2012 conventions 2012 election 2013 session 2013 special election arts arts and culture author ballot measures bomb books budget bullying business charlie hales children clackamas climate change coal courts crime culture culture club democrats drugs economy education environment family film fluoride food gay rights guns handguns health health care health insurance high school history housing immigration international internet kitzhaber law legislature lgbt literary arts living marijuana medicine mental health military minor parties mohamed mohamud movies music native americans news newspaper obama olympics oregon our town parenting pers photography police politcs politics port portland portland business journal portland mayor president prevention public safety religion republicans rnc romney rural salem sam adams sandy hook schools science shooting sports suicide supreme court taxes television terrorism theater third parties timber payments transportation union university of oregon violence washington water wildfire women

It seems extreme hoarding like your guests were talking about is just the far end of a spectrum of organizing problems. I'm in a relationship with someone who has some hoarding traits, although their problems aren't dehibilitating, it does make everyday functioning harder as much of their time is spent buying "treasures", returning, ebaying, sorting and throwing things away. Unfortunately even this low level of hoarding behavior has really take a toll on me and our relationship as I end up dealing with a lot of their stuff myself. Although it's easy to focus on the sad, gasp inducing cases of the extreme hoarder, I think that the "everyday" hoarder is probably a very wide spread problem that is often dismissed as just being "disorganized" or "a collector".

I found a book that's been really great for us in dealing with the root causes of hoarding based disorganization called "It's All To Much" written by the organizer from the TLC show Clean Sweep. He focuses not on what color containers to buy, but dealing with the emotional reasons we keep thing. I'm not even much of a pack rat and I found quite a few things I was hanging onto for that "tomorrow" that will never come.

posted 3 years, 10 months ago
view in context