Cluttering, Consumerism, and Shopaholism: Syndromes? Sins?
I am using a pseudonym to write this article because if I used my real name some of my best friends would be awfully hurt! These friends are wonderful Christians in important ways, more loving and sacrificial than I am. Just the same, they seem somewhat blind to the wrongness of cluttering or the related shopaholism. Cluttering is different from hoarding though related to it.
Here is one way the difference is defined:
Clutterers have too many possessions and these are disorganized in their homes. But in hoarding, these possessions become so unorganized in piles that rooms cannot be used for their usual purpose.
Example: A clutterer may have cupboards, closets, or drawers with so much stuff in them that they can’t easily find things they need. But hoarders have so much that there is no room for more than 1 person to sit down in front of the TV or no way to find anything in the fridge without taking out some 20 items blocking it.
Nowadays there are 12-step groups for both hoarders and clutterers. Now, when I accuse someone gently of being a clutter bug, they may say:
“Well, I don’t need such a group. There is a reason I have a lot of stuff: predictions of end-time shortages, hurricane warnings…someday I’ll get around to sorting things out, but meanwhile, it’s not exactly a sin.”
No one instance of buying something you don’t really need, or keeping cans in a pantry until they expire and get thrown out, is a sin. Unless you are a monk or nun with a vow of poverty, you have a certain freedom to decide what is good to have and to enjoy even if that thing is not absolutely necessary. You are not called to always eat the cheapest foods rather than delicious more expensive ones. You are not called to wear only one torn robe like St. Francis of Assisi did.
However, if you add it all up hoarding and cluttering could readily fall under the sin of greed and neglect of the poor. After all, the money spent on things you are going to store and not end up using is money you could be giving to the starving. You may say there is no one starving in your town. True, but all over the world there are starving people, and all over the world, there are Christian groups like Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity or Food for the Poor that feed the hungry.
Here are two key Scriptures about greed:
1 Timothy 6:6–10:
“But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content… For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.”
Hebrews 13:5
Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
The key passage about helping the poor is:
Luke 3:11:
“If you have two coats, give one away,” he said. “Do the same with your food.”
Pope Paul VI taught that Christians should live simply and austerely.
Of course, in a cold climate one might need a winter coat, a raincoat, and a spring shawl, but does anyone need 10 of them? As St. Basil the Great said, “When someone steals another’s clothes, we call them a thief. Should we not give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not?”
As to shopaholism, as with all addictions, there is pleasure in it. It feels good to have enough money to buy anything you want. I have noticed that some lower middle-class people speak of themselves as poor simply because they have only 1 or 2 cars vs. one for every member of the family.
It takes effort to declutter. It is easier to buy one more can of beans than check stuffed cupboards for expiring cans and decide if that type might be as flavorful as the type of bean you happened to have wanted to eat.
There can also be psychological reasons behind cluttering and shopaholism. I have noticed that an older mother with an empty nest greatly misses her now adult children who she rarely sees. Every piece of “art” the child made years ago reminds her of that happy time. To throw it away is to lose that little treasure. Precious also are all the birthday cards those adult children sent through the years…
“I can’t throw away or give away that umbrella! (The fifth umbrella in the closet.) Maybe it belongs to one of the children and they can take it with them when they come.”
If I might say, “How about cutting off the front of the greeting cards and giving it to the school for the children to copy or paste into an album?” the response might be: “Oh, yes. A good idea. Not now though, I am busy.”
Consumerism is a good term for the tendency in our culture to believe that your worth depends upon how much you have and consume as opposed to being a generous child of God, helping others.
Some steps that could be recommended to lessen cluttering, consumerism, and overspending…
Make a promise to Jesus that before making your shopping list you look through your highly-stuffed fridge, cabinets, or closets to see if you already have another of the same item.
Plan once a year to go through your house and give away things you hardly ever use that could be donated to a Christian second-hand store, a parish food pantry, or any thrift shop. It can help to picture the joy of a poor mother getting a whole set of dishes for $5.
Consider increasing the amount of money you give to groups that help the poor, pro-life organizations, and other worthy causes. You will be able to do so with the money you saved by spending less on unneeded items.
Pray for the grace to accept that your adult children don’t want those items you cherish when you ask them to take them. Isn’t giving them to the poor more loving than hoarding them?
Again, these syndromes are not mine, so it is easy for me to analyze them. Pray for me for my worse defects!
I am submitting this as a blog post for ASP because I think social justice has to start with us in our ordinary lives.