Collecting, Clutter, and Hoarding: How the Difference May Impact Your Mental Health

Learn the key differences between hoarding, clutter, and collecting. Recognize the warning signs that indicate the need to seek help for hoarding disorder.

It can be challenging to know whether your behaviors or those of a loved one, have moved from normative collecting into something that requires intervention. While many people collect items and others accumulate clutter, the differences between collecting, clutter, and hoarding behaviors are clear. 

Knowing the difference between collecting, clutter, and hoarding is important in reducing stigma, protecting relationships, and, when necessary, guiding us to appropriate interventions and support.

Collecting Defined

Collecting involves the planned acquisition of particular items, often limited to one or two clear categories. These categories often represent items that hold special meaning for the collector, may have historical significance, or possess monetary value.

Common examples of items collected include:

• Stamp or coin collections,
• Action figures or comic books,
• Vinyl records or books.

Collections are typically:

• Well–organized and proudly displayed,
• A source of joy, supporting social connection,
• Part of the home, but not affecting the use of the home.

Although extreme collecting exists, most collecting is not problematic to the collector or those around them.

Clutter Defined

The best definition of clutter is beautifully simple: postponed decisions.

Most people have what is termed clutter “hot spots,” places in their homes where things get put down and left behind. Clutter lacks clear categories and organization, which makes it distinct from collecting. Clutter may cause embarrassment, yet for most people, it doesn’t become a barrier to having others in the home. 

There may be multiple locations of clutter throughout the home, often:

• Near the main entryway of the home, where things get dropped entering the house,
• On kitchen counters, where family members may congregate to talk, leaving behind items before and after meals,
• On desks, where mail and other important papers are gathered.

(Decision-making about how long to keep important documents and what needs to be shredded is challenging!)

Clutter typically:

• Causes mild embarrassment yet isn’t a barrier to having friends and family in, or getting repairs made to the home,
• Can be resolved quickly, tackling an individual “hot spot” in a matter of minutes or tackling several cluttered areas in a few hours,
• Isn’t a source of health and safety risks to those living in the residence.

So, When Does Clutter Become Hoarding?

Hoarding, as a mental health issue, is a persistent inability to part with items due to a perceived need to save the items or avoidance of decision-making that would lead to parting with items, which leads to an accumulation of items (clutter) that compromises the use of the home as it was designed, and is associated with distress and other significant impairment.

Warning signs that clutter may be indicative of hoarding include:

• Inability to gain entry into someone’s home, or personal unwillingness to have others into your own home,
• Moderate to significant difficulty taking care of important daily tasks such as cooking, vacuuming/sweeping, finding important and repeatedly utilized items,
• A desire to be with the items instead of with other people,
• Distress about the idea of parting with one’s possessions, regardless of the item’s value.

While clutter is common in many homes due to the pace of life many of us lead, hoarding has significant psychological and emotional components that require the support of a trained and specialized mental health professional.

Can Collecting devolve into clutter or hoarding?

It’s possible that someone who has had mild or moderate issues with clutter can become progressively more cluttered. Clutter is a symptom of many things, much like a cough is a symptom of many different illnesses. The increase of clutter in a home becomes a concern when:

• Organizational systems fail completely, leading to piles, bags, or boxes of items throughout the home,
• The condition of the home causes shame, embarrassment, or regret,
• The number of possessions and the condition within the home are the cause of conflict with family members or friends,
• Rooms become moderately difficult to use as designed or intended.

If this describes your relationship with things and the condition of your home, it may be helpful to speak with someone who works with hoarding behaviors.

Why Knowing the Difference Is Important

Stigma is a known barrier to medical or mental health treatment. Few mental health disorders are as misunderstood and stigmatized as hoarding disorder is. While an avid collector may have lots of their “thing” within their home, teasing them or labeling them as someone with hoarding behaviors is hurtful and mischaracterizes what hoarding is.

Similarly, terming clutter which fills the home to a point where outsiders can’t enter and becomes the center of most conversations with family and friends as collecting or “just a little clutter” robs one of the opportunities to find help and healing.

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Finding a Hoarding Therapist

If you’re concerned about your own behaviors or those of a loved one, it’s important to find a skilled therapist to help you. 

Important questions to ask a potential therapist include:

• How many clients have you worked with who struggle with hoarding?
• What kind of success do they have?
• How do you and your clients measure success?
• What type of treatment do you offer? (Currently, there are only two widely accepted therapies for HD: CBT and Compassion-Focused Therapy)

It may also be helpful to engage the assistance of professional organizers (POs) when working on sorting and releasing items. (I only refer clients to POs who have received at least a Level 2 Hoarding Specialist Certificate from the Institute for Challenging Disorganization.)

It can be challenging to determine the root issue behind excessive collecting, clutter, and hoarding when we focus only on the accumulation of possessions. When we look at the relationship between the PWH, their things, and others, hoarding becomes clearer. Collecting brings joy and typically supports social interactions, while hoarding causes shame and is a barrier to healthy interpersonal relationships. 

And clutter…is something most of us have in a culture that pushes materialism and busyness. 

Knowing the differences is essential to decreasing stigma, protecting relationships, and getting appropriate help when needed.

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