Stuff

Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things

By: Randy O. Frost, Gail Steketee

Narrated by: Joe Caron

Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

What possesses someone to save every scrap of paper thats ever come into his home? What compulsions drive a woman like Irene, whose hoarding cost her her marriage? Or Ralph, whose imagined uses for castoff items like leaky old buckets almost lost him his house?

Randy Frost and Gail Steketee were the first to study hoarding when they began their work a decade ago; they expected to find a few sufferers but ended up treating hundreds of patients and fielding thousands of calls from the families of others. Now they explore the compulsion through a series of compelling case studies in the vein of Oliver Sacks.

With vivid portraits that show us the traits by which you can identify a hoarder - piles on sofas and beds that make the furniture useless, houses that can be navigated only by following small paths called goat trails, vast piles of paper that the hoarders churn but never discard, even collections of animals and garbage - Frost and Steketee illuminate the pull that possessions exert on all of us.

Whether we're savers, collectors, or compulsive cleaners, very few of us are in fact free of the impulses that drive hoarders to the extremes in which they live. For all of us with complicated relationships to our things, Stuff answers the question of what happens when our stuff starts to own us.

©2010 Randy O. Frost & Gail Steketee (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"This succinct, illuminating book will prove helpful to hoarders, their families, and mental health professionals who work with them." ( Publishers Weekly)

Thought inspiring book

This was an easy listen and I could identify with many of the stories and feelings people had regarding their stuff.

very good overview

great examples of the thoughts and struggles of hoarding. so many great insights. really helps explain to others what is happening. so true how afflicts very intelligent and creative people.

Best book for decluttering a house

This book was a terrific help in my attempt to declutter my house. Helps you see those 'collections' in a totally different light.

Getting Beyond the Uck Factor

If you could sum up Stuff in three words, what would they be?

Revealing. Intriguing. Research-based.

What did you like best about this story?

The television show Hoarders and its contemporaries have revealed just how common the affliction of hoarding is, and how it exists in places and people that you might not suspect (as well as in people who seem just as you might think a hoarder might be). As the child of a hoarder who was not as extreme as the ones often televised, I find these shows of interest, because I can identify with many of the challenges faced by the families of the hoarders. That said, I think that the shows often go for the cheap shot, the thing that will make audiences go "Ewwww!" and recoil, rather than any nuanced version of the situation. The holier-than-thou, let's-throw-it-all-away attitude of some of the "hoarding specialists" (not the mental health professionals) on the shows often tread on my patience, even as I recognize that the hoarders themselves frequently are some of the most irrational people one might ever encounter. Television may just be too sensationalistic in its coverage of this topic.

"Stuff," on the other hand, is a better treatment. Firstly, because it is based on actual research by individuals who took the time to do systematic interviews with different types of hoarders. The researchers themselves had no idea how widespread the hoarding situation was when they first began addressing it, prodded by a student's interest (cheers to student initiative!) and uncovered a great deal of interesting subject matter. The case studies provide depth and texture to the individuals who suffer from this affliction, while illustrating broader characteristics that the researchers have found that many hoarders share.

Secondly, the case studies are described without that pitched, sensationalistic tone that is so common in the shows. To be fair, the things that are occasionally described can still be gruesome and downright disturbing, but the narrator describes them matter-of-factly, because the point is to understand what is going on, not to oogle at the train wreck.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Extreme might be too strong a word. However, I found myself nodding in some cases at the similarity of the rationales offered by hoarders in the book to those I heard often in my own childhood, uttered by my parent. Other times, my experience differed widely from what was described, but it offered that comfort that sometimes comes when we find out that we are not alone in something odd/shameful/bewildering that we have experienced. For others who have loved ones who are hoarders, I would recommend the book for that reason as well as for the bits of insight into the characteristics that the researchers have found that hoarders share. It is not a book of cures, and while it does provide some insights into certain therapies that have had successes, the researchers are careful to note that this is a very difficult affliction to treat as it often goes to the core of people's emotional selves.

Any additional comments?

If you have a hoarder in your life or are someone who encounters them (working at a health department or human services organization), I recommend this book as a way to try to develop some insight about the not just the individual case(s) you might be dealing with, but to the breadth of the problem in our society today. Keep an open mind. It is important to understand that hoarders are not just lazy or silly or dirty or any of the other myriad "easy" explanations that people sometimes assume... there is more to it than that and while passing judgment is easy... it is hardly productive or fitting a society as advanced as ours.

Compulsive Reading

Here's the takeaway: this is a shocking and fascinating book. The authors are therapists who specialize in hoarding behavior and helping individuals overcome their compulsions. And what compulsions they are!The subjects in this book have collected so much stuff they don't know the size of their rooms, they forget whole rooms exist, they have to crawl to certain destinations, they put their health and marriages at risk, and they cannot stop.

You'll watch as the authors employ a series of creative treatments to try and mitigate the compulsions. Some succeed and some fail. What is most incredible is the chapter about childhood hoarding, proving the behavior can be inherited or learned. This is a short but amazing read, highly recommended.

Informative

Frost and Stekeete set out to describe compulsive hoarding and accomplish that in a most informative way. Their book gets beyond the "what" hoarders do to the "why" they do it. The reader will gain insight into the thinking of hoarders and, by the way, insights into their own compulsions. Collectors, hoarders of animals, and those who just collect junk and trash are all allocated their own chapters. My living quarters are not a trash heap, but there are books every where that I keep perhaps afraid that I'll miss out on something if they are lost. My dad passed with a garage full of scraps, tools, and broken antiques. I am convined now, that he just ran out of time to tackle each "project." He kept them because he wanted to work on the projects they represented. The book is entertaining and well read by Joe Caron.

Insightful and helpful

I grew up in a hoarder home and as soon as I could, I moved 3,000 miles away to escape. Baffled and ashamed I found that within a few years I too had a hoarding problem. After 18 years of focused work on my problem, I have found relief. This book helped me identify feelings and thoughts I couldn’t otherwise explain and gave me more insight into my parents struggles. I feel more compassion towards them and myself. A must read for those with trouble with stuff as well as those that love them.

Excellent Research Material

I feel enriched with fresh insights on existing situations. A great research material .

Insightful

This book is written from the perspective of expertise and compassion. It examines the many motivations behind and variations of hoarding.

Good audio book for anyone seeking insight

This is not a "how to" book for decluttering. Nor is it a book that focuses on Cognitive Behavioral methods of intervention. Rather it is a narrative of investigational studies of individual hoarders. It is geared more toward a social science professional readership. The book offers a great deal of insight into the lives of hoarders and their pathology. But it is not a self-help book per se. Although it might help those afflicted with cluttering and hoarding issues gain a small degree of insight into themselves, a much better self-help book by the same authors is "Buried in Treasurers".