Several times of late, we’ve found ourselves tuning in to television shows featuring hoarders. We could relate to most of the individuals because they reminded us of a friend who fit the profile perfectly. We tried to understand why she refused to throw anything away, and rarely bought one of anything when she could buy several, for example, ten 12-packs of pens instead of one, a case of vegetables instead of a couple of cans, etc.

She eventually filled nearly every corner of her lovely home, leaving only a narrow pathway to get from room to room, before being admitted to a nursing home due to ill health.

While hoarders featured on television naturally vary in their methods of compiling “stuff” they will never need, they all share the same anxieties when someone tries to help them clean up and remove some of the contents.

One friend visiting a hoarder’s home for the first time found herself sitting on debris in his living room that was so high, she could touch the ceiling. We’ve never seen even one show in which the hoarder had a working kitchen that wasn’t filled floor to ceiling, a living room with furniture one could sit on, or a bedroom with a bed even visible under all of the debris, let alone fit for sleeping.

It all starts out quite innocently, purchasing items not really needed and stashing them away. The hoarder soon finds his or her house is short on available closet or storage space, and so living space is used until there’s hardly a path from one room to another. Finally, items are stacked one on top of another, from the floor to the ceiling. The homeowner is soon left with precious little space to sit or sleep.

If you watch these shows, you can’t help but feel sorry for the hoarders and understand their panic when well-meaning folks come in and try to help make their homes livable once more. Relinquishing any of their special belongings is met with defiance and refusal to cooperate.

We think many of us are probably hoarders to some extent, some more than others, and the older we get, the worse we are. Sometimes worthless items become important to us, and we’re hesitant to either give them away or throw them out. We’re guilty, too, of sometimes buying duplicate food items or other household goods and tend to “stock up” as if we were expecting to be snow-bound for weeks or cut off from the rest of the world.

We’ve always admired those individuals who, without any hesitation whatsoever, readily part with things they aren’t using at the time. Not using it? Get rid of it. We say, easier said than done, at least for us it is. The older we get, the more “stuff” we’ve accumulated.

There comes a time, though, when cupboards, closets, drawers, etc. don’t begin to hold your life’s possessions. We found ourselves turning to rental storage units for things we weren’t using. However, it’s the coward’s way out — out of sight, out of mind, right?

It’s only postponing the inevitable: The time when we need to get rid of much of it. If we haven’t needed it for months, we probably can easily live without it.

The chances are good that many of you reading this right now are hoarders to some degree, thankfully not to the extreme where your house no longer serves your needs.

We’re trying to get better of late, but have resigned to the fact that if there is an empty space on any table, the kitchen counter, or any other flat surface that has an open spot, we’re probably going to put something there temporarily and then hate ourselves for not putting it away in the first place.

Watching hoarders on television helps remind us what can happen to any of us if we don’t learn to get rid of the old to make room for the new.