Giving collectors a mad name

Oh, dear! A change of email address looks likely with the announcement today that hoarding is now rated as a medical disorder by the World Health Organisation. Encouraging words of sympathy will be appreciated via paul@NutHouse dot com.

And yet are we really nutters? Surely it can't be - or shouldn't be - that those of us who prefer not to throw away things that trigger memories are somehow demented?

Even looking at it from a long term point of view, later on when we go off for the final barbecue, these momentoes could go to museums, or perhaps prompt councils to offer a way to dispose things not suitable for household waste.

The health organisation, according to The Telegraph, says that experts reckon that the new medical classification will benefit thousands of people.

The hoarding disorder

Really? Who, for example? What benefit?

And talk about commercialism where commercialism has no place ...

WHO claims – and I quote from the article – hoarding disorder is characterised by an 'accumulation of possessions … regardless of their actual value.' Has anyone in WHO actually thought about it? Let's be critical for a moment because we - the UK - hand them £100 million each year.

Monetary value? I have loads and loads of photos of family and friends. Do I have them, and browse through them, with some financial gain in mind? Or, perhaps, should I? …

Continues on the blogs for my ocean travel book, Sailing to Purgatory, at SailingToPurgatory.com