Hoarding has now been officially recognised by the WHO as a mental disorder. This comes as no surprise to me, of course. And I'm sure it won't to many of you.
I must have hundreds (1000's?) of metres of fabric, neatly stored (for no project in particular) and thread to match them all, and more besides. Things that 'might' come in handy (they never do). Bulk purchases of things like zips (I hate putting them in, and actively avoid sewing patterns that need one). Machines I don't use (and probably never will).
My mum died earlier this year, and clearing out her flat taught me a thing or two. Being brought up during the war, mum had a deep seated anxiety about not having things, hence always kept a big stash of everything. Being hard up, she would always buy big sizes, deeming them to be better value than smaller sizes (which is fine, if you have a big family and loads of room to store these things, but she had neither!). I had not realised quite how much of this mentality she had instilled in me.
I'm presently engaged in the long, painful job of 'getting rid of stuff', my own stuff, that is, and hopefully it'll all be gone before I shuffle off myself - I'd hate to think I'd left it behind for someone else to deal with.
Interesting read here, from Saturday's Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/aug/18/it-looks-like-youre-a-lazy-idiot-hoarders-welcome-medical-classification