I think to some extent almost everybody tends to hoard things.  Photos as souvenirs, books as precious objects, buy DVDs and new clothes every new season.

But there is a thin line where this will turn into a disorder that will not allow for a normal life.  It is when you start keeping everything and anything that falls into your hands in the hopes that you will use it one days sometime for something.  But that day never comes.

Rooms start to become cluttered with objects, entrances to your home blocked with stuff, boxes, tools, old dog-eared books and notebooks, a collected of right-foot old shoes, tons and tons of old clothes that will never fit again.

A clear sing of this is that you cannot appropriately use the house rooms anymore.   I know it firsthand from a family member who took possession an antique house that was even from the moment of the inheritance from her in-laws full of junk going back to probably the early 1900’s.   Nothing was ever thrown and clothes, pictures and toys that belonged to up to four generations populated the few rooms of the house.    Old furniture, half-broken kitsch art valueless both from monetary and aesthetic point of view were kept tightly compressed all over the two story building so nothing had to be thrown away.    

Fruitless to try to convince the person that they have a problem, and any intention of helping to get  rid of the junk is seen with the same outrage that you would show if someone tried to throw away your new 52’’ plasma TV.

But there are other types of hoarders too.   Some  are called the digital pack rats.  They save every single file they find interesting, from downloaded movies to pictures, texts, MP3 songs by the hundreds of thousands.   

Other people are not happy unless they have multiple pets.  As in a whole zoo at home for which they cannot provide adequately; take for example Paris Hilton and her fifteen dogs.  

In any case, just as I write this I can recognize myself in any of these categories to a degree, and the only thing to do is to be self-aware of the problem.  Fight your own inner disorder and try to find peace and economy in space and minimalism.    

Arranging one’s life may start in any given room.   Sorting things out in pretty boxes, out of sight  and throwing away anything that doesn’t fall in one of the next categories:

-Do I see myself ever using this?

-Is this befitting and usable(especially in what regards to clothes)?

-Do I really like this?

Is the answer is “no” to at least two of the question just get rid of it.   Just do it.

The space you will find in your closet, room and life will compensate a thousand times the lost item.