Rose Cottage Ltd

Taking a break from politics for a moment to ask this important question. Actually, it’s only important if you don’t already live alone. If you live alone, you don’t even recognize whether you are neat and organized or not – you just are.

The problems arise when a lone neatnik or lone hoarder has to share space with one of the opposite persuasion. I’m observing a clash of styles at fairly close hand right now and have a few observations. In an effort to be “transparent” let me state here first that I am a lifelong neatnik.

First, neatniks can’t stand clutter. Hoarders thrive in it. A neatnik will see a pile of old magazines or newspapers and think “trash.” The hoarder however, sees potential opportunities on every page, magazine, or paper they’ve “saved.” Five years worth of recipe magazines? The hoarder will need to review each and every page of each and every magazine so they don’t miss something.

Try to point out the fact that the magazines have been there for 5 years already and are covered with dust? How dare you!! Even if you get the hoarder moving towards the magazines for trash potential, you’ll probably find two or three hours later that they’ve stumbled upon an exciting recipe on every page and so, will keep the lot anyway.

Second, most neatniks require organization and full functionality of whatever they own – house, car, tools, KIDS – everything. Things that are not readily at hand and ready for whatever task create stress for a neatnik. If I own something I need and I can’t find it – what good is it? And most neatniks only own what they need. If I have a great frying pan for my chicken, I don’t need three of them – just one.

Functionality is not an issue for hoarders. When you put a bottle of mustard in the refrigerator and then can’t find it among the “leftovers” you’ve lost functionality. When you have to remove 10 pans from the oven before you can use it – because your cabinets are already too full to house them, you’ve lost functionality. When you hang grocery bags from cabinet knobs because your dry goods cupboard is chock full, you’ve lost functionality. And it only gets worse.

Spare bedrooms become storage units until doors can’t even be opened. Paths amongst the items have to be made to walk through rooms. Every flat surface has SOMETHING sitting on it. After about 24 hours of this living, the neatniks’ eyes ache from the sheer noise of all the clutter.

I don’t understand (obviously) what goes on with hoarding. I’ve watched a few of the TV shows on the subject and I admit to having little sympathy for those who choose to live in some (to me) alternative world. I’m sure there are psychological issues at play – since hoarders – even when they’ve asked for help, will often refuse to get rid of anything and actually get angry at the very people they’ve asked for assistance.

I’m not sure how the little scenario I’m observing will turn out but right about now, my money is on the hoarder. A neatnik will be happy, (in fact ecstatic!) to help get the home in organized and working order, but they won’t do well with no progress and procrastination. The jury is still out…