(adapted excerpt from OVERCOME HOARDING AND TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE: How to Choose Hope and Life Instead of Things)

DEFINING HOARDING

In my experience, hoarding is defined by:

1. Volume – hoarders collect far more than any human being could use.

2. Acquisition – hoarders continue actively searching for and bringing in new items even when the existing accumulation creates enormous problems.

3. Storage – hoarders pile their collection high and/or pack it tight, rendering finding or using items nearly impossible, and usually disregard hazards and consequences.

4. Denial – hoarders deny or ignore the risks and often the reality of their hoarding. Even people who recognize that they are hoarders are often in denial about various aspects of their problem, such as whether they over-acquire, whether they really need to get rid of most specific items or classes of items, and the hazards that hoarding creates for themselves and others.

5. Heightened emotionality, especially anxiety, regarding objects – people who hoard experience intense anxiety at the prospect of having to part with items or not acquiring when the opportunity to do so exists. They also commonly feel intensely attached to their things and excessively responsible for the fate of objects. Touching a hoarder’s belongings often generates reactions that are far out of proportion to the triggering event.

6. Potential – People who hoard frequently see only the possibilities of items without regard for their actual current state, what would be required to realize that potential, or the effect of living with another item or project. They also over-prioritize potential need, use for, or pleasure of things over the actual reality of the discomfort, consequences, and dangers of keeping so many things.

7. Hiding – regardless of the level of denial, nearly all hoarders recognize that others frown on their behavior and/or they are ashamed of it, so they try to hide their accumulation. The result of hiding is increasing isolation which tends to exacerbate the behavior that becomes solace and refuge from social disapproval. Hiding is usually only partially effective as others may not know specifically what is happening but they recognize that there is something odd and unhealthy about the hoarder’s behavior. Signals like bad smells, constant acquisition, always carrying many bags, and refusal to admit visitors indicate something abnormal, even if the clues may not lead to the right answer.

DIFFERENTIATING BETWEEN CLUTTER AND HOARDING

The line between clutter and hoarding may be hard to distinguish, particularly if it’s your problem. Differentiating is made harder by the fact that there are some common characteristic between clutterers and hoarders: difficulty making decisions, feeling overwhelmed, managing time, and creating systems or organizing.

Here are some benchmarks to determine whether your accumulation has crossed the line. Any one of these behaviors is a probable indicator of hoarding; having two or more of them is conclusive for hoarding, and having all four means that the situation likely needs concentrated effort to overcome it:

• Anxiety – clutterers do not experience anxiety or distress about getting rid of things; they are often overwhelmed, have no organizing skills, or criteria for making decisions, but once they get help with these issues, they can get rid of things without a lot of drama or emotion. Hoarders find getting rid of things difficult or impossible or experience intense anxiety if something is thrown out. Hoarding indicator examples:

___ Becoming upset or hysterical if something is thrown out or even touched
___ Becoming anxious at the mere thought of having to give something up
___ Staying upset for a long time (years even) after an item is lost or taken away

• Pain tolerance – clutterers become distressed by the mess and piles relatively quickly and will act to reduce their distress. Hoarders have a much greater tolerance for living in uncomfortable or compromised circumstances because of the accumulation and have great difficulty taking action. Hoarding indicator examples:

___ Sleeping on the couch because the bed is piled with belongings or sharing the bed with piles of objects
___ Having restricted walkways, entry, or fire exits because of piles of objects
___ Being unable to use the kitchen or bathtub in a normal manner
___ Having animal or insect pests that cannot be controlled because of the volume of stuff

• Denial – clutterers denial of the pain of excess belongings is usually less and they are more likely to respond to risks with action. Hoarders risk losing or damaging their home, family, finances, health, or life because of their belongings and often seem oblivious to these risks or refuse to acknowledge their significance. Hoarding indicator examples: 

___ Being at risk for or threatened with divorce, eviction, or many other adverse outcomes because of excessive belongings (and often still not taking any action to prevent the adverse outcome)
___ Missing income because the paperwork is lost in the piles of stuff
___ Being deeply in debt from acquiring things that are not used
___ Having a high risk for fire, falls, or falling objects because of the accumulation

• Acquisition – clutterers don’t usually continue getting more once the discomfort threshold has been crossed. Hoarders continue to acquire more belongings even though their living circumstances are already difficult or dangerous because of the volume of stuff. Hoarding indicator examples:  

___ Adding more things to existing piles, especially when items in piles are already difficult or impossible to access
___ Going deeper into debt buying things when there are already too many
___ Bringing in things from the street despite all the risks (germs, bedbugs, and cockroaches, among others)
___ Spreading out from storing things in an over-flowing home to the porch, yard, car, or a storage facility

• Volume – clutterers usually have some sense of proportion relative to what they use. People who hoard have great volumes of particular items, far beyond what could be used in a week, month, or even a year. Hoarding indicator examples:

___ Having lots of cleaning supplies even though little cleaning is done or lots of books when little reading occurs
___ Buying many duplicates of the same item of clothing, even though there are already unworn articles of the same type
___ Buying duplicates of an item when the first one has not been tried to find out if it is helpful

DIFFERENTIATING BETWEEN COLLECTING AND HOARDING

The TV programs on hoarding show that some people living amidst piles and squalor defend their practice as being collecting rather than hoarding. So let’s look at the hallmarks of collecting and show how that differs from hoarding.

