ARE YOU a secret hoarder? The psychologist named three tell-tale signs that you should pay attention to

If you have a pile of magazines in your garage, years of paperwork fills up more than one cabinet, and you can no longer see your kitchen surfaces, be aware that you can become a curmudgeon.

But don’t worry if you have a “clutter” in your kitchen or a growing collection of items like antique teapots, as this isn’t usually hoarding behavior.

British savings expert to give a talk at Cambridge A festival where she talks about red flags of behavior, which are early signs to look out for.

Dr. Sharon Moraine, a psychologist at Anglia Ruskin University, describes three “pillars” of problem behavior.

The first is “overstocking”, such as ordering large quantities of packages online or buying groceries in bulk for fear of running out.

The second pillar is the “cognitive” or “emotional” difficulty in getting things out of the house.

For example, parents may hoard for emotional reasons, not wanting to get rid of their children’s old toys, clothes, or even baby teeth.

And the cognitive causes of hoarding may include being overwhelmed by work deadlines or difficulty making decisions in general, which can push people away from working with things around the house.

The third pillar is the mess in the living quarters.

Dr Moraine, who speaks at the Cambridge Festival this Saturday, said: “People tend to report accumulation problems around age 60 on average, but they can slowly creep up on us in our twenties.

“While only one in 40 people actually suffers from a mental breakdown, when it comes to hoarding, there are many other people on a continuum where they have too much stuff, can’t organize it, and start to worry about having visitors in their house due to disorder.

“These people can benefit from help with this problem and it can help them recognize the warning signs of hoarding.

“Piles of magazines and newspapers that people keep for years because they think they can read them are common, as is paperwork filling cabinets that you need to use.

“Other warning signs are not being able to see the kitchen surfaces because they are covered with things, or not being able to walk through the bedroom or living room because there are objects piled up.”

The good news for middle-aged people who have started collecting anything from football cards to toy cars is that it’s usually not a sign that they’ve become hoarders.

Dr. Moraine said: “People who collect things tend to organize them well, so they don’t hoard those items.

“People worry about their dirty drawers or the fact that they have one single closet that is a mess, like Monica’s character in Friends, but this is also not a problem, unless they are under a lot of stress because of it. cabinet or drawer.

“Accumulation can be seen when the clutter gets out of control and gets in the way and interferes with daily activities.”

People who survived World War II are more likely to hoard things, perhaps because they survived rationing and worry about scarcity as a result.

Families with young children can struggle with the amount of toys and clothes that pile up around the house, but there are universal strategies that can help prevent clutter from getting out of control.

As for the best hoarding tactics, Dr. Moraine says people should not just do spring cleaning every year, but clean or sort things much more often—perhaps even every week.

If everything in the house has its place, it’s much harder to create a mess and it’s easier to put items in the right drawer or closet without thinking too much about it.

Dr. Moraine advises against religiously getting rid of anything that doesn’t “cause joy,” as decluttering guru Marie Kondo advises.

Instead, she says, “Don’t plan on a big cleanup where you’re trying to clean up the whole house or an entire room, which a lot of people will just put off.

“Instead, start small and build up, and you’ll make more progress than you might expect.”

The Cambridge Festival runs from 17 March to 2 April.