Hoarders

The hoarding of a loved ones belongings after they have passed away or go to a home. Touchy subject. I almost was fearful to post a blog about this subject but I decided to put it out there to first of all help me think through this and secondly to warn others who have not been through such a thing. First of all I'd like to admit that I'm no saint when it comes to this subject. So here goes.
Why is it that after a loved one has left, there is a brief moment of silence between family members...and then possibly at any given moment their possessions become dive bombed. Every family member waits for their invitation for the taking and you lose all common sense and dignity of who you are and who your loved one was and you take what you want when you want without any trace of mannerisms. It's like a Black Friday sale with items being tossed up in the air, back and forth...some people come early in the morning to get the goods while others will prey on the evening attack. If there is one rule, that rule is that there is no long discussion regarding the items. The longest conversation you can have is, "Do you want this?" Whether you do or don't the typical response is, "No" and then the item is snatched as you gasp. As this process begins..you go in with a shoebox but then after a few days or maybe a week you start taking more and more and more. Things you don't even need you take because there's a memory attached to it. Sometimes there may be one family member who is able to withstand the urge of taking...they are known as the good ones. The strong ones.
Towards the end of the hoarding experience..family members become irate with each other over the materials and all hell breaks lose. Nice, eh?
I've gone through this twice. I'm in the process of going through it right  now. I'm trying to understand it. Why?  Don't get me wrong here, I'm no angel. I'm one of those possession hoarders myself. The worst scenario would be with my dad. He had no small items that were of importance to both him and me but large items. Large, ugly, junky tractors and engines. I still don't know what the heck the stuff was but all I knew was that he loved them. Because we hoarded so much crap of his we had to buy one of those makeshift temporary sheds to house the items over the winter. (The grass is still dead in that one spot by the way) Stupid! Why? A few years go by and after emotions have settled down you start looking at the stuff and wondering what the hell you're doing with all of it. You hide some that you've put on display, maybe give some stuff away, try to sell some other crap. All you want to do then is get rid of the stuff because you want space back and you're happy with just the memories along with some pictures.
Kind of funny how this is unavoidable. I guess you just have to be strong and fight the urge to hoard.