As I write this blog about my journey of freeing myself of hoarding, I chose to keep myself anonymous for now.  I am not ready to reveal who I am, because I am still ashamed of my hoarding.  I am afraid people will judge me wrongly and quickly look at me as a person who is lazy, dirty and disgusting.  I am not ready to be associated with the stigma of a hoarder publicly.  I am still in the vulnerable stage of admitting this truth about myself.  I feel a lot of other hoarders feel the same way as I do and that is why we hide it.  But I am none of those qualities of lazy, dirty or disgusting.  I am actually happy, loving, nurturing, giving and a hard worker.  I am a mother of two thriving energetic young boys.  I have a passion for crafts, art and creating.  I love to write in my journal and have done so since I was a little girl.  I feel such passion when I help other people and truly enjoy volunteering.  The only flaw I feel in my heart about myself, is this need to hoard objects and hold onto them as if they were part of my identity.  But I will transform this flaw into my strength and help others who struggle with it as well.  I want people to realize that it is a mental struggle to let go of their hoard but that there is always hope to change that pattern.  There is always love to replace the fears.  I will be successful in this journey and it will bring such freedom to reveal who I am in the future: a woman who broke free of her mental chains and shared to the world how she did it.