Not all hoarders are created equal

When people think of hoarders, the TLC Show “Hoarding: Buried Alive” often comes to mind. But does the reality TV show accurately portray all hoarders?

IU communication and culture and American studies professor Susan Lespselter says hoarding is not the same for every person as the meaning of hoarding changes over time and different periods of history. We sat down with her to understand more about hoarding.

In 2014, who would be considered a hoarder?
From a position of a professor who sees it in a social lens, I wouldn’t even say there is one thing, and that’s what I think is really interesting about it.

If you watch a hoarding show on TV, you see somebody who has a cat problem – the typical cat lady. You see her trying to solve all her loneliness with all these cats then you may see someone who is really rich and can’t stop buying things and has piles of gifts for their grandkids and 14 toasters. Then you may see someone who is really poor and living in subsidized housing that is living in trash. Then you may see someone who keeps picking things up off the street because they think it one day may come in handy and because they grew up in the Depression, they want to save things because they were taught to be thrifty.

The person who is saving things because it may come in handy one day is really different than the person that is living in garbage and that person is really different from the rich person that is being too much.

Why is the hoarder seen as bad in our society?
The hoarder is seen as crazy when the thing they want to keep has private value. One thing about the hoarder is that the stuff they tend to value doesn’t necessarily have value for other people. The hoarding behavior is on a spectrum with a lot of the struggles people have with stuff. People are suffering with this. It is really a life challenge to struggle with order and disorder in this way, and people can get help.