Feb 18, 2025 19:00:00

Researchers explain 'tidying up and staying motivated to choose what to throw away so you don't end up hoarding things'

There are people in the world who have a hard time throwing away their belongings and end up accumulating things that seem unnecessary at first glance, which results in a messy home. Mary Dozier, an assistant professor of

psychology at Mississippi State University in the United States, explains based on her own research how people who tend to hoard such things can stay motivated to organize and choose what to throw away.

Decluttering can be stressful − a clinical psychologist explains how personal values can make it easier
https://theconversation.com/decluttering-can-be-stressful-a-clinical-psychologist-explains-how-personal-values-can-make-it-easier-247171

Dozier, a licensed clinical psychologist, has studied people with hoarding disorder , a condition that causes people to have difficulty throwing away their possessions. When hoarding reaches a severe level, the house becomes so overcrowded that it impairs daily functioning, and the house becomes like a garbage dump, increasing the risk of fire and other disasters.

It has long been thought that the cause of hoarding disorder is the 'pain associated with the decision to throw things away.' In other words, because it is painful to decide whether something can be thrown away or not, people end up hoarding things without being able to throw them away. It has been pointed out that the prevalence of hoarding disorder increases with age, possibly due to changes in executive function associated with aging.

However,

a study published in 2020 by Dozier and colleagues suggests that the pain of decision-making is not the cause of hoarding. In this study, people with hoarding were asked to complete a task in which they had to decide for 15 minutes whether to throw away various items they had brought from home.

The results showed that the older the subjects, the less stress they felt when deciding whether to throw things away. Furthermore, many subjects, especially older subjects, experienced positive emotions when sorting their items. These findings suggest that hoarders do not hoard because deciding whether to throw something away is painful, but that some other mechanism is at work.

In a study published in August 2024, Dozier et al. investigated the personality traits of people over 50 years old who suffer from hoarding disorder. As a result, they found that people with hoarding disorder score higher on ' altruism, ' a personality trait that makes people want to help others, compared to the general population.

In fact, in clinical studies, Dozier and his colleagues have often heard people with hoarding disorder say things like, 'It's something I'd need if I was invited to a nice house,' or 'It's something my grandma gave me.' This suggests that people are not afraid of losing things themselves, but rather that they hold on to certain things because having them is in line with their values.

Another

study published in 2024 by Dozier et al. showed that interventions based on values in hoarding patients could encourage older adults to throw things away and increase positive emotions such as joy and satisfaction.

In this study, clinicians visited the homes of older adults with hoarding disorder for one hour a week for six weeks, discussing their hoarding with them using a method called ' motivational interviewing ,' which seeks out conflicting values and feelings within the patient and helps them change their behavior by resolving those conflicts.

Hoarding patients often focus so much on the joy that objects bring them that they forget to think about the meaning and purpose of the objects themselves. In this study, it was reported that hoarding was improved by emphasizing the values that determine whether to keep or discard objects, and by drawing out the reasons for discarding objects and goals for life.

Drawing on the results of a series of studies, Dozier offers practical tips to help hoarders get rid of things.

1: First, identify your values
First, write down what your material values are so you can determine whether the things in your home align with them. For example, if tradition is an important value to you, you might want to keep a cookbook of time-honored recipes and be more likely to let go of a new cookbook you picked up on a whim at the bookstore. Or, if you value health and creativity, you might value a cookbook of innovative recipes that help you eat more vegetables.

2: Define a consistent goal for using the space
Since the space in your home is limited, you can stay motivated to tidy up by defining certain values and goals for using the space. For example, if you value work efficiency, you should clear your desk so you have enough space to work. If you want to cook together as a family, you should organize your kitchen counter so that multiple people can fit in it.

3. When the values of things and space conflict, prioritize space.
Sometimes your values about material things and your values about space can conflict, so Dozier recommends asking yourself, 'If I let go of this object, would it bring me closer to the space I want?'

Please note that all values are subjective, and different people have different values that they value. If you are helping a relative or loved one clean up, remember that they have their own values, and you may be able to avoid creating hostility by saying things like 'You should throw away this junk' about something that is important to them.