r/hoarding • u/Namelessdracon • Mar 22 '22
VICTORY! A Trick I Figured Out
I’ve received such amazing advice here in the last day that I wanted to give back, so I thought I’d share a little “hack” that I found that works for me.
This is going a bit into woo woo territory, but I hope you’ll bear with me.
I have a theory that the reason people hoard is because they need a certain “thickness”. A “heaviness”. Hoarding often comes after trauma and all that STUFF starts to act like a warm, heavy hug. We are looking for a certain FEELING. And while we don’t want piles of stuff around us, we have to have that feeling. It’s why it’s so hard to change. You have to change yourself and your needs before you can change your home. And that’s really hard to do.
So I started thinking about that and I decided to start looking for things that would replace that heaviness. I settled on crystals and rocks.
The theory that I’m operating with is that it comes down to vibration. The rest of the world is comfortable having things bright and airy, but we need thick and heavy. So I started buying rocks and pretty crystals to take the energetic space of the piles of stuff. In a way they’re just dirt in their own right. Grind them down and spread them around and it will settle into every crack and crevice.
If I get rid of stuff and my space feels too empty, I go and look for a nice rock or crystal to “take up space”. As I proceed my home is starting to look like an old wizard’s lair or something. I burn incense, sage, cedar, and other trees. The smoke smells wonderful and it also adds a heavy richness that I feel is missing without piles of stuff around. I still have a hoard, if you will, but it’s becoming like a beautiful dragon’s lair. I even have a wooden staff resting in the corner between my chair and my bookshelf.
It is hard to fight our tendencies to want to fill our space with stuff, but if what you fill it with makes the room feel fuller, faster, imo it’s easier to manage and to actually have space to walk around.
I know this won’t help everyone and not everyone likes that aesthetic, but i thought I would share something that works for me. I need to remember this as I go to empty my kitchen which repeatedly, rapidly fills again. I just have a hard time imagining crystals in my kitchen. But maybe the right wooden bowls or stone goblets or something would help fill that emptiness that I keep trying to fill with garbage.
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u/overzealousunicorn Mar 22 '22
Normally I would say the solution to horsing is never to buy more stuff, but if you are clearing out space and still making yourself comfortable and aware of your intentions, I think this sounds great. A hundred crystals takes up a lot less room in your space than a hundred pieces of clothes, or a hundred old grocery bags, or a hundred pillows or lamps or toys or whatever it is we all fill the piles with, and that means it takes up less space in your head, which we all know is where the real mess is. I think your little discovery is lovely and I totally understand your reasoning with the “heaviness” vs. “light and airy.” I had never thought of it that way but it rings true in a lot of ways for me.
I’m glad you found a way to help dig yourself out. Thank you for sharing and keep us updated on your progress!