Thinking Aloud: Hoarders

Why do we hoard? Some keep books, discs, wrapping papers, small dolls, wallets…well you name it, you got it. There’s always something that you keep and cannot get the strength to throw it away, no matter how hard you try.

We keep things, maybe for the sake of appreciating the person giving it. Do you have a card or a letter that you have kept for years? A love letter from a crush or perhaps from a girlfriend or boyfriend back in school? What about the postcard or perhaps a greeting card? Or can it be boxes of those?

Perhaps I can relate to that. There was a time when greetings cards are still popular. Getting a slip of paper with uplifting words in coloured papers are the in thing. These cards can be hard to come by so each time I get it, I tend to store it. Well, to take a look at it later.

From handmade greetings card, the habit now escalates to letters from friends. Yes, I survived the period of snailmail. I used to write long winding letters to friends and there was a time I had a penpal from the US. Yes, there was a time when my writing is still readable.

So, yes, I keep letters and cards from friends just to appreciate them perhaps. I keep it in a box and for a few years after school, I did that. Despite depositing the cards and letters into the box, I never look at the old ones. I just keep adding more and reminded myself to look at the other letters later.

But later never came soon. I mean, I looked at the letters several years after that. And what is there to look at when all you can find are obsolete addresses and maybe the same applies for phone numbers. So, why do we keep all this? It’s not like I look at the letters every single year.

Maybe it was the fact that we tend to hoard memories. We tend to keep stuff that may bring us back to our happy times like our wedding anniversaries and our birthdays. But why small things? Why not just keep a picture or video perhaps?

Imagine having read a good story and you store the book so you can read it again. But will you actually read it again? There will be more books to buy and more things to read. Are you absolutely sure that you will revisit the book again? There is a huge chance you will not. Like ever again. Well, in my case, that is nearly the truth. I will always have something to read.

So why-oh-why then that I still choose to hoard things? Why the obsession to hoard things when it is just memories and memories tend to fade away? And the worse thing is to hoard things that maybe won’t benefit you anyways.

I still cannot decide on why I hoard things. I find it hard to part with these books. Sigh.