Are We Not All Hoarders?

May 16, 2010

Are We Not All Hoarders?

This weekend Chup and I hosted a fundraiser yard sale with items that had been donated by our neighbors. Because I wasn't allowed to actually help (and there were plenty of fine workers to do the labor), I stayed inside with the baby and looked out my front window at all the merchandise being picked over by buyers.

When the sale was over--after a couple hours--it was declared that everything not purchased was free. Free for the taking! Just take it! Get us rid of it!

And you know what happens when you signal the free sign? People come out of the woodwork! As the left-over items were being bagged up and sent off to their fate (welcome to The Dump!) a whole new crowd showed up to rummage through the bags and sniff out the outdated hard back books and crusty pastel capris. As Chup was loading bags in our car to donate to a second-hand store, customers started digging through our trunk.

This spawned a conversation with my neighbors about hoarding. Here we were watching strangers collecting armfuls of somebody's craft projects and holiday items put together with glue guns and red fuzzies and suddenly realized there is a culture of hoarding we never knew existed. Intense yard sale hoarding.

It would've been easy to sit there and judge these people. And I did for about fifteen minutes until I realized, I hoard too.

Not stuff. I throw things away while they are still hot. This may even be my weakness. The day of the yard sale I was scouring my house looking for items to throw out on the front lawn with the other merchandise. Chairs, stools, tables and my old maternity wardrobe were all sent out with a good riddance!

But I stash other things like hurt feelings and insecurities. I have a stockpile of negative comments people have given me throughout my life. Bits of unforgiving and faithlessness crafted together by sloppy selfishness are in corners around my soul. I hoard fear, and it comes as a set with stress and anxiety.

In thinking about this all weekend, I've decided to have a personal yard sale. To clean out my spirit and get rid of the stuff I don't need anymore. Here is what I'd pitch to potential buyers:

Do you need a friend who never calls you or answers your emails? Get it while its hot!

I know you want to buy a second-hand always having to be right-ness. It's a hand me down from my dad!

My social anxiety is half off!

In the market for a bad habit? I've got lip-licking, teasing too much and bossiness. Come on down!

Phobia of elevators? Make me an offer!

Hurry people, everything must go!