Comment by jl6 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jl6 | Hacker News Reader

> unnecessary items

Here’s the thing. I’ve got at least two family members that could probably be classified as hoarders. They keep a bunch of stuff that they really should get rid of. But at least part of this is, I believe, ingrained upon them by their relatively impoverished upbringing. They would hang onto items of marginal value because that marginal value means more when you have to scrape by.

Decluttering is a luxury. Rich people can throw out their rarely-used junk because it’s trivial for them to buy new stuff should the need arise. Poor people keep the “junk” because that little bit of potential residual value is a part of their livelihood.

Most people should put their stack of National Geographics in the recycling bin, because it isn’t worth their time to find the person who’ll give them five bucks for it. For some people, that five bucks matters.

My maternal grandmother and mom were/are hoarders. I don't fully agree with your "decluttering is a luxury" statement. There's certainly an element of that, because times were lean for them sometimes. I think the hoarding is really a proxy for control, not for direct utility - and sometimes the instinct can go wrong and there's no value at all, or negative value, to the continued accumulation. Everyone, rich or poor, needs space to walk around and space to prepare food or wash dishes. Obviously there's a spectrum of behavior when it comes to these things from "cluttered, but mostly functional" to "need a strategy, dust mask and boots to cross the room". I've seen way too much of the latter to be fully on board with your point.

Here's a great blog about two sisters cleaning up their late father's mess I've found fascinating and helpful in dealing with my familys' situation: https://tetanusburger.blogspot.com/

Having grown up not quite dirt poor when young, I have to fight that "this might be useful later, what if you waste ten bucks by throwing it out???" hoarding tendency myself. It'e one of those "actually, it's okay to spend money sometimes" things that it's hard to move on from.

My wife grew up in an extremely wealthy home yet also fights this tendency. She has to leave the room if I'm going to throw out food that has gone bad, because seeing someone throw food in the trash makes her feel physically ill.

Nowadays the most expensive thing at home is space, thanks to high property prices, so it's much easier to justify getting rid of clutter

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