Answers: Rambling about Definitions

It occurs to me to clarify my definitions of cluttering and hoarding - or, really, decluttering and dehoarding. I'm not claiming that these are the right definitions, only that these are the ones that I'm using in my rambling in this blog.

For me, decluttering is an only moderately emotional process of evaluating what you use and what you can get rid of, forming storage strategies, choosing priorities, arranging disposal of stuff that didn't make the priority cut, and so on.

Decluttering can be emotional, occasionally very emotional - nobody enjoys informing themselves that they haven't used the much-loved cookie cutter collection in ten years, and perhaps it's time to consider passing it on so that it's possible to keep the food processor in the kitchen instead of on top of the dryer - but the emotion is not overwhelming or paralyzing.

Hoarding, or perhaps I should say dehoarding, is the much more emotional process of learning to tear away an overstrong connection to stuff - some stuff, or all your stuff. It's the process of learning that you're not going to die, or be an evil person, if you get rid of that stuff.

At least, that's how I see it.

For now, this blog is more focused on decluttering. I have hoardish thoughts about some of my stuff, but there's a lot of other stuff to get rid of before I get down to that bedrock.