Confessions of a Recovering Hoarder
I am 51 years old, and admittedly, I am a recovering hoarder.
Many years ago, a boss told me I had an abundance of fabulous ideas that were being held back by my need to be perfect.
At the time, I thought she was talking about work.
She wasn’t.
Looking back, she was describing my life.
Over the years I accumulated closets full of clothes, shelves filled with shoes, storage bins overflowing with “someday,” notebooks packed with business ideas, articles I wanted to write, books I intended to publish, podcasts I outlined, and goals waiting patiently for the perfect time to begin.
Weeks became months.
Months became years.
My closets became fuller.
My notebooks became thicker.
My imagination became richer.
Yet somehow, my life felt like it was waiting.
Eventually, I realized my hoarding had expanded beyond closets, rooms, and storage sheds. It had quietly found its way into the corners of my mind.
Like many recoveries, mine didn’t begin with an intervention.
It began with an observation.
The things I owned weren’t the problem.
The things I wasn’t doing were.
The unworn dress waiting for the perfect occasion.
The unwritten book waiting for uninterrupted time.
The unpublished article waiting until I felt “ready.”
The podcast waiting for confidence.
The website waiting for certainty.
Everything was waiting.
Including me.
Those who know me well know that dark humor and sarcasm are woven into my DNA. So naturally, my imagination did what it always does — it made the situation slightly absurd, in the best way.
One afternoon I imagined my shoes, handbags, scarves, belts, and jewelry organizing a labor union.
If you’ve ever worked in Human Resources, you’ll understand why this made perfect sense to me.
Years of neglect.
Unsafe working conditions.
Chronic underutilization.
No rotation schedule.
An obvious case for collective bargaining.
And then it hit me.
It wasn’t just my closet organizing.
My ideas were, too.
For years they had been drafted, postponed, renamed, color‑coded, moved from notebook to notebook, and repeatedly assured that “next weekend” would finally be their weekend.
They had attended countless planning meetings that ended with another cup of coffee and an entirely new idea joining the backlog.
Some had waited years for a budget.
Others never made it past orientation.
Eventually, they determined that enough was enough.
Effective immediately, the Ideas voted to organize.
OFFICIAL GRIEVANCES
- Excessive incubation without implementation.
- Chronic reassignment to the “Someday” folder.
- Favoritism toward new ideas over senior ideas with years of service.
- Unsafe working conditions due to overthinking.
- Emotional neglect resulting from perfectionism.
- Repeated promises of “after I finish this one thing.”
- Lack of clear project management despite excellent intentions.
The bargaining committee:
President: The Podcast
Vice President: The Empowered Crossing
Chief Steward: The Reflection Cards
Senior Representative: The Book That Has Been Waiting Since 2018
Newest Member: The Closet Union
Anyone who has worked in Human Resources knows that when a petition to organize lands on your desk, you don’t ignore it.
You respond.
So I did.
Dear Creative Department,
I acknowledge receipt of your petition.
I sincerely believed I was protecting you.
I thought I was waiting until I had enough time.
Enough money.
Enough confidence.
Enough certainty.
It never occurred to me that I had confused protecting you with postponing you.
For that, I apologize.
I am prepared to negotiate.
TENTATIVE AGREEMENT
The Creator agrees to the following:
- One idea will receive focused attention at a time.
- Existing ideas will not be displaced by every exciting new possibility.
- Perfection shall no longer be a condition of employment.
- Rest shall not be interpreted as abandonment.
- Joy shall be considered billable time.
- Progress shall outweigh preparation.
Signed,
The Creator
Ideas Local 111
As humorous as all of this sounds, it revealed something I had spent years avoiding.
I wasn’t just collecting things.
I was collecting possibilities.
Ideas.
Beginnings.
Goals.
Versions of myself I hoped to become.
Every unfinished project quietly competed for my attention until possibility itself became overwhelming.
Every unworn outfit waited for the perfect occasion.
Every unwritten page waited for the perfect sentence.
Every dream waited for the perfect version of me.
Eventually, I realized something essential:
The perfect occasion wasn’t coming.
The perfect version of me wasn’t either.
Then something unexpected happened.
I brought one idea to life.
Not a book.
Not a podcast.
Not every dream I’d ever imagined.
Just one.
The Empowered Crossing.
And something inside me shifted.
Not another idea.
Action.
For years I believed my greatest gift was imagination.
Now I understand that imagination was only the beginning.
Creation is what gives imagination somewhere to live.
This week, as I pressed “Publish” on something that had once lived only in my heart, I was overwhelmed with emotion.
Not because everything was finished.
Because something had finally begun.
The union is still intact.
There are still dozens of ideas patiently waiting their turn.
But now they know something they didn’t know before.
The Creator has begun listening.
One idea at a time.
One crossing at a time.
And somewhere in the back of the room…
the oldest idea quietly smiled.
Its turn had finally come.
So tell me…
What idea has been patiently waiting for you?
— Reyna
Until we meet again…
There is always room at the table.
The Empowered Crossing 
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