I watch the television show Hoarders. I watch it a lot. I am amazed that people can keep that much shit in their homes. In most cases there are dead animals or loaded weapons all over the house. One guy had shit piled up all over his kitchen but would leave his gas stove on for heat. Crazy. Death at every turn! Kids living in these places with clothes and shoes to last them for days, but couldn’t find a place to play to save their lives. Children literally beg their parents to make a change. Child services threaten to take away children, the state threatens to take away homes, or condemn them. Husbands threaten to leave. The house at times is coming apart at the seams due to the amount of bugs/animals/mold/waterdamage/structural damage whatever that is living/breading/infesting the inside. It’s shocking, it’s disgusting, it’s heart breaking, it makes me throw up in my mouth.
Each time there is a professional trying to help these people out. They will bring everything out of the house and then they will begin a conversation that usually goes like this.
Helper: Ok Maggie. We’ve got 17 lamps here. What can we get rid of?
Hoarder: Nothing.
Helper: Well come on now. Some of these lamps are broken and won’t ever work again.
Hoarder: I can fix them.
Helper: What are the odds that you will actually fix them?
Hoarder: I’m not throwing any of them away!
Helper: How about just one. Pick just one that we can throw away.
Hoarder: Damn it. I already told you. All of the lamps stay!
Then the Hoarder stomps out, pissed off and goes into their house to love on their junk and shit somewhere on the floor because there is no running water and meanwhile the helper talks to the camera.
Helper: This is frustrating. She refuses to even part with one lamp. This is going to be a very long day.
I have never considered myself a hoarder. It has always been very easy for me to just throw stuff out. Mostly because in the Navy you move so often that you don’t feel like taking a lot of stuff with you. I have a few things…like my daughters first outfit, her first Halloween costume, some artwork and some photobooks. But for the most part, I don’t hold on to things for very long. I get rid of things to make room for new things. It’s the way I’ve always done it.
But recently I realized I am indeed a Hoarder. But I don’t hoard stuff. Oh no. I hoard PEOPLE!
I’m mortified by this discovery but I acknowledge it. And that is the first step right? Admitting that you have a problem. I made this discovery the other day when me and my friend had this conversation.
Me: Did you see the picture I posted on facebook?
My friend: Yeah, I commented on it, but maybe you didn’t notice because you have a thousand facebook friends.
Me: Whatever, I do not have a thousand facebook friends.
My friend: Ok, nine hundred and something. Basically a thousand.
So I log on to facebook and take a look. And there it is. 948.
So I go to the news section and start reading most recent and she says, you know you can change that so it will only show you the top news. And I said, what does that mean? And she said, it will just give you stuff it thinks you will be interested in reading instead of showing you every single thing people type. And I said, I’m fine with seeing every single thing people type.
She just stared at me.
My friend: Why do you care?
Me: These are my friends.
My friend: All 948 of them?
Me: Well yeah, I wouldn’t have added them otherwise right?
My friend: You can’t tell me you know all 948 of those people.
Me: No, I guess not.
My friend: Let’s go through and delete the people you don’t know.
(This was the moment. She had put all my shit out on the lawn and had asked me to pick a lamp to throw away.)
Me: I don’t want to delete anyone.
My friend: What about this person? You have not spoken to this person in three years.
Me: That is my cousin.
My friend: Um, ok, what about this person? From your first duty station in 1994. There is no way you are still in contact.
Me: She came to visit me last month.
My friend: Well, what about this person? She is just a friend of a friend that you’ve never met.
Me: She and her daughter sent me an awesome care package while I was in Afghanistan.
My friend: What about this girl. Some random Soldier.
Me: I wrote her a letter of recommendation three weeks ago.
My friend: What about this girl? She doesn’t even live in this country?
Me: That is Carly! Are you kidding me? She is one of my blogger crushes. Along with about 10 other bloggers. I’m not deleting any of my blogger crushes!
And the list went on. She would suggest someone, and I would immediately get defensive. I may not have a tie that binds me to every single last person on that list of 948, but I added them for a reason. Even if that reason was just so I could stalk their lives or find out what their wives looked like.
And the list use to be longer. But over the years (and even as recent as last month) people have deleted me. They have just hovered over my name and then BAM. Hit the delete button. And it was a simple thing. And they probably aren’t harboring any deep regret or wondering if my feelings are hurt over it.
But I can assure you that even though they are no longer part of my online collection, by deleting me they have graduated immediately to my in-mind obsession. And trust me. Nothing gets thrown out of there either.





