Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things

The New York Times bestseller. "Gripping . . . By turns fascinating and heartbreaking . . . Stuff invites readers to reevaluate their desire for things."—Boston Globe

"Amazing . . . utterly engrossing . . . Read it."—The Washington Post Book World

What possesses someone to save every scrap of paper that's ever come into his home? What compulsions drive a person to sacrifice her marriage or career for an accumulation of seemingly useless things? Randy Frost and Gail Steketee were the first to study hoarding when they began their work a decade ago. They didn't expect that they would end up treating hundreds of patients and fielding thousands of calls from the families of hoarders. Their vivid case studies (reminiscent of Oliver Sacks) in Stuff show how you can identify a hoarder—piles on sofas and beds that make the furniture useless, houses that can be navigated only by following small paths called goat trails, vast piles of paper that the hoarders "churn" but never discard, even collections of animals and garbage—and illuminate the pull that possessions exert over all of us. Whether we're savers, collectors, or compulsive cleaners, very few of us are in fact free of the impulses that drive hoarders to extremes.

"Authoritative, haunting, and mysterious. It is also intensely, not to say compulsively readable."—Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

"Fascinating . . . a good mix of cultural and psychological theories on hoarding."—Newsweek

"Pioneering researchers offer a superb overview of a complex disorder that interferes with the lives of more than six-million Americans . . . An absorbing, gripping, important report."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)