Book review: when stuff is too crippling

[bunnyjadwiga]

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things, by Randy O. Frost & Gail Steketee.

Fascinating read. Though this book's subtitle promises a sort of cultural or self-analysis, it's really more of a social science profile of a psychological problem. Of course, it begins with the story of the famously hoarding Collyer brothers. However, the author(s), doing clinical psychological work and research on hoarding, go on to present profiles and treatment approaches that are much more up to date. These profiles are the serious side of TV shows like Hoarders. Interviewing people who self-identified as hoarders or victims of crippling clutter, the authors build a portrait of the perfectionist, indecisive, anxious and overwhelmed-- and sometimes OCD-- people they worked with, and the techniques of talking them through their sorting that sometimes worked, sometimes didn't. For those who struggle with their own and other people's clutter, this is an eye-opening, sometimes reassuring, and sometimes challenging book. I couldn't put it down.

Three useful concepts: that hoarders tend toward the perfectionist/indecisive as well as OCD; that hoarders need to practice discarding things and gauging their level of discomfort over time; and the 'non-shopping' trip.

Comments

[madrun.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this. My mother is a compulsive hoarder and refuses to see the problem. I will buy her this book for Mother's Day. Thank you.

[cheryllm.livejournal.com]

My grandmother hoarded. I hope I don't become a hoarder. I do have a lot of stuff, but that's mostly 'cause I'm lazy. Once I get cleaning, dozens of bags of stuff go out the door.

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

My grandmother didn't hoard, but that may have been partly because my grandfather, when he was alive, used to cycle her stuff slowly out of the house. Have her pick out 6 mugs to pack up and put in a box on the front porch, then move the last box to the barn, move the last box in the barn to the church rummage sale. And so on.

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

The family joke is that I am now almost as obsessive about finding stuff to get rid of as I am about collecting stuff.

As I've said before, even having an additional person in the family, I plan for us to move out of this house with less stuff than we moved into it.

[ghislainedel.livejournal.com]

This appears to be a very accurate description of my father. Just this review gives me an insight into him. I'll have to pick it up and see if any of the techniques mentioned might help!

[jillwheezul.livejournal.com]

I am sure I have OCD tendencies, and hoarding certain things is one of the things in my spectrum of behaviors. I also am trying to change my thinking about things and liking less clutter.

I find letting go not hard on the level of the thing itself, but rather the investment in the potential I saw for the item - if that makes any sense.

I ordered the book into the library today. I'm going to read it for person insight!

Too close to home

[ren_flora.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the review. I read a great review of this in the Washington Post a couple weeks ago too. I may need to get this... My mom has those problems, and she's a very intelligent woman, and a perfectionist. I have strong slovenly/perfectionist tendencies myself, but after three years of FlyLady routines and a loving-but-firm husband I finally have them pretty much under control. Still, it probably wouldn't hurt to read it as a refresher.