Compulsive Hoarding in Later Life and Managing the Home
Greater disposable income coincided with the emergence of the late 20 th century phenomenon of accumulating trappings of wealth. But there does come a time when we must start to declutter. However, as Gloria Stafford says so eloquently, we must first face the question what is to be done with unwanted possessions in our compulsively hoarded house . Lest our quality of life suffers while customers queue up thrift charity shops. The Long Gradual Process Leading to Compulsive Hoarding Compulsive hoarding does not appear out of nowhere like the big bang theory of creation. We longed for those trappings of wealth when starting out in life and gradually acquired them. Fast forward the decades and half of us have more possessions than we need. However, research does suggest this process slows for most of us when we reach 50. By then we have enough possessions and may be funding looking after them stressful. However, compulsive collecting often departs from the main stream at this ...