Stash In The Attic

Apparently I suffer from mild Diogenes Syndrome, according to something I recently read in a magazine.

[Here’s a picture of Diogenes by John William Waterhouse. The Greek is said to have lived in a barrel on a diet of onions]

The syndrome is characterised by “hoarding of items considered to be rubbish, and apparent lack of shame about this” – sufferers are often “people of high intelligence, who have lived through times of genuine poverty”

Well, yes, I have to admit to all those things. I have letters after my name [so that must mean some sort of intelligence]I have known times when our family income was incredibly low, both as a child and as an adult, and I do hoard all manner of stuff – and I am not ashamed of any of that.

But I really feel I should be sorting myself out. If I make school play costumes and run holiday clubs and produce patchwork items and handmade greetings cards non-stop for the next 10 years, I doubt I will use up all the fabric and crafty bits in my loft.

And Bob has wisely warned me [already!] that come 2021, I cannot retire and take it all to Cornerstones with me.

So like The Balancing Kiwi, and Floss, and many other blogfriends, I am going to start disposing of some of my treasures. NOW!

If you are interested, check out here, or click on the loft picture in my sidebar occasionally.

You never know – there may be something there that is just what you were looking for. But why is it called Diogenes Syndrome? Living in a barrel with almost no possessions is surely the exact opposite of keeping everything, ‘in case it might come in useful one day’.