Pack rat or hoarder?
Posted on August 31, 2011
My friend proudly exclaimed “I have every pay stub I ever received” (as though this was some sort of accomplishment). I guess it wouldn’t have been so bad if he was in his teens, but this guy was ready to retire! He had quite a large home office but year after year he added shelving units so he could “organize” his things until eventually, he had boxed his desk (and himself) into a small corner of the room.
While I wouldn’t classify him as a hoarder, he was definitely a pack rat. But what’s the difference?
During my years of helping others get organized, I organized one hoarder. The difference between my friend, the pack rat, and the hoarder was significant. The pack rat’s home office was still a functional room. The hoarder’s entire home was no longer functional. The dining room couldn’t be used for dining anymore. (They ate on TV trays in the living room.) We spent two full days de-cluttering just the dining area to reveal a table they hadn’t seen in years.
You may be a hoarder if you:
- have a room in your house that you can’t use because it’s filled with things
- have stacks and stacks of old newspapers, empty containers, or anything
- compulsively buy or save excessive quantities of items of any kind
- save items seen by most people as unneeded or worthless
- treat all saved items as equally valuable–whether or not the object has sentimental, financial or functional value
- experience intense anxiety or distress when attempting to discard-or even think about discarding-what most others view as useless objects
- engage in saving activity to combat anxiety-provoking thoughts such as “What if I run out?”
- are unable to clean your house due to excessive clutter
- any room in your house has a path
- the “things” in a room are piled from floor to ceiling