Learn How To Unhoard Yourself

My mom is a hoarder. This doesn’t make my mother a bad person. This isn’t the case at all. My mother is one of the most wonderful people I know. Her delightful soul can bring joy to any room at any moment if she wishes. Her flaw, her problem is collecting, buying and saving everything.



My mother’s hoarding is usually kept to a room or two, as well as a few closets in the house. Oh! and she keeps the shed in the backyard filled with potential art projects. My mother is a very artistic person with a lot of great ideas. She just never has enough time to follow through. Her hoarding is not nearly as bad as the extreme hoarders shown on TV, but it is a problem, a problem she has been embarrassed about for years. She wasn't always a hoarder.


My siblings and I are all afraid of becoming hoarders too. Growing up in a hoarding environment we have difficultly distinguishing the difference between frugality and hoarding. You see, my mother taught us to appreciate everything, how to be grateful for what we have and how to recognize a good deal when we come across a good deal, but mix that in with a few emotional issues and the concept can get a little blurred. There is being frugal and grateful and then there is not letting go of anything. There has to be a limit to what we own. Right?! This is easier said than done.


I have siblings that wont keep anything for too long out of fear of turning into hoarders themselves. Then there is me. I pride myself in my ecofrugality. I will recycle everything I can, reuse it, donate it or trade it in for something else. In the process of reusing, donating or trading, there is a bit…okay, a lot of “collecting" that needs to be done. The line between hoarder and ecofrugality can sometimes get covered by the toppling mess. So, when I came across MeltedRachel’s, How to Live Without Stuff and Why You Should, I was inspired, welcomed, understood, advised and intrigued by her lens.


Let’s begin with the first picture in the lens. What a great introductory picture! It sums up the emotions of isolation and the misunderstanding of hoarding in a nutshell. The quote, "99% of everything we buy ends up in the trash 6 months later," really brings the point across about our need to just buy things without the thought of where it will end up later. Then MeltedRachel posts a picture of a garbage truck in a landfill. Score! As a wannabe environmentalist this really tugs at my heart.


The Hug-E gram is just hilarious. I am lucky enough to have real hugs in my life. If I wasn't would I buy something like this? I don't think so. "You are a true hoarder if...you buy ten Hug-E grams," would look great on a zazzle t-shirt. Who would buy the t-shirt? MeltedRachel follows all of the above with her personal reasoning behind hoarding and then gives good advice for ways to “unhoard" oneself, followed by pictures of extreme hoarding homes and videos about compulsive hoarders.


This eye opening lens has a lot of potential to make a difference in a hoarder's life. I would love to see MeltedRachel use the page break module and a little bit more HTML in her lens to give it a cleaner and more organized look, but other than that I recommend all hoarders, potential hoarders or loved ones of a hoarder to visit the page. Vote for it. Leave feedback and share the lens link with family and friends.

Visit How to Live Without Stuff and Why You Should

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Image Credit: Food Hoarding Squirrel! by RedneckHillbillies

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