Lessons in Letting Go: Confessions of a Hoarder

An honest account of Corinne Grant's slow realization that she was drowning herself in emotionally-drenched items of her past and her fantasy future. It doesn't solve reader’s problems if they too hoard items, but it does shed some light on the idea that there is a reason to the madness. And through Grant's account of how she helped herself through the mess and into the present here and now, readers can see that although it is a difficult Pandora Box through which they must wade, "letting go" is possible.

There were three motivations behind me picking this book up at the library. The first is that I am a fan of Corinne Grant who is an Australian comedienne who regularly appears on one of my favourite shows, Good News Week. The second is that having not long finished [b:Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things|7951336|Stuff Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things|Randy O. Frost|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1276747744s/7951336.jpg|9844477] I was interested in seeing just how much of a hoarder a 'celebrity' could be and thirdly because I had nominated the book for my Aussie Authors Challenge.I think Corinne approaches her personal story of hoarding with humour while still acknowledging that it's a serious issue. While show more her habit never reached the televised extremes (in shows like Hoarders), as she describes it, it certainly impacted on her life in a detrimental way. Corrine is able to describe her attachment to things in a way that makes sense to me, in fact its not all that different for my own reasons for keeping the boxes of things that crowd my spare room. Like Corinne I tend to attach memories to objects and I could relate to her story in a way I can't to the extreme compulsives. In fact I am wondering if I am uncomfortably close to Corinne's original level.Mixed in with Corinne's hoarding story are the personal anecdotes of her childhood, career and broken romance, mostly these stories to show how circumstances influenced her hoarding behaviour.If you have difficulty in letting things go then this book might offer you some motivation or insights into your behaviour, if not its still and interesting read. Lessons in Letting Go is an entertaining and unpretentious memoir with insight into the issue of hoarding. show less

I laughed , I cried, I identified..... Fabulous book and yes I have started decluttering with a whole new mind set. Thanks Corinne.