I recently joined a community over at Orkut about the Art of Simple Living where I found links to articles about hoarding :
hoard
n.
A hidden fund or supply stored for future use; a cache.v. hoard ed, hoard ing, hoards
v. intr.
To gather or accumulate a hoard.
v. tr.
1. To accumulate a hoard of.
2. To keep hidden or private.
Although the defenition found in Wikipedia:
Compulsive hoarding is a condition, thought to be related to obsessive-compulsive disorder, that involves the collection or failure to discard large numbers of objects even when they cause significant clutter and impairment to basic living activities such as cooking, cleaning or sleeping. Hoarding rubbish may be referred to as syllogomania.
refers to a condition much worse than mine, I do tend to keep things around that other people might consider to be nothing more than rubbish, because those things might come in handy later on or, more frequently, because there are memories attached.
I’ve got hundreds of letters, concert tickets, movie tickets, and countless pieces of paper with telephone numbers or notes. I’ve got clothes I haven’t worn for years, old shoes that were repaired one too many times, horrible statues from all over the world, more candles than I could possibly burn in years, piles of books everywhere, old courses and magazines, empty bottles in strange shapes, glass for just about any occasion, kitchen utensils I never use, cans that are long overdue etc. etc.
Once in a while I try to get rid of things. But memories are brought back with most objects. Yes, that dress defenitely is at least four sizes too small, but it was a present from my mother, that day we visited Bruges together. It was a sunny day, our feet were hurting because we walked for miles and miles, we visited that interesting exhibition, then decided to grab a cup of coffee. Just around the corner there was this little boutique, and I was drooling over a dress in the window. My mom told me to go in and try it on, which I did and ooh, did it look lovely on me. It was quite expensive but she insisted on buying it for me. I remember just about each time I wore that dress afterwards, and the compliments that were made. Of course, I end up with putting the dress back, even though it’s way too small.
And yes, I can’t possibly wear those shoes anymore, but they were a birthday present from a friend whose address I lost and with whom I haven’t talked in years. I remember how he spent all day with me, looking for the perfect pair of shoes. I remember how he strongly disliked shopping and I remember the discussion we had about male and female shopping habits. I think about all the times we spent together and I decide to keep the shoes.
The apartment is stuffed with all kind of things that are rather useless and not even pretty. After reading The freedom of letting go:
What is it with our possessions, ideas, and beliefs – that causes us to hang on so tightly to them? Why do we get so buried and overwhelmed by our stuff? And best yet, how can we change the pattern so we can free ourselves to enjoy our lives?
and visiting The Simple Living Network, realising I certainly don’t want to end up like Richard and Claudia, mentioned in Halt the Hoarding or
like the Collyer brothers, “the hermit hoarders of Harlem,” who in 1947 were buried by the piles of urban junk that filled their four-story Harlem brownstone.
Source: So Much Clutter, So Little Room: Examining the Roots of Hoarding
I will give it another try over the next weeks. I’ll be this mean, lean, throw it all away machine 
Further reading:
Freecycle (Changing the world one gift at a time.)
The Simplicity Resource Guide
LETSystems
Local Exchange Trading Systems
Local Currencies Directory
The Junk Man Knows / Garbage tells the stories of our lives
Dr Randy Frost on Hoarding
MemeMachineGo!: Syllogomania
Squalor Survivors – Moving out of the mess (and no, the apartment doesn’t look like that)
Understanding and Treating Hoarding
Ivy Sea Online: Knowledge-hoarding (this is another problem, but I do tend to hoard information as well, cfr. keeping courses from decades ago around)
Saving the world? (too bad the layout is a bit messed up at the bottom of the text)
Link hoarding (nope, not me)
Software hoarding
What is domain name hoarding?
April 7th, 2004 | 
http://www.dohistory.org/diary/
@ Daisy: well, at least you actually decluttered, while all I did was read about it
Hmm.. you can’t see your domain yet, but I can. Testing, one, two, three…
I’ve been on a mad declutter session this past Easter weekend (family coming to stay, needed the room). Wish I’d investigated those links before then!
@ wchulseiee: Be afraid, be very afraid. I suggest everyone keeps away from me for the next couple of weeks
@ Beck: Fortunately it’s not as bad. I could never live in a minimalistic house (nor can I make a really basic design for my blog, this skin 7 is as basic as it will ever get I’m afraid, or perhaps I *should* try it once more) but I’m sure I’ll be able to throw at least some stuff out
A couple of months (or maybe a year) ago, there was this programme on the BBC with some ’specialists’ who helped families to clear out clutter and sell it from the garage to make some money. There was one with a university professor and his wife was really unbelievable. She kept everything, every room was full of boxes with her things in it. When her mother died she took in all that stuff as well, her children did not have any room for their own clothes in their cupboards.
It was almost heartbreaking how she clung to her stuff, and cried when the people from the programme tried to convince her to throuw out even a *single* pair of shoes, as a symbolic gesture.
And then there was the husband, hoping they would be able to convince her, and at the same time desperately trying not to get stuck in between…
I remember this old link as well, about a guy’s mother who kept buying stuff on E-bay, but it seems to be down and/or hidden on non-free forums… All I could trace down was this one picture Anyway, if I saw it you probably did as well…
thanks for the warning, i’ll try to save the few things i have from this “mean, lean, throw it all away machine”