A Few of My Favorite Things: Obessing Over Material Possesions

By Kathryn Lanza

A Few of My Favorite Things is an entertaining and light-hearted way of looking at society's obsession over material possessions. It uses a Material Possession Spectrum to rate people to their attachments from collecing to hoarding.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 29, 2011
• ISBN: 9781257222315

Book preview

A Few

of My

Favorite Things

Obsessing Over Material Possessions

Kathryn Lanza

Copyright © 2010 by Kathryn Lanza

A Few of My Favorite Things: Obsessing Over Material Possessions

Cover design by Kathryn Lanza

Book design by Kathryn Lanza

All rights reserved.

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed by Lulu Enterprises, Inc.

Lulu.com

First Printing: April 2010

ISBN-978-0-5574333-3-9

eISBN: 978-1-25722-231-5

Dedication

Every time I sat down to write this book I got swallowed up in the fear that I had no idea what I was doing. When I slept I thought about how I was going to word things, or how I was going to introduce my characters and develop them so they were portrayed accurately. I found myself driving in my car talking out loud like I was reading my own book as if it was already written. And I even caught myself talking into a tape recorder when I was walking down the street. Pen and paper was nowhere in sight, but a recorder was... explain that one. I got so wrapped up in what the outcome would be like that I conducted life like your regular, average crazy person. No offense to those who talk to themselves.

I would like to thank my family for supporting my insanity all the while, and prior to writing this. Mom and Dad, you have been the best inspiration in my life and I am not sure there is any way for me to fully show my gratitude and thanks for your love. You’re a writer. I can attribute that one to my father. Well, here goes guys.

Introduction

It all starts off with common acquiring, or buying things that we don’t necessarily need but feel compelled to buy. Shopping. Saving. Collecting things with value. Then, some kind of connection develops between a person and their objects. And when it gets out of control, it turns into disorganization, clutter, and even a potentially serious problem that only until recently doctors and professionals have heard of: hoarding. It’s all just stuff. Why are we so attached to things?

I guess my journey of questioning tangibility started when I went with a friend to pick up their Aunt Claire in Boston. I was warmly welcomed, hugged, and pinched like at any place I go that involves a little, old lady. Then my eyes wandered. Beyond the puff of powdery white Aunt Claire hair, my eyes feasted on more stuff than I had ever seen in a house...in my life. I instantly thought it just must have been a one time instance, and that Aunt Claire’s house wasn’t always like this. Sometimes we just get behind in our cleaning, you know? Of course, I didn’t say anything. I went out to lunch and went home and went to bed and lived my life. But I always held on to the image in the back of my mind: the stacks of toppling newspapers, the empty shampoo bottles in the shower, the piles of old Christmas and birthday cards, and the heaps of mail on the floor. And then I found myself trying to make my life comfortable while at college. Besides having two of everything, one for my home and one for my school apartment, I had more stuff than I knew what to do with. I bought things while I was living away to make myself feel more at home and comfortable. I would subconsciously think, Well, at least it’s not as bad as Aunt Claire.

I immediately thought that to tackle this topic of stuff, I would have to go to the extreme. I would have to make friends with a person who was so disorganized and coax them to tell me why. Wait a minute, that’s not how we’re supposed to make friends, is it? I ended up uncovering some people who had never given any thought to their stuff, but they had compelling stories and real life experiences. I thank those sources who have let me into their lives and those sources who have connected me to those people.

My sojourn for stuff started at a downtown shop in Burlington, Vt. called Junktiques. I met Dan, who not only just worked there, but considered himself a lifelong packrat. I considered collecting and buying to save the jumping off point. Then, I turned to hoarding. Well, not personally...but hoarding as an identification in this book for the most severe end of the topic. Little did I know that it would allow me to see inside the meaning of all the stuff I had literally and figuratively encountered. My new friend Brenda who considers herself a recovered hoarder, let me understand her connection to her things, and how she got there. And I am proud to say that there was no coaxing involved. She was a brave and selfproclaimed survivor of her stuff.

Suddenly, not only the stuff, but the information was pouring out right before my own eyes. I never thought I would have access to so many people who had experience with this topic. Mike Ohler, Transitional Housing Specialist for the Burlington Housing Authority, Burlington, Vt. said that he noticed ever since diving into this topic in his work, he has had more and more people come up to him and offer their own stories. Oh yea, now that I think of it, my great-grandfather could have been a hoarder, or I know someone who is like that.. I wondered why all of a sudden this thing, these things, were coming into our realm of acknowledgment just now?

The interviews in this book are a result of my insatiable appetite to uncover stories that you don’t hear on an everyday basis. And much to all of my journalism professors’ dismay, I crave sensationalism. Maybe I wanted to hear about the quirks and weirdness of someone’s clutter, but I also established friendships and almost sympathetic relationships with my interview subjects. It doesn’t take someone with a mental health problem, or someone who has lived in public housing all their life to uncover a story about stuff. It took me time to realize that collecting and hoarding can be right in front of us and under our very noses, with our loved ones or even ourselves. Sorry Oprah, but I was a little annoyed with your one hour exploitation of hoarders when it takes a lifetime to understand. Let this in no way be a psychological, financial or legal service to those involved in the subject matter. It is a descriptive social and illustrative look at different people behind the status of their stuff, and a journey all in itself.

People

and

Their Possessions

Unless we set some concrete descriptions for identifying the different ranges of the possessions that people have, things will get messy. And just to clarify, there is no coined scientific term for stuff. It’s