putting this here since issues with hoarding are an OCD related thing...

Well, it's come down to the time I've been putting off, a time I didn't want to happen:

Out with the old and in with the new.

I am donating most of my old stuff. It's mostly beanie babies and other stuffed animals, but there is other misc stuff too. I came to the task very confident and positive. After all, this stuff has been sitting on a box that I havn't even looked at for years! Logically speaking I'm not using these things at all and they're no longer a part of my life.

And yet... digging through my things it brings those feelings I had back. The memories too. Some things I've had for over a decade and managed to survive the last time I did this but... really, I'm an adult now and there's no need to hang on to 20+ beanie babies. I could narrow them down to only a couple but really... I love them all equally so it's hard to choose.

I'm not the type of person so bad that I hoard garbage but... I have this attachment to stuff, old stuff, that makes it really hard to part. It's tearing me up even though I know I don't need these things anymore and I'm sure some child would love them the same way I did. There isn't even a time to even "mourn" this stuff since there is pressure on me to make space in my room for various reasons. Even discounting the usual emotional reasons I also have the special reason being my memory is really cruddy and I feel like if I don't have something from that time period of my life I'll just forget it. The scary part being that this fear... is not unfounded. It's always been this way, first it's my younger years, now I feel my memories of being a pre-teen slipping away, I can guarantee you 10 years from now I won't remember what my teenage years were like. It wouldn't be so bad if having memories weren't so important to me. As if as I get older they are the only thing I have. And... I don't have them because they keep leaving me.

Ugh... I think I'm going to stop typing now because this is making me feel worse instead of better. I just feel like I need to talk to someone I know will listen.

[Christina86]

I'm a few days late...

Hey Kaika, going through our old stuff and trying to discard some of it is TOUGH for most of us. Especially if we've got an emotional attachment to it/them. Heck, I own Beanie Babies and other stuffed animals and they dominate a few shelves around and are also in a box. Why? Because I don't want to get rid of them, and who knows they might be worth something some day. (Excuses, excuses)

I think some hoarding of stuff is normal. You call it collecting. I collect beagle stuffed animals, rat stuffed animals, and holstein (black & white) cow stuffed animals. Because I've got an emotional attachment to those creatures. Hoarding isn't hoarding until it's become an obsession. Look up "compulsive hoarding". Unless your items and stuff are affecting your ability to function and do stuff ... that's a problem.

Wanting to keep your memories alive is normal. Totally. Maybe a suggestion that you take a picture of your collections and items, and then keep the pictures in an album or online somewhere? That way you still have the memories, just not the physical object anymore. That also saves on space.

I'm sorry you're having so much difficulty, I would too.