I went completely off script and against the advice of.. experts.. on "hoarding".
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Important Disclaimers -
Don't try this at home, I'm a trained professional keeper.
Seriously.
This is not psychological or medical advice, these things I am NOT trained in.
This is a personal experiment on myself.
I'm simply questioning and testing advice from experts that, in my opinion, doesn't seem to make sense.
I'm not encouraging anyone to keep any more things than they would otherwise.
Quite the opposite -
I'm encouraging everyone to keep what makes sense for them,
responsibly, while respecting safety, one's obligations, and the rights of others.
Be safe, be reasonable.
This is a friendly message of good news.
With that out of the way -
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So, I went completely against what is recommended or considered reasonable by the experts on "hoarding".
Experts recommend smaller, more limited number of categories and containers ?
I got a massive number of new containers for reorganizing my stuff.
I got hundreds of these just recently.
The total number of containers I have is approaching a thousand.
How do I know ? Did I count. or am I really good at guessing ?
... select count(*) from items where ...
Now I can find and access anything in minutes.
I counted my bottle caps - not nearly enough hundreds - I want more - I want 357 - but this doesn't mean I will stop there.
( here's what a hundred bottle caps in a bag looks like ).
If I get a bathtub full of bottle caps, I'll take it, and I'll take a swim in it.
I assembled my rusty nails and I checked their weight ( here's some of them ).
The combined weight is enough to exercise with.
Which I also tried out and I liked it.
So I'm gonna keep doing it.
I descended down rabbit holes and examined the rabbits within, figuratively speaking.
I indulged in what they call "overcreativity" on a massive scale.
By the way, there is no such thing as "overcreativity", there's just creativity.
I liked the results, and enough of them were practical, useful and rewarding for me.
I keep information indefinitely - emails, statements, receipts, sometimes even physical records - going back decades, and I can find and access whatever I want.
You can probably guess where this is going.
Now - let's do a search for this -
Question: What do the hoarding experts say one is supposed to feel from having too many categories / containers / items ?
Answer: Hoarding experts indicate that excessive items, containers and categories often result in feelings of overwhelm, anxiety, sadness, guilt, shame and distress.
How very interesting.
Do I have those ?
.. Oh, crickets .. it must be that those feelings are not inherent..
I do feel some of these things, but it's definitely not because of the stuff I keep, it's for other very specific reasons.
This place, this storage unit, with my stuff in it, only makes me feel empowered, safe, calm and in control.
I might even say, it's the single best thing in my life, as far as locations, environments and things go.
I do believe there will be others feeling those things mentioned.
And likewise I believe these feelings are more likely to be caused by factors other than the stuff -
Like, for example -
* the dysfunctional situation - not the stuff itself, but the stuff being in a disarray, inaccessible, unsafe, blocking access to facilities - which by the way it may be possible to improve upon in softer ways, as I have done
* or the unpalatable choice they were given, to discard or else,
* or the lack of alternatives, like holistic non-judgemental, non-discard-centric assistance or robust methods of organizing a large amount of possessions
* or the fact that they were told they have a mental illness,
* or being forced to become someone they're not, to abandon their projects, their materials, their keepsakes, their intentions, their external identity, uproot their cognitive environment
* or the pressure to comply, surrendering their autonomy over their things
* or the conflict that comes from everyone misunderstanding the role of possessions in their life and treating them as garbage
* or having everyone ganging up on them, while having no one in their corner who isn't judging -
** and experts, researchers, book authors, therapists, family members -
** they are all judging - just look more closely at the language and the texture of how they talk about it,
** as much as they claim objectivity -
** it's morbid fascinated sensationalized disgust and contempt
* or even being told by experts that they are supposed to feel those things..
Let's recap -
"often result in feelings of overwhelm, anxiety, sadness, guilt, shame and distress"
By the way, there's a sneaky little subterfuge happening here -
"results in" - that's another way of saying "causes".
And causality, as we know, is a tricky thing..
Correlation does not imply causality..
It is easy to see causality where there isn't.
Or mistake the direction.
Or miss some other critical variable.
This is exactly what I believe is happening here,
as well as with other commonly repeated talking points from.. experts..
I believe it is possible to do better, at least in some non-negligible number of cases.
I believe, given how recurring these patterns are,
and how likely it is that they are misinterpreted,
that this is not a coincidence that many different people do these very similar things.
I believe that some people simply think differently, and this may be normal and natural for them.
How about we look into alternatives -
holistic, non-discard-centric solutions,
and making an effort to understand the person,
really listen to them and understand them,
and respect their need and work with it, even if we don't understand or can't relate to it,
instead of trying to convince them the need is pathological or doesn't exist,
instead of demanding explanations why they keep garbage,
and not even truly listening to the response, or working with it..
Stay tuned for more.