Horder, Collector or Conservator

Horder, Collector or Conservator?

If you have a lot of “stuff” in your home, some-or all-of which is seldom used, you may have been accused of being a horder! Boy, does that have a negative connotation? But should it? Careful investigation into the term, without cultural baggage, reveals the truth. An objective comparison separates the horder from the collector or conservator.

A horder by definition is a person who has many possessions that they cannot easily move. Well, that could apply to many of us…especially if you have stacks of “stuff’ in every available space. But does that make you a horder? Read on! These possessions that cannot easily be moved must then be blocking free movement about the home. Well, I have known a few collectors that have an abundance of a certain type of antique that inhibits their free movement about the home. Are they horders? Perhaps.

Additionally a horder covers furniture and space with possessions, to a point where it is stacked up against walls. Anyone with children knows that bedrooms occasionally get to this point. Is your child then a horder? Are you an enabler for allowing this behavior?

In the extreme, a horder who has a lot of possessions that cannot easily be moved, are stacked on furniture and available spaces to a point where they lean against walls and inhibit movement about the house, ultimately creates paths through the possessions in order to move through the rooms. Additionally the value of the items is questionable due to the indifferent treatment, expiration dates of some items, condition of the items, and absence of use or accessibility.

But when does this behavior become an anxiety disorder? When the possessions have no or little market value, meet all of the previously mentioned criteria, and cannot be thrown away due to a personal attachment to each and every item that prohibits them being thrown away.

Hey, I’m just saying: if it meets all the criteria, it may be hording. You have heard the old maxim—if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and sounds like a duck—it just may be a duck! The same applies with a horder!

Most people with this accumulation of items claim that they are either collectors or conservators. Possible, but the definitions may not apply to the horder. The collector by definition collects a specific type of item. So their possessions do not really meet the “stuff" categorization that applies to horders. Usually the items collected by a collector have some value either initially as in research materials or in a future setting as defined by uniqueness or scarcity. Again, this defies the definition of hording. Collectors’ possessions are usually placed strategically in locations that safeguard them. They are seldom relegated to table tops where they may be knocked off, stacked high on walls or furniture, piled in such a way as to impede movement about the house.

They may have personal meaning to the collector, even to the point where they have trouble parting with them for any price, but because of this specialness, they are seldom if ever, relegated to piles that require paths to move from one room to the next.

All these criteria keep the collector, regardless of how expansive or eclectic their collections may be, from being classified as horders.

Now what about a conservator? A conservator preserves things, protects them, repairs or restores them. The “stuff” usually has great value, making its conservation anathema to hording. Conservation often requires great skill and patience. The idea of stacking, piling or dumping items being conserved just does not work for the conservator. They hold these conserved items to have great value, an opinion often held by appraisers as well.

While conservators may be loath to part with conserved items, their attachment is usually based on some larger sense of preservation, rather than mere possession. Due to the value, consideration, and care given to items by conservators, piling them to a point where movement within the space is inhibited, and paths are formed to move from room to room seldom if ever occurs. More likely, the conserved item is displayed in a large open space where free movement to appreciate the intricacies of the treasured item are possible.

So, no ducks here. Collectors and conservators have neither the look, walk, or sound of the duck—or horder, and thereby avoid that label.

I INVITE YOUR COMMENTS, EXPAMPLES AND EXCEPTIONS. WHAT IS YOUR STORY? YOUR EXPERIENCE? RESPONSE SPACE IS AVAILABLE BELOW OR AT

https://www.wix.com/website-1

A Place for the Eye to Rest: BLOG

Include your email address for my appreciative reply!