Hoarders

Watching shows on Hoarders is educational. I learn a lot about fear. Hoarders, as a group, seem scared: of people, of intimacy, of decisions, of emotions.

As a group, they seem to have experienced trauma, a horrible loss that upsets their sense of temporality. They seem unaware of how time works.

Likewise, their sense of physical mobility seems compromised. They seem like shut-ins. They seem to prefer immobility. They are stuck to their stuff.

The stuff is not their real problem. Their real problem is ? feeling threatened. Fight or Flight or Relax? How can they breathe and experience meditation / the relaxation technique if the air is stinky? Their reaction is flight. They are sensitive human beings who choose to cocoon in their homes with stuff to protect themselves from the cruelties, humiliations, loneliness and feelings of failure associated with not feeling safe and good enough in late capitalist modernity.

I have used the word "they" but in reality, we are all hoarders. We who have been born into the capitalist system have been taught to buy things absentmindedly and accumulate a ton of stuff, much of it disposable, plastic and landfill-destined. If you cannot do an inventory of your home, then you are a hoarder. It's harsh, but beneath the facade of middle-class perfection, the truth is excessive closets and garages, wasteful grocery habits and delusional shopaholism. This is not sustainable.

If you are trying to organize your house all the time, the problem is you shop too much. You have too much crap. Whether or not you want to admit it, you have things in common with hoarders on tv. When hoarders on tv say things like "I might need it some day," correlate it to your own excuse patterns. This insight will lead to freedom. Aren't you sick of cleaning and organizing your home? Get rid of the stuff you don't use. Share it with others who might need it. Private property is a delusion. Private property is temporary. Stuff is tentative. When you let it go, you get that space back. Space and time are the most important luxuries for a free soul.