The DSM has recently added a new diagnosis, Obsessive Hoarding. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the standard classification of mental disorders used by mental health professionals in the United States. That means hoarding is now considered a mental illness by the medical community!
It’s really ticked off a lot of people (hoarders). See, they feel like they are just being reasonable. You don’t know when a newspaper from 1997 might contain that jewel of information you were looking for. And shouldn’t one have every size and shape of Band-Aid? It’s entirely possible that your family might suffer 3,000 different kinds of life-threatening cuts and you would not want to be negligently unprepared for that sort of emergency.
The hoarding community thinks the DSM has made a monstrous error in calling hoarding a mental disorder. After all, the hoarders may be the ones who save the planet if all manufacturing, trucking, communication and growing comes to a sudden and complete stop someday.
OK, I'm being a little tongue-in-cheek, and to tell the truth, I’ve changed my mind over the course of this blog. I started out to talk about minimizing but I’ve been converted to a bit of prepper talk. Minimizing and preparedness are polar-ly opposite things, but they both lead to the same good end: freedom.
The Independent Bedroom
Everything can be rolled up and moved by one person with one box.
True hoarding is an excessive emotional attachment which causes dysfunction in the sufferer’s life. I've been on a campaign to be the Un-Hoarder. I'm divesting right and left. I want to be utterly portable.
However, there is such a thing as reasonable preparedness. I Google’d “Mormon Preparedness” to find out why the LDS church teaches its followers to always have a stock of emergency goods. The website Mormon.org explains:
However, there is such a thing as reasonable preparedness. I Google’d “Mormon Preparedness” to find out why the LDS church teaches its followers to always have a stock of emergency goods. The website Mormon.org explains:
"Being prepared for potential emergencies helps us to become self-reliant, which provides more personal independence, industry, thrift and self-respect. It also gives more opportunity to serve and care for others in need."
I would never argue with anything that promotes greater self-respect and charity towards others! It makes sense to be prepared for natural disasters, accidents, illness, and unemployment... things none of us can predict or prevent.
Some attention to preparedness is simply smart, especially in disaster-prone areas. The Red Cross in California has long advised households to keep certain items on-hand and have a house exit and emergency family communication plan.
Millions of Boy Scouts and the Red Cross Can't Be Wrong:
Be Prepared!
So there’s a middle ground. In the process of “minimizing” my home, donating everything I can’t carry by myself or haven’t worn in the last 6 months, I have doggedly held on to my “Get Outta Dodge” bag with water purifier, matches, first aid kit, extra batteries, etc. In California, an earthquake preparedness kit is highly advised, but even in Dallas, there can be fires, tornadoes, any number of things that might wipe out power for a while. (Personally, I think a self-defense plan and a bit of extra cash is not a bad idea, either.)
In the course of writing this blog, I’ve decided to review the expiration dates on my extra batteries and make sure my mini-shortwave still works. I strongly advise others to review or begin building your own preparedness kit. Otherwise, in the event of a disaster, you are utterly dependent on others (or the government, and we all know how prudent that is.)
Minimizing has been a fabulous exercise for me, enabling me to be light on my feet and able to contemplate moving house with minimal help. Self-reliance, in other words. For the same reason, I’m going to update the state of my emergency preparedness. Being prepared for the unexpected allows one to function and be responsible even in an emergency. If disaster occurs, you can be part of the solution, not the problem.
I must conclude that minimalists and preppers are both seeking the same thing through very different methods: independence.
The highest manifestation of life consists in this: that a being governs its own actions. A thing which is always subject to the direction of another is somewhat of a dead thing.
- Thomas Aquinas
