Sounds all too familiar, especially the parts about hoarders not perceiving things the same way as others. (Not "as the rest of us"; I always twitch a bit at pieces written that assume readers couldn't possibly be part of the group described/dissected.)
Coincidentally I'm about to spend a lot of time attempting to empty the family summer-house: 50 years' worth of accumulation with a fresh hoarder-layer on top. My sister certainly fits the "impulsive acquirer" model; I have more "worried keeper" tendencies.
Sadly, we don't have the time to clear out the house compatible with a long-term treatment model, so I expect a lot of push-back.
I am fascinated by this sentence: Randy Frost has found the people who hoard tend to live their lives visually and spatially instead of categorically, like most people
What do they mean by "categorically"? Or, for that matter, living your live "visually and spatially"? I pile my bills in one place with the "Things I must do" at the very top so I can remember to do it. I leave myself a note on the door so I remember to take my computer...is that spatial or categorical?
I suspect it has something to do with the fact that some people can remember where zillions of random objects have been placed in a room. I can do that to some degree, and it reduces the incentive to put things in defined places. If you can't remember random locations, you have to place things based on some sort of category the object has, so when you go to look for the object, you know which place it must be in.
It doesn't really reduce the incentive so much as it's the habit. That's the way you do things.
Trying to set up places for things to belong is really REALLY hard. And then trying to bake in a habit for using those places is even harder. I.e., it requires creating a whole different way of doing things and then learning the details of that way while unlearning old habits.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2013-05-01 05:39 pm (UTC)Coincidentally I'm about to spend a lot of time attempting to empty the family summer-house: 50 years' worth of accumulation with a fresh hoarder-layer on top. My sister certainly fits the "impulsive acquirer" model; I have more "worried keeper" tendencies.
Sadly, we don't have the time to clear out the house compatible with a long-term treatment model, so I expect a lot of push-back.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-01 06:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-02 12:47 pm (UTC)Randy Frost has found the people who hoard tend to live their lives visually and spatially instead of categorically, like most people
What do they mean by "categorically"? Or, for that matter, living your live "visually and spatially"? I pile my bills in one place with the "Things I must do" at the very top so I can remember to do it. I leave myself a note on the door so I remember to take my computer...is that spatial or categorical?
no subject
Date: 2013-05-02 01:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-04 01:09 am (UTC)Trying to set up places for things to belong is really REALLY hard. And then trying to bake in a habit for using those places is even harder. I.e., it requires creating a whole different way of doing things and then learning the details of that way while unlearning old habits.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-04 01:10 am (UTC)This article was wicked interesting. Thank you!