The type of items that I own the most of are definitely clothes. There are a few reasons for this, the first of which being that I haven’t bothered giving away any of my old clothing that I’ve gone through since I was about 12. As I’ve outgrown clothes and moved through different phases with my style, I’ve simply bought more clothes and not gotten rid of the old ones. Also, I think that I do have a bit of an issue at the moment with buying clothes that I don’t really need. If I have money, one of the main things that it will go towards is clothing, and I am annoyed with myself for this because it would definitely be better if I saved the money for when I really needed it. And yet, I still buy the clothing. What this results in is an accumulation of these items, on top of my preexisting stash of old clothing from middle and high school. I guess the combination of the sheer volume of these items that I possess and also the fact that I compulsively keep buying more even when a big part of me doesn’t want to and it stresses me out, could pose a compelling argument for hoarding. However, I don’t think that that lens completely captures the essence of the issue, because I would have no problem giving away the old clothes that I don’t wear- I just haven’t worked up the initiative to sort through them and take them somewhere to be donated. I honestly think that my desire to keep buying new clothes and reworking my wardrobe is rooted in a need to continuously work towards a superficial type of “self improvement” that I substitute in for doing more difficult work on myself, and then when this doesn’t work I just try again and buy more stuff. My understanding is that this is a very common issue in capitalist America, as we are constantly bombarded with messages that buying certain products will make us happy. I don’t think that this is my “fault” or the “fault” of anyone else with this same mindset, but it is certainly a large societal issue which leads to a lot of waste, and which I myself have to actively work on. Maybe all of that is just an explanation for the underpinnings of something that could accurately be described as hoarding behavior, but the clothes that I own aren’t taking over my space or making my space messy or unlivable, which I understand to be a crucial element of hoarding. So, I do think that it is a different thing, that could possibly (hopefully not) progress into a type of hoarding if left unchecked.