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Is hoarding a hobby? ホーディングは趣味かな~~

Weekly Topic: My slightly unique hobbies

Feb 1, 2021


I have always found it very difficult to throw things away. It doesn’t seem to matter if they are important or not; receipts, birthday cards, magazines, usb-lights, hats, expired id cards, instruction manuals, broken tripods, really anything that isn’tclearly and unambiguously rubbish (such as a used tissue, or an empty milk bottle) usually ends up staying in my house until I am forced by someone else to get rid of it.


This would probably not be too much of an issue, if it weren’t for the fact that I am incredibly interested in old things, compact and precise mechanisms, ephemera, rare and beautiful (but usually cheap!) objects, and find it hard to resist buying them if reasonably priced.


Selected items I acquired in 2019 included:

  • A German document from 1917 detailing receipt of potato rations by the army.

  • A fez.

  • A Wedgewood cigarette lighter.

  • A slide rule.

  • A Soviet stopwatch.

  • An antique meat grinder.

  • An Indian harmonium.

I still have all of these items. They have joined my West German military field telephone, my 1946 “Fujiboshi” mechanical calculator, and my Peavey T-60 guitar, in my storage unit, a luxury that is a huge drain on my finances but necessary if I want to have any room in my flat for living a normal life. (2020, while it has been a difficult year, has at least temporarily stopped me from acquiring more stuff)


I don’t mind parting with the items as long as they remain in the family and I would (theoretically) be able to get them back, so at the moment my youngest brother is looking after many of my mid-’90s vintage Macintosh computers, but to permanently part with these things would be too painful.


I tried Marie Kondo’s method, but unfortunately everything I pick up seems to spark joy. If it didn’t, I would never have acquired it!


This cannot go on forever, and there will come a day when I will have to part with my replica Chinese fighter pilot’s helmet, my bamboo saxophone, my Melodica, my almost complete set of 1988-1997 National Geographic magazines, and my Tabla drums. But it is not this day.


This column was published by the author in their personal capacity.
The opinions expressed in this column are the author's own and do not reflect the view of Cafetalk.

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