Natural Born Hoarder

I love(d) to hoard stuff. I really, really loved doing that. I would spend hours poring over gorgeous things in bookstores, stationary stores, and knick knack stores and bring it home and hoard it. Mostly, I forgot about it.

So this CNY, as tradition demands, I turned to my hoard and decided to declutter. Probably the most agonizing and torturous experience I’ve had to cram into two short days, given my full-time working commitments (alas! the tragedy of the working adult..) but I persevered and discarded loads of things I haven’t (and won’t) be using while discovering other treasures that laid buried underneath.

The thing about hoarding is.. it stems from an impulse (to purchase) paired with a fearful nature (i.e. better to keep than throw). Of course, there’s a little bit of greed as well, since a hoarder wants everything instead of just the bare minimum.

My parents have always frowned upon my hoarding habits, telling me that it’s not good, it’s not healthy, it’s messy… but seriously, I really didn’t see things from their perspective (mostly because all they did was tell me to make it look less messy). To me, these things I hoarded were necessary! crucial! important!

& so the years passed by..

It slowly escalated to the point where I was getting fearful of myself and started to realise the insane levels that my hoarding had reached. By this time, I had various collections of things – from valuable stamps to nail polishes to hair accessories and erasers and whatnot. Hoarding to me was now an artform.

Honestly, it was painful to declutter my entire desk, and til now there are still remnants of lingering regret and longing for my loot that is now deployed far more effectively around my house (and office space..), but I’ve definitely transformed my working space in my room to a more effective one, where everything I need is placed neatly in a specific place.

In line with my new desire to be neat and organized, before I started to declutter, I thought about what I wanted to accomplish:

It’s pretty self-explanatory, but the words Sustainability and Feasibility were really important to me. So I re-organized everything to fit my new lifestyle, the post-school adult lifestyle. I prioritized the placement of basic stationary over all the fancy artsy stuff (which I used to spend hours on), I filed all my financial documents and put them in order, I re-organized all my hair accessories and makeup at one side of the desk because I utilize them on a daily basis, but separated this from the “weekend” jewellery (i.e. bangles and more fancy stuff).

 

This would ensure that I would not only find it easier to find my stuff, but putting them back to where they belong wouldn’t be such a chore either! Of course, it all boils down to discipline so I’m going to drag out some willpower and stick to it because my desk is now pretty damn neat and next year i’m organizing my bookshelves. (yes, I organize my room in phases because I can’t handle it all!!)

 

I found lost photos and organized them into photoframes or stuck them on my cork board!

 

all in all, a bittersweet experience. I uncovered loads of nostalgia-inducing items, and made painful decisions. I think that til now, I still can’t believe that I finally let go of so much stuff. but it’s all for the best. It’s incredibly easy to get what I want now and I’m suddenly overflowing with an abundant supply of things I thought I’d run out of, so that’s some $$ saved! Plus, it made me feel really proud of myself for finally forcing myself to persevere through this, though after it I was so tired I pretty much conked out the rest of the weekend XP

My conclusion? It’s not so much about whether you’re a natural hoarder, or whether your parents are more (or less) “effective” in barring your hoarding habits. It’s about how you develop as an individual. For me, I’m reaching a point where I desire life to be less complicated, less cluttered and effective. It’s an occupational hazard, I’d say. So it took me a long while to reach this point, but now that I’m here, I’m slightly mournful that I’ve lost a little of my artsy fartsy, easy-going young self and replaced it with a more practical, straightforward adult. My parents are shocked, surprised – but to me it’s just part of my growing process.