean rooms and stuff picked up and organized. In fact, I really can't work in my studio if things aren't at a certain neatness level. I guess I like the show because it has made me think more about all the stuff I have and about future stuff.
It is very hard to get rid of stuff with memories-but not all of it has to be in my home...I still have the memories!
~Debra

Robin's Egg Bleu said...

I have a sister who is a hoarder, she suffers from borderline personality disorder. It's terrible. She's lost her home because of the disease and the hoarding (lived in a condo). It's an insidious problem and I don't think is often cured.

I used to handle estate sales and first we had to go in and clean the houses. My gosh, some of them were horrendous. Really, a hazard just being inside. Some of them should've been bulldozed. Lots of elderly people become hoarders, it's so very very sad.

I too worry about becoming one of them. My husband and I live in a cottage that's maybe 500sf, so it's prevented us from dragging too much garage sale items home!

Dixie Redmond said...

My goal is one shelf at a time to get rid of half our stuff and send it to the recycling center or sell it. The whole selling it thing is how I started out selling on Ebay and then started selling art!

I was trying to make room in our old small house (but admittedly a bit bigger than Robin's). I was selling wedding dishes that had been packed away for 20 years in the basement (Pfalzgraff Folk Art) in order to make room for what we really needed to store.

I love antiquing but don't get to do too much of it. Auctions are dangerous! ;-)


"Do not let what you cannot do
keep you from doing what you can do."

John Wooden