WHERE DID ALL THIS STUFF COME FROM?

THE SAVERS

For the frail elder who lived through the Depression, saving was a key to survival.  One has only to listen to old proverbs such as “saving for a rainy day” or “waste not, want not” to hear this message.  There was no short shelf life of goods and technology as there is today.  For the older person with this mindset, it is almost sacrilegious not to save.  Preventing the accumulation of stuff requires active effort.

THE CONSUMERS

Then came the Boomers. Anyone who has grown up in the second half of the last century did so in a culture of unparalleled affluence.  Goods were available. They were relatively cheap.  Stuff was easy to obtain – and we did. Everyone wanted to keep up with the Jones’.  The Boomers have had a lifetime to accumulate their own stuff.  While they may have moved out of their parents’ home with only what could fit in a station wagon, they’ve started their own households, raised their own families, and moved over the years to what have probably been a series of ever-expanding living spaces where more stuff was gathered. The culture has emotionally rewarded “moving up” to a bigger place, as has the financial market.  McMansions and Super Sizing are what we strive for.  Perhaps there were previous corporate moves where a professional crew packed everything, including the dirt in the flowerpots. Unless one has the discipline of a military trainee, has the wanderlust of Tolkien’s Gandalf, or is a counter- culture minimalist, the stuff tends to accumulate.

THE DYSFUNCTIONALS -DISORGANIZED CLUTTERERS and HOARDERS

Added to this are two personality traits – those of the disorganized clutterer and the hoarder. Although many people interchange these two words, there is a difference between the two. The most significant difference is that, with prodding, a person who clutters can throw items away. They recognize that they have a problem. Hoarders don’t see a problem.
 
Clutter can be best characterized as “disorganization gone wild”.  In the book RESTORING ORDER, by Vicki Norris, she describes four causes of disorganization. They are as follows:

1.  SITUATIONAL DISORGANIZATION. Often a life event or crisis causes disorganization or disruption in one’s life.

2.  HABITUAL DISORGANIZATION. This is when bad habits develop and snowball over time and become chronic. 

3.  HISTORICAL DISORGANIZATION. Often they have grown up with disorder and chaos. They model these behaviors.  There are also some who rebel against the neatness of their early environments.

4.  SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION. This is a cultural phenomenon where our society encourages accumulation and consumerism. Think how after 9/11 people were encouraged to go shopping.  Consumerism enslaves us.

As previously mentioned, the disorganized person who clutters recognize there is a problem and generally wants to do something about it.  They just never seem to find the time to organize or know how and where to begin. Often, when they attempt to organize,  “churning” occurs.  Churning involves moving items from place to place but never tossing enough stuff out to address the problem.  They are usually ashamed to have people visit. Often these clutterers become socially isolated, not because they do not enjoy the company of others, but because of the embarrassment of clutter.
 
On the other side is the hoarder. With hoarding behaviors, there is little or no insight into the fact that there really is a problem.  Items accumulate, but with a purpose no matter how strange the purpose appears.  All reasons seem logical and make sense to the hoarder even if its just trash. Broken, useless objects are coveted as much as items purchased and never used.  They just might need all these items someday. Hoarding is not just a house problem; it’s also a person problem.

Frost and Hartl (1996) provided the first systematic definition of compulsive hoarding. They identify three characteristics of the hoarder. These characteristics are: the acquisition of, and failure to discard a large number of possessions that appear useless or of limited value; living spaces so cluttered as to preclude activities for which those spaces were designed; and the significant distress or impairment in functioning caused by the hoarding.  It impairs activities of daily living and provides unhealthy and unsafe living conditions. The interference in functioning can make hoarding a dangerous problem, putting people at risk for fire, falling, poor sanitation and health problems (Dameour and Charron, 1998).  In a television show on BBCAmerica called “How Clean is your House” the focus is showcasing the filthiest, most cluttered homes in the United Kingdom and their subsequent clean up. In addition to removing the clutter and trash, the surface areas in the homes are also measured for bacteria and air quality is checked.  In house after house, one is able to identify who is the disorganized clutterer versus the hoarder, based on their perception of the problem.  The hoarder is oblivious to the dangers lurking in their house and within two weeks the hoarding has once again begun in earnest. The disorganized collector displays a new sense of pride in their home and desire to remain clutter-free. Lessons have been learned.

In a presentation and subsequent paper by Elaine Birchall, a social worker with the Ottawa Public Health Department, four types of hoarding behaviors were identified. They are as follows:
 
1.  INSTRUMENTAL HOARDING. Items are saved because they might prove necessary in the future regardless of their usefulness.  Often this hoarder views themselves as thrifty, frugal, and very resourceful.

2.  SENTIMENTAL HOARDING. These items provide comfort and emotional security.  This person relies on the attachment of things versus human contact or relationships. Stuff does not disappoint. They are surrounded by memories of their life.

3.  DIOGENES SYNDROME. This syndrome is characterized by gross self-neglect, domestic squalor and hoarding trash. Often the person is elderly and comes to the hospital due to illness, weight loss, and poor grooming. It is usually a life-long pattern of accumulation (Christensen & Greist, 2001).

4.  ANIMAL HOARDING. Less clinical research has been completed with this type of hoarding. Usually these hoarders are female and unmarried. Typically animals played significant roles in their childhoods, which were often characterized as chaotic, inconsistent, and unstable (Patronek, G.J., 1999). Hoarders of animals emphasized that their animals gave them unquestioning and uncritical love (Worth & Beck, 1981). As with other types of hoarders, they lack insight that their hoarding of animals is a problem. They view themselves as saviors even though the animals reside in squalid conditions and are often sick and malnourished.