The costs of clutter
I've said it before and I'll say it again: My own personal aesthetic is minimalism. Part of this is related to living in a small space, which can get unlivable very quickly. Even when I've had more room, though, having an excess of stuff feels suffocating. I keep the feeling of suffocation at bay by being neat, handling paperwork as it comes in and shredding it afterwards, and adhering religiously to the one in, one out rule. There are still a few hot spots that I have trouble managing as effectively as I'd like (file cabinet and front closet), but my home feels much bigger than it actually is overall. It might seem a little stark to some people, but to me it's tranquil and relaxing.
With all that on the table, I guess it's not surprising that I'm fascinated by the television show Hoarders. Hoarders is a pretty self-explanatory title: each week, the program follows two individuals or families that are coping with severe inability to get rid of things, which has resulted in living conditions that range from squalid to truly horrific and dangerous. The program looks like it's been edited to heighten drama and tension between hoarders and their families, but on the whole the perspective of the program is compassionate. The time frame allocated to clean up each disastrous home on the show is patently ridiculous (two to three days!), but I think it's somewhat mitigated by six months of after-care therapy and/or help from a professional organizer.
The perspective of hoarding presented on the show is that it's a challenging but treatable mental disorder, not the result of laziness or slovenliness. In some of the background on the show, I was surprised to see that hoarding and squalorous living are often related to a strong sense of perfectionism in that many hoarders feel that if they can't keep a home spotless, it's pointless to even bother trying.
From a personal finance point of view, I think a person's relationship to his or her stuff is intimately tied to financial health in many ways. As one example, hoarding seems to be closely related to compulsive shopping, which is a drain on savings and overall financial well-being. Living in an extreme mess often means losing track of important paperwork, including tax forms, checks, or bills, and that's a second form of financial hit. A third costly complication of hoarding is having to buy the same item over and over because it's disappeared in the mess. Of course, there are many, many other non-monetary costs of hoarding, including anxiety, isolation, and risks to physical and mental health.
What are your thoughts and/or experiences related to hoarding? Do you see any other relationships between hoarding and financial well-being? If you don't know the show, you can see it online here.
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11 retorts:
I agree with your analysis in terms of PF. I haven't seen Hoarders, but the BBC had a similar programme a number of years ago, called The Life Laundry.
On the other hand, the commitment to keeping your possessions streamlined and relevant can also cause aggro, or at least it did to me once: I had a fit when I realised after I had bought re-chargeable AA batteries, that I still had a whole number that were unused. Now that seems a little OCD to me - AA batteries are so ubiquitous these days, that to have some more rechargeable ones on hand surely is practical - and they do not take up that much space, either ;-)
However, I got over myself fairly quickly. I even give books to charity when they have outlived their relevance (or were not-so-successful gifts in the first place.)
By the way, the professional organizer on Hoarders has a guest post on the Unclutterer blog.
most of the men on my dad's side of the family are serious shopaholics and hoarders but i don't see it directly tied to financial well being because all of them are also financially independant.
I'm trying to minimize my "stuff" and slowly but surely it's working. I definitely still have my hot spots (desk, landing strip...), but I'm really working at it. I'd really like to have a more minimalist look, but I don't think I'm all the way there yet.
Hoarding is something that kind of scares me. I don't have issues with it, but the thought of that much stuff gives me anxiety. I can't even imagine dealing with that...
Goldsmith's comment made me smile because I remember having aggro trying to maintain minimalism, too. Realized it was counterproductive - the whole point of keeping things simple is to keep the peace.
Now I enjoy the process. I know things will build up occasionally and I know I'll enjoy the satisfaction of having gotten it all cleared up a little later.
I know people who are hoarders, not to the pathological degree of the show yet, I don't think, but close enough that I worry for their safety. And have to wonder how much money they're wasting on so many knickknacks?
I have to admit, I have a difficult time with books. They look great on a shelf, especially the hardcovers. I have 6 full bookcases in our little apartment. There are numerous multiple copies of some for promotional reasons, finding the right people to give them to is a challenge sometimes.
Now that I think about it, I ordered 6 more books in the last 2 weeks, so maybe I have a mental illness. I guess it could be worse; what if I never read them? Or what if it was guns instead?
I’m very concerned about the environmental impact of everything we consume as well as the financial cost, plus I live in a tiny house and abhor clutter! So I try to accumulate as little stuff as possible and to buy only things that will be totally consumed or that I’ll use and love for many years to come. My partner and I both come from families where people hold the opposite values though, and tend to buy all sorts of pointless crap they don’t need or (really) want. So we dread the day when our parents depart this world and we’ll have to offload their clutter. May I recommend a book that provides a really interesting analysis of why we consume? ~ “Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior” by Geoffrey Miller … find it at a library near you!
On a separate note, has anyone else noticed that many of FZ’s posts have disappeared from the blog site? For example, right now I can only get access to three September posts, and some (such as last week’s one on marriage) appear to have fallen off Blogspot. I’m wondering if a server is down or something?
I am my parents’ oldest daughter, and I am afraid of the chore ahead of me, as they are in their 70s and have always held on to an enormous amount of stuff, though not anything like the show, thank goodness. In fact, when they moved several years ago from the house they’d lived in for over 30 years, they did get rid of a lot, and that was a big relief, but slowly the stuff is creeping back in their current house. Their financial condition is in similar disarray, and there is the same kind of denial and subterfuge going on with their money management as there is with their things.
My sister is a terrible hoarder, and her living conditions have at times looked almost as bad as the show. She also – on a very meager income – has maintained at least one storage unit for years to hang onto what I have seen with my own eyes is mostly useless junk. Her life is also a disaster.
