Watch on YouTube: Do You Have To Justify Your Stuff? Dirty Secret Exposed - Hoarding Experts Don't Want You To Know
Have you run into an argument with someone about keeping something - you want to keep it, and they demand reasons, justifications, and they dismiss yours as irrelevant or unrealistic ?
Experts and practitioners on hoarding all the more so - they would like everyone to believe that an "acceptable" explanation is always owed, that without such an explanation, you are being irrational, that maybe you have this "hoarding syndrome", "OCD", "perfectionism" or whatever other -ing or -ism.
This is a subterfuge.
No free person owes anyone any explanation for keeping anything.
You do have responsibility - to maintain a safe and healthy environment, for yourself and others, including those living with you and even neighbours ; to comply with applicable laws and regulations - that's a given.
But an explanation, that you do not owe to anyone.
The experts, practitioners, spouses and the whole judgemental, normalizing, prescriptive crowd *would like* you to believe that everything must have a reason, a utilitarian, generally acceptable one - but this is not the case - this is where the manipulation is.
If you want to keep hundreds of bottle caps - keep hundreds of bottle caps ! I do. I will not be justifying that.
If you want to keep something without a clear reason - you just feel like it - go ahead and keep.
If you want to keep something on the most vague, flimsy intuition that it might be useful - emphasis on "want" - go ahead and keep.
If you don't even have that, you just feel like keeping it ? Same.
This is where the above mentioned crowd will get all riled up - this is heresy to them.
But, this is still true.
Where, pray tell, does this need to justify come from ? Please point out the source to me. Otherwise, you will be labelled.. a "hoarder" ? Circular logic much ?
A free person does not owe anyone any explanation or justification for anything, period.
This is the important part to always remember.
The usual interrogation - "why do you need this ? do you really use it?" - is a manipulation, a trap.
Once you start down that path, soon you're getting embroiled in an unwinnable fight, because you're trying to convince them to accept your reasoning, and that's just not happening.
Don't go there.
Keep and let keep, discard and let discard.
Peace !