They aren't certain which came first: The disorder in their houses or in their minds.

        Stacks of mail grew into mountains of confusion — overdue bills, keys, checkbooks, catalogs, articles they would never read.

        One woman's clutter included a non-working washer and dryer in which she stored overflow from other piles. “Important” papers were placed on top of her stove, which meant she could not cook. Other possessions — everything from long-abandoned sewing projects to souvenir scoops of volcanic ash — were stuffed into boxes lining every wall of her apartment, like the padding of a cell.

        It wasn't a good way to live. So once a week, in a cozy room at St. John's Unitarian Church in Clifton, the woman tries to get better.

        “My name is Linda,” she says, “and I'm a recovering clutterer.”

Packrats to the extreme

        It sounds like a joke, and the members do laugh sometimes. But they also avoid their own houses and miss deadlines because of disorder.

        “I don't know what to get rid of, so I keep it all,” Linda says.

        Greater Cincinnati's first chapter of Clutterers Anonymous, a 12-step program for the space-challenged, was launched in April by a “functional clutterer” named Kathy. Like other such programs, group members insist their last names not be published to keep personality issues out of the process.

        Five to 10 people attend each meeting. One woman has had up to 40 cats; another's van is a landfill on wheels. Kathy, a self-employed nurse, loses paperwork in the chaos of her desk and falls months behind on billing clients.

        She says clutterers tend to be “good people” who do more for others than themselves. Like alcoholics, they confess they need help. They make weekly commitments to de-clutter, a little at a time. And because they are so insecure about discarding items, they call their “buddies” in the group for moral support.

Burglars' dilemma

        Linda calls her problem CHAOS, for “Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome.”

        Burglars once broke into her Clifton apartment, and she laughs to think of their dismay. They tore through a box labeled “jewelry,” only to find furniture for a dollhouse she never built. They made off with a cheap camera, overlooking the expensive one buried in clutter.

        “I think I'm dealing with rebellion,” says Linda, an artist whose parents were ultra-neat. Her mother used to scrub the house before every vacation.

        Linda's problem is compounded by her interests: She paints, sculpts, writes, reads, makes music and sews. Somewhere, she has the tools for all these passions, but she can never find them so she buys more.

        With the group's help, however, she has begun to make real progress. She recently gave away a large number of books, de-cluttered the kitchen and entertained guests for the first time in years.

        She also began opening boxes she hadn't touched in 20 years. As it turns out, her boyfriend from that time had “seeded” each with old love letters to make her reconsider leaving.

        Discovering his efforts for the first time, Linda cried. Then she called her buddy.

        Clutterers Anonymous meets at 5:30 p.m. Mondays and noon Wednesdays at St. John's Unitarian Church. Information: 791-3627.

       Karen Samples can be reached at (859) 578-5584 or at ksamples@enquirer.com.

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