I'm Stephanie Safarian and this is episode 107.

You are listening to the Sustainable Minimalist Podcast, a show about living simply and sustainably

with your family.

Here's your host host Stephanie Safarian.

Hello there and welcome back.

Have you ever watched an episode or two or three of the show, Hoarders.

It's popular and addicting,

and it has brought hoarding to life in a big way.

But because the show only highlights the most extreme cases, it inadvertently promotes misconceptions about what hoarding actually is in real life.

We think, oh, I don't live like that, so I must not be a hoarder, right?

Well, that's not necessarily the case.

And on today's show you'll even hear that I, a self-described minimalist, display one of the five

hoarding red flags.

Today I am speaking with Elaine Burchall.

Elaine is a social worker with decades of experience working with hoarding clients

and she argues that hoarding behavior falls on a spectrum.

My goals today are to shed light on what hoarding looks like in

real life, not just on television, and to offer concrete support and

strategies for listeners who either display risk factors themselves

or want to help loved ones with unhealthy attachments to stuff. Enjoy the interview.

Elaine, thank you so much for joining me on the Sustainable Minimalist Podcast. How are you doing?

I'm doing really well and thank you for thinking

...