I think I figured out how to help hoarders. Maybe. I mean, some.

The heart of hoarding - and I can say this is a child of a hoarder and a border hoarder myself- lies in worry. In anxiety. In imagining that rainy day. And then imagining another rainy day. And another. In a lack of creativity.

When all those material goods get stuck, it means that some people- many of them, kids- must go without.

In other words, when you heard canned food, let’s say a year’s supply of anything, that means that somewhere else in the world, most likely someone is going without a year supply of that food. The world is at a delicate balance, and too many people have forgotten it. Too many people of privilege. I know I said the P word. Please keep reading anyway.  ;)

So here is the cure, courtesy of my own mother:

Think of the starving children in Africa.

I don’t know about you, but all of my siblings and I grew up worrying about and thinking about and seeing on TV the starving children of Africa. It wasn’t just our mom, it was filled Donahue and Princess Diana and anyone who had a heart and couldn’t bear to see children, starving.   

And so it’s hard to hoard when you see the face of it staring at you from cracked lips and emaciated rib-showing bodies, right?

It should be.

But hoarding is a disorder, Rachael. Sure. I know. I’ve watched the TV show. I’ve read books. And again, lived it.

Still do- tho most of the things I “hoard” are books and art pieces, both of which can fall under the category of collection, a term much better received by Society, items which can generally be safe safely and neatly stored.

So let’s agree hoarding is a disorder, sure, and let’s also agree a LOT of people, especially Americans, suffer from it. Whether from ancestry related to the 100 years war in Germany, which of course lasted longer than 100 years and starvation which resulted in one in three Germans dying.

So we need a massive shift in remaining folks of then starving children. Not just in Africa, but in every country of the world, down the street from where you sleep  this Christmas night…

So I have to be thinking of the starving children in Africa, and the starving children, here, and my own children, and my friend’s kids, and the animals, and the air, and the water and  and and…..!

Yes.

Yes, and….

Once we do, we can release those cans going bad in your basement, we can donate the 25 full size  sheets when we don’t even have a full size bed anymore. We can dig our way out….

We can.