Hoarding

I have often explained my inability to throw things away as a genetic disorder, or being anal retentive or both.  But, I was kidding.  However, quite a bit of study has been done on hoarders, and there is some thought that it is a genetically linked disorder.  So, maybe I was not so far from the truth after all.

My parents were savers.  A lot of that was generational, having grown up in the depression era, and in families that were not well to do, but worked hard for what they had. So, my parents were appreciative of material things.  Understandably so.  And, they were recyclers, and savers. Until later in life, when they started cleaning things out.  But even so, there was plenty left when my mom, that last to die, passed away.

Hoarding and saving are different.  Hoarding seems to take saving to an extreme, maybe to the point where it becomes a health hazard.  And, different people hoard different things, although newspapers are often a common item to hoard.  And, some people hoard animals:  you have heard of the people who have so many cats that their house is unsanitary, and they can not afford to feed themselves, because of the expense of feeding the cats...

Well, this week at work, for training, we read some articles about hoarding, which where I learned that there may be something genetically linked to hoarding.  

So, having it be genetic does not give me permission to become a hoarder.... For now, I will say I am a saver, because although I have piles of paper on my desk, and stuff strewn on my dining table, I do not hoard other things, and regularly take my stashes of recyclables to the recycling center...Which, I might add, I find quite cathartic... So, maybe that is hoarding therapy for me.