Hoarders and Wasters

Today I read an absolutely excellent article on clutter from AARP’s magazine.  Here is a snip from the article, by David Dudley:

In Dante’s Inferno there is a circle of Hell reserved for two warring armies, the Hoarders and the Wasters, who spend eternity rolling enormous boulders at each other on a desolate sun-baked plain. The boulders are actually diamonds and represent the possessions they had such unhealthy relationships with during their lives. “Why do you hoard?” the Wasters shout. “Why do you waste?” the Hoarders scream back. This repeats, endlessly, joint punishment for their respective sins.

Dante’s Inferno is one of those books you feel like you have already read but you never really got around to reading… and I had no idea this Hoarder/Waster thing was in there!  That is really interesting!

The article also talks about Mary Todd Lincoln’s compulsive shopping habits being a problem in the Lincoln White House, and overall it is just one of the best summaries of the issue of clutter I have read in general.  I particularly liked its coverage of our industry’s subspecialty group, the National Study Group for the Chronically Disorganized (NSGCD).  I hope you enjoy reading it.