Comments on: When collecting ‘stuff’ gets out of control https://www.nzcatholic.org.nz/2014/06/20/when-collecting-%e2%80%98stuff%e2%80%99-gets-out-of-control/ The New Zealand National Catholic Newspaper Wed, 27 Jan 2016 01:24:12 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4 By: Antony Millen https://www.nzcatholic.org.nz/2014/06/20/when-collecting-%e2%80%98stuff%e2%80%99-gets-out-of-control/comment-page-1/#comment-4132 Mon, 23 Jun 2014 05:28:20 +0000 http://www.nzcatholic.org.nz/?p=7332#comment-4132 I’ve always been fascinated by this topic and enjoy watching the shows about hoarding – mainly because of the myriad of reasons for the behaviour. I used to have older relatives in Canada who always had stores of canned goods, biscuits, tea, etc. They had experienced the Depression and didn’t want to be without these staples again, even decades after those days.

I even include a character who is a hoarder in my new novel. She started as a collector and archivist, but there are other reasons for her habits.

I loved collecting in my younger years (comic books, sports cards and memorabilia) and this turned into a book collection during my English studies at university. Moving to New Zealand put an end to that as I wanted to be able to shift more easily if the time came. After almost 18 years here, I am still disposing of things store in boxes back in Canada.

However, the upside is that I am discovering a pleasure in not having things (check out The Minimalists website: http://www.theminimalists.com/). Instead of collecting books, I enjoy borrowing from the library or sharing with friends. An interesting phenomenon being addressed n all sorts of ways at the moment.

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