We’ve all seen the hit TV show "Hoarders". Piles of belongings. Piles of trash. Piles of junk.
But the people on this show don’t see piles of junk. They see memories of their lives and loved ones. And that is always the problem, because it makes it impossible to get rid of anything.
It’s not just the people on these crazy reality TV shows who have this problem. I myself feel those “pack rat” tendencies when I have to clear out my room every spring. I pick up that blank journal or paperweight that my grandmother gave me for Christmas, and I can’t bring myself to give it up. I glance over a poster from high school dance team and put it in the keep pile.
So really, I can’t feel too self-righteous when I watch "Hoarders". These sessions of cleaning have me stuck between two kinds of guilt: the guilt of giving away things that hold sentimental value, and the guilt of being privileged enough to have things to get rid of.
Recently, however, I’ve had some realizations about the whole process. The truth is, we can’t keep everything that we acquire in a lifetime. That is how "Hoarders" happens.
Living modestly is something we know to be virtuous. It is embedded in us as Americans by the Puritan roots of our culture. In other words, the virtue of moderation dates back to our forefathers and draws much of its fire from religion.
As we live in a capitalist society, we have strayed slightly from that Puritan moderation. In fact, sometimes it seems we are encouraged to acquire as much clutter as we possibly can, as if the apocalypse is about to happen tomorrow or something.
Believe me, I am grateful not to live in a society where I am not allowed to be in a room with a male of my age, or in a society where I would be married with three children at my age for that matter. But it is times like spring cleaning when I look at my lifestyle and begin to question its validity.
I happen to think those questions and doubts we have are a very good thing. They demonstrate that we are not, in fact, puppets privy to a commercialized world. So I think we should pay some attention to them.
That guilt I mentioned earlier can get in the way of spring cleaning. But it can also be a motivator. A little bit of study in basic theology has taught me that it can be freeing to put aside earthly things and focus on the “higher goods.” In other words, being able to put aside the things that don’t matter to focus on the things that do. Maybe the first step to that kind of transcendence is a physical freedom from clutter.
So, next time you feel that guilt when you’re cleaning out your closet, take a chance. Look at the grand scheme of things and take a leap of faith toward freedom.