• Care – Collectors lavish time and effort on maintaining the specific pieces in their collection, often housing them in special display cases and meticulously cleaning them. Hoarders accumulate things in piles with no precautions to prevent damage and cannot care for them because of the volume of belongings and resulting feelings of being overwhelmed.

• Knowledge – Collectors are often very knowledgeable regarding the merits of items they collect, and enjoy increasing their expertise. Although some hoarders have great knowledge about their items, often they do not have special expertise.

• Discrimination – Collectors are usually very choosy about which items of a type are worth keeping and which are not. Hoarders often indiscriminately save nearly everything, and are often quite attached to collections that have no practical value.

• Value – Collectors save items that often have considerable intrinsic value, and sometimes that value is enhanced by an object becoming part of a completed collection. Hoarders’ items often have little or no intrinsic value, and whatever value there once might have been is often reduced by the lack of care.

• Sharing – Collectors delight in showing off their collection to others. Hoarders fear other people's reactions to their accumulation and usually try to hide their things.

DIFFERENTIATING BETWEEN ACCUMULATING ART MATERIALS AND HOARDING

This one is harder. In my experience, 80% of hoarders consider themselves artists or artistic and that the items in their piles are materials for future art projects. Confounding clarity is the fact that many working artists live or work in spaces that look like the aftermath of a tornado. However, I have seen enough examples of artists who are meticulous with their materials to know that mess does not equal creativity and creativity does not equal mess (at least, not long term). So what does differentiate between artistic accumulation and hoarding? My list will doubtless provoke many objections, but let’s explore anyway:

• Care – Artists know that they will need their materials to be available when the time comes, so they take measures to ensure that things are findable (at least those who plan ahead will) and undamaged. Hoarders have no plan or actions to take care of items or ensure that they are retrievable. Hoarders’ items are often damaged from being stepped on, getting wet, or spoiled by pests.

• Specificity – Artists generally work in specific media, although there can be wide shifts in activities; however, such shifts often have a pattern, such as going from oil to tempura paints, or from painting to sculpture. Even artists who work with ‘found’ objects generally have a range of items they use, such as bottles or cans. Hoarders often have much less specificity, although many are especially partial to particular items such as clothes, books, or paper.

• Intention – Artists often have a vision or at least a glimmering of the projects they want to create and a track record of doing so. Hoarders are less likely to have such visions, hoping to draw inspiration from the objects themselves and usually have few completed projects.

• Production – Artists are driven to create and output is ongoing. Hoarders usually have an airy notion of ‘someday’ and output is minimal.

• Balance – Artists spend more time creating and less acquiring. Hoarders spend so much time acquiring and churning that little time is left for actual creating.

• Use – Artists’ arts or crafts supplies are regularly used and are essential for works continually being made. Hoarders’ supplies are rarely employed in creating new works, in part because they cannot be accessed amidst the accumulation.

The point of the above list is not to put down anyone’s artistic aspirations or abilities but to underline that if one truly wants to express oneself artistically, hoarding must stop to make it possible.

WHAT WE LEARN FROM DIFFERENTIATION

The point of labeling hoarding is not to stigmatize it but to shine a light on the truth and show why different strategies are needed to remedy the problem than for dealing with clutter, collecting, or accumulating art supplies:

• You will probably need help. Overcoming hoarding is difficult to do alone. You may have been struggling with this problem on your own for some time, maybe a long time. To break out of the cycle, you may need different kinds of assistance to clear things out and to help you avoid building a new hoard. Kinds and sources of help will be discussed in Chapters Seven and Eight.

• You will probably need to employ many strategic approaches to resolve the issues that lead you to hoard, and these strategies may need to change periodically. Many strategies for transforming thoughts and emotions that have kept you engaged in hoarding are offered throughout the text.

• You will need patience, compassion for yourself and others, commitment to finding the truth, determination, and energetic effort to stop hoarding. Reading, wishing, hoping, or praying will not be enough to change. You need to work actively on the exercises, identify the strategies that will help you, and implement them one-by-one. Overcoming hoarding is like making any other kind of change – the more effort, of the right type, that you put into change, the better your results will be.

• You will need solid strategies for both clearing things out and preventing relapses as will be discussed in Chapters Seven, Eight, and Nine. You will need to guard the mental health developed as part of this process to prevent yourself from returning to hoarding and unhappiness.

© 2012 Gloria Valoris. All rights reserved

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