Buried in Treasures: Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving, and Hoarding

I am a hoarder from a family of hoarders and have struggled with it for a lifetime, but working hard on the issue for two years. By the end of 2021, I will have reached my goal of discarding 1500 bags of stuff. Every few months I read another book on the problem, to keep me focused. This book was really useful, especially the quizzes, goal setting, and acquiring check list. I learned that I confuse item ownership with my self identity, so owning the things does not make me that person (for example, owning yarn doesn’t make me a knitter). Next year my goal is 500 more bags. If you or a family member have hoarding problems, this book may be very helpful as long as you take the time to do the written work.

Anyone with a cluttered life, whether it be stacks on your table or counters, or full rooms you can barely walk through will be challenged through this book. There are clear concise directions and cool quizzes to see where you really are in your clutter journey. I personally rented this from my library so many times that I finally decided to purchase.

Like the approach and suggested ways to dig in and work on gaining control and ridding myself of unneeded stuff. It doesn't claim to be a quick fix, but dealing with a lot things that helped to create the problems in the first place. Looking forward to seeing the results from following it as shared.

I read this book with a friend, and we worked together and moved me out of a four-story home I had lived in for 25 years. It took many, many hours and lot's of love, patience, and understanding to move me successfully into a one bedroom senior housing unit. I could not have done it without the help of this book. It helped me identify my faulty, emotional and hoarding behaviors. Having a large group of friends who respected my journey as they helped me become unburied was a blessing.

While it's true that it is not presented in a scholarly way (as a previous reviewer commented), the information in the book represents the most current knowledge we have on hoarding. As others have mentioned, the authors are preeminent experts in the field. All three are Ph.Ds and have published numerous scholarly works on this topic. I believe the authors must have deliberately chosen to leave out the clinical jargon for this book, in order to make the information accessible to those without a medical or science background. I think the book is quite elegant in its simplicity and clarity, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about hoarding.

In the introduction of "Buried in Treasures", Tolin, Frost and Steketee offer two cautions to the reader. Caution 1 "this book will not solve your hoarding problems". They state "this book is a guide that will provide you with the necessary information to understand the problem of compulsive hoarding and will give you tools to help beat the problem". Caution 2 is that "overcoming compulsive hoarding will be hard work". The authors emphasize that hoarding is "a problem of emotional, mental, behavioral, and social well-being" and that "some scientific evidence suggests that there may be a genetic component to hoarding". It is basically a description of the treatment program that they have developed over many years of treating patients at their hoarding clinic. While the book discusses the physical side regarding sorting and purging as well as the stopping of the acquiring, its' emphasis is on the mental/emotional side of hoarding. As opposed to other similar books, this book is based on science and ongoing clinical research. The book is essentially a guide to change and the authors note that "people start to work on their hoarding problem when the reasons for change outweigh the reasons for not changing, and not a moment sooner". Their suggested treatment is based on CBT (cognitive-behavioral therapy) which is solution focused. This is somewhat of a workbook. It includes many exercises to help the hoarder to consciously change their thinking. Some examples are a self-assessment test in the chapter "What is Compulsive Hoarding?", a hoarding severity scale that is very similar to the NSGCD Hoarding Scale, Visualization Exercises, Category & Location lists and questionnaires such as "Comparing Your Perceptions with Those of Others". Early in the book, the authors introduce and discuss the Bad Guys: 1 - It's Just Not My Priority, 2 - Letting Unhelpful Beliefs Get In Your Way, 3 - Overthinking or Confusing Yourself, 4 - Avoidance and Excuse Making and 5 - Going for the Short-Term Payoff. Then they introduce the Good Guys: 1- Keeping Your Eyes on the Prize, 2 - Downward Arrow, 3 - Thinking It Through, 4 - Behavioral Experiments and 5 - Developing the Right Skills. The authors revisit the Bad Guys and the Good Guys again later in the book when dealing with motivation and "taking on your brain". An interesting observation noted by the authors was that when hoarders attempted to sort their own items, they tended to have lots of little categories but when sorting similar items that belonged to other people, they were able to sort into a few large general categories. This suggests that when dealing with their own possessions, "their emotions get in the way and cause them to process information differently". As a Professional Organizer, I consider this book a tool. It is not a `how to' that a hoarder could pick up, read and follow to a successful conclusion. On their own, most hoarders are just not capable of following some of the sugges

I have been following Dr. Tolin's research online and was thrilled to finally receive this book. I am a Professional Organizer and I regularly assist clients trying to deal with hoarding. It is an extremely difficult, highly emotional, and debilitating way of life for a lot of people and the authors of this book really get it right. There are still a lot of unaswered questions as to why people hoard, but this book sheds more light and offers more life changing steps than others I have read.

What is going on in our society? Are more people struggling with acquiring, saving and hoarding or are we just more aware of the problem? Either way, some real help is provided in this book and it moves you to turn and face the compulsions. I work in an outreach program and periodically we come up against a person struggling with this problem. There are other things going on but we discover this aspect usually during a home visit. There are other titles that address this topic but I have found this one, by David Tolin, to out-distance the others. Why? Because it is a workbook approach first of all, and secondly, it addresses the underlying feelings of those who deal with this in a workable way. We sit down with the individual and get them started on the book. We then process the insights they have had during the reading. By then they begin to feel a spark of hope that they can manage the compulsion. One huge asset to this book is that he includes a significant chapter on 'acquiring' and what to do about it. The philosophy behind the need to acquire stuff is fascinating. Once there is an understanding of the need there is motivation to shift and change it. This book has made a difference. Wish it had been around earlier!!

The authors completely changed my understanding of possesions, their meaning, and role in my life. Having been a compulsive about acquiring and saving, I am delighted to be more free of each behavior. I am applying the concepts daily with great results.