For the love of lightening up
- May 14, 2014
By Miranda Silva
CNN Reporter
CNN/Martha Stewart Living) -- Your Nana's collection of figurines. The treadmill from your days as a runner. That unfinished five-year quilting project.
As spring-cleaning season kicks in, you're inspired to chuck anything that isn't being put to good use. But then you falter, since getting rid of stuff can be an emotionally charged process.
"A lot of us hold on to items not because we love them or they're useful, but because we're living in the past or for the future," says Monika Eckfield, an assistant professor at California State University, East Bay who studies people's relationships with things.
Indeed, a lot of us have a hard time letting go, if the 2.3 billion square feet -- or 82.5 square miles -- of self-storage units in the U.S. is any indication. (Never mind what's crammed under our beds.) For the estimated 2 to 5% of Americans who suffer from hoarding, a mental disorder often related to depression and anxiety, this is a problem that interferes with daily life.