Attachments, Clutters and Insecurity

In Being Mortal post, I mentioned about a sudden death of a 68 year old person.

What I didn't mention there was a notion that there may be a correlation between attachment to the past and clutters.

You see, when we opened the garage door of the deceased's house, I was surprised to see all the things that were tossed in there.  She had so much stuff in such disorganized way that there was no room to park her car in the garage.

It was the same way inside the house. There was hardly any space on the floor to walk through the house. There was 'stuff' everywhere. It was clear that this person was a hoarder.


Another hoarder is a cancer patient. She is in her late 60's. She lives alone in a 3 bed room 'stuff filled' house. One time, when she was away for a trial treatment out of town, her daughter got rid of some of the things in her garage.

Sometime after Mother returned from the trial, she asked her daughter where a certain item was. That item happened to be one of the things the daughter got rid of. Daughter threw it out because Mother had two more of the same thing, none of which Mother ever used for years.

A traumatic event happened in Mother's life some 40+ years ago. The event and the people associated with the event all moved on. Apparently, Mother didn't.

In my estimation, all hoarding is born out of insecurity.
People hang onto the past and stuff because they feel insecure about themselves and feel uncertain about the future. This maybe too simplified of an explanation but there's something to it that makes sense.


I can tell you about more hoarders I personally know, but I spare you. Suffice it to say that there are plenty of hoarders in our society. It doesn't seem to matter if you are rich or poor. The hoarders seem to know no economic boundaries.


There is a book entitled, "the life-changing magic of tidying up" ~ the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing by Marie Kondo. This book is currently #1 on New York Times Best Seller list.


To me, decluttering is almost symbolic of letting go of your attachment to the past and events that were associated with them. It is not only freeing to let go of the past but it is an absolute necessity if you want to move on to the future not laden with emotional garbage.


To our decluttering life!   ❤