Similar concepts, very different definitions
You’ve probably heard someone in life be described as a ‘hoarder’ — the kind of person who just can’t say goodbye to household items of any form, so will find space for it by hook or by crook.
Whether it’s old books, childhood keepsakes or clothes, hoarding comes in all different shapes and sizes, but crucially it is not the same as storing items, or keeping something in storage facilities.
As a proud business in which storage is a big part of how we operate, an important distinction is to be made between storing things, and hoarding them.
What’s the difference?
Keeping something in storage is the practice of keeping things in an easily distinguishable place, typically in an organised manner that allows everything within a storage space/unit to be easily accessible and locatable.
This is vastly different to hoarding, which is a far more unorganised way of going about business. To relate it to everyday life, an example of storage would be keeping specific, related items in a box in your loft, while hoarding would be tucking everything away out of boxes and without any order (a bit like the messy drawer everyone has in their house, filled with takeaway menus, spare change etc).
Hoarding has now been recognised as a mental health condition, with NHS England defining it as someone who “acquires an excessive number of items and stores them in a chaotic manner, usually resulting in unmanageable amounts of clutter.” It is also widely considered to be a dimension of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
It often stems from people being unwilling to part with items that have played a role in their life at some point, developing a nostalgic feeling for something that might not be useful to you right now, but was at one point. Clutter not only causes stress, but is also dangerous as a trip or fall hazard.
That isn’t to say that keeping hold of nostalgic items makes you a hoarder. The key difference revolves around the structure and organisation of the items being stored away. If they are neat, separated into sections or clearly identifiable in one location, it falls under the category of storing, while a lack of arrangement and order would qualify as hoarding.
f your hoarding has a negative impact on other aspects of your life, that’s when it can be viewed as a mental health disorder and you can read more about that on the NHS website.
How can we help?
Our storage services don’t support or encourage hoarding but they do offer a useful, secure storage space for people who want an organised, dedicated facility to keep their items safe and their homes clutter-free. Our purpose-built facilities at Markham Moor, near Newark, is ideally located by the A1, with nearby links to Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire, as well as a direct road route to London and the North.
Our site is protected by fencing, key fob-operated gates and extensive CCTV and, whether items are stored in self-storage containers or our warehouse, they’re protected from condensation, moisture and the elements.
Here at Ballards we offer short-term storage, as well as spaces for furniture, business and commercial purposes, and we even deliver containers to customers who might want a storage facility brought directly to them. You can store things with us for a few days, to weeks, months and years.
As one of the largest removals and storage firms in the area, and a proud family business of over four decades.
If you would like some guidance on the storage offerings we have, or some advice on how to organise your items better, please do visit our website and contact us.