Is hoarding a problem — or a blessing?

IN WONDERING why her hoarding husband keeps all his old magazines, Lauren Libbert has got the wrong end of the stick (Mail). We hoarders all have our own rationale, and no doubt some people keep publications as a hedge against potential boredom. But more often they’re stashed because they’re inherently worth reading. Magazines do contain material that loses value if read belatedly, but much is still worth reading months or years later. Some items might even acquire a quaint retrospective patina with the benefit of hindsight. Does Libbert, as a writer, think articles become worthless if they aren’t read immediately? As a hoarder, I am trying to de-clutter by, gradually, reading my mountains of back issues, then keeping a few before recycling the rest. The magazines are stored not as an end in themselves, but because lack of time means reading everything in them immediately is impossible.

FRANCIS HARVEY, Hotwells, Bristol. LAUrEN LIBBErT’S account of hoarding stopped me in my tracks: it was as though I was sharing my own husband with her. The unread magazines still in their wrapping paper, the bargain shirts, shoes, trousers, jeans, pouring out of not one or two but three wardrobes. The 6ft-high bookcase, so crammed with his books that we bought a room divider and placed it on top of his chest of drawers, is also overflowing — so others are piled up on the floor by the bed. He regularly dumps things on the dining room table. As he removes his coat, he drapes it over a dining chair, mindless of the fact that the coat rack is just 2ft away and already groaning under the weight of the many coats I’ve moved for him. I doubt things will ever change, as we’ve been married for 43 years. So, Lauren, steel yourself and be ready for the long haul. Just don’t create any new spaces — husbands seem to hate a vacuum.

KATRINA LOFTHOUSE, Burnley.