Hoarding is compulsive need to acquire and inability to discard items of no apparent value, to the points where one’s ability to function becomes impaired. The New Old Age blog in the New York Times takes a look at this compelling subject which inspired A&E’s TV show Hoarders
She was a retired college professor, living alone in a New York apartment that had become unmanageable. When she called Bergfeld’s Estate Clearance Service for help, Kristin Bergfeld had trouble entering the apartment; the professor had to move objects out of the way simply to open her front door.
Inside, Ms. Bergfeld found a familiar scene: a person overwhelmed by her possessions, many of them unused or useless. “You know those big plaid plastic bags people use for laundry?” she recalled. “About 100 of those, filled with teaching materials from the last 10 years. Clothing items she’d bought from catalogs, 10 of each in different colors with the price tags still on them. Lots and lots of bottles for recycling — maybe 30 large trash bags — that never made it out.”
The stuff was stacked three feet deep. In the bedroom, it reached the ceiling. The professor could no longer use her bed; she slept in a cleared space on her kitchen floor. “It’s a heart-breaker every time I see it,” Ms. Bergfeld said. “This is an intelligent, engaging person who was hugely embarrassed and ashamed.” link to read this article
Source: The New York Times
