You came home from the concert and could not bring yourself to throw out the pretty program. So you saved it. With the programs from all the other concerts.
Now those and all the other collected papers are overflowing the double-sized file cabinet you bought to fit them all. Sound somewhat familiar? Some of us just hold onto things, and the behavior can get extreme--and entertaining: witness the TV show "Hoarders."
Social worker Elaine Birchall works with people who have problems with hoarding, and she writes of the problems and solutions in the book Conquer the Clutter: Strategies to Identify, Manage, and Overcome Hoarding, with co-author Suzanne Cronkwright. Elaine Birchall grabs a phone to visit The Exchange.