Published on 12, July, 2020
I was wondering today if this is an autistic thing.
I've spent several decades collecting objects and the last decade+ trying to rid myself of the majority.
However, I have given up on the idea of ever being minimalist.
I notice that I remember where everything came from, even, when purchased, which shop in which town.
I try not to be sentimental about things, but sometimes I can't help it.
My mother, who I believe was autistic, was a hoarder in quite an extreme sense.
My autistic friend finds it very hard to part with belongings.
Everything has an association.
Are others like this and are there contributors here who are genuinely minimalistic and don't have an attachment to things?
This appears to be a compulsion towards hoarding and is one of the compulsions that can come with autism.
I have it to a certain degree in that I do a lot of work with computers and motorbikes and am loathe to throw out a spare part "just in case I need it" which rapidly leads to space consumption in the house and garage.
I found the most effective approach to controlling it is to restrict how many of the things of interest you are allowed to have (a tip my therapist gave) - for example if you have a book collecting compulsion then you can only allow yourself one bookcase with the books nicely put away in it (no double layering or stacking allowed) so that to buy new books you have to give away / sell some of the existing one.
It takes discipline but does work.
Minimalism isn't for me either, but it is nice to have your collection somewhere that you can close the drawer / door and it is out of sight, allowing a more minimal living space without all your clutter to impact other peoples living space.
One bookcase?!!! Just ONE?!!!!! Um, nope. I see the principle, I used it for my parasol collection, one (fairly large) umbrella stand and when it's full no more parasols. In fact I did stop with that one, but books are a different matter!