Last week I ordered an empty stamp binder and set of two-row stamp pages, so now I can easily page through my small collection of first-day covers. And with this modest bit of philatelist organization accomplished, I’m almost embarrassed to admit how much joy it brings me to gather my treasures in this way.
Anything becomes a treasure–a cherished collectible–if you put it in an album. Last night I received another presentation book I’d ordered to archive the pictures, cards, and silly printouts J posts on our refrigerator. A saner soul would toss these out in the name of decluttering, but it brings me joy (again) to flip through an album of memories: an archive of random moments.
Yesterday I heard part of an NPR story about a journalist who wrote a New York Times op-ed in praise of clutter, arguing that sentimental objects and decor help personalize our homes, apartments, and offices. This isn’t to advocate for hoarding, he was quick to add…but I’d argue that one person’s hoard is another person’s treasure.
It’s not accidental that the title of my blog includes the word “hoarded,” as I have always been a collector. A child’s inclination to collect stamps or dolls or coins (or, in the case of my childhood, model horses) is an early manifestation of an archivist’s urge. An archive is a repository of texts and artifacts that are clutter today but will be history tomorrow.
And although I doubt historians will be interested in my ragtag collections, my intended audience isn’t them but me in the future: someone who will be interested in unpacking the archaeology of my younger life.
Hoarded Ordinaries 
Jan 11, 2023 at 2:25 pm
I’m not sure, but there’s probably a healthy sense of the word “hoarding” and a more clinical/pathological sense. I imagine your version of hoarding is innocuous enough, without all the flies, weird odors, and dead pets buried under trash (fodder for a good Stephen King story, I’d say).
Joking aside, I agree that “clutter,” however you define it, does indeed personalize a home. It’s one of the little ways in which we express our individuality.
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Jan 11, 2023 at 7:46 pm
I recently read Sarah Krasnostein’s The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman’s Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay & Disaster, which has some jaw-dropping (and stomach-churning) descriptions of pathological hoarding. So yes, there is hoarding, then there is Hoarding.
My clutter tends toward piles: my personal philosophy seems to be “A pile for everything, and everything in its pile.” I prefer to have things neat and tidy, but when life gets busy, the piles grow. So when I see my own pockets of clutter, that tells me I’ve been overwhelmed. This is why, I think, it feels so satisfying to organize things: it’s a reclamation of sorts, where you still have your Stuff, but it’s organized rather than chaotic.
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Jan 11, 2023 at 10:40 pm
Interesting. Sarah’s surname sounds as though it might mean “Redstone.”
“Krasnyy” is Russian for “red,” and “Stein” is German for “stone.”
Well, here’s to the proper management of piles, then! Although it occurs to me that that statement could be taken several ways.
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