I'm so vain, I probably think this show is about me...

I was at the gym yesterday (and lucky enough to get a treadmill facing the TV). One of the TV's was playing an MSNBC show about compulsive hoarders. It included a 14 year old girl who saved gum wrappers in case she needed them, and a guy who made a living cleaning houses owned by compulsive hoarders- the one they showed included a person whose NY apartment included the door to a '74 Monte Carlo and at least 2 dozen half-empty mayonaise jars.

I was hoping to find info on MSNBC's site, but all I could find was this article, which blames, among other things, Wal-Mart. Which seems kind of odd since hoarding is usually part of broader psychological orders, like OCD.

I'm not that bad. I don't save gum wrappers (but I don't chew gum, so that makes it easy). But I do have a lot of crap. Granted, much of it is stuff that will get sold on eBay or through other channels, so it's not like I'm having trouble parting with it. And some of the other crap I hang onto - empty boxes, those plastic shipping bubbles that Amazon puts in all their packages, ect - is for shipping said eBay items.

But I do accumulate certain things - clothing, books, computer parts, various papers (I save old gas station receipts, for reasons I don't really understand) - and am dreading moving when I buy a house because of all this stuff. I really need to thin down, but much of the stuff is in piles or in my hall closet, and it's the kind of cleaning that you need a good whole day to pull everything out and go through - and with work, and starting tomorrow, class, I don't have the time to do that. I was going to clean out my closet on MLK day, but ended up working overtime instead. I volunteered for it, because I want to save money for aforementioned house. But working 6 days a week, plus class and the gym, doesn't leave me with much time to clean.

One other interesting thing they mentioned is that people who hoard consider themselves organized, and usually have a place for everything. I find myself doing that too - my roomates will ask me if I have something - ie extension cord, computer part - and I will dig through a pile of junk and find it.

I do find myself exibiting other OCD-like behavior occasionally too - checking to make sure I turned my lights off on my car or that I turned the fireplace off in my room.

But I think with enough time, I could get organized. It's just a matter of finding that time.

Besides, there are worse things than finding similarities to people on MSNBC documentaries. For example, I ocassionally watch Criminal Minds and find similarities in the profiles to myself (loaner, the kind of person who you would bump into at a coffee shop and they would apologize, even if it isn't their fault, has trouble with relationships with women, ect). Which is always bad, since they are profiling serial killers.