Conquer the Clutter Strategies to Identify, Manage, and Overcome Hoarding by Elaine Birchall &Suzanne Cronkwright

Conquer the Clutter

Strategies to Identify, Manage, and Overcome Hoarding by Elaine Birchall &Suzanne Cronkwright is a new book by Johns Hopkins University.

At first I thought that this one was a book as many other ones regarding clutter and how to remove it. It's very different, and much more intriguing. Why? 

In this book we will meet a word, hoard, with a meaning, I searched in my dictionary, not precisely negative, but with negative repercussions when the complexity of keeping become compulsive for compensate past frustrations, unhappiness, big stresses; the hoader, yes, suffers of a mental illness. 

Why, in fact, accumulate massive things in a house? What the person wants to do? 

Substantially there is like a hole in his/her soul and as seen in this book in general there is behind this mental disorder and illness a loss, a physical, mental one, maybe an unhappy childhood, or some past stressing moments not sufficientlyw ell elaborated and in grade of bringing with simplicity the person affected by hoarding at accumulating for searching for happiness; that happiness that there is not in his/her heart.

The mind of the person affected by this mental illness, not in grade of sorting out the stress, negative facts of the existence tries to stay happy buying and buying and buying new items, collecting everything and keeping wonderfully plenty the house. 

It is more than normal to see a house plenty of items but situation become serious when these items are in disorder, when the house is not hygienal anymore, when these accumulated things reduce the physical and emotional space and freedom of the person and his/her family. When children don't have spaces where to playing anymore because of accumulated items; when people are constricted in little spaces because all the rest taken by objects; objects that can have also a sentimental meaning but an accumulation in grade of killing social, emotive, space and a normal daily life. 

Yes this one not just in fact a story of accumulating; it's a story of suffocating, materially and psychological; hoarding is in grade to block in this way the creativity of people, setting them prisoners of themselves, their past, their cross, and what they became: serial hoarders who needs help. An urgent help for setting them free from the emotional prison that they have built. In what way? You will ask. This book is clear, precise and will guide hoarders in a territory that maybe they wouldn't want to visit: their profound empty space in the soul kept plenty by items, objects of various nature, for later helping them to return to be independent and free from their own unhappiness. 

Not only: it will be necessary some time before to see the light after a long tunnel of therapy. A hoarder must understand that he/she is more important than the objects he has in his/her house and that it is just when he will be in grade to setting these objects free that he/she will be again plenty of energy and in good mental health. Not only: he/she will return to be much more productive because this fixation will be over and he/she will remember who he/she was before these dangerous compulsions..

Various cases are taken in consideration from the compulsive buyers, to the serial accumulator who doesn't want to set free objects because they remind him of best periods of his/her existence.

Therapies, modalities for removing clutters are explained with precision, and method.

Beautiful book, accessible to everyone and absolutely interesting.

Highly recommended.

I thank Johns Hopkins University Press for the physical copy of this book.

Anna Maria Polidori