In the past few weeks, after a cross-country move, I have been unpacking boxes and sorting through belongings that I haven’t seen in four years. My assumptions about myself have been challenged. I am now living in a small 2 bedroom townhouse, and I am even more committed than before to keep my possessions limited to actually functional, truly loved, and minimal. Although I thought I had always been organized, clean, and deliberate, I can see that the changes in my life have been reflected in my things. For instance, not having clear access to some of my things, I ended up with duplicates. For a number of years, I comforted myself with “nice things” instead of confronting my failings. As a result, finding out how much unnecessary stuff I really had was a revelation. I’ve already gotten rid of a lot, and could get rid of more. Being ruthlessly honest with myself is a continuous effort. Seven years ago I began the process of turning my financial life around, with direct and obvious correlations in every other aspect of my life. The peace I now feel in comparison is enormous. There is no doubt in my mind that our relationship with our money, our stuff, and our selves is intertwined.
Wow, I'll have to check out that show. Very interesting. My grandfather was a *serious* hoarder and my father's following in his footsteps, but I didn't think about the compulsive shopping angle until your post. My dad always has to have the latest gadgets and newest toys with the sense that he "deserves" it because he works, yet the result was tens of thousands of dollars in CC debt paid off with a home equity loan. So he certainly couldn't afford it.
I will confess to being morbidly fascinated with the program. The one the other week about the woman whose children were removed by Children Services really struck a nerve. In the end she could not manage to clean up her act, as it were, and now she and her husband are divorcing and she has to move her 1400! boxes out of the house to some other location.
I am not the neatest, tidiest person living on planet earth; however, a good case of PMS usually causes the house to rise to improved levels of tidiness. I do clean regularly and recycle magazines, paper, etc., so there's not that kind of buildup setting around in the living area. Nor are there little rodents like in hoarders, or mold, except for that d*** stuff that takes hold in my shower despite faithful use of the fan and mold/mildew scrub.
My fatal area is my office. So much paper, and it has to be frigging retained by law for a certain period of time. I have a zillion other things to do in my job for clients, and this is the part they don't see. I swear, paperwork can multiply on its own. I hate it, it frustrates me and embarasses me, yet every time I sit down to sort out and organize I get so many piles going I just give up.
I'd love to have someone else come in, rat it out, organize it, and leave under cover of darkness and anonymity!
goldsmith - thanks for the heads up on the guest post! My building has a nice little habit with books: Unwanted books normally go in a central spot in the lobby, for anyone to take. I like to grab whatever looks interesting, read it, and then put it back for someone else to take. Everyone wins!
Carrie - You raise a good question: Is clutter or hoarding a problem if it doesn't contribute to financial instability? I'm not sure I can answer that one. I suppose the answer is no as long as it doesn't lead to health risks.
me in millions - Too much stuff gives me anxiety, too. I'd like to reduce the amount of clothes I have, but the way my size has ridden up and down this year, I think it would be counterproductive right now.
Revanche - Maintaining minimalism definitely makes me feel more peaceful, which I guess is the whole point.
Gord - I have to think you were speaking tongue in cheek about mental illness. You seem delightfully normal to me!
Karin - thank you for the book recommendation - I'll check it out. I have to confess to being responsible for the disappearing posts. Something a friend said on Friday gave me a horrible fear that she had found my blog and figured out who I was, so I quickly hid a ton of posts that I thought were likely to out me. As far as I can tell, my friend either didn't find my blog or thinks it's boring as shit and doesn't want to read it. I'll probably restore the posts by the end of the week.
MtnMama - Thanks for sharing your story. I'm so sorry to hear about your sister and parents, but very glad that you found a peaceful path for yourself.
Moneyapolis - Sorry to hear that hoarding has been an issue in your family. Compulsive shopping can be a very destructive behavior, especially when it's used to cover up bad feelings. I think the reasons behind true compulsive shopping are similar to some underlying causes of alcoholism or drug abuse. I'm interested to hear if anyone else thinks differently.
Miss Songbird - Paper really can be a monster, especially if you have to retain it for so long. I chuckled when I saw that PMS makes your house clean. The Hoarders program ALWAYS makes me want to clean right afterwards!
My grandmother was a hoarder in the final years of her life. She was at home, not well, and lonely, with access to a phone, her credit cards, and the home shopping channel. For quite some time, none of us realized what was going on--my siblings and I were away at school and my parents hadn't been to her house in a while because she insisted on visiting them rather than having them come up. When her health started to fail it all came to light. Her 3BR/2BA house was *packed* with stuff. You literally could not walk in two of the bedrooms, nor open the doors all the way because of all the stuff. She ran up large balances on her credit cards and spent most of her savings on all this stuff, and had little left to cover her medical expenses, so my parents had to step in and help. And when we went to clean up the house after she died, what did we find? Clothes with the tags still on, some in sizes she never wore. Unworn shoes, new handbags, new makeup, knick-knacks and junk jewelry, some still in the packages. Food that had long ago expired, some unopened. I could go on, but you get the idea.
My parents don't have the same compulsive shopping habit, but they never throw anything away, so after all these years their house is pretty full too. There are also closets full of stuff from my grandmother's house that no one could bear to get rid of, so it just sits there in case someone someday wants it.
I'm honestly terrified of the day my siblings and I have to go through my parents' house--it will be a nightmare.
Because of these experiences I'm doing my best to conquer my own packrat tendencies and to not allow myself to buy things we don't really need. Watching shows like the one you mention usually inspire me to purge some stuff. In fact, while my daughter's napping I think I'm going to do that very thing.
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