'Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things'

Imagine newspapers and magazines stacked to the ceiling with hardly enough leeway for one person to make their way through the room filled with stuff. Trails of trash and useless memorabilia are piled high, and hardly any sunlight enters the room. Shutters as well as accumulated objects loom sinisterly over the windows so that the room resembles a cavernous setting.

To the owner of this home, the things in their place are of utmost value and are placed in exceeding exactness. They have every bit of entitlement to the space as much as their spouse and children do. The term for this excessiveness is hoarding, and people who hoard see their things in a very different light than people who don’t. According to professor and lecturer, Randy Frost, this way of seeing objects and the world is like a well of creativity as well as a curse.

Stuff, the newly released book on hoarding, is a great study on the compulsive nature of people who hoard. With an increased interest in the compulsive illness seen in the media, such TV shows as Hoarders are informing and giving viewers an inside look into these people’s lives.

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy Frost goes beyond the televised effort, and investigates the various methods to help hoarders overcome their personal dilemma.

According to Stuff, hoarding is a disorder that happens in secret. Shame and a guardedness regarding this lifestyle usually overwhelm the person that hoards. To the point where guests are never invited to the home and relationships with spouses and offspring are often compromised.

The implications of all this is that hoarding is not only a public hazard, it is also a personal problem. People who hoard are reluctant to throw away even a gum wrapper, and this indecision not only hurts themselves, but also the people around them.

Stuff introduces many misconceptions about hoarding. After debunking these myths, the book gives a fresh take on the largely misinterpreted compulsion and adds its own arguments to the discoveries that researcher and Professor Randy Frost and his colleague Gail Steketee have made regarding this largely misunderstood disorder.

Filled with many fascinating insights that challenges old misconceptions and adds new arguments to this relatively new study, Stuff carefully analyzes and accesses this debilitating illness. Given a large range of subjects, people who have been dealing with their conflict with things their whole lives, the book is largely a fascinating take on the world loosely based on clutter.

In the book, Frost takes these examples of hoarding lifestyles, and examines them in their most critical state. Hoping to observe the hoarding rituals and the obsessive nature of these people, he pinpoints certain trends in the nature of hoarding. Based on his observations and work, Frost seems to be on the brink of a new frontier here. Little to no writing has been done on this grave, and yet fascinating, subject and Frost is breaking all boundaries regarding this debilitating disorder.

While also informing readers of hoarding, Frost offers valid advice on how to deal with the disorder. Those who seek help for their hoarding or for those who are seeking help for others, this book is a succinct read. But be forewarned: while covering a lot of ground in this break-through work, Stuff has yet to offer an all-out solution. What it certainly does is give you the ground-work for a truly startling disorder. Stuff is a worthwhile read for those who need to reevaluate or redefine their belongings.