Whether it’s the popularity of shows like Hoarding: Buried Alive, or some deeper socio-psychological trend of modern times, hoarding has become a well-known syndrome in our culture. Thankfully, the clinically diagnosed compulsive hoarder personality is a rare occurrence. These extreme cases do require professional medical attention and careful monitoring. For most of us, however, the tendency to hoard puts us in the less serious pack rat/squirrel category. Still, while compulsive hoarding is serious and dangerous, stockpiling vast amounts of things around the house, does have an adverse effect on our lifestyle and health.
Why do we hoard and why should we get rid of this habit?
Reasons for stockpiling random household and personal things vary. For some, it’s a lack of organizational and house management skills. For others it could be just a lack of time and having other priorities. Then there are those who are addicted to buying things—getting new things and keeping them makes them feel good. Still others are loath to toss things they’ve paid good money for, convinced that these items will be useful someday. And the more sentimental among us keep hanging on to things associated with cherished memories.
It’s a well known fact that clutter leads to accidents around the home—tripping and falling being the most common one. The air quality in houses full of things big and small is often very poor; these things are not called “dust collectors” for nothing. In extreme cases, however, such as a fire, lots of junk around can be downright catastrophic. Clutter may not only impede a quick exit from the house, but all those paper, fabric and wood flammable materials will feed the flames.
Time to declutter and kick that hoarding habit!
If all your closets are bursting at the seams; if your basement, attic and garage are blocked by containers full of things; and If you can’t easily move around the house because of stuff lying about or stacks of boxes with the overflow from all your storage areas—you have a hoarding problem.
Set up a timeframe to kick the habit. Then, rent a bin from a junk removal company. The bin will not only help you collect and remove all the junk, but its daily presence in your driveway will remind you to get the de-clutter job done as soon as possible.
That’s the way to declutter!
Focus on one area at a time, and go through it. If an item has not been used in a couple of years, it should be tossed. Be merciless about each item, and make quick decisions.
Get a friend whose house you admire for its order and cleanliness to guide you. For each item, ask yourself, “Have I used it lately? Will I use it soon?” Don’t think too much about each thing; just go with your immediate gut feeling. Then toss the item in the bin. Lock the bin up. Look around the area you just de-cluttered. Looks much better, no? Enjoy the feeling of freedom decluttering always brings.
After each area has been “freed-up” of clutter, drive the bin to a dumping site. You can also arrange with the junk removal company to come and pick it up, and even go through your junk to sort it into “donate”, “recycle”, and “just trash” categories. This full junk removal service will free you from making these decisions yourself, and save you much time and energy.
Now all you’re left to deal with is… not getting new stuff!
