CAUSES
I used to think that I'd inherited my parents' view that you must save everything from the times of the WWII when you could not buy new goods, only Utility furniture. My late father grew up in the Nineteen Thirties when you have little money. You would make do and literally mend, mend shoes, darn socks.
Then I learned about birds and nests. Feathering your nest. Saving for a rainy day.
A third psychological factor, on Myers Briggs personality type, the fourth pair of contrasting types, the perceiver (I call it procrastinator) versus the judger.
On retiring, or losing a job, or divorcing, when your source of income disappears, some types tend to cling onto objects with the excuse that they have no money to replace. The other partner may take the opportunity to downsize, and cast off clutter.)
Now I've learned of another explanation. A blow to the head (trauma from outside), or narrowing of arteries - food inside causing blockages - can slow the movement or water and oxygen to the brain so that people suffering from strokes and dementia find it hard to make decisions. So deciding to tidy, to sort, to get things in order, to throw away, to clean, to do anything, becomes a chore, a struggle.
CURES
An American TV programme on hoarding is showing how a team in Philadelphia is throwing away a man's possessions, clutter, a health risk, too heavy for the building.
What a pity to throw everything away. What about recycling! Surely the Antiques Road Show could be brought in. There should be a museum which rescues things by era, a bit like the statistics of economics, for each year or decade, one umbrella, one teapot.
There must be, or should be, museums of umbrellas, museums of teapots and china, museums of radios and electrical equipment. The Smithsonian museum should have a branch in every state.
Some items could be sold to help the owner. Others could be donated to charity, or recompense the local authority and taxpayer.
A few items of sentimental value such as photos, passports, ID cards, wartime records, wedding photos, could be saved and cheaply framed or recorded on the internet on ancestry .co and find a grave.
I used to think that I'd inherited my parents' view that you must save everything from the times of the WWII when you could not buy new goods, only Utility furniture. My late father grew up in the Nineteen Thirties when you have little money. You would make do and literally mend, mend shoes, darn socks.
Then I learned about birds and nests. Feathering your nest. Saving for a rainy day.
A third psychological factor, on Myers Briggs personality type, the fourth pair of contrasting types, the perceiver (I call it procrastinator) versus the judger.
On retiring, or losing a job, or divorcing, when your source of income disappears, some types tend to cling onto objects with the excuse that they have no money to replace. The other partner may take the opportunity to downsize, and cast off clutter.)
Now I've learned of another explanation. A blow to the head (trauma from outside), or narrowing of arteries - food inside causing blockages - can slow the movement or water and oxygen to the brain so that people suffering from strokes and dementia find it hard to make decisions. So deciding to tidy, to sort, to get things in order, to throw away, to clean, to do anything, becomes a chore, a struggle.
CURES
An American TV programme on hoarding is showing how a team in Philadelphia is throwing away a man's possessions, clutter, a health risk, too heavy for the building.
What a pity to throw everything away. What about recycling! Surely the Antiques Road Show could be brought in. There should be a museum which rescues things by era, a bit like the statistics of economics, for each year or decade, one umbrella, one teapot.
There must be, or should be, museums of umbrellas, museums of teapots and china, museums of radios and electrical equipment. The Smithsonian museum should have a branch in every state.
Some items could be sold to help the owner. Others could be donated to charity, or recompense the local authority and taxpayer.
A few items of sentimental value such as photos, passports, ID cards, wartime records, wedding photos, could be saved and cheaply framed or recorded on the internet on ancestry .co and find a grave.
