‘The compulsive buying of things and holding on to them, even if the person has no use for them, is a very uncomfortable state to be in. And whereas spendthrift men tend to veer towards big-ticket items, such as watches and electronic gadgets, women’s weakness tends to be our ever-expanding wardrobes.
We have our own incomes, so it’s only natural that we want to exercise our economic freedom, even if some of us take it to excess. The economic downturn may have given us pause for thought, but we still live in a society where women accumulate clothes, shoes and designer handbags at an unprecedented rate for one reason alone – because we can. Her death was symbolic of the worst excesses of our consumerist culture in which the buzz of buying is an addiction and our homes are crammed with things that detract from, rather than enhance, our lives. ‘Everything has a place now, so I can instantly lay my hands on an envelope or my iPod charger’ Miss Cunnane, a retired BT operator, was finally discovered beneath a pile of suitcases that had fallen on top of her in a back bedroom of her bungalow.
Police with sniffer dogs who searched the 77-year-old’s home, near Stockport, couldn’t find a body for two days amid the mountainous piles of unworn clothes, unused electrical goods, towers of CDs and DVDs, and ornaments still in their packaging. The macabre death just over a year ago of shopaholic Joan Cunnane, a woman literally killed by her own clutter, was truly a tragedy of our times. ‘I still need the high I get from making a purchase, but these days it has to be either an irresistible bargain or a little something from M&S or Next.’
I just can’t resist buying a new blouse with 70 per cent off,’ says Sophie, 27, an office administrator. Not so, according to the various organisations that have charity shops, who report that in our guilt about letting something go that we might have spent a lot of money on, we are hoarding everything.īut surely we’re buying less? Not so – the thrill of making a purchase remains. You might think that with the deepening recession our clutter problem would be easing. We’re a nation of clutter queens, inveterate hoarders who are too busy or lazy or simply too overwhelmed to take control of our possessions, and instead let them control us. Take a look around your home, and what do you see? Light airy spaces, with tasteful objets d’art arranged just so, and perhaps a vase of gerberas providing a splash of colour on a pristine side table? Or are you confronted in every room with an oppressive jumble of unopened bank statements, pens and notepads, bottles of nail varnish, discarded glossy magazines, computer cables and shopping bags full of crumpled clothes that still haven’t seen the light of day since they were bought a fortnight ago?
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