For many, letting go of possessions is intensely stressful, even when the clutter puts them at risk. Here’s what you can do
Some messiness is a fact of life for most people. It might be piles of disorganised paper, a box of decades-old cheques, or dirty clothing strewn about a bedroom. Then there’s the mess behind closed doors – in closets and drawers, the attic, or the garage. Messiness is an index of where people are in life. As we age, or when we’re going through a difficult time, our living spaces may get cluttered because we just don’t have the stamina or strength to manage it.
In certain cases, however, messiness sends an important signal about someone’s mental health. You might walk into the home of a friend or family member and find old or dirty items in every room, stacks of things that obstruct your movement, or storage areas that seem troublingly overstuffed. If you have noticed at some point that a person you care about has a severe problem with messiness, it makes sense to wonder if there’s something deeper going on.
You’ve probably heard of hoarding disorder (HD), a psychological condition that is characterised by persistent difficulty with discarding possessions. People with this condition – which is estimated to affect around 1 in 50 adults – feel a need to save possessions regardless of their actual value, and they experience intense distress about letting go of these possessions. Over time, this leads to an accumulation of things, and a person’s living environment can become so highly cluttered that living there becomes challenging and even unsafe.
