When it comes to your home, are you a purger or a hoarder? What about the other family members, what are they?
It can make things interesting when some members of a family are purgers and others are hoarders. But first, let me clarify exactly what we are talking about here.
A purger is someone who clears clutter and doesn’t keep things they don’t believe will be used. They tend to throw a lot of things out. Hoarders on the other hand, keep things they don’t need or believe they might need in the future.
Either one of these can get out of hand. A purger can end up throwing away perfectly good items. A hoarder can end up buried underneath their “treasures.”
When my husband and I first got married, we battled with this. I am a purger and he is a hoarder. Neither of us was extreme but it was opposite enough that it caused problems.
“Where is my…” he would ask. And I would say, “Oh that old thing? I threw it out.” Needless to say it caused some arguments.
Over the years I have learned to loosen up a bit. He has a couple areas where I allow him to keep his junk…I mean, his stuff. The garage, his closet and his tool room are all his. He can keep whatever he likes.
The rest of the house, well, it basically belongs to me. Not really…but I am allowed to happily purge away items.
Out of our three children, we have just one who tends to be a hoarder. The other two don’t really take the time to purge but they don’t mind when I go through their rooms and do it for them.
Sometimes we haven’t given much thought to whether or not we are a purger or hoarder. It’s a good idea to consider whether we have gotten out of balance either way.
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Photo by fyunkie in Flickr