Hoarding?

I realized I’m a hoarder. Oh not in the conventional A&E Hoarders sense—you won’t find piles of much of anything where I live and that’s not just because we lost so much. I tend to toss rather than keep and I’ll never be accused of being a pack rat.

Instead, when something I really love to use is running low and money is tight, I stop using that item and I hoard it. For example, I have a Clinique lip repair (fancy chap stick really) that I use because after decades of playing a double reed instrument, my lips are beyond dry. I’ve tried pretty much every lip product out there and this is by far the most effective. But at $25 a tube, it's not cheap. I’m running low so rather than going ahead and using it up, I’ve stopped using it.

I do the same thing with books. I bought an Iain Banks book in the spring of 2008 and didn’t open it until the summer of 2009.

Now I’m doing the same thing with a book sent to me by a high school friend. I haven’t even opened it—I’m hoarding it, and saving it for proper enjoyment. I will relish every single bit of this book from opening the package to reading every single word.

I doubt my version of hoarding will ever be shown on TV.