I used to think that people who did the most hoarding were people who grew up during the Great Depression. Believe me, I don’t anymore though!

Hoarding: hide or store away for future use.

During this pandemic, people been hoarding toilet papers for examples. I can’t just comprehend why people would do such a thing. What’s the reason behind doing it? It doesn’t make sense to me!

When you go in the stores to buy what you need, you expect the stores to have the product and the people wouldn’t be hoarding the stuff; so that no one else can buy. That is pure selfish and they should be a shame of themselves.

I can understand when a store is going out of business and you go in to see what kinds of deals you can get for their closing sales. But do you really needs more than you are actually buying?

Let us take a look at the Great Depression and those who grew up during that time.

People would store up items while they can just in case the bottom drops out. Those who lived on a farm and had a garden, would stored up by canning and freezing food for the winter, to make sure that they don’t go hungry during the long winter.

People who were a part of the Great Depression didn’t trust banks; so they would hide the money they had under their mattresses. Like the old miser, Silas Marner. He was prime example of someone who didn’t trust banks and hid his money by burying it.

My folks were big time hoarders. We found that out after they died and we cleaned out the farm to auction it off. My step-dad grew up during the Depression, so he had an excuse. I don’t know why my mother was that way though.

My mother would buy things that was on sales just in case she can’t get the same deals again. By doing that, she had food that would spoil. I remembered, one time she had spaghetti sauce in the cupboard that turned brown because it had gotten old and expired. And she had more than one of the same item too.

Another thing, she hated to go through her trunk that was my grandmother and is now mine. She said that it had too much painful emotional memories. When I went through it, most of the stuff I easily threw or gave away. There was some stuff I kept for personal memories.

They weren’t the only hoarders I knew. I know another hoarder who I offered to go through his messy unorganized house; but he didn’t take me up on the offer. The reason: he was afraid that I would throw something away that he may need down the road. Even though it was junk!

That’s what hoarders do! They hoard because they thinks that they may need it down the road. They hoard and they forget about it and keeps buying the same things over and over again.

Are you a hoarder? Do you hoard things thinking that you may need for a rainy day?

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t save for a rainy day. It’s when you forget that you have it and keeps buying it up off the shelf. That is what makes you a hoarder!

During this pandemic when people were hoarding toilet paper of all things, there was someone who was arrested for trying to make a profit with the products that they hoard when they bought it off the shelves in groves. He was made to give the profit he made to charity. So what did it get him hoarding those items? It got him nothing!

When this pandemic is said and done, I hope that the stores learned their lesson. These stores should had put limits on these items. When they see someone buying too much of the same item, a red flag should had went up right away.

Thus the title of this blog, Stop Hoarding. Don’t just think of yourself. We must and needs to start thinking of others; rather than ourselves. We need to get self off the throne. It’s not always about ourselves. There are others in this big wide world.