Just wondering if you friends here have noticed a similar pattern in your own friendships. I think more of my close friends are hoarders or at least have significant clutter issues than neatniks or in between. One of my friends right now is preparing to move and it may have to happen faster than she'd like. I'm hoping I can help her with some of it, and she has been making progress already. I share things I've learned and she likes them.
Anyway, it just got me musing on how many friends of mine have these issues. Lots of us have had a winding road through life and some heartache, and maybe just too much to do, not enough money to hire help, whatever. So the stuff creeps up on us, and even if we recognize it's a problem, we may be unable to do a whole lot about it very quickly.
Also, we seem to have some personality traits in common: creativity, sensitivity, anxiety, possibly ADHD, depression, loss of loved ones, some were victims of violence or abuse or around people who had addictions at some point, and some have physical health challenges.
I do believe that we have strengths, despite the trials we've been through. We have to find and cultivate those. My hope for all of us - including everyone on these message boards - is that society will be less judgmental so that when we need to ask for help from "regular" non-hoarding folks because we can't do everything ourselves, we can feel comfortable doing so.
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