Paper short abstract:

People who hoard live at the limits of normative practices of material culture. This paper discusses how hoarding as profusion problematizes everyday approaches to the keeping and disposing of objects, exploring alternative regimes of value, use and usefulness that inform “hoarders’” practices.

Paper long abstract:

Hoarding, as a practice of profusion, exposes the limits of normative material culture. Socially agreed-upon definitions of what constitutes 'matter out of place' (Douglas, 1966) in the home, what should be disposed of, and the appropriate ways to manage this (Gregson, 2007), are unsettled through "hoarders'" practices of keeping and disposing. Presented as out of control excess in media representations, recently officially pathologised as mental illness, responses to hoarding as profusion exemplify the limits of socially acceptable practices of material culture. This paper reports on ongoing fieldwork with a number of self-identified "hoarders" who, by participating in interviews, object solicitation research and recording video tours of their homes, help to unsettle everyday approaches to valuing and relating to objects.

"Hoarders'" words and deeds conform to, critique and exceed normative practices of keeping and disposing. I outline how "hoarders'" practices are based on alternative regimes of value in which ideas of use and usefulness operate. Possessions are kept 'just in case', with the distressing, anxiety-provoking idea of lack embodied in their disposal. Objects are conceptualised as having manifold future potential uses, uses that others may not see. Consequentially, these use-full, needed objects are hoarded, stored in often chaotic homes causing significant problems with daily life. Individually use-full objects come to make the home use-less, depriving the space of its functionality, sometimes making cooking and washing impossible. In exploring alternative regimes of value for thinking through use and usefulness this paper discusses non-normative domestic profusion and the material culture associated with it